Author Archive | Hassan Ko

I got out my trusty calculator and did a little math. Assuming you make your own information products, what would it take to earn $100,000 in a year if you work with affiliates and pay them 50% commission?

$47 eBooks: You’d need to sell 355 of these a month, or 12 per day.

$97 Teleseminars and Webinars: You’ll be selling 172 seats a month, or 5.7 per day. Think no one would pay that kind of money for a teleseminar? If your information is timely and valuable, they’ll line up for it. For example, stock market and forex trading advice would fit this category.

$197 Audio Courses: You only need to sell 85 of these a month, or 2.9 per day. Now who’s going to pay $197 for an audio course? Actually, a lot of people. The trick is to make a big promise, record on a library of CD’s, and make sure you fulfill that promise. Example titles might be; 7 Days To Speaking Confidence or perhaps Improve Your SAT Scores by 33% In Two Weeks or even How To Become A Master Pick Up Artist Practically Overnight.

$497 Video Courses: I know what you’re thinking – who’s going to pay $497 for a video course? The truth is, many people have paid TWICE that amount. Sample title? How about… How to Generate a Six Figure Income in 90 Days. Oh yes, and to earn $100,000 a year using affiliates at 50% commission, you’d only need to sell 33.5 a month. That’s practically one per day.

Now then – would you rather make 12 sales a day, or 1 sale a day? Are you ready to step up and start selling big ticket products?

And by the way, other products you can sell for $497 and MORE are…

– Home Study Courses (video, audio and written material)
– Online Study Courses (video, audio and written material, plus it’s more interactive and more likely to actually be used by the buyers.)
– Seminars and Workshops
– Group Coaching

So let me ask you a question: What if you put on a killer online study course and you charged $997 – how many sales would you need to reach that $100,000 mark (assuming all sales were made through affiliates?) Just 16.7 per month.

Or what if you charge $2,000 for your seminar – you’d only need 100 attendees to make a $100,000 payday.

Or if you charge $300 a month for group coaching – you’d need just 55 members.

And in any of the above scenarios, what if you didn’t use affiliates? What if you made all the sales yourself? Then of course you’d only need half as many sales to make just as much money. So in the $997 product example, you’d only need 8 or 9 sales a month to generate a $100,000 income.

If you’ve been paying attention here, you might have noticed I left out one major possibility. Do you know what it is?

Recurring subscriptions or membership sites. 355 members paying $47 a month yields $200,000 – half for you and half for your affiliates. Can you retain 355 for the full 12 months? You’ll have to offer killer content and incentives to come close.

One more thought – what if you do a combination of the above? Perhaps you choose two things, or three or four. Then instead of earning $100,000, you’re earning $200,000 or more.

I’ll let you in on a secret: We tend to get so bogged down in day to day thinking that we forget to step back and look at the big picture. And so is it any wonder that we think small, instead of thinking in numbers like these? You can indeed attain these marks and more, but the first step is to think the thoughts and the second is to believe you can do it.

And you already know the third step – take action on a massive scale and don’t stop until you reach your goal.

You’ve heard of Elevator Speeches – those short ‘blurbs’ we offer when someone says, “What do you do for a living?” The online version is the words we place inside our website’s header. It should be short enough that if you were on an elevator with someone, you could spit it out before the doors open.

It should be meaningful enough that your listener hears and understands what you’re saying. And it should be intriguing enough that they want to know more. And that, as you know, is a tall order for something that lasts under 30 seconds.

Regardless if you’re sales prospecting, speaking, asking for money or simply networking, your audience makes up it’s mind about you in the first few minutes.

And because the time allotted to give an Elevator Speech is short, and you’ve got to grab your prospect’s attention fast, every word counts. That’s why I’ve compiled the top 9 tips to make your Elevator Speech rock. You pick and choose which of these tips is right for you:

1. Don’t overload it with information. Instead, stick to 3 main points: What, why and how.

The “What” of your Elevator Speech explains what you do in basic terms. Don’t get fancy here and don’t use technical terms. Saying, “We are a software company” works. Giving a 2 minute dissertation on base band cross platform scalable default configuration doesn’t. (BTW, I have no idea what I just said there.)

The “Why” of your Elevator Speech explains why you exist. What problem do you solve? What bad thing do you prevent or what good thing do you make possible? “We send kids to college who otherwise couldn’t go” works. “We make widgets because we love making widgets” doesn’t.

The “How” of your Elevator Speech is how you do what you do. Simple, right? How do you send kids to college who otherwise couldn’t go? By matching them with grants, loan programs and affordable colleges.

Here’s the ultimate test: If you gave your elevator speech to someone over 70 and someone else under 12, would they understand it? If not, try again.

Here is Guy Kawasaki’s elevator speech for his Alltop website – and while it’s a little longer than I would prefer, it definitely hits the mark: [Alltop] is a website where we aggregate news for all the topics. Think of it as an “online magazine rack.” We enable you to find the most relevant and recent news instead of the 30,000,000 matches that Google shows you. We do this by aggregating all the best news sources onto one page and displaying the five most recent stories from each one.

2. Open your Elevator Speech with the name of your company and follow it with your products and services you provide. Don’t speak in generalizations – this is your chance to show how different you are. Assume your listener doesn’t know your area of business, so don’t use jargon and acronyms.

Next, outline why your product is needed and what problems it solves. This makes your business real to your listener and shows how it makes life easier or more productive for your customers. Practice your speech over and over again, and deliver it with confidence and enthusiasm.

3. To make your pitch persuasive, you’ll want to be clear, credible and compelling.

We’ve already covered being clear – if the average person who isn’t in your industry can easily understand what you’re saying, then you’re on the right track.

So how can you add to your credibility? It’s not by comparing your business to someone else’s – it’s by telling what your business has accomplished. Even if it’s that you’ve signed your first 2 clients or you’ve held your first class, state your achievements rather than trying to tear down any perceived competition.

To be compelling, your solution should represent a dramatic improvement in your niche. Being a dollar cheaper or 2% faster isn’t enough, but showing a 2x improvement may make anyone sit up and take notice.

4. Don’t talk about yourself – talk about what you accomplish for the customer – how you provide the customer with value, solve the customer’s problem or give the customer opportunities.

5. Anticipate objections and head them off before they happen. Let’s say your company is doing what others have tried and failed at. “Why have all previous attempts to achieve ___ failed? Because they didn’t ____ (What you are doing.)

6. Avoid adjectives and phrases that have been done to death. “Proprietary, revolutionary, next-generation, state-of-the-art, synergistic, etc.” Words like these have been used so often that we no longer believe them.

7. When delivering your elevator speech, keep your body open. Don’t cross your arms, hold your hands in front of or behind you, or do anything that takes up less space. If anything, you want to be more expansive which shows you’re confident in what you say. For example, arms out to the side, or hands on hips, or gesturing are all fine.

8. To generate enthusiasm in your listener, all you have to do is show your own passion for your product, service or company.

9. Once you’ve made your Elevator Speech, exchange contact info and follow up with a phone call, email or some kind of communication the next day. Don’t wait – people soon forget.

There may be no faster way to create a great product than by interviewing an expert in your niche. You set a time for the interview, prepare a few questions, record it, and possibly get it transcribed. Total time? Maybe 2 hours, tops.

But exactly what is it that you, as the interviewer, need to do to make the interview great?

To put it another way, how do you ensure that your listeners are going stay riveted by the interview and be thrilled that they took the time to listen to it?

Here’s 17 indispensable tips for conducting a memorable podcast interview:

1. Have fun with it. If you’re all stressed out about doing this interview, odds are it’s not going to turn out well. You’ve got to relax and have a good time. Laugh. Joke a little. Smile. Did you know people can HEAR if you’re smiling? It’s true. And the more at ease you are, the more comfortable your guest will be, too.

2. Do some research. Know the person you’re interviewing, and by all means know something about the topic.

3. Confirm the details with the person you’re interviewing. This includes time and date, length of the interview and how they will be communicating (phone, skype, etc.)

4. Forget the umms, errs and ahhs. Please. If it takes you a second to think of the word you’re looking for, so be it. Don’t fill that time with incoherent sounds.

5. Do use the highest quality equipment possible. You can have the greatest interview ever, but if the sound quality is terrible then no one is going to listen.

6. Don’t ask yes or no questions. “Do you like to play tennis?” “Yes.” Have you been playing for long? “Yes.” Do you win every tournament?” “No.” How dull can you get? Always ask open ended questions that cannot be answered with simple yes’s and no’s.

7. Listen. I mean really LISTEN to the answers your expert is giving you. Your audience can tell if you’re just playing along rather than being fully engaged. So engage. Be prepared to ask spontaneous questions based on what you’re hearing. The best interviewers aren’t afraid to pursue new avenues and unearth new discoveries.

8. Don’t just ask “what,” also ask “why” and “how.” Learn everything you can from the person you’re interviewing. Go in depth and find out the reasons behind the reasons.

9. Remember that you are the interviewer. Don’t try to steal the show and don’t talk over your guest. You are there to elicit information, they are there to share their expertise. Don’t try to fill both roles yourself. If you do, you’ll annoy your guest and irritate your audience.

10. Don’t ask more than one question at a time. “How do you propose to do project A, and while you’re doing it do you also run the xyz program, and how do the two integrate into your discombobulator?” Sheesh. Think of your poor interview subject and just ask one question at a time.

11. Don’t say anything like, “I wanted to ask you…” or “My next question is…” Or even, “How are you?” Get to the topic at hand and keep the interview moving. Please.

12. Prepare your questions ahead of time. This will ensure you don’t get stuck for something to ask. Prepare follow up questions for each question. Or if the purpose of the interview is to teach a task, you and your guest might prepare an outline of the steps you’ll cover. In either case, this is a guide to help you along, not something written in stone. Be flexible.

13. Don’t keep your guest in the dark. Let them know before hand what to expect and any pertinent details they should know. Offer to send them the questions you plan on asking. Thank them for participating. You should thank them when they agree to the interview and again in any conversations or correspondence you have both prior to the interview and after the interview.

14. Show your enthusiasm for both your topic and your expert guest. Enthusiasm is contagious, so share yours liberally. Your guest will appreciate your enthusiasm, and your audience will be more engaged.

15. Remember who your real VIP is – it’s not your guest and it’s not you, it’s your audience. You are doing this interview for them, so your first priority is to get your audience great content they want or need.

16. Relax. It’s not Mars-landing science, it’s just an interview. Don’t get stressed – think of it as an adventure.

17. Make mistakes. Look, you’re going to make them regardless, so why not put it on this list? You’re going to trip over your tongue, forget what you were about to say, or mispronounce a word you use all the time. It’s okay. Fix your mistake, smile, laugh, and move on. Your audience will love you MORE for the mistakes you make.

If you want to know anything, ask someone who’s already been doing it for awhile. In other words, someone who actually walks the walk instead of just running their mouth.

So who better to ask what new affiliates should do than seasoned affiliates? Here are some suggestions from the pros themselves:

Provide lots of value. The key to getting visitors to return to your website time and time again (and buy from you time and time again) is to provide useful content they need and / or want.

So what’s “useful?” That depends on the topic. If you’ve got a website on how to drive web traffic, then naturally giving them lots of great info they can use on how to get more traffic is going to be useful. However, if you run a humor site, then providing content that is genuinely funny might not be “useful” in the traditional sense of the word, but it’s what your visitors want.

Bottom line: Give them what they want and they’ll come back for more.

Here’s a little trick: Instead of focusing on “making money,” focus on creating value and the money will come.

If you wait until you’re ready, you’ll be waiting for the rest of your life. Are you still “getting ready” to be an affiliate? Make the decision to just do it. So what if your website isn’t perfect or your emails aren’t perfect? I’ll let you in on a little secret: They never will be, no matter how long you wait. So just jump in and start swimming – the water’s fine!

Do it with passion. You can be an affiliate in ANY niche – so why not choose a niche you’re passionate about? It’s far more fun to review a product or write a blog post on a topic you love, rather than one you feel complete and total ambivalence for.

Watch out for the picture in your head. You imagine sending out one email and getting a 50% response rate, or doing one PPC campaign and raking in $10,000. Then it doesn’t happen. Then you get discouraged. Then you procrastinate. And pretty soon you’re out of the business entirely. Why? Because reality didn’t match the picture in your head.

Here’s the news: That picture in your head is what you’re shooting for – it’s not what’s going to happen the first day or maybe even the first year out of the gate. Like anything else, you work your way up in affiliate marketing. You get better. Your list gets bigger. Your website gets more traffic. You become more attuned to what works and what flops like a dead mackerel. And one day, you finally match that picture in your head. But it doesn’t happen overnight.

Worrying won’t change the outcome. You write an email to your list and you worry you’re saying the wrong thing, you worry you’ll make a stupid typo, you worry no one will open it, you worry no one will buy the product you’re promoting, you worry you’ll get hate mail or everyone will unsubscribe… etc.

What a colossal waste. I can tell you from experience that worry has never once changed the outcome. Worry is a useless emotion that will drive you bonkers if you let it, so just let it go.

Thinking you’re too late. There are affiliates out there making six figures a month – maybe seven figures. You should have jumped on the affiliate wagon 10 years ago, now it’s too late. Right?

Wrong. You have to start somewhere and sometime. Right here and right now is absolutely the best place – it always is. And if you think that just because you’re starting from scratch, you can’t be effective as an affiliate – bear this in mind:

“If you think you are too small or too new to be effective, you have never been in bed with a mosquito.” That’s a quote from Betty Reese.

Mosquitoes only live for two weeks – guaranteed they don’t worry that they’re “too late” to bite the bejeebers out of you – they just DO it.

Think of it this way – Those who went before you have laid the ground work for you to be successful.

Comparing yourself. This goes right along with thinking you’re “too late.” If you’re trying to compare yourself to the mega-watt affiliate who pulls down six figures a month, you’re just hurting yourself.

“Comparison is the thief of joy.” -Theodore Roosevelt

Knowing and doing are two different things. Getting your first affiliate payment is like getting your driver’s license – you’ve only just begun to become a great affiliate or driver. It’s when you’re driving your car every day, or getting paid every day, that you’ll find you know what you’re doing and you’re actually DOING it.

Know your partners. Before you sign up with a network or an affiliate program, do your research. See if someone has had a problem with them, if their products are good, if their customer service is stellar, and if they treat their affiliates well.

Focus focus focus. You’ve got 5 different niches and 7 outstanding ideas and you’re going in 12 different directions at once. Know what happens when you pull someone 12 different directions, or even just TWO different directions? They either don’t move, or they get pulled off balance.

Build one website at a time. Make it profitable. Work on it some more. Once you have a very firm foundation, then and only then should you consider going in a second direction.

Optimize for ONE search engine. If SEO is your method of traffic generation and you optimize your website for Google, don’t get smart and then optimize your website for Yahoo or Bing – you’ll get penalized for this by Google. No, it’s not fair, but it is fact.

Only promote products you are familiar with. If just one time you promote a product you haven’t tried yourself, and it turns out to be a lousy product, you’ve just ruined your reputation with everyone on your list who either bought that product or already knows it’s junk. Why risk it? Only promote products you can whole-heartedly recommend.

Test everything. Even if the biggest guru gives you what sounds like the best advice, it still might not work for your niche / website / audience. So never assume and always test.

Establish trust. This runs throughout everything you do, whether it’s the information you impart, the products you offer, etc. The more transparent and trustworthy you are, the more people will trust you when you suggest they make a purchase.

Become an authority in your niche. Whether you do it by creating your own products or by surrounding yourself with authorities is up to you. Best scenario – do both.

Affiliate marketing is one of the fastest ways to make money online because most of the work is already done for you. Apply these secrets and start getting paid like the pros. 😀

As an online marketer, there are 3 kinds of speed you need to focus on to be successful.

The speed of your customer service. If a customer emails you today, you need to answer today. If you can’t, hire a virtual assistant. If you can’t do that, then at least set up a help desk that lets customers know what hours you work, so they know when you will be getting back to them.

Your website speed. How long does it take for your website to load? For every second added to a website’s load time, the conversions decrease by a shocking 2% to 7%, and page views are reduced by 1% to 2%. That’s per SECOND. In addition, Google factors in loading speed when determining the ranking it’s going to give your website. I’m not going into a technical tutorial here, so I suggest you Google how to make your site load faster and take it from there – or suffer the consequences.

That sounded dire. Sorry. I’m eager to get to my third point, and that is:

Your own speed. When you have a great new idea, how long does it take you to act upon it? When your customer gives you a brilliant new product request, do you begin today? Tomorrow? Or do you put it off until never? When you’re in the shower and you have a brilliant thought on how to increase subscribers, do you put it into action now? Or will you “get around to it?”

I’ve found that if I don’t act within 24 hours on a new idea, I will almost certainly never act on it. In addition, if I do act but I wait until I get it perfect before rolling it out – it gathers dust and becomes a total waste of my time and resources, along with a an almost imperceptible blow to my confidence and self esteem.

I have a theory, and it’s this: Each time you have a brilliant idea but don’t act upon it, you’re one step closer to dying the death of a thousand cuts. Sure, one or two is no big deal, but they add up. Pretty soon you’ve got a long list of brilliant ideas that never saw the light of day, and you’re business is stalling.

Speed to paramount to success. You almost can’t have one without the other. I encourage you; take something you’ve learned or thought of today, and begin work on it RIGHT NOW. Outline what you need to do to get this idea off the ground, and then do the first thing on the list. When that’s done, cross it off and do the second. Have it done by tomorrow. Yes, tomorrow.

I guarantee; you’ll become addicted to speed and your business, your confidence and your income will thank you.

Any good relationship with your customers requires more than simply sending them mass emails. You’ve got to engage them somehow, turn the focus onto them, or even blow their minds once in a while.

1. First, the obvious: Listen to your readers, respond to their comments and emails, connect with them on social media and so forth. This is the stuff you already know – it’s simply a question of whether or not you’re doing it.

2/ Offer job leads. Adding a jobs board to your website might be just the thing to get some of your readers jobs – inspiring gratitude that will keep them coming back for more.

3. Ask your best commenters to guest post on your blog – you’ll make them feel like a million bucks. Offer to guest post on your reader’s blogs – you’ll surprise the pants off of some of them.

4. Hold contests. Weird contests. Crazy off the wall contests. Like having your readers send you a photo of your product in the strangest place possible. Then hold a skills contest, like who can write the best 25 words describing life before your product and 25 words about life after your product. Or hold a funny pet photo contest. Sure, it has nothing to do with your product, but it’s not always about your product – it’s about building relationships.

5. Skype people who have just purchased your product – or someone who’s just commented on your blog – or a reader in general. You’ll blow their minds.

6. Mention readers in your posts and podcasts. For example, “Joe Smith asked me a great question yesterday…”

7. Do live calls, podcasts and webinars to answer customer’s questions. Enjoy yourself on these calls and do your best to ensure your listeners are not just learning, they’re also having fun.

8. Send them stuff in the mail. Your typical reader might subscribe to 25-50 (or more) different newsletters, but receives a personal postcard (or anything else) from only ONE newsletter writer – you. Who will they remember? Whose newsletters will they open and read from now on?

9. Don’t finish your posts. Seriously. Title your post, “100 Tips to Do ___” and then write the first 20 or so. Ask your readers to comment with their own tips.

10. Place a forum on your site. Encourage your readers to become a community. Choose a few posters and get on Skype for your own personal sessions to talk about whatever you choose (Brainstorming? Goal setting? Whatever.)

11. Ask readers to answer a question, then take the answers and compile them into a great article or blog post. For example, “What one thing is more responsible for your success than any other?” Take it a step further and collaborate with your readers on writing a book.

12. Barter with your readers. Everybody’s got skills. Do you need a webmaster? Article writer? Monkey trainer? Ask your readers for their skills and offer to barter for them. You might even set up a barter center on your website.

Think outside the box to find new ways to reach your readers and grow your business.

You’ve likely heard of a technique called YouTube Traffic Hijacking. In a nutshell, it’s finding YouTube videos that get a lot of views but don’t display a URL in the more information section. You contact the video owner and offer to either buy the video outright or lease the “more info” section. You then insert your own URL that leads to a product sales page.

Pretty simple, right? This is a viable, workable business model, but there are three catches. First, you have to FIND these videos. The videos you seek are getting hundreds of views a day and have an accumulated number of views in the six-figure range, just to be sure they’ve got what it takes to continue to get more views. And they can’t already have a URL listed for more info.

Next, these can’t be just ANY videos that meet the above criteria. For example, that video of cute kittens climbing the screen door isn’t going to sell your traffic product. Maybe you can find an affiliate product that teaches how to get kittens to not tear up the screen door, but even if you do, how many sales do you think that will result in?

Bottom line, the video’s subject needs to have a STRONG correlation to the affiliate product or you won’t be making enough sales to make this venture pay.

Third, you have to talk the video owner into agreeing to sell you the video or into leasing you the “more info” space. If you get them to sell you the video, you’ve then got to talk them into keeping it on their channel (you move it, you lose the momentum of the views and have to start over from scratch.) If you rent the “more info” space, how long will it be before they catch on that all they have to do is get their own affiliate link, tell you to go take a hike and start earning their own commissions?

See, it’s not as easy as some would have you believe. Now, there is software you can purchase that helps you to find these videos, but you still have the other problems we mentioned.

There is of course another solution: Make your own YouTube videos.

Why not? Anyone can do it, you don’t need to be a master videographer, and when you make the video you OWN IT from day one. No begging someone else for their video.

And when you make your own videos, you can have your URL in place from the moment you put your video online.

So how do you get more views to your YouTube videos? While there are no guaranteed methods, tomorrow I’ll share an article with you that can greatly increase your odds of creating videos that garner hundreds of views a day. Stay tuned! 😀

Publishing YouTube videos can be a great way to build your brand and bring more interested visitors to your website and offers. Follow these tips to get the most bang for your video buck!

1. Create tutorial videos. These kinds of videos are good because they’re easy to make and they provide information that people need. For example, if you’re promoting a course on how to drive traffic, then talk about traffic driving methods. Impart real info, not a sales pitch. And at the end of the video, remind the viewer to click the link below for more information.

2. Don’t narrow your target market too much. For example, if you’re teaching people how to drive traffic, don’t make it, “How to drive traffic to an origami website.” Yes, you’ll get views from people with origami sites, but no one else.

3. Don’t sweat the subscribers too much. It’s great to have some loyal subscribers because every time you post a video some of them will almost immediately watch and comment on the video. This gets you boosted higher in the rankings and thus more easy to find by new people who have never heard of you. They’ll leave comments, pushing you still higher in the rankings and making it even easier for people to find you. It’s your subscribers that start the ball rolling, but it’s commenters (subscribers and non-subscribers alike) who push you higher and higher in the rankings and thus get you more viewers. So while you eventually want tons of subscribers, know that even a few at the beginning will get the ball rolling.

4. Use your best keyword(s) in your video’s title. Think about what a person would search for if they needed the information found in the product you’re promoting. For example, back to our traffic product, they would probably type in something like, “How to get more traffic to my website.” Do some research on this and find the best keyword phrase(s) to use so that you can get found.

5. Place all of your best keywords in your tag section. Your very best keyword(s) go in your title, but you don’t want to over load it. Instead, place all of your other good and great keywords (including the ones in your title) into the tags section. How do you find your best keywords? One way is to find the most viewed videos in your specific niche and then use the keywords that repeatedly show up in these top videos.

6. Collaborate. When you make a video with someone, you get your viewers and THEIR viewers watching the video. Collaborate with 10 different people on 10 different videos, and now you’ve got 10 new audiences viewing your videos and possibly buying your product. This works especially well if you are promoting your own product, since you can then give a commission to the person you’re collaborating with and build your list of buyers. Plus, this is a great way to build relationships with other marketers who might refer people to your videos in the future even when you’re not collaborating with them.

7. Start discussions. Ask questions in your video that gets people commenting. For example, asking for advice on a problem or something that stirs a bit of controversy can go a long way to getting comments, and of course the more comments you get, the higher you can rank on the most discussed list.

8. Encourage video responses. A video response is like a comment on steroids – it’s a video someone makes in direct response to your video. Their subscribers then watch your video to understand what the video response is all about This gives you an entirely new audience watching your video and perhaps clicking your link or viewing more of your videos or even subscribing.

9. BE a video response. After you make your YouTube video, search for other videos that are somehow similar. In other words, what would you search for to find your video? And when you make that search, what other videos come up? Now go to the first video, and if it’s appropriate in content and has a lot of viewer activity, submit your video as a video response to that video.

10. .Don’t hate on the haters. You’re going to get hate comments because, well, you just will. There are folks out there who are looking for things to hate, and sooner or later it will be you. Three things you should know: First, a hate comment is actually a compliment. Something you said or did had an impact on them, or they would have simply clicked away with no comment at all. So take it as a good thing. Second, do not respond. At all. Simply ignore the hate comments and go on with making your videos. If you get bogged down by the haters and the trolls, then you won’t be in the right frame of mind to continue making great videos. Third, once you put anything online, it’s in cyberspace forever. Your negative responses to negative comments can come back to bite you time and time again, so just don’t do it.

11. Post consistently. Why do television shows work? Because people get hooked into watching week after week. YouTube is no different. If you’re posting at least once a week, people become accustomed to watching you. If you only post every few weeks or months, people forget who you are and why they might even be interested in what you have to say. That said, don’t go overboard in the other direction. For example, don’t post several videos a day – that’s tantamount to spam, even if you do have great information to impart.

12. Be addictive. Again, it’s the television series thing. People continue to watch a series because they’re addicted. Maybe they love the characters, or enjoy the suspense, or are bowled over by the crazy plot lines. Find a hook that grabs your viewers and makes them continue to come back for more.

13. Leave them hanging. Television shows often end their season with a cliffhanger to get viewers back at the start of the new season. And some television shows even place a cliffhanger at the end of every episode to ensure viewers are back the next week. You can do the same thing. For example, try doing a series of videos on a topic, and at the end of each video leave them with a cliffhanger. You might ask a provocative question but not give them the answer until the next video. Or give them a teaser of what they will discover next time (think bullet points.) whatever you need to do to ensure they come back for more will increase your viewer loyalty.

14. Comment. Find videos in your niche and comment. Always be positive and diplomatic, and when appropriate mention that you’ve also covered “____” in a video recently. That’s it. If people are interested, they will click on your name and find your video. Don’t be blatant about it or you’re spamming. Sure you’re walking a fine line, just be sure you’re always on the right side of that line. And don’t view comments as just a way to promote your stuff – you’re also looking to engage people and build relationships.

15. Respond. When someone posts a positive comment or a question on your video, by all means respond if you want to. Again, you’re building relationships, this time with your viewers.

16. Use visuals. Got a goofy hat? A crazy poster on your wall? An over the top t-shirt? Wear something interesting, put something else interesting in the background, and here’s what will happen – you’ll get comments just about these things. Sure, it has nothing to do with your topic, but comments help boost you in the rankings. Plus it gives viewers something else to engage them and focus their attention.

17. Post when your prime viewers are watching. Are most of your viewers in the U.S.? Then you might want to post around 6 pm EST, not 2 am. Do most of your views come on weeknights? Week ends? 9 am on workdays? Then post accordingly.

18. Have fun and be fearless. The more fun you have making your videos, the more enjoyable your videos will be to watch. And whatever you do, don’t fear what people think or say. If you’re busy worrying that you’re too dorky, not pretty enough, not smart enough, etc. then you won’t be having fun and you probably won’t have the courage to post your work. Instead, just forget about it and do your own thing. People respond to genuine people who aren’t putting on airs or trying to come across as something they’re not.

19. Don’t stop posting videos. Sure, your first videos might not be exactly what you want. Maybe you stammered, or maybe the lighting wasn’t perfect, or maybe some jerk posted a hateful comment. So what? Be determined to keep on posting and you’ll find that you get better and better, and the haters matter less and less.

20. Promote. Put your video link on Facebook, Twitter and any other social networks you’re on. Place it in your emails and on your website. If you’re active on forums in your niche, let people know you’ve got a new video. If you’re not active on forums in your niche, GET ACTIVE. Sure, this is basic, yet people forget to do it. And don’t POST your video elsewhere – you want everyone to actually come to YouTube to see your video so that it shows up in the number of views you receive.

Are you using online video in your email campaigns yet? If not, you might want to consider it. Because video engages more of the senses than the written word, and it can result in higher conversions.

Here are 7 tips for getting the most out of video…

1. Don’t embed videos into your emails. If you’ve ever tried it, you know that embedding video into email is challenging both from a technical and a deliverability stand point. Instead, embed a thumbnail image that links to your video. The recipient clicks the play button and the video automatically opens on a video landing page and begins to play.

2. Keep your videos short and to the point. Remember, anyone can close your video at anytime, so your video should only be as long as you can hold their attention. Don’t offer long winded introductions explaining why you’re making the video – just get straight to the point.

3, Tell them what’s in it for them. A continuation of Point 2 – people are super busy so respect their time by immediately telling them the benefits they’ll receive from watching the video.

4. Don’t use YouTube. There is a time and place for YouTube, but your landing page isn’t one of them. Instead, use your own branded video landing page with your own video player. Include contact information, calls to action, an email sign-up, etc. When you control the landing page, you control what happens next.

5. Don’t forget your mobile users. Make sure your video platform allows playback on smart devices and supports both HTML5 and Flash formats.

6. Consider adding written text to your videos. Some people like to watch video, others prefer to read. By adding a transcript below the video, you’re appealing to a broader range of customers.

7. Track your results. Just like any other form of marketing, you need to know what’s working and what’s not. Always track open rates, play rates, whether the emails are being forwarded, etc.