Tuesday, June 19, 2007

List of Methods/Rules to Increase Viral Vid Views: from the Viewpoint of YouTube


YouTube_WTF???, originally uploaded by Sbocaj.


Well, have you ever felt that when you see a "book" for dummies, on iTunes and the like that you could have written that? Well, this is along those lines of logic, because I believe that I have come up with a fairly concise, and presumably pretty useful, list for those video creators out there that want to strut there stuff, but not just in front of a few people, but as many as possible. Some of these suggestions seem like common sense, while others are probably debatable, and really only come from my own personal experience. You may be asking, why post this here, on a forum about anime?

Well, for AMV's mainly. Sure, this list wasn't originally for AMV's, but with slight language difference, I'd say it works pretty well. Of course, I personally recommend adding all your AMV's to animemusicvideos.org, assuming the video fits their qualifications, because that is clearly the AMV mecca; however, if you want more views, through YouTube related sites, then that's where my list should help you.

(List is not in any order of importance)

1. Good, descriptive tags are a must, because this is how they search for your vid, and on YouTube many never read the actual description

2. Relevant title, funny if possible but don’t push it, the video should sell itself too

3. Upload to MySpace as well, along with other similar sites; better uploads are too video sites with niche’s that have your content style in mind

4. Send video to subject, if there is one; such as sending a link of a local band to the local band/manager, because they maybe will embed it on their site

5. Speed is essential; youtube is about fifteen minutes of fame, so if you have one quality vid that has relevancy only to the present or near future, like in reference to a recent event, upload that quickly

6. Bulk is preferable to uploading too; example, if you have several related vids, such as a series of vids from an art show. People search for events shortly after, not long after, and if they find one of yours and if they don’t subscribe, there’s a small chance they’ll return, so have all your wares out front so to speak, so when they click your username and see your vids you’re giving them all you’ve got

7. Tell friends, use myspace bulletins, facebook share/post, and if you have a related blog or website, then post it there

8. Digg the vid

9. Don’t disable the ability to embed; that may be your ticket to viral vid stardom

10. Send to potentially interested sites, band fan sites for instance, and related blogs; not necessary on the blogs, because they may find it themselves, but still nice, if you’re not too pushy

11. If newsworthy, send to newssites; the news likes different, and has been using youtube vids occasionally, so your vid could be just what they’ve been looking for

12. Slight vid clean-up if possible; yes, youtube is already low quality, but why decrease that any more than you have to

13. Respond to occasional comments on vid if positive, and especially if provide constructive criticism

14. Respond to really negative if there’s only one comment, and it’s not unrelated/completely ignorant, and if it is the only comment for 3 days after posting the vid; strangely, this will affect others views, so you don’t want the only word to be completely negative. Of course respond courteously.

15. Update your descrip. And add a comment of surprise to your vid, because you will be when you star hitting the high numbers; you can do this anytime, but milestones to watch for are 20k, 50k, and 100k afterwhich just jump for joy. Come on do it!

16. Categorize appropriately; if the vid is travel, then don’t say something else. Sure, sometimes these categories are more filled than others, but if you have a travel vid, that can lead to easy honors, and regardless of that, always try to describe and list your video appropriately; it’s the least we can do to keep the web clean

17. Credits are unnecessary, but if you want to ensure at least some sort of creative rights, then I say add them since people can rip vids off of youtube nowadays. You might also want to change the settings on the vid so as to ensure more protection?; but as said before, at least allow embed, and also unless everything’s going downhill, allow comments

Well, that was a long list, but hopefully useful. Now, I can't promise that I'll never do something like this again, but I sure will try not to, unless you liked it of course!

1 comment:

Jeremiah said...

The only thing I'd add would be to suggest publishing an RSS feed of your favorites, too - this increases the change of you becoming a credible cultural influencer.

Just a thought :)