When I started working with Video Optimization and YouTube my curiosity about “added channel features”, such as CSS design, caused me to seek out options for branding channels. Initially, I tried to figure out why some YouTube channels had big banners at the top while others did not. After doing some research, I discovered that YouTube channels can be branded by applying for their YouTube Partnership Program.

Although there really is no magic formula to be accepted to the Partnership Program, YouTube does take into consideration the number of views your videos get, the number of subscribers and friends your channel has, the amount of videos you have on your channel and how often you post new videos. YouTube states that if you apply to the Partnership Program and you do not get accepted, you will have to wait three months to re-apply, so I suggest that you wait until you:

• Have plenty of videos, subscribers and friends
• Have lots of channel views
• Are posting new videos as much as you possible before applying for the Partnership Program

The process can be slow but once you are accepted into the partnership program, it opens up some really cool features and branding options not available through standard YouTube channel membership.  Companies should definitely consider this program if videos are part of their marketing mix.

Here are the top 6 reasons why your brand should consider taking advantage a YouTube Partner channel.

1.) Increased Revenue – Brands can generate income by ad revenue sharing for “In Video” ads and other ads. These ads are placed along right hand side of the video and they work in conjunction with a Google AdSense account (Google manages payment). Revenue can also be generated via leads and conversions generated through your quality branded channel. Quality content drives traffic, and high-traffic volume can lead to the increased likelihood of onsite conversions — especially if the content you’ve provided users is of value and solves a problem. Lastly, depending on your product, industry and service offering, you can also rent your videos.

2.) Brand Awareness – You can add a customized banner at the top of your channel’s homepage.  The maximum dimensions for this banner are 960 pixels by 150 pixels. You can also link from this banner with image maps to your Facebook, Twitter or even your website. This drives traffic and increases brand presence across other social media channels.

3.) Customized Branding - You can add a customized side column image above the “Connect with” box. The maximum dimensions for this image is 300 pixels by 250 pixels. You can add links with image maps here as well.

4.) YouTube “Watch Page” Branding (not on your channel page) -In addition, you can upload a small banner of your brand that will be displayed at the upper left corner of the watch page on all of your video pages. This banner will replace the textually channel name and will link back automatically to your YouTube channel. The maximum dimensions for this banner are 25 pixels by 170 pixels.

5.)  Google Analytics Integration – You can connect your Google Analytics account ID to track visitors, page views, traffic and all the regular things that come with Google Analytics.  The insights gained from understanding how users are engaging your content is extremely valuable and can help dictate your content development efforts and marketing programs.

6.)  Consistent Messaging – Branded YouTube Channels also provide users with a consistent brand experience across social media channels and web properties because imaging, messaging, logos and color harmonies are correlated, thus imprinting the brands identity in the users’ mind.

As you can see, having a “branded” YouTube channel opens up a lot of opportunities for organizations and helps differentiate your brand from the many other channels out there.  Apply for the YouTube Partnership Program to have access to these great options and features and you never know, you may be the next YouTube star.

Happy Tubing,

Thomas Beatty, SEO Strategist

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by Alice Wansi Chen

What does BBS (Bulletin Board System) remind you of? Many of you may remember the old school Internet forum system, Bulletin Board System (BBS), from the 1990s in the US. For those of you who don’t, the BBSes are computers that can be dialed into mainly for the purpose of reading messages from and leaving messages to other users, sharing files, and accessing information of general interest.  And although we may think it’s a thing of the past, it’s actually the most widely used and popular social networking platform in China, NOW. Internet users in China interact differently from the users in the Western countries. Here are 5 facts of Chinese social networking:

1. Large population. Internet users in China are usually referred to as “netizen”, people who are actively involved in online communities. The population of Chinese netizens is over 420 million in 2010, and they are actively involved in different types of social networking; including Xiaonei (Chinese facebook), and Kaixin (online social gaming portal).
2. Netizens like to contribute. In America only 21% of people create original content, however, in China 40% of people create content.
3. BBS is one of the most reliable information sources for netizens. More than 80% of users are using BBS sites to search for information about products they plan to buy, and 61.7% of users are keen to ask other BBS users for opinions before making a purchase. Recent research shows that Chinese netizens are more likely to turn to the Internet, especially BBS, for program solving solutions, instead of turning to their family members and friends.
4. Netizens make friends through BBS, and they are likely to be friends in real life through many offline events organized through BBS.
5. Netizens frequently talk about brand in BBS, and many successful company campaigns are promoted through BBS and turn to be successful offline campaigns as well.

BBS might be a virtual online communication platform in the Western countries. However, in China, it is a widely used social networking platform where companies could actually monitor and manage their branding, as well as significantly enhance their marketing campaigns. While we are all talking about Facebook and Twitter for branding purposes, in China it is a different story.

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Hello everyone.  I just wrote my second article in a three part series for SearchEngineWatch.com that talks about how to measure SEO success in 2010.  In this article I talk about how the recent changes to Google and the data that is now available through Webmaster tools has changed search engine optimization and the way that understand what SEO success is.  Enjoy!

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If you really want to rank well in search engines, you need to build inbound links from external, quality sites. Google looks at two sets of factors when assessing a web page –  the on page factors, which  are essentially the textual elements existing on a given web page (title tags, Metadata, content body, link text, etc.) – and  the off page factors which come from external sites, such as  what other people are saying about you.

Writing and publishing good articles is one of the most effective ways to build inbound links. This happens in two main ways:

• If you publish good quality articles on your own site, then bloggers, information sites, resource sites and industry experts may quote your article and link to it.
• If you submit your articles for publication on external websites that carry editorial content, then you’ll get exposure to a new audience and you can publish a link to your site as a credit for writing.

You can be useful, topical or controversial – it doesn’t really matter – but to get these inbound links your content needs to be something special. You need to be passionate about your industry and show your passion with every word you write. Your content needs to offer value in three ways:

• Direct benefit to the end user – it allows them to do something.
• Direct benefit to your own business – it must help you generate leads or generate a transaction.
• A benefit to the website that will link to you– by linking to you they provide something useful to their readers.

Here’s what you have to do:

1. Take part in the online community that exists around your product area. Identify news and information sites, blogs, directories, social media sites and others that service your industry. Read them regularly and comment on articles and contribute – start to build an online reputation for yourself.
2. Write and publish keyword rich articles or blog posts on your own site. These articles should be useful to your customers and members of your community. From the article you write, reference and link to articles that you’ve written previously.
3. When you’re reading or commenting on external websites, mention and link to articles you’ve published on your own site when you’re certain they’re appropriate and add value to any discussion.
4. Mention your articles on Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites and encourage other people to reference your articles.
5. Publish articles you’ve written as a newsletter and encourage people to sign up to a mailing list. Once you’ve established a list, you’ll find that each edition of your newsletter will generate a number of links from people on your mailing list.
6. Provide your content as an RSS feed. This is relatively simple to do and will again bring your content to the attention of other people.

I’m sure there are many other solutions on various ways to create link worthy content and I’m interested in any ideas and or comments that you would like to share.

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