About two years ago, I made a simple video tutorial explaining how to remove the background of a photo in Paint.NET. I submitted it to Digg, and some of the other usual social bookmarking sites, and saw the views climbing nicely. Yesterday, YouTube contacted me and said that they were giving me an opportunity to make some revenue from ads placed beside my video since it “has become popular on YouTube”.
They are giving me 55% of the ad revenue, which is a nice surprise. I didn’t realize this was a possibility when I uploaded the video. I’ve been thinking about making some more tutorials, and seeing that I have this opportunity, I think it would be a good idea. Not only does it get exposure for my website, but also I can make a bit of money on the side.
I will be the first to admit that it is my fault for not adding credits to the end of one of my tutorial videos on YouTube. YouTube was one site, like Flickr, that I realized could be good for naturally promoting my business while providing value. I had created a simple tutorial video showing how to remove the background of a photo in Paint .NET. Yesterday, I checked on my video and found that it was being embedded on a website. The language on the site seemed to me like they were taking credit for the video. I left a comment thanking them for using my video, and found today that they had deleted the comment. This made it clear to me that they were not going to give me any credit for it. My first inclination was to delete the video, but it has over 6000 views, and I have the right to keep it. YouTube has a feature to add annotations to videos, so you can add notes that will show up, even in videos embedded on sites. You can see below what I have done with this one to claim credit for it.
OK, I know I’m overdue for the series about creating custom products, but this just hit and I thought it was good to write about.
I wrote a few days ago about my plan to make Bigfoot viral videos to advertise the business. Today, the Bigfoot suit showed up by UPS and I snapped a quick shot (with the laptop webcam, no less!) of myself with the mask on, topped off with my ham radio callsign hat.
I put the impromptu photo on Flickr mostly just to show a few family and friends, and received an email not too long after. Here it is, in part:
Hi,
NowPublic is running a news story on the Georgia Bigfoot
Story and your Bigfoot photo would be an excellent
addition. If you’re interested in sharing it, please follow
the links below and feel free to add your own comment as
well. Looking forward to seeing your work on the site!
So, it turns out that the opportunity for exposure started a bit earlier than I anticipated!
Sorry I haven’t written in a few days. I’ve got some health issues going on that really have me dragging lately.
My latest marketing idea is inspired by some crazy guys in the North Georgia mountains. You may have seen this story on the news recently. Reading the story got me thinking about the whole Bigfoot craze and the typical fuzzy photos and videos.
I have been trying to find a good viral video idea, and I think a Bigfoot series would be perfect. I should be receiving the Bigfoot suit within a few weeks and even have a logo for the viral video series.
I admit that it sounds a bit crazy, but I think it could be a fun and unique combination.
