Outsourcing Everything but the Company Name

Joseph Franklyn McElroy, president of the Corporate Performance Artists marketing firm, gives us a few tips and techniques for optimizing video websites:

1. Use keywords in the names of your video files.
2. Use keyword-rich title and description tags.
3. When linking to the video, use keywords in the anchor text of the link.
4. Try to include video transcripts with the video.
5. Create video sitemaps with links to all your videos.
6. Use closed captioning with your video.
7. Submit promotional video to specialty video search engines like blinkx.tv, YouTube, Google, and others.
8. If you post your video, consider carefully the image chosen to be the thumbnail.
9. Have a social component to your site allowing users to tell their friends about a video they like.

For a real-world Search Engine Optimization plan, follow the path that Robertson Price, founder of MyVideoDaily (which was sold to ROO in 2007), used to build and sell his business:

"For promotion and marketing I had to start off conservatively, but I knew that I made a certain amount of money for every visitor that came and saw a video. If I could get users to the site for less than I spent on promotion, I could buy all day long and be assured of profit. We created 2.5 million keyword combinations through which to advertise on search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and Ask Jeeves. To manage all of our media buying, we enlisted the help of a startup SEO company called Soothware. Growth was slow at first, but a year later MyVideoDaily was the 14th largest click buyer by volume on Google. We sold the company within the year."

Monetization
With a website that streams video to customers, you should be able to make some money. The simplest way to monetize this traffic is to use Google AdSense on your website. There isn’t much for you to do except receive the checks. The lack of effort does come at the price of return, though.

With a little more effort, you can make a lot more money off your site. You can consider the ad-serving platforms of the one-stop shops mentioned in this article. ROO, for example, has multiple monetization options using advertising. Voxant’s Newsroom also provides monetization options for the traffic you drive to their content.

If you are slightly bolder you can work with video ad networks like Tremor Networks, YuMe, BrightRoll, and VideoEgg.

These ad networks plug into your page and provide you with advertising that plays before, during, or after your videos. You can work with multiple ad networks as well to maximize your profit, but be aware that this can be a blessing and a curse at the same time. Dealing with multiple ad networks can be complicated for integration and management if you don’t have the right resources on staff.

"Website owners streaming quality content will be able to attract multiple video ad networks to pay premium CPMs. Companies offering optimization and maximization of multiple ad networks will emerge over the next 6 months," says Ben Barokas, CEO of AdMeld, an emerging advertising optimization company.

The Name
At this point, you have all the tools you need to outsource the development of your video website. All that is left to do is come up with a name. According to the title of this article, the name is the one piece you can’t outsource. Then again, there are a lot of people out there who make a living off of helping companies come up with names and branding messages. It is always wise to ask for the help of a professional who is not too close to your business to help you with your branding. It is also good to check for any cultural considerations your name might have in the markets you intend to target.