Using Web Videos to Build Traffic

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So perhaps you think web videos are the equivalent of America’s Funniest videos, good for a few laughs now and then but not capable of driving any commercially viable traffic. Well friend then I’ve got some examples and ideas for you, so read on …

I first came across “jump boots” when Dax mentioned it a few weeks ago. Then again on Google Current. If you haven’t seen the video of jumping boots be sure to check it out. As of this writing Google Trends didn’t have any data, but looking at technorati we can see a spike for jump boots.

Here’s another link to GM promo video for a Hybrid drive by wire technology car (hy-wire) that’s been viewed over 20,000 times. Looking at some alexa traffic we see some spikyness in traffic for the site (graph). It’s hard to pin all that traffic down to the video, but getting an Alexa number of 20,000 for a domain that was registered in February of 2006 is pretty impressive, and I bet that video helped.

Here’s another video that promotes a new type of airless tire from Michelin. As of this writing this page was viewed over 30,000 times. It also got “dugg” over 1,000 times (digg page) and that’s a lot of traffic (and links). I wonder why this video isn’t on Michelin’s website?

So what are some ideas you can use to get traffic from a web video. Run a dance school, how about cutting together a high energy music video featuring some of your best students routines. Run a race car driving school, or air combat experience then why not show some in cockpit videos of what people will experience. Give golf lessons, put up some videos of you making some killer long distance difficult putts. Again you don’t want to be coming in dumping 30, 60, and 90 second commercials ( unless you’re TIVO), just drop your URL at the beginning and end, and try to add value, solve a problem, provide information, entertain, and tell a story along the way.

Last in this series Web Maps, Video, and Audio for Fun and Profit.

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One Response to “Using Web Videos to Build Traffic”

1. Neil Patel Says:
   May 19th, 2006 at 1:44 pm

   Videos can be an effective form of advertising. A lot of studios release 5-10 minute movie trailers on the web to help promote their movie. Some of the trailers that have been released are Lucky Number Slevin and Scary Movie 4.