How to Create Viral Videos – The 3 Fundamental Rules
Now, there are few things you need to know about the system before we try to create a viral video. So lets start from the beginning.
First, what is a Viral Video ?
“A viral video is a video clip that gains widespread popularity through the process of Internet sharing, typically through email or IM messages”
-Wikipedia
Widespread popularity means getting insane amounts of : Views, Ratings, Comments, Friends and Subscribers. IF your video is really good it can get more than million views. The best part about this is that the results can be seen really, really fast. Some videos even get 10 million views over just one month.
So, how does the system work ?
- Publish a cool video
- Few people see and like the cool video, thus they share it with friends
- More people come to see the cool video
- Now Even more new people like and share the cool video.
- The loop goes on until virtually everyone has seen the cool video.
You can see that 80 % of the work will be done just by having a cool valuable video. So the main focus should be directed on creating it.
First Rule : Focus On Creating and Giving Value
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Value is a Magnet
All people are hardwired to gravitate towards higher value, PERIOD.
Less cool kids want to hang out with the cool kids. Why ? because the cool kids have higher social value.
Having a video that gives advice on how to solve premature ejaculation problems can be really valuable to some people. (good example I know…) Why ? because you have a solution to their problem, plus it is free.
Value is :
- Something that people want/need
- Something that will make people feel positive emotions
Some common values in a video would be :
- Connecting with their wants – How well do you know what they value/want (This should be the first thing they see on your video).
- Simplicity/clearness - How good is your language(English), easiness to understand, concepts, analogies, examples.
- Emotional spikes – Fun/humor/Wow effect/Energy
- Entertainment – Pictures, effects
- Uniqueness – Your logo, How deferent is your video from the videos in the same category?
- Certainty – How certain are you that the thing you speak about is true /social proof – how did other people succeed with the thing you are talking about.
Research
Now its time to find out what your audience values specifically so you can DELIVER exactly what they want to know. Good place to learn what people value is on forums, Google answers or other cool videos.
DELIVER
Now it is time to forget about what YOU want for a second and just focus on creating the most value possible, think about how your video will save people hours and hours of research, trial, error and confusion. Tweak it until it is becomes outstanding.
Second Rule : Be the first one to share the video.
I am talking about social bookmarking here, if you don’t know much about it you should first watch this video
Now, to completely understand how it works I recommend you try using Stumble Upon for a week (you will probably love it)
You can also use Social Marker to quickly bookmark your video the most popular social bookmarking websites.(free service)
You don’t have to put it everywhere, just make sure that you share it on the most popular places:
- StumbleUpon.com
- Digg.com
- Mixx.com
- Propeller.com
- Del.icio.us
- Reddit.com
And make sure that you put the video in the correct category. Its a common mistake, so think twice before making a choice.
You can also share your video on other places where it could contribute.
Forums and blogs are really good places to start. Just create a account and embed the video in a new thread.
Third rule : Build a Brand
What is branding ?
The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines a brand as a “name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers.
The way i see it is Quality +Logo / Time = Brand
This is not only about your videos, its about everything else. Its about life. YOU are a brand, if you give value constantly people will start forming good opinions of you, they will trust you and will want to be around you. They will want to give value back to you.
Lets get back on creating viral videos now… If you really want to get the most out of rule 2 you will have to build high value profiles on the social bookmarking websites, or at least on one of them.
You can do this over time by constantly sharing the noteworthy material you find over the Internet, connecting with people that have similar interests and building friendships.
What do you get from branding ?
- People will want to see more videos from you
- Confirms your credibility
- Connects your target prospects emotionally
- Motivates the buyer
- Concretes trust and loyalty
How to create a brand :
Quality video + Logo / Time = Brand
When people see your logo in the end of one or two quality videos they will ask : who is this guy ? lets see if he has more cool stuff ? Then they will visit your profile to see more.
Boom they are now your fans. They are subscribing and leaving comments on every video. They now trust you.
Create or recommend a product and they will buy it.
Thanks for reading
-Alex
PS. I really appreciate your feedback.
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11 Magic Tips for Increasing YouTube Views
Before we begin, there is one thing that I must say… If your video SUCKS, you don’t need to worry about getting more views and you need to shift your attention towards learning how to create better videos.
IF your videos are at least decent, than employing these TIPS is laser sharp and will always give you OUTSTANDING results.
One simple thing you can do to Double Your YouTube Views INSTANTLY is to use annotations in the end of your videos and links in your video description to direct the visitors to other related videos from your YouTube channel.
Video 1 will give views to Video 2 and Video 2 to Video 3.
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How does this work?
Let’s say that people see and like your first video, and 50 % of them click on the annotation and watch the next one, and then 50% of them watch the next one, and so on. That’s around 80% more views for each video you have + the people are getting to know you and if they like what they see they will probably subscribe and watch each new video you publish.
So simple and effective and yet the majority of the youtubers out there never do it.
Have you ever heard of digg? Stubmle Upon? Reddit? Slashdot ? Facebook?
They are content sharing websites and they can bring tens of thousands visitors, ratings and comments to your videos in hours (if their user base likes your video). So make sure that you submit your video at least to the bigger social networking websites.
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There are many established videos on YouTube that rank better than yours. (They have thousands of comments, ratings and views)… and they rank well for the general tags. So it is important to use tags that are not that competitive in order to get the initial momentum for your YouTube videos.
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It is best to use a lot of tags, use singular and plural, use synonyms and use phrases like “ how to x” “learn to x”. Also, a good way to find tag ideas is to browse for similar videos and see their tags, copy them in notepad and then merge them with your unique tag ideas.
Bottom line : make sure that you use both broad and specific tags.
Most people never notice who the user that uploaded the videos is, they just click on the next and next video. If you don’t add your specific logo or animation at the beginning of your videos than it will be really hard for you to stand out from the bad videos out there.
All of the famous YouTube channels have their distinct LOGO’s; it’s time to make yours.
Don’t just leave it to the default. Experiment with it, find the design that really resonates with what you are presenting.
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There are so many people that don’t do this. And it is so plain obvious. If people like your videos, they will want to learn more about you, maybe become your friend or subscriber and regularly follow you.
So make sure that you add your info to the channel. And if you don’t know what to write… try some of these ideas:
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This is a neat way to get traffic. Just think about how many times you have clicked on a video response… Imagine getting 10% of the views from a video that gets 10.000 views a day… that is 1000 views per day from nothing.
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Put some text in the end of your video.
Something like:
Who do you think lies more, Men or Women? or Do you think astrology is objective? (Bad example I know)
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Add something that is connected to the subject and gets people involved.
Something that will make people sign up for a YouTube account if they don’t have one – just so they can post a comment on your video
It is best to do this when as soon as you upload your video in order to get the starting momentum for your video (getting those initial 5000 views)
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10) Be consistent
Add a video from time to time; don’t let your subscribers forget about you. But also don’t update too often because they will lose interest and stop following. You need to find the sweet spot for your audience, sometimes it can be a video per day and sometimes it can be a video on each 10 days.
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Just subscribe to a famous YouTube channel and pay attention how often they publish new videos.
11) Make friends
It’s easy to get your name out into the YouTube community. Find out people’s videos that relate to your content, and post comments on them. If you want, you can even post video comments!
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Get involved in conversations about other People’s videos and make your mark. Add comments to People’s channels add friends and create real relationships with people that are interesting to you. Your friends will watch your videos, rank them and give you good comments. Just make sure you do the same for their videos.
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How to get the most out of this information?
I suggest you write down the tips that are the most suitable for your videos, add them to your TO DO list and start crossing them off one by one.
So, let’s review:
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