The Power of YouTube As an Internet Marketing Tool

Since the Internet first hit the big-time in the mid 1990s, various sites have come along that can be described as nothing less than phenomenal. If you're attempting to start an internet business, then it's a no-brainer that you're also looking to fall into that category.

However, the Internet isn't the mega gold rush that a lot of people - usually selling their get-rich-quick programs - will tell you it is. It's becoming increasingly difficult for websites to gain the popularity of sites like eBay, Amazon and MySpace. Instead of racking your brain, spending thousands and working countless hours to construct an extraordinary site that will still have a high probability of failure, many business startups are riding the coat-tails of successful sites in order to promote their businesses and it's paying off with huge numbers.

One of the most famous and powerful sites on the web today is YouTube. Now, take a look at how YouTube is setup. There's nothing overly fancy going on there. It's a site with a great domain name, for starters, that allows people to create personal profiles and post and view personal streaming videos.

The part that makes it so great: it receives hundreds of millions of viewers per day. How can a powerful site like this work as an Internet Marketing tool for your business? It's simple in concept, really: you'll harness the power of their setup and drive the site's visitors to your website. Now, of course, many have tried and failed at this.

And YouTube will certainly toss you out of there if you're a spammer.

However, it can be done with a little bit of effort and using the proper techniques. When marketing on a site like YouTube, there are two important aspects to remember. One, you want to be seen. Two, you want to be seen by the right people. Think of it like this.

You could advertise your German shepherd puppies in a cat magazine read by 12,000,000 people and still not get the sales you could by advertising in a dog magazine read by 100,000. Even on an encompassing site like YouTube, the niche market rules still apply. One of the best parts about YouTube is that it allows for pinpoint searching.

If you're selling some type of How-To guides, for example, then you'll easily be able to locate that particular niche. To use this as a marketing tool and to get your name out there, you're going to have to integrate yourself into that niche. Look for the users with the most numerous subscribers and the videos with the most views. Subscribe to those videos and also make your own.

Begin to leave friendly comments of appreciation on other people's videos. These steps will help to build up your viewer base. With the annotation options on the videos, you can drop your website links in there. You can also link via your profile.

The game is simple: the more viewers you develop, the more traffic is driven to your website. By becoming an intricate and important part of the YouTube community, you can begin to build up popularity in your respective niche. Be polite and complimentary to others while creating and posting some very creative and entertaining videos. Before long, part of the YouTube audience will become your audience.

By Eddie Yu