YouTube Length Limits & LeadPlayer?

Will Google Be Able To Find My Video?

Hi, this is Clay Collins, co-founder at LeadPlayer, and I want to answer a frequently-asked question, which is if I use LeadPlayer, will Google still be able to find my videos and find my website. And the answer is . . . that absolutely. In fact, one of the huge advantages of LeadPlayer is its integration with YouTube, which is owned by Google. So when someone searches for your information, not only will they be able to find you inside of YouTube if you want them to find it – There are settings so you can indicate whether or not you want your videos to show up when people search within YouTube – but your videos will also show up inside of Google at Google.com. In fact, let me just show you what happens.

I’m here and I did a video search for some of my stuff. And as you can see here, Google is actually indexing my LeadPlayer videos right here. So here’s one LeadPlayer video, which again, you can see. Google knows exactly how many minutes are in that video, and when I click on this link, which Google found, right. It indexed my LeadPlayer videos. When you click on this link, it doesn’t take me to YouTube. It could sometimes if it determines that the best place to send you is to YouTube, but in this case, it sent that video link, which is on this page, it sent this video link to MarketingShow.com, to this particular article. So the answer is that absolutely.

If you want and if you set the permissions up correctly, if you have a video set up in LeadPlayer, it can be found on Google.com. It can be found within YouTube searches. It can be found within related YouTube searches where someone is inside of Google browsing for one thing, and Google suggest your YouTube video, or if you have a sales page or a sales video, and you don’t want people to find that on Google or within YouTube, you can use LeadPlayer, and that video will only play from your site, same thing that a lot of people do with membership sites. People will set up the permissions so that certain videos can be played within their membership sites, but they cannot be found within the YouTube ecosystem while searching, and they can’t be found within Google when someone’s just searching. So it plays from their membership sites and isn’t available to the public on Google or YouTube.

Anyway, my name is Clay Collins. I hope you’ve enjoyed this FAQ video, and submit any questions that you have about this if you want below. Take care.

So traditionally, unless you are an extra favored YouTube partner who’s gotten tons, millions of views on YouTube and are one of their favorite people, you only get 3 options for the thumbnail for your video. YouTube will give you an option about a quarter of the way through the video, about halfway through the video, and about three quarters of the way through the video, and here’s a recent interview that I did for the Marketing Show. And in this picture, I’ve got my mouth wide open for the thumbnail that they gave me, and this one, I’m looking okay, but he’s kind of staring off into space, and in this one, I’m looking down and he’s looking good. I guess in this one, I’m kind of like puckering my lips in some weird way. So I don’t like any of these options, but these are the only options available. I can’t upload my own frame that I want to be the thumbnail image that displays before I watch the video. They don’t let me do that.

In addition, they don’t allow me to use my own thumbnail when I display other people’s videos on my site. So for example, here’s a video by Barry Schwartz about the Power of Choice. I wanted to post this on my website, but YouTube does not allow me to do that. I have to use the one that is the default for this image and I get absolutely no choice in the matter. And this new feature that we added to LeadPlayer changes all of that. Let me show you how it works.

So here we are on MarketingShow.com and I’ve decided that this thumbnail image for this YouTube video has got to go. The arrows in front of his face, it just doesn’t look good. It’s not a good image. You can see the compression. So I went into my image editor and I created a thumbnail called Paradox of Choice, and it shows someone in the cereal aisle of the grocery store looking at all the different options here. So I’m going to go ahead and export this image as a JPEG. I’m going to click Save, Export – And you can do this in whichever image editor you want to use. There’s some online ones. They’re very easy to use. I just typed Paradox of Choice over a photograph that I found.

Now I can go into the Paradox of Choice video inside of LeadPlayer, and I can insert a thumbnail image. So you can either cut and paste any picture URL from the web, any PNG or JPEG file or you can select an image from your computer. So I’m going to actually upload one. So here’s my Paradox of Choice thumbnail. I’m going to choose that. It’s uploading. And then I’m going to click on full size and insert into post, and that’s what its done. And so I’m going to click Save Video and you’ll see what happened.

So here we are and here is the original thumbnail that displayed, and I’m going to click reload, and what you can see now is our new and improved thumbnail over this image. And again, I did this with someone else’s video that is now displayed on my site, and when I click ‘Play,’ it shows the exact video that I want to play.

Next, I want to fix this thumbnail. My lips are puckering in some weird way. I look like a total weirdo. He’s looking up. It’s not the best image. So what I’m going to do is actually open to the exact frame from the video – This is the original video – and I’m open to the exact frame that I want to use from this video. And in quick time, you can actually, you know, go backwards and forwards to where you want to go, and I like this frame that’s at like 13, 32. There it is. I like this frame. You know, his mouth is covered so there’s no possibility that he’s doing something weird with that, and you know, my hands are in okay position.

So what I’m going to do is I’m going to go to ‘Edit’ and ‘Copy.’ And this is a little trick. If you have quick time open and you go to ‘Edit,’ ‘Copy,’ it will actually copy this frame. And then I can go here into ‘Pixel Meter.’ I’m going to click on ‘New.’

I’m going to create a new file and I can just paste that image that I want right here. So I’m going to go ahead and export this to JPEG, and you can use any image editor that you want. I’m going to call this Nate, all right? And then inside of LeadPlayer, I’m going to go to Nate’s Sticky Albums Interview. I’m going to click on ‘Edit’ then here for thumbnail image, I’m going to click on ‘Select Image’ then I’m going to ‘Select the File.’ Click on the thumbnail image, select ‘Choose,’ and then insert into ‘Post’ and click ‘Save Video.’

So here we are on the video page. This is the old version of the video thumbnail, and here is the new one. I’m looking relatively normal and so is he. So this is how you do it, and this is how it works. As you can see, it’s merely a matter of going and finding the clip you want inside of LeadPlayer, clicking on ‘Edit’ then selecting an image and going forward.

Now just a note here, a note of caution. For those who are using LeadPlayer with sales videos and with landing page videos, this is perfect because that means that you can have a thumbnail that is designed from the ground up to get people to press ‘Play.’ You know, it can say, ‘Hit Play Below’ if you want to be on the more aggressive side, or you can just have like arrows on the thumbnail pointing to the play button. You can do a whole range of things from very aggressive to not aggressive at all that are designed to increase the likelihood that someone’s going to hit play. I prefer to do things that aren’t very aggressive, but the choice is truly up to you.

In addition, for people using LeadPlayer to display unlisted videos on their membership site, when you have a thumbnail, this increases your protection. So when you have a thumbnail, it decreases the likelihood that someone else will be able to find your video on YouTube and get your original YouTube link. So LeadPlayer provides a whole lot of protection that prevents people from being able to go to YouTube and get your YouTube length for an unlisted video, right, so for a video that cannot be found within YouTube, but that you’re planning on your membership site for those videos when you have a thumbnail image enabled. It provides you with even more protection, and if you’re using this for membership sites, I highly encourage you to turn on thumbnails for all your videos even if your thumbnail image is just a blank white screen or a black white screen with maybe some text on it describing what’s in the video.

For those of you that have LeadPlayer right now, you can go ahead and just go to ‘Check for Updates’ inside of LeadPlayer, click this, and then when you go to plug ins, you’ll see that the plug in has been updated, and you can update it. If you don’t have LeadPlayer, now is an awesome time to join us.

Anyway, my name is Clay Collins, and I look forward to seeing how you implement this new thumbnail feature. Take care.

So the fist tip that I have is always have an intro to your video where you tell folks what they’re going to get in the video, and that allows you to insert down the line if you want to an opt-in box into your videos. So let me give you an example. Okay, so right here, I’m telling people what they’re going to get in the video. Video sales page template that you can use to take. Pop in your sales videos to increase your conversion rate on your sales video. Just bear with me. Just wait a couple more seconds. It’s a proven page. We’ve designed it in-house internally, from the ground up to get you more sales. That’s what you have to look forward to in this episode of the Marketing Show.

All right, so I say everything that they’re going to get in this episode of the Marketing Show, when I say that’s what you have to look forward to in this episode of the Marketing Show, and then this box appears, right. So it’s timed. People know exactly what they’re going to get and then I asked for the opt-in. now, of course, folks can click on ‘Skip This Step.’ So they’re not required to opt in, but I have a convenient place for putting in that opt-in box. It’s kind of weird if your creating a video and just out of the blue, an opt-in box appears in the middle of the video. If you want to have an opt-in box, the beginning of a video or an end of the video, that can be fine, but if you want an opt-in box to appear in the middle of a video, it can be a little awkward if it’s not paired with the content.

So in order to allow you to do this, I recommend that at the beginning of every video you create, even if you’re not going to be using LeadPlayer on it for a while that you say a summary of what you’re going to give them and say that’s what you have to look forward to in this video. Some version of that. Because that allows you to put this hear. Now what I do is when I first release the video and e-mail my list about it, I don’t have this opt-in box, but a few days later, I turned on this opt-in box, and because I created an intro, it allows me to put that opt-in box right there, and it makes sense. There’s perfect timing. Everything works.

My second tip has to do with the hell you end your video. A lot of people will wrap up their video. They’ll take a whole lot of time doing that, and then they’ll even have like a little animation or a bumper, right. They’ll have an out throw animation with their logo twirling or whatever. And that can be okay, but if you have a call-to-action in your videos, you want them to buy something. If you want them to do something, if you want them to opt in, if you want something like that to happen and you have a long out throw that’s when most people will stop watching. Most people don’t watch the video until the end, and especially if you have like one of those logo animations at the end of your video. Folks don’t watch that. Even if it’s just like 4 seconds, they’ll usually just stop at that logo animation. So it ensures that they’re very unlikely to do whatever you want them to do.

So for example, if you have an opt-in box at the end of your video, there’s almost no chance that they’re going to see that if you have a logo animation. I was about to wrap up this video here where I want people to watch another video. So the call-to-action at the end of this video is I want them to watch another video that demonstrates something, and previously, I had this long drawn-out thing where I told them what they learned, and I had some logo animation and all this stuff, but I realized that they were not very likely to do it. So let me show you what I had here before. I encourage you to go below and watch my creative use of someone else’s video that was used on my blog with absolutely no flack. Everyone loved it and it was a hit. All right, so that’s my call-to-action. I say I encourage you to watch this thing, but then, check this out.

Anyway, I hope you’ve learned about how you can use other people’s videos to ethically delight your audience, build. See, I’m like wrapping up here and this is where people start zoning out. Hold your audience, and also, keep in contact with your list using LeadPlayer.

Thanks so much. This has been today’s – All right, so when I wrap up like this, it decreases the likelihood that people are going to do what I really want them to do on my blog with absolutely no plaque to go below and watch – All right, I want them to go below and watch this other video, but then I have all this wrapped up, right, keeping contact with your – So what I’m going to do is instead of having this long drawn-out out-throw, I’m just going to cut it right here. So this is what people are going to see. Check it out. This is how it ends and posted it below. So I encourage you to go below and watch my creative use of someone else’s video that was used on my blog with absolutely no plaque. Everyone loved it and it was a hit.

Stop. No outthrow, no summary, no nothing. I just end the video because when you do that, when you’re in with the call-to-action without summarizing and some logo animations, people are much more likely to do what you ask them to.

Anyway, I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s video marketing tip. My name is Clay Collins. I’m a co-founder here at leadplayer, and I hope you have an amazing day. Take care.

. . . Then Watch This Video

Hi, my name is Clay Collins, and I’m a co-founder here at LeadPlayer, and in today’s LeadPlayer video marketing lesson, I’m going to show you how you can use other people’s videos on places like YouTube to grow your list and build your audience, and I’m going to be showing you how to do this in a completely above board and ethical way that doesn’t violate anyone’s good will and that is going to make you a hero and a rock star to your audience. That’s what you have to look forward to in today’s LeadPlayer video marketing lesson.

So in just a second, I’m going to give you the step-by-step process for building your audience and your list with other people’s videos, but before I do that, I want to share with you a case study. This case study comes from LeadPlayer customer, Haleena, who wrote, “According to my AWeber stats, my LeadPlayer opt-in conversion rate is around twice as high as the conversion from my sidebar widget. At this point, all my LeadPlayer videos are by other people so they don’t even relate directly to my bonus. They do, of course, relate to my content.” Latest example, and then she gives a link. “By the way, I love using LeadPlayer this way when I want to stay in touch with my audience and offer good content, but I don’t have the time to work on an epic blog post.”

So what Haleena is essentially saying is that because she didn’t have time to write epic long blog post, but still wanted to connect with her audience, what she did was she grabbed videos from YouTube that were created by other people, and she used them to connect with her audience and to build her list, and she’s also saying that these videos that she displayed with LeadPlayer converted at twice the rate on the same traffic as her sidebar opt-in box.

So let’s go take a look at Haleena’s site so you can see exactly what she did. So here we are on Haleena’s site Flow and Joy, and here’s her sidebar opt-in box, and here is actually a video that she’s using LeadPlayer with. So let’s see what she did and how this works. So the video’s playing, and I’m skipping ahead in the video so you can see how this works, but basically, Haleena timed an opt-in box to appear at exactly the moment that it made sense in this video that she took from YouTube and she may be opt-in message compatible with what was already being said in the video. It’s a custom opt-in message. All right, and then right there, when it makes sense, she has this opt-in box appear.

So in the video, he’s talking about how there’s one person inside the brain, and there’s a second person in the brain, and she says and there’s a third level where there is flow and joy. Enter your e-mail address, click ‘Play,’ and I’ll be sending you the Flow and Joy contemplation while you watch the rest of this video. So the opt-in message is perfectly timed with this video. Everyone on her site knows that this isn’t her in the video, and everyone knows they can see that it’s a YouTube video, of course, but they’re opting in and they’re opting in at twice the rate that they’re opting in to the sidebar banner, and it’s because the text matches the video message.

Another thing that I like about what she’s done is that she’s turned on the skip option in LeadPlayer, which means that people are not required to opt in in ordre to watch the rest of the video. They can simply click on No thanks, I just want to watch the video. And what this does is it makes it so that people have the option in their face really to opt in, but they’re not required to in order to have this experience on her website. So it’s not very aggressive, but it is very apparent that they can opt in.

Anyway, I’ve been using this technique, the technique that I’ve showed you in this video or Haleena’s technique, if you will, to much success, and I want to show you an example of how I apply this in kind of a creative way. So here I am on YouTube and I took a piece of the TED talk by Barry Schwartz on The Paradox of Choice, and I posted it to my blog, and there are some surprises there. So I actually took that video that I used on my blog the Marketing Show and posted it below. So I encourage you to go below and watch my creative use of someone else’s video…