Historically, people had spent plenty of money on buying instructional videos on how to lose weight, how to cook, how to knit, etc. Online video has revolutionized and liberalized the process. Nowadays you can find a great (both professional and amateur) how-to video almost on any topic.

The huge demand makes a how-to video the perfect way to promote your product or site.

How-To Videos: Inspiration

Youtube Suggest is the greatest help when it comes to brainstorming a video topic that is likely resonate with the audience. Read this post on using Youtube for keyword research to find some great ideas on how use Youtube for keyword research – Youtube Suggest is one of them.

Don’t miss the part on how to expand your query:

Don’t forget that Youtube is run by Google – which also means you can do magic by just getting creative with search functionality.

Try advanced and boolean operators:

• Exact match “how to …” (turns particularly useful when you try sorting results by anything other than relevancy. For example, if you sort your search by ratings, the results might be rather unrelated to your initial search unless you force the exact match);
• Wildcard “how to * …” (In combination with exact match, this operator helps you broaden the proximity and let the search engine insert any words in place for it. It may trigger quite unexpected results, help you to brainstorm and even change the initial focus of your research);
• Exclude any word “how to …” -word (especially useful if some irrelevant word dominates search results);
• Force any word in the video title “how to …” intitle:word (which again turns quite handy when you sort search results not by relevancy)

Compare:

Versus:

Note: now that you can play with search results to yield various related search results, pay close attention to video titles and notice which words are used next to your keyword: this is a great way to brainstorm an awesome video concept.

How-To Video Sharing Networks

Further Reading:

• Here are 5 awesome examples of how-to viral videos;
• How to create a how to video

Before actually taking a look at some of the best-executed online parodies, let’s discuss what a parody actually is. A parody is a work created to mock or make fun of an original work. It is usually executed by hyperbolizing some of the most distinctive patterns, styles or weaknesses of the original work and its characters for the purposes of ridicule.

The keys with a good spoof usually are:

• To brainstorm original (hot) idea
• To find the balance between imitation of the original work and variations on its patterns
• To create an outstanding and original execution.

Important! If you ever decide to experiment with viral parodies, be sure to have an in-depth look into this article on how to tell fair use from copyright infringement when dealing with parodies to stay out of the trouble.

Since copyright law prohibits the substantial use of a copyrighted work without permission of the copyright owner, and because such permission is highly unlikely when the use is to create a parody, it may be necessary for the parodist to rely on the fair-use defense to forestall any liability for copyright infringement.

Now, let’s get inspired! Some greatly executed online parodies!

1. Change the Topic: The Social Network Trailer Parodies

Why was the original movie dedicated to Facebook… not to Twitter? The following is (arguably) the best-executed amateur parody of all times.

That’s up to you to decide but it really IS funny. This line, for example, makes me laugh every time I hear it:

“If Twitter was as useless and as boring as they say, then someone would have Tweeted it.”

Fun!

And what if it were about Youtube?

2. Spoof the Execution: Old Spice Commercial Best Parody

There have been a plethora of Old Spice popular Youtube ad spoof videos. It is hard to name the best one…. I chose the following one simply because of the brilliant execution: it copies the original format, expression, speech patterns, even voice perfectly:

3. Spoof the Concept: Quora Parody Mini-Site

Quora service was launched about a yeah ago with quite some buzz following it: everyone was intrigued to see what the former facebookers were up to. Yet, many people met it with skepticism… for a reason.

The reason for that is perfectly visualized by this brilliant spoof:

Quora	Cuora
“A continually improving collection of questions and answers created, edited, and organized by everyone who uses it.”	“A continually spamming collection of unanswered questions created, edited and organised by no-one who uses it.”
(click each thumbnail for a larger view)

4. Spoof the Whole Industry: Zombie Harmony

It is hard to get everyone talking about your dating site… unless you create a parody of the whole industry and launch a dating platform for Zombies.

After movies like Fido (which I adore) where zombies were at last accepted into the human community, this spoof looks even more real-life!

Random Dating Site	ZombieHarmonie
(click each thumbnail for a larger view)

5. Finally, Take Part in the Hot Meme and Become THE Source

Of all numerous Hitler parodies around the web (which also resulted in multiple copyright infringement claims by the way), this one is the closest to my heart because it actually explains how meme works.

It was too late to come in the game (otherwise it would have enjoyed a lot more exposure) but it still can be a great example of how “timeliness” doesn’t prevent a great piece from going viral (if it’s really that great). In this case, the video has become the way to summarize and explain the whole meme: a lot of powerful platforms covering the Hitler’s parody series are using this video to illustrate the whole idea.

Anyone unfamiliar with the parody series should be warned that most of the clips contain strong language.

Hitler’s Downfall (with original subtitles)	What does Hitler think of the Downfall meme?
(Embedding is disabled for both the videos: so click the video thumbnails to watch on Youtube)

Now to You

Do you have any great examples of online parodies to share? Please comment!

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But how is it “done right”? How to craft a successful viral video? I know only one way to learn anything efficiently: by example. It’s what I am good at: watch what others are doing, make conclusions and do better.

Besides that obvious educational value, the resources listed in this post can also help you track hot trends to better craft your online marketing campaign!

So enjoy: how do you track video trends online?

1. First-Hand: Most Popular on Youtube, Viddler, etc

Every major video sharing site has its own trending video section. The 7 coolest ones are:

1. Viddler: Most Popular Today: The list can be sorted by “Most Viewed”, “Most Favorited” and “Most Discussed”
2. YouTube Charts: apart from the ability to set the period of time (popular today / this week / this month / all time), it also lets you sort the list by multiple criteria: “Most discussed”, “Most liked”, “Most Subscribed”, “Most viewed HD videos”, “Most Favorited” and, obviously “Most Viewed”



3. Yahoo Popular Today – Yahoo has also “Popular by Category” section
4. Most Popular Videos on Photobucket (sadly, you can’t set the time frame here);
5. Funny or Die: Most Viewed: You can filter videos by channel and sort by “Most Buzz” (not sure what this one includes), “Most Viewed”, “Most Favorited”, “Highest Rated”:



6. Metacafe – most popular: can be sorted by views and ratings and filtered by time frame: popular this week o this month
7. DailyMotion: Most Viewed Videos: the videos can be filtered by channel, time frame (today, this month, this week), and by video type (featured videos, HD videos, official content, creative content):

2. Viral Video Aggregators

Aggregators use multiple sources (like those listed above) to present you with daily (and sometimes hourly) collections of popular videos at a number of platforms.

Here are a few examples:

1. Viral Video Chart: the tool monitors “most contagious” videos on Youtube, Facebook, Twitter and Blogosphere. For each video you can click though to “stats” section where you can see the number of Tweets (as long as the list of most influential ones), Facebook shares and blog posts.

2. PoPScreen: the home page features videos which are going to become popular videos “now” (you can switch to “today”, “7 days”, “30 days”). The popularity is determined by “Popscore” which includes “hundreds” of undisclosed metrics including “influencer” score (i.e. powerful online media resources and magazines that reflect the public interest to the current topic). The site thus focuses on delivering videos that are making headlines and the stories behind them.

PopScreen measures online videos from over 10,000 sources, including YouTube, Blip.tv, Vimeo and DailyMotion as well as content networks like FunnyOrDie and Cracked.

3. Zoofs is a great way to discover YouTube videos that people are talking about on Twitter. Zocial.tv is a similar one that monitors Twitter and Facebook.

3. Regular Viral Video round-ups

Some people love browsing video sharing sites and find best videos on his own, others prefer to go through ready-made manually-compiled round-ups. I for one can do both the ways. The two video round-ups I tend to monitor:

• Viral Video Roundups by Reelseo;
• Viral Videos (with some focus on movies and TV) by Movie Viral

Which tools do you use to track and watch popular videos online? Please share them all!

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First and foremost, it’s a huge user-generated resource visited by hundreds of thousands of people daily who create and consume content. Digging into this dynamic community is GOLD: it will let you better understand your audience and niche.

Secondly, if you engage in video marketing (which you certainly should), using Youtube for keyword research will give you lots of ideas on where to direct and how to manage your videos and campaigns.

So let’s take a look at the three tools that will let you research keywords with Youtube:

Youtube Insights for Audience

Do you want to know which videos your target audience likes to watch? Then check out this Youtube experimental tool called “Youtube Insights for Audience”

No, this is not about your individual video analytics – this is about a standalone tool that shares the statistics on what various types of viewers like to spend time watching on Youtube (like a Google Insights for video!).

To get started, describe your audience based on your target demographics and choose categories for targeting:

The result will include:

• Your target audience demographics (age and gender breakdown and location)
• Your audience likes (and dislikes): how your audience’s interests are distributed across all Youtube categories
• (!) Examples of videos your target audience likes (Videos are displayed from top to bottom and left to right, based on their popularity among your defined audience)
• (!) Tags your target audience prefers (search terms they are viewing):

Youtube Comment Search

Youtube comment search is another tool inside Youtube Labs that lets you search through users’ comments. The tool thus works like a real-time search for Youtube in that it searches through most recent comments (search results can be sorted by rating or time). Thus, it is a great source of user-generated content evolving around your base term.

With some playing around, it can be a major inspiration source!

Example: Look how popular comments containing a base phrase [makeup tutorial] instantly gives you a cool content idea. Now you just have to go shoot your video or write a post titled ["Alice in Wonderland makeup tutorial"]!

The good news is that the comments search supports some standard boolean search operators which means you can dig deeper into keyword-based comments by:

• Excluding any word from search results (use minus – before the word, no space needed)
• Forcing the exact match (use parenthesis)
• Allowing either of the phrases to appear in search results (use OR in-between) – this technique allows you to see more results for both of your topics together. In our example below we can find more Halloween-related comments evolving around makeup tutorials.
• Forcing an extra word to be used in between your phrase (by using the wildcard * that seems to be substituted by a word here)

How fun is that?!

Youtube Suggest

Like Google Suggest, Youtube Suggest is the goldmine for keyword research experts as it it gives them a glimpse into the typical user’s search behavior. Youtube as-you-type suggestions were introduced in 2008 but it is still under-utilized by a marketer.

If you plan a video campaign or just need additional content inspiration, you must include Youtube Suggest in your arsenal.

Here’s why (and how to use Youtube suggest):

1. Expand your initial query (add each letter of the alphabet after your base term):

Similarly, you can expand the query by getting more suggestions for each phrase that comes up:

2. Get Random Linkbait Inspiration: Youtube Suggest starts predicting when a single character is entered – which makes it possible to get an idea of the most popular queries on YouTube by entering each letter of the alphabet and transcribing what comes up.

Youtube Suggestions in your browser:

This cool FireFox addon will add Youtube Suggest empowered search to your Firefox search box:

Attention: to get the suggestions to work, you might need to enable suggestions first: click “Manage Search Engines” below the full list of all your engines, select the newly-installed Youtube Search engine and enable suggestions for it.

Do you use YouTube for keyword and content research? Share your tips!

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What is this guide going to be about? Let’s see:

1. Standard (“Classic”) YouTube Embedded Player: the embedded player we are all used to plus what we didn’t know about it.
   1. YouTube Embedded Player Options
   2. Useful YouTube Embedded Player Parameters
   3. Add a Clickable Link In the Videos (Without Using Annotations)
2. New HTML5-Friendly Embed Code: still in beta but already worth looking at.
3. How to Embed YouTube Videos in PowerPoint, Forum Thread and Gmail
   1. Embed Youtube Videos in PowerPoint
   2. Embed Youtube Videos in a Forum Thread
   3. Embed Youtube Videos in Gmail

1. Standard (“Classic”) YouTube Embedded Player

YouTube Embedded Player Options

The standard YouTube player is what you have been using for ages. Recently, YouTube introduced new player options that allow you to customize some important parameters:

1. Color and size (you have always been able to customize the color palette and size, but now you have user-friendly tools to do that including the “Customized” size option)
2. Related videos (if you want your website visitors to see “related videos” after yours ends)
3. Privacy-enhanced mode (if you want YouTube to collect “cookies” in order to collect information about the embedded video viewers)
4. The options to include a frame and play in HD

Useful YouTube Embedded Player Parameters

Apart from what YouTube allows you to customize via its web interface, there are other ways to customize how your video will be displayed in the embedded player:

Player Parameter	Description	Example and explanation (if needed)
start=Seconds	Link to the most interesting part in a video: This parameter causes the player to begin playing the video at the given number of seconds from the start of the video.	start=300 (skip first 300 seconds of the video)
autoplay=0 (default) OR autoplay=1	Set whether or not the initial video will autoplay when the player loads.	autoplay=1 will cause the video to play without the visitor to push “Play” button
loop=0 (default) OR loop=1	loop=1 makes the video start again without user intervention after it reaches the end.

If you’re interested, here’s the full list of Youtube player parameters.

YouTube Embedded Player Trick: Add a Clickable Link In the Videos (Without Using Annotations)

LinkedTube is a fun tool that lets you add links and other sharing options to the standard YouTube video player (note – the result is a flash player, so not always very user-friendly):

• Specify your YouTube video unique ID or just copy-paste the full URL
• Set the linked button text
• Set the URL that the button should link to
• Set the button options (“Show Always” or “Show on Hover”)
• Set the Hover title
• Set the Hover text

See it in action. Check out the two videos below: one of them includes the LinkedTube embedded code:

New HTML5-Friendly Embed Code

In July, YouTube announced the introduction of a new HTML5-friendly player that works via iFrame.

<iframe class=”youtube-player” type=”text/html” width=”640″ height=”385″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/VIDEO_ID” frameborder=”0″>

</iframe>

The player has a few noticeable advantages from the usability perspective – mainly, that more people can now watch the embedded videos. In fact, viewers are able to watch embedded video in either Flash or HTML5 players (provided they have signed up for the beta version and use an HTML5-compatible browser). In instances where HTML5 isn’t supported, Flash is used.

Another minor usability difference is how the player treats the mouse click. Clicking on the new embedded player doesn’t bring you to the YouTube page but plays / pauses the video (you only get to the YouTube page if you click on the watermark).

The bad thing is that WordPress Rich Editor is a pain when it comes to treating iFrame but you can use some plugins like this one to make your life easier.

With the new player you are not able to use the player parameters above but it doesn’t mean you have no toys to play with:

Player Parameter	Description	Example and explanation (if needed)
#t=XmYs	Link your viewers to the most interesting part of the video: Make your video play starting from X minutes and Y seconds	#t=2m20s added to the end of the source URL within the iFrame will cause the video to play starting from 2 minutes and 20 seconds

How to Embed YouTube Videos in PowerPoint, Forum Thread and Gmail

Apart from the standard HTML code you may be dealing with daily, you are likely to come across other types of pages and documents to embed a YouTube video in:

1. Embed Youtube Videos in PowerPoint
2. Embed Youtube Videos in a Forum Thread
3. Embed Youtube Videos in Gmail

Embed Youtube Videos in PowerPoint

There are a few ways to embed a YouTube video into a PowerPoint presentation (just make sure it runs in the client you are going to play the presentation in):

• Download the YouTube Video Add-in to add a new “Insert YouTube Video” command to your PowerPoint Toolbar. With it, you will only need to provide your video URL and follow the wizard steps.
• With Office 2010 you do not need any external tools: Click the Insert tab in PowerPoint and navigate Video -> Insert Video from Website. There, insert your video embed code and customize the settings.

Embed Youtube Videos in a Forum Thread

You can also embed video using standard BBCode,which you’ll find in most forums.

You can find your video ID in its URL:

In order for this code to work, the forum owner must have first created the BBCode (which I recommend for all the forum owners):

• Go to Custom BB Codes and click Add new BB Code
• Title it as “YouTube” and provide the following replacement:

<object width=”425″ height=”350″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/{param}”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/{param}” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” width=”425″ height=”350″></embed></object>

Embed YouTube Videos in Gmail

While this is called embedding by many people, in reality this is just the way Gmail displays a link to a YouTube video that someone sends you via email. Originally a Gmail lab feature, this was announced as the default feature in February (which means Gmail embeds the video by default, you don’t need to do anything extra).

Just email someone a link to a YouTube video and if your recipient uses the Gmail web interface, they will see a video preview attached to your email.

Instead of having to click on the link and wait for a new window to load before you can watch the video, Gmail now shows YouTube previews right below the message. All you have to do is click the play button and enjoy.

Have I missed anything important in this guide? What else should we know about embedding YouTube videos?

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Jonah Stein Discusses Social Media Spam and Coins “White Knight SEO” from 10e20 on Vimeo.

What do you guys think about social media spam? Is it becoming more of a problem as social media becomes more prevalent? Also, is there a need for “white knight SEO” or do you think for the most part that the engines are doing a pretty solid job of weeding out spam and shady listings on their own accord?

Watch the video below:

Matt Cutts Talks About Widgetbait Guidelines from 10e20 on Vimeo.

I was surprised to hear that, as a whole, social media is pretty straightforward when it comes to building links and doesn’t seem to give Google too much of a headache. It makes sense when you think about it — social media is user-powered and Google always emphasizes that you should provide a positive and solid user experience. If your users are sharing your content social and linking to you via social media, that’s pretty much as editorial as it gets, right?

The Shift from Print to Digital Media from 10e20 LLC on Vimeo.

What do you guys think? Should all print news publications throw in the towel and start offering up all their information digitally, save for the occasional commemorative publication when something monumentally newsworthy and historical occurs? How, in your opinion, can print publications have the best of both worlds and continue to operate successfully in both print and digital worlds? Drop your comments below, or tweet at us (@10e20)!

In a post about video optimization and analytics last year, we discussed ways to gain more exposure for your videos and find ways to measure the successes of your efforts with YouTube Insight. Here we’d like to dig a big deeper to show that within YouTube Insight you can find where your videos are embedded on other websites, and it’s these websites that present further opportunity for marketing your business and content.

Knowing where your videos have been embedded provides the opportunity to find new, targeted communities and then possibly join or work in those communities where people have adopted your content. This is basically following the lead of your fans, a true “go with the flow” organic approach.

How do we do find where our videos are embedded?

In YouTube Insight go to > Discovery > Source of Views > Embedded Player

….and then you’ll be able to view the sites where your video has been embedded.

Oftentimes there will be video sharing websites that have picked up your content, but from time to time you find niche sites and communities that have picked up your video content as well.  Click on those links and you’ll find pretty targeted sites/communities where your content may resonate well in the future and where it may be worth joining to discuss content and share yours in the future.

It’s important to note that sometimes YouTube Insight shows websites where your video may not necessarily be embedded, but where your video received exposure through the “related videos” feature of another embedded video.  Additionally, Insight does not show the actual URL where your video may have been embedded; it only shows the domain name.  Nonetheless, the Embedded Player feature in Insight will provide you with leads on targeted websites.

With the above example of a video about a BMW car, we were able to discover the following new websites:

• E90post.com,
• bmwfans.net,
• bmwtuner.net,
• e30club.ru

These are very targeted websites covering the area of BMW cars and for BMW enthusiasts to gather.  Prior to working with YouTube Insight, we did not know of these four targeted websites nor did we know that the users would potentially be  interested in this video content.  Now there is an opportunity to “follow the lead” of your content.

There is a lot you can do once you know the websites and communities where your content is shared and adopted. Here are a couple of proactive examples:

• Find the page where your video is embedded and promote and tag that page in other social sites or link to it from a blog to increase exposure. Try using [site: domainname.com keyword] searches, which can help you locate your video since Insight only shows the domain and not the actual page where your video is.
• Join the new found website and be transparent about who you are (representing your brand) and become a contributing, helpful and friendly community member so that more users within that community will begin to look back at your site or YouTube account for more video embed opportunities.
• Reach out to the user who posted the original embed and offer them an opportunity at exclusive video looks in the future, where they may access your content before others to share first.  By befriending and empowering this user, you can begin to build real advocates for your video content.

There are many great software packages and websites to track your social and video campaigns and where your video has been picked up and embedded.  However, if you are running a small, targeted video campaign and you’re focused solely on YouTube as a channel, sometimes finding successes and other “rooms” to build awareness and impressions is as easy as digging through your YouTube Insights panel and checking out the “Embedded Player” feature in Discovery.  It can lead to a lot of great relationships and more exposure for your content.

Here’s a brief video recap of what’s discussed above

One of the easiest ways to raise the visibility of your site with video on YouTube is to use video “annotations”. Annotations are short textual notes that you can post in the video player and publish to your videos. And while annotations don’t yet allow you to link OUT of YouTube, they do allow you type in a URL in text form without linking, which is 1 step in the right direction to tying your great video content back to your site/brand name.

There are currently 3 useful types of annotations:

• notes
• speech bubbles
• spotlights

What do annotations and speech bubbles look like? This video has a brief example of both.

Why are annotations useful?

• Write in your domain name or
• Write in further information about your brand or products.
• Write in addresses, locations, names.
• If you close sales over the phone, write in a PHONE NUMBER.
• Expand the commentary on the content that’s in the video.
• While you cannot link outside of YouTube, you can raise visibility to other video searches and pages within YouTube.
• Make specific statements at specific times within the videos.
• If the reality of what was filmed in your video is ever changed, revised, or disputed, EDIT the video to and make annotations to improve the accuracy of what the video portrays.
• Link to other areas of YouTube to show other content – cross promote your products, services and content on the site.
• Think about how often good YouTube videos get embedded on blogs and other sites. This is an opportunity to have a full on endorsement and make your statement elsewhere, right in the video content.

We’ve seen annotations cause a rise in traffic for websites, both in specific domain name and URL type-ins and in “BRAND NAME” searches, causing them to rise on Google and other search engines.

Annotations can be found under your video editing options. They are really EASY to work with.

Incidentally, YouTube is also offering closed captions and subtitles which can come in handy for hearing impaired viewers and for multiple language situations. These too can be really useful tools for your videos.

Annotations give you a lot more flexibility within your videos to raise awareness of your site, products, services and brand. Right now they are free to use, so why not use them on your video content?