Josh Rimer dot Com
How I'm getting famous and how you can too!

YouTube used to have a 5 star rating system until last year when they changed it over to a like/dislike rating system instead.  Easier for the average viewer I suppose since it’s a pretty basic choice – either you liked the video or you didn’t.  And when scrolling through YouTube videos using their app on your mobile device, you can actually see a green or red percentage of what the likes/dislikes are at – if there are more positives than negatives it will be a green number and if there are more negatives than positives it will be a red number… which comes in pretty handy sometimes when scrolling through and deciding what to spend your time watching or not (and if the video is actually what it claims to be or not).

Today, in their always-updating, ever-improving (or at least they think so despite often outcries from the community to change things back) YouTube has added a visual meter under the view count to easily show on their website how the video is doing in terms of being liked or not liked.

It’s a simple feature that shouldn’t get too much attention or hateful criticisms from YouTubers, but a nice way to at just a glance see whether or not other people are enjoying the video.

What would be even better though in my opinion, would be if they’d show that meter in the search area, categories, and subscriptions areas of YouTube’s website as well.  Just as I use it on my smart phone to decide whether or not I should watch a video before I actually go to it, it would definitely be a nice feature to have that on the website as well before I go to the video, instead of after.

What do you think? Do you care about the thumbs up or thumbs down ratings on the videos?  Do you like this system or the old 5 star system better?

I’ve been hearing more and more about the growth of mobile video and I’ve been noticing that a lot of my views  on YouTube are coming from mobile phones now. With a surge in mobile smart phone users the past year (currently 449 million users worldwide and projected to quadruple by 2014), and with mobile video consumption sharing one-third (35 %) of these smart phone owners’ mobile usage, it seems that it’s only a matter of time it becomes mainstream to just watch TV shows, movies, and everything else on your mobile devices and phones.

This significant boost in statistics has of course fueled a lot of developments for online video streaming applications for mobile phones. YouTube, which serves over 200 million views daily to mobile devices, has made updates recently to its mobile application, allowing content from Vevo, the YouTube channel for the music video website of the same name to be finally streamed on it. The application has also been improved with new features like an artist bio as well as a tab for discovering related artists.

Tablet applications also gained from this trend in mobile video streaming such as those owned by Netflix, Hulu Plus, and others as well as new pay-TV operators. The updated tablet apps now allow users to view both live and on-demand shows.

The only thing now is to get the technology going for advertising to be moved onto the mobile devices as well.  Whereas on YouTube itself there’s an ad next to my video and on top of the bottom third of my video, there aren’t any ads on the mobile devices right now.  Annotations also don’t work (or even appear at all) on mobile devices and since those are becoming more and more popular, that’s another area that hopefully will be addressed soon.

But if what the “people in the know” are saying is true, mobile video viewing is only going to continue to rise in popularity and may soon become the method of choice for people to watch all of their video-based content.  And it certainly looks that way from what I’ve seen!

Got a bit caught up with internet marketing meet-ups and the promotion of our training program, the Social Media Star Formula, so it took me a little while to get to another parody video, but as soon as I heard that Lady Gaga’s new song “Born This Way” was coming out I knew I’d have to do one for it.  “Born This Gay” is what you’ve surely come to expect of my comedy videos: outrageous, ridiculous, sexually-suggestive, and offensive. You’re welcome.

There’s been so much hype around the song since September when Gaga broke into its chorus acapella during her performance at the MTV Video Music Awards. She then leaked the lyrics to her fans last month on her Twitter account, and soon after, tweeted that she’s releasing her song two days before what was supposed to be the official launch because she couldn’t wait any longer.

Gaga says she was inspired by racial and sexual themes and the biases people had towards them when writing this song.  I figured that I should do something similar to my Rhianna parody since that video was my most successful one in terms of views for 2010.  So I brought back a very similar character, who’s ridiculously stereotypically gay.  I don’t act like this guy and don’t know anyone who does, but a lot of people seem to think this is how all gay men act!

At the end of this video I also added a quick chat to just joke around a bit, talk about something I knew I’d see coming up in the comments if I didn’t address it, and give a few calls to action.  I realized I was leaving this little ender out of my videos and it was actually something that almost every big YouTuber was doing.  It really helps to show my personality and make  a connection with the people watching by doing that, plus it’s really effective in getting them to do what I want them to do!  (As in give the video a thumbs up, share it, or watch another one of my parodies).  One of those things I wish I had done a lot sooner!

Here’s the video…

This seems to be another one that people find hilarious and love it, or find offensive and hate it.  I’ve been getting a lot of comments from gay guys especially who either think it’s hysterical, or destructive.  What do you think?

So you have a business and want to promote it on YouTube – what do you do?

YouTube has set a new stage for marketing, and it has proven through the past years how it has delivered remarkable results for businesses online. The world of online video is so much more diverse than your regular TV programming nowadays, as it has a much wider scope of audience than conventional television. It’s almost limitless accessibility, however, has been a boon and bane to those who are serious about doing business on YouTube because we all know that YouTube isn’t only populated with videos from serious content creators and there’s a lot of crap to sort through to find the good stuff.

ReelSEO columnist Scott Gerber from Gen Y entrepreneurs posted some great suggestions on how to make better marketing videos online.  Here’s the summary:

1. Keep it real.

Don’t make boring videos and don’t be pushy in your videos. Show the “real” side of your business by being yourself and speak from the heart. People will find it easier to relate to you that way.

2. Evaluate your YouTube performance.

Devesh Dwivedi of EntreprenurInMaking.com emphasizes the use of TubeMogul, a video research and analytics website, to monitor how you’re video is doing and how it’s faring with your competition. Your results could also help you find out on your weak areas (use of metadata, themes, etc.) and improve on them. I couldn’t agree more.

3. Simplify!

Stick with the two minute rule with videos.  Now, I’ve been saying four minutes when people ask me, and my latest parody video actually went for five minutes, but I think in  a general sense two minutes is a probably your a good goal to aim for. Hardly anyone wants to watch long videos (unless there’s a specific reason like a live presentation or something) so keep it short, simple and to the point. If you need to do something longer, consider breaking it up into multiple short videos.

4. Entertainment comes first.

The brand message should take a backseat to the entertainment value of the video. Incorporating comedy into your videos is one of the best ways to get it watched, liked, and shared. A mix of funny, inspiring or thought provoking is your best bet for any chance of viral success. Regular commercials or ads almost never get much traction online.

5. Know your Audience.

This should probably be adhered to the most, above all other marketing advice. Ask yourself what your audience cares about and what they’d want to see, then worry about how to do it even better.

What do you think about these tips?

Since its inception, YouTube has been known as a kind of “Candid Camera” for the wild variety of staged and unstaged antics caught on its worldwide library of amateur videos. Many of these videos were posted as a prank and revealed by the perpetrators to their victims, much to the latter’s embarrassment/anger, while a number actually included people who had  no clue that they would be, or had been on YouTube at all. Either way, the world likes to laugh at the videos and the person in the videos can either enjoy their new found (usually short lived) fame, or not…

The Fountain Lady issue that had escalated late last month brought to light a new topic that hasn’t been addressed that often in the YouTube environment about privacy issues when being videotaped in public. Just to give you some background, the video is of a woman who’s walking and texting on her phone and accidentally falls into a fountain at a mall. It was posted on YouTube and got over 3 million views in just a few weeks. It gained the ire of the woman in the footage, Cathy Cruz Marrero, who apparently works at the same mall, threatening the mall management with a lawsuit for not assisting her when she fell into the fountain (the footage is from the mall security cameras), and for posting her misfortune on the video-sharing website. Here’s an interview I found of her posted on ReelSEO.com:

Her interview with ABC’s George Stephanophoulos

While most of us would find the Fountain Lady’s claims to be quite ridiculous that — considering that she didn’t look like she needed the security personnel’s help when she got out of fountain and could have easily gone for help herself if she needed it (which she didn’t), and that her identity wasn’t revealed at all what with the CCTV cam’s resolution (and yet she chose to “out” herself) — the “perpetrators” could still end up with a lawsuit, which isn’t a great situation to be in by any stretch. Here’s a summary of what intellectual rights lawyer and ReelSEO-friend Mark Rosenberg had to say on the matter:

1.  There is no case for the Fountain Lady at all because there is no violation of right of privacy or right of publicity. Why? First, because the right of privacy doesn’t apply to newsworthy events and second, because the video was filmed in a public space (except a rest room stall or dressing room), although inside a privately-owned mall.

2. The right to publicity issue only applies to the situation if the mall sold the video and financially profit from it.

3. YouTubers couldn’t be held liable for posting the videos of Fountain Lady regardless of the presence of pre-rolled or in-lay (click-on) ads. Television stations make money from ads that air before newsworthy broadcasts too.

4. YouTube couldn’t be held liable for anything as it is protected by the Communications Decency Act, thus exempting it from liability for state law privacy and publicity claims.

So that pretty much sums it up.  To me, it says, I don’t have to be afraid to get out there and videotape public situations and post them on YouTube. If it’s happening in public (and potentially newsworthy) I’m not selling DVD copies of it, then my risk is low of having legal problems. And when it comes down to it, if you worry about every face that appears in your video, every brand/logo in the area, etc – it will just deter you from making videos at all.  Most people who end up in these videos have fun with it anyway (and if they’re smart, profit from it themselves)… take Antoine Dodson for example who now gets paid to appear in videos and makes money from the  iTunes sales of the song that was made from his news footage.

What do you think? Does the Fountain Lady have a case in your mind? Should we be more considerate of who appears in our videos before we upload them?

It appears that social media is now in a head-to-head battle with search engines in terms of video referrals, based on the latest quarterly joint research report of Brightcove and TubeMogul titled Online Video and the Media Industry.

Facebook has now gone way ahead of Yahoo in terms of video referrals and discovery, accounting for 9.6% of the referrals to media companies. This is definitely noteworthy as it marks the first time that social media has surpassed a search engine. It has yet to take out Google from the top spot, however, which analysts predict would happen in the last quarter of 2010.

So far both Twitter and Google have tied-in in terms of engagement. Twitter came out as the winner for the “engaging referral source” for magazines and online media with 1:57 minutes over 1:40 minutes, respectively (Facebook ranked second to Twitter at 1:55 minutes). Google, meanwhile, grabbed the top spot for newspapers, with 1:57 minutes as well. Brightcove and TubeMogul explain in their report that this reflects the search habits and trends of internet users, who go to their social networks for entertainment, while most go to Google for “the most relevant and breaking content.”

Twitter was also the number one engaging referral site for brands, so if you have videos for your business (and you should) make sure you’re actively sharing them on Twitter.

Whether or not social media websites will someday eclipse search engines in terms of online traffic and searches remains to be seen, but it’s very interesting to see how social media is exerting more and more influence on our internet culture everyday.

I haven’t been making videos for my blog posts lately, like I was in the past – simply because of time.  There aren’t enough hours in the day to do everything I want to do!  But someone else has started doing them and has been sharing some great tips. Tbone Pearson just started a web series about ways to get more views on YouTube. While he hasn’t said anything that groundbreaking yet, what brings his videos to my attention is the way he presents them and how open he is to audience participation. He has a very personable attitude and sunny disposition… and because personality is such an important factor with YouTube videos, he stands out from the crowd of boring presenters (or even worse, screen capture videos with no one seen in them).

What’s also great about his web series is that his video library is quite organized and he focused on one tip per episode.  Here’s a recap of the things he talked about in his videos:

1. Be on Twitter. Set up a twitter account and update your status with links to your newly uploaded videos. Use it to follow people who share your interests, and who are most likely to follow you back. Tbone also emphasizes that YouTubers should develop a kind of “follow for follow” relationship with their audience and not just expect that everyone wants to follow you without you returning the favor and showing interest in what they have to say too.  For me, unless they are a YouTube content creator or live in the same city as me, I don’t typically follow back… until they tweet at me or retweet something I’ve written.  Then I follow them back (hint, hint).

2. Be on Facebook. Update your Facebook status and paste a link in it that redirects to your newly uploaded videos on YouTube upon clicking. This could be a great way to share your videos with your friends, who may be more likely to watch your videos than your Twitter followers. Encourage people to comment on your videos and join in the discussions too.  Tbone also strongly suggests for YouTubers to create a Facebook fanpage too which should have the same name of your YouTube channel.

3. Use video responses. Search for a popular video on YouTube that’s related to the theme or content of your video, and post your video as a response to it. This will help you get the attention of other YouTubers with whom you might develop a good friendship with (which could open doors for collaboration), and their fans too, who may find interest in seeing your videos. Also, edit your YouTube channel settings to automatically approve video responses to yours to help encourage people to leave more video responses and not continue looking around for a different video to post theirs as a response to.

4. Use your YouTube bulletin. This is perhaps one of the elements of YouTube that’s often being overlooked by YouTubers. Tbone says that YouTubers should update their channel’s YouTube bulletin (it’s located at the top of your channel/homepage) with a status message, and attach their videos’ link to it every time they upload a new one, just like what’s being done on Facebook. That way, updates will be seen by people who are subscribed to them, or even those who just happen to pass by their channel.

What do you think of these tips?

Want to know how you’re doing in the YouTube universe?

There’s a fairly new website called Socialblade.com which was created by a YouTuber (Urgo6667) who started out with uploading some random YouTube videos, got to liking it, and ended up spearheading a project called The YouTube Orbit, which invites other YouTube users to upload videos daily for a year. I guess he really liked the idea of YouTube so much that he set out to create Socialblade.com as well, which is very helpful to be being able to see how you’re doing in comparison to the rest of the content creators on the site in a variety of areas.

Socialblade ranks YouTubers based on how well (or bad) they’re doing when pitted against their contemporaries in terms of hourly or daily subscriptions, estimated earnings, and more. The website has a section for top lists based on the top 10, 100, and 500 subscribed or viewed; most oversubbed or underviewed; and most overviewed or undersubbed. A great thing about Socialblade is that you can add your own channel to it, and you don’t have to meet a certain requirement just to gain access to the service.

Right now, the website tracks 15,000 + channels and is still under development. Urgo6667 warns people that it’s inevitable for the website to go wonky sometimes since it’s still in alpha mode.

It’s really great news that slowly, more and more websites like this are surfacing the web to meet the needs of YouTube specialists, as well as those who are still dipping their toes into the business of online video-making. It is also welcome news for small businesses and entrepreneurs who have realized the potential of YouTube in taking their businesses to a higher level, as they can now gain real access to transparent figures that will help them evaluate the profitability of online video marketing for their brands.

Here’s another really interesting thing… it estimates the earnings of the channels.  It’s quite difficult to know how much money a YouTube Partner will make from Google Adsense (the ads next to, over top of, or playing before the videos), but it seems to have figured out an average earnings estimate anyway.  Very interesting to see for the top YouTubers especially (it estimates the most subscribed YouTuber will make up to $777,000 just from that… and yet most YouTubers make even more from their own product placement deals, merchandise, etc).

Here are some interesting statistics it gives about my main comedy channel:

• - It should have 5000 subscribers on April 3rd
• - It should have 3 million video views in 8 days
• - It’s averaging about 12 new subscribers a day
• - On average there are almost 6000 video views a day
• - It estimates I’ll earn up to $5000 this year from Adsense

Pretty cool, eh?

Recently the CES 2011 brought together five YouTube superstars to take the center stage and share the things that helped them gain success in the world of online video-making. The panel included Justin Ezarik (iJustine), Joe Penna (MysteryGuitarMan), Philip DeFranco (SxePhil), Freddie Wong and Brandon Laatsch. Here’s a summary of what I think are the best tips and advice that I learned based on a recap about their session.

On Social Networking

iJustine said that identifying her audience’s needs and reaching out to everyone in the demographic really helped her succeed. She mostly did it by actively participating in social media websites so that she could be accessible to everyone even outside YouTube. She got 1,020,000 subscribers on her channel to prove it.

On the Power of Click Throughs

iJustine also said that the power of a YouTuber over her audience is largely determined by the amount of their click throughs. So if a YouTuber is promoting a brand video they’ve created, the success of their campaign would be reflected if they’ve successfully convinced their audience to follow through a call to action. It has to be noted, however, that there’s still value in promoting a product or service regardless of click throughs. Otherwise, TV and radio ads won’t work.

On Consistency and Commitment

Freddie Wong and Joe Penna believe that being consistent and committed on the part of both audience and YouTuber are key to YouTube success. Content creators should always stick to a schedule of uploading new videos so that they’d gain the respect of their audience, as well as their commitment to come back to their channel.

On Being Friends

Phil DeFranco values the importance of being a personable character on YouTube to connect with your audience. Joe agrees and says that viewers see them as friends, as opposed to actors.  I can definitely attest to this as I’ve had a number of my regular viewers add me as a friend on Facebook or tweet with me on Twitter, and many do definitely feel that we’re in fact friends (and tell me so).

On Brands/ Product Integration

Joe said that brands seek out brand-friendly YouTube channels to promote their products or services. That’s why even popular YouTubers like RayWilliamJohnson and ShaneDawsonTV haven’t caught the attention of brands yet even though their videos are well-received by the public.  This tip of course worries me as my videos are usually sexually suggestive and pushing the line.  I have managed to still secure some sponsors though, so I think it’s just a matter of finding the right brands.

Brandon Laatsch, Freddie Wong’s sidekick, meanwhile thinks that brands should take responsibility too in helping non-branded videos to be more creative and entertaining. They should invest in a content creator and give YouTubers the artistic freedom in working on their videos. Brands that were able to give up their creative control are proof of how well that works, in terms of financial returns and audience feedback.

What do you think? Have you tried doing the tips above? How are they working out for you?

I found a list of the top ten most shared videos of 2010 and thought I’d take a look at them to see what lessons can be learned moving forward…

1. Keenan Cahill’s Teenage Dream

YouTube’s latest lip-synching star Keenan Cahill, had a battle with MPS-VI since he was born, but that didn’t stop him from making YouTube videos. The 15-year-old YouTube sensation has now over 18,000,000 views on his channel and got his “big break” when Katy Perry tweeted a link to his lip sync of one of her songs.

2. Baby Bob Marley

There are three things that a lot of YouTube viewers seem to look for: funny, heartwarming and cute; and this video of an angry baby that turns strangely calm upon hearing a Bob Marley song hit the bullseye of those three traits. The original was removed for some sort of copyright issue, but the video has since been re-posted and is racking up the views again.

3. How to Trick People Into Thinking You’re Good Looking

This video of up-and-coming comedian Jenna Marbles where she enumerated various ways on how to “beautify” oneself despite being “ugly” hits everyone’s funny bones. Her excessive swearing didn’t seem to faze her audience, with a growing channel view of 1,736,029. She’s a stripper, by the way so ya… hot chicks who are funny are win-win online.

4. Bed Intruder Song

Auto-Tune the News made a hilarious cover song of Antoine Dodson who was interviewed on the local news about his sister’s bed intruder. 69,000,000 plus views prove that taking a news clip with a funny character and making a catchy song out of it can be a great way to get views.

5. Ken Block’s Gymkhana

Produced by DC Shoes, professional racer Ken Block does his best in a Ford Fiesta that runs on a French racing stadium with complex routes and mean obstacles.  Crazy stunts have always been popular on YouTube… hard to replicate if you don’t want to put your life in danger.

6. Driscoll Middle School Trick Play

This video of middle school footballers laying-out a perfectly planned trick-play calls to mind a triumphant scene straight out of Adam Sandler’s film The Waterboy. Hilarious and easily something you’d want to share around, even if you aren’t a football fan.  “Real” video footage like this (similar to what you’d see on America’s Funniest Home Videos) also does well on YouTube.

7. Keenan Cahill’s Down on Me (With 50 Cent)

Cahill got an opportunity to make a home video with famous rapper 50 cent after a string of his successful lip-syncing videos. Adding a celebrity to your video definitely helps with its viral potential.

8. Cebu Pacific Dancing Flight Attendants

These groovy flight attendants from an airline based in the Philippines sure know how to get their passengers safe and in their seats.  It’s one of those things that you watch and wonder if it’s actually real, and then want to find out where they fly so you can book a ticket!

9. Yosemite Bear Mountain Double Rainbow

This video was shot by Paul “Yosemite Bear” Vasque and shows a spectacular view of a double rainbow above the Yosemite National Park. It became a viral hit with 23 million views not just because of the uncommon phenomenon caught on camera, but mostly because of Vasquez’s commentary (and the way he delivered it).  The [personality in front of (or behind) the camera is usually crucial to the video’s success on YouTube.

10. Christmas Food Court Flash Mob

A large group of unsuspecting people on their lunch break got an extra treat from a choir who sprang out of nowhere to sing them Hallelujah.  Flash mobs make us feel great to see a community of people come together, have fun, and bring smiles to the faces of strangers in the area.  The timliness of the video being during the holiday season definitely worked to it’s advantage.

What’s common among these videos are their entertainment value, quirky characters, and the perfect timing they had when they created their hits. They mostly appear DIY too, which I think, plays a very big role on why audiences connect more to the people in this video.  Proving again that it’s not the quality of the equipment that you have that matters – it’s the quality of the content.

What was your favorite YouTube video from 2010?