advertising on ...

[rhoffart]

Does anyone advertise on YouTube ?

Good idea? -or- Bad Idea?

I searched houston photographer and I only found 1 real ad ... so I put one together HERE

[Daniel W.]

I could see putting up a slideshow or whatnot as an added bonus to a couple and branded for your marketing purposes, but scripted tomfoolery and whatnot? Maybe not.

I've seen slideshows, with a post-able URL as part of a package... seemed like a nice perk but don't really know well it sold.

[Outlaw]

This might be a bit of a tree falling in the forest with no one around to hear it, depending upon what you do with the video.

Just posting the video might not do you any good. YouTube marketing is all about the viral aspect, unless you're just using it as a streaming service, and you'll display the video elsewhere such as a page on your site or in a forum like this one.

So you have to ask, what would make your video worthwhile for potential customers to send their friends or family to? Humor, shock factor, etc., are the obvious suspects. Sex sells, as well. For an industry-related example of good YouTube marketing, check out the videos and podcasts put out by Ford Models.

Video tutorials, video studio tours, behind-the-scenes videos of you doing your job all give you the opportunity to offer something worthwhile to viewers while showing off your style, photography, business, and personality.

When you think you have an idea, do a search on YouTube for it, and see if it's been done. An opportunity exists when you find something that has wide appeal, but has not been done, or has only been done poorly. Combine attractions; how about a digital photography tutorial (or series) on marketing, prospecting, lighting and shooting, then selling boudoir photography?

YouTube is a wide net, though; how do you get your target market (likely limited to your local geographic region) to view the videos? Links from your site and/or blog, MySpace blog/bulletin, perhaps if you come up with a cool enough series of videos (humorous ads, digital photography and/or post-processing tutorials, etc.), you could run a local print advertising campaign that directs people to the YouTube videos. Say you did a six-part series on digital photography and posted it to YouTube; you could most likely get some free press from the local newspaper(s) by contacting their lifestyles (or even technology) editor and telling them about the story of how you're doing digital photography tutorials/classes online via YouTube. They always bite when there's a local angle.

Make it work for you; and make it make a strong impression on your target market. At this end, you'll find the efficacy of your marketing efforts.

[rhoffart]

Thanks James ... I was just wondering if this would be a good avenue of advertising for some professionals in this business. I just did a touch of research and found a few results in each of the major Texas cities, but most of them have very few views (100 or so). I could see brides searching YouTube to get ideas for their wedding day. If you search the word “wedding” you receive 147,000 results. Now I know most are comical but there are a lot that are not.

There are web page that will sell you their secrets to “marketing on YouTube” similar to all the eBay secrets and then you got big names jumping in as you mentioned.

I just posted a quick example for conversation. It will not be there long or it will be changed a lot.

[Outlaw]

I agree with you Rick, I think it's a great opportunity. I actually have some of my senior portrait clients working on producing a funny 'commercial' for us to put on YouTube and MySpace. They're eating it up, and it gets a lot of play with their peers.

[Corvee]

If by advertise you mean banner ads then no. If by posting commercials which you promote elsewhere and provide a link, then LOTS of people do that across lots of industries. Make something incredibly stupid and it'll likely end up as the next "naked photographer guy" video and you'll get TONS of free promotion. Thats the secret to youtube :)