What is nice about online video websites is that you can create just about any video you want.  A number of popular video websites have rules and restrictions on the content that is allowed; however, it is understandable.  These restrictions often prohibit videos with threats and pornographic materials. Even with these restrictions in place, there are still a wide variety of different videos that you can make, but you are still advised to be cautious when doing so.

As previously mentioned, most video sites allow you make and share a video on just about whatever you want.  Online, you will find videos that promote particular products, videos that are considered unscripted taping, how-to videos, and personal videos.  When it comes to personal videos, internet users tend to include information about themselves or a funny story. Although this may make for an interesting video, for safety reasons, you need to be concerned with what you are recording and posting.

Video websites are video by millions of internet users, often on a daily basis. This means that there is a good chance that people that you do not even know will be able to find your video and watch it. Since you do not know who will be watching your video, you have no idea what they are like or what their mental status is. You should treat your online videos as if you would when talking to a stranger; you need to be careful with how much information you provide.

If you are making a homemade video, with a personal touch, there is a good chance that you will be the one in front of your camera.  In most cases, it is safe to show your own face.  Millions of internet video makers have done so, but it is a different story to include your personal information.  In the event that you want to introduce yourself, you are advised only to use your first name.  You may even want to think about creating another name to use just for your video, sort of like a pen name.  Depending on who watches your online video, it could be risky to put a name to your face.

In addition to your full name, you never should give your address out. That also includes your city or your state. With motive and means, someone who watches your online video could easily obtain your full address just by knowing the city or the state in which you live in.  The same should be said for your phone number. With a legitimate phone number, someone could easily get your address online. Essentially, if there is something that you do not want a stranger to known about you, do not put it in your online video.

Even though you should not include your personal information in one of your online videos, there are a still a number of individuals who do. These individuals do this for different reasons, but many are looking for online friends or someone to date.  You are advised against using online video websites, such as Google Video or YouTube, for those purposes.  If you are looking to find a new friend or a partner, you are advised to rely on online dating websites. Many of those websites have special security measures in place that are designed to keep you safe.  Online video websites do not.

By keeping the above mentioned points in mind, you should be able to use online video websites without any problem. As long as you are cautious about the videos you post, the experience should be a pleasurable one.

Online video websites, such as YouTube or Google Video, are known as websites that allow internet users to view the videos that are hosted on the site.  Many of these sites allow free video viewing. What many parents are unaware of is that internet users can also make, upload, and share their own videos.  As a parent, you will want to know whether or not your child is doing this.

Your child makes online videos, so what?  Is that what you are thinking?  There is a good chance that it is because a lot of parents feel that way.  Unfortunately, many are unaware of the types of videos that can be found online.  Some online video websites prohibit videos that have pornographic materials, but besides that little restrictions are in place.  In fact, there are some internet users who have decided to use online videos websites as if they were dating websites.  Is your teenager one of them?

One of the first things that you should do is talk to your child about online video websites.  Even though you may not want to alert them to these websites, there is a good chance that they already know about them. It may be a good idea to ask your child whether or not they have made their own online videos.  It may also be a good idea to determine what the content of those videos are and where they were hosted.

When it comes to getting information from your child, especially teenagers, there is a good chance that you may get an inaccurate response.  But, if you know that your child is making use of online video websites, you may be able to find their video or videos on your own. This can be done by visiting popular video websites, such as Google Video or YouTube, and performing a search.  You may want to try searching for your child’s name, the town in which you reside in, or any screen names that they may have used.  If your child has posted an online video, there is a good chance that you will be able to find it.

Whether or not you find an online video that your child has made, it is important that you emphasis on safety.  It is perfectly okay, as long as you agree, for your child to view online videos or make their own, but they need to be aware of the consequences.  It is important to let your child know how to stay safe online, especially when making their own videos to share with other internet users.  Let them know it is unwise to include personal information about themselves, such as their full name, their telephone number, and their address. Be sure to emphasize the fact that online video websites are viewed by millions of people. This means that their video will likely get watched by people who they don’t even know.

If you are concerned with the way that your child is or may be using an online video website, you may want to take action. That action could involve having the websites blocked or just monitoring them.  As previously mentioned, you have the ability to decide what is or isn’t right for your children. However, it is also important to note that a number of fun and educational videos can also be obtained online.  If you plan on monitoring your child’s use of online video websites, you are encouraged to take a look the sites with them. In fact, you may enjoyable entertainment that you weren’t expecting to find.

As previously mentioned, online videos are most commonly hosted on online video websites. Online video websites are websites that allow internet users to view videos or make and upload their own.  In most cases, this is done free of charge. A number of popular online video websites, such as Google Video and YouTube, have restrictions in place. Those restrictions often prohibit the use of certain video material.  While a large number of video sites do have restrictions, not all do.  Even though you may be able to make a movie of whatever you want and post it, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you should.

It is becoming popular to document your “bad,” side online.  There are many individuals, especially high school students and college students, who are trying to impress others. Unfortunately, this often results in the documentation of dangerous or illegal activities.  While you may think that it is harmless to post a small video of you and your friends getting into a fight, vandalizing something, or using drugs or alcohol, there are a number of ramifications, many of which you probably never even thought about.

When documenting the use of drugs, underage drinking, vandalism, or anything else that is considered illegal, it is important to remember that you are committing a crime.  Most police departments will not scour the internet in search of online photographs or videos, but they may come across your online videos on accident. While you may not be able to be arrested, most officers are actually required to see you in the act, you may raise suspicions. If you enjoy participating in illegal activities, such as underage drinking, there is a good chance that you will continue to participate in them.  With suspicion arose, there is a good chance that you may be being watched by your local authorities.

In addition to the authorities, if you are student, whether you are a college student or a high school student, there is a good chance that you could be suspended from school. Across the country, there have been numerous reports of school officials finding online content, including videos hosted on online video websites, that document illegal activities. These activities often included underage drinking, drug use, or threats against other students.  In addition to be spoken to by your local police department, there is also the chance of school suspension or suspension for any school related activities, such as sports.

The possibility of being suspended from school and talked to by your local police department are things that could happen right away.  Despite what you may think, your online video could come back to haunt you in a couple of years.  Most online video websites will allow you to remove your video, if and when you choose to do so.  However, it is likely that a large number of individuals have already seen it.  Although they are not supposed, it is also possible that your video has been reproduced and redistributed throughout the internet.  If illegal activities were documented in your online video, there is a good chance that you could be terminated from your job, especially if your video was viewed by your employer.  Also, there are a large number of employers who use the internet to research their new applicants.  Your online video, especially if it documented the use or participation in illegal activities, could prevent you from getting that new job that you always dreamed about.

As much fun as you may think it would be to make a video of your next underage drinking party, you are advised against doing so.  Perhaps, it is best to stay cautious.  You can never tell who will be watching your video and what they will do about it.

Seeing and sometimes watching online video is nowadays an accepted and integral part of any web surfers normal browsing experiences, taken for granted almost.  Nobody bats an eyelash at seeing a video on a website or news page. Videos on the net are becoming as normal and as widely accepted as normal ‘text and image’ web pages.  And its birth can be pretty much traced back to one small group of people, and almost to one specific day!

On St. Valentines Day (February 14) 2005, three guys called Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, all ex-employees of PayPal, decided that the internet was ready for a new form of massacre. They formed YouTube, Inc, and the very next day, the 15th, “youtube.com” was born, with the website itself being launched very soon afterwards.

These three guys had a vision that the Internet was the perfect medium to allow anyone and everyone to put their own videos online. It was not important that the vast majority of these videos were poor quality, home made and distinctly amateur.

As has since been proved beyond all doubt by reality TV shows and the constant re-runs of “funniest kids” or “funny animals” home video based programs, people are fascinated by watching other people.  It was a stunningly simple and (now) obvious concept. Yet these three guys were  the first ones to see it as such and bring it to life.

It was also a massively, massively successful concept.  So successful, in fact, that youtube.com went from zero to over 4 million monthly visitors within 3 months of its initial launch.

Indeed, so successful was it that youtube.com just kept on growing, eventually becoming so popular that Google bought out the company in October 2006 for US$1.65billion.

Check out the dates once again. This buy-out took place only 20 months after YouTube was founded, and before they had ever made one single cent in profit!

There’s no doubt that at the time, this buy-out left an awful lot of analysts and so-called experts scratching their heads in amazement. Yes, it brought together the power and resources of Google, who were then the biggest force in search engine and internet marketing (as they continue to be to this day) with the biggest force in online video.

But, this was a company who had never made any money, and Google already had their own video service, Google video, so what were they doing?  Leaving aside the fact that Google was pretty much awash with cash at the time,
some of which they needed to spend (true) and that by buying out YouTube, they removed their #1 rival from the market in an instant (also true) what Google were doing was much more far-sighted than any of this implies.

They were buying what they saw as the future.

They were buying the biggest and most popular player in a market where they saw the big advertising and marketing money being made in the future.

They anticipated, quite correctly, that one day, not so far away, text only search engines of the type that Google made the majority of their money from would no longer be good enough.

They saw that a successful online video company like YouTube would have little difficulty in cornering both the money making and search engine markets of the future.  That is, the very markets in which Google were making all of their money……

So, looking back, it made huge sense for Google to buy YouTube, although it may not have seemed like it at the time.
And, most critically, almost everything that Google anticipated happening has happened or is just about to!

Because of this, video is a very influential way to get a message across. Since video activates and uses the most dominate of our senses, we are more than likely to remember the message that is being displayed to us. And it is with this knowledge that many people begin to market their products using web videos in order to get their message across.

But what is the real reason why web video is so powerful? In order to understand this, you must first understand how the Internet was before the introduction of web videos. The Internet before web video was a textual and image driven source of information, and for many years this was a powerful way to inform viewers about products and news.

However, because the majority of Internet connections were dial-up, the use of web video was extremely minimal. Yet, as technology developed so did the look of the Internet. Soon, the majority of Internet users switched from standard dial-up connections and upgraded to high-speed broadband connections. Because of this, the Internet began to transform from a static page, to a place where interactivity and video became commonplace.

Today, the use of web video is extremely prominent, and it seems that everyone from internet marketers to the mother of two living down the street is taking advantage of the power of web video. The reason why so many people are beginning to adopt video as a means to divulging information is because it is a easy, and extremely effective way to connect with their audience on an intimate level.

When you can see and hear an actual person speaking with you,  you are more likely to listen and retain the information that they are giving you. This makes web video an extremely powerful force in advertising, as well as in societal commentaries. Because there are so many options in obtaining your web video information, individuals are beginning to adopt a new form of entertainment – and that is through portable video devices.

Because of iPod’s, PSP systems, and other portable video devices,  users are able to download their favorite videos and view them wherever they are.  And  because of this,  video blogging has moved from a new way of communicating to one of the most popular blogging methods. With web video, individuals are able to have their opinions heard at a larger scale that before now has never been possible.

It’s unsure to say where the future of web video is going to take us. However, there are several things that are for certain – Web video isn’t going to go anywhere; and the use of video to obtain information is going to grow stronger as technology progresses.  So it seems there’s no end in sight for web video and internet media in general.

And, yesterday, coffee in hand, I found myself watching a clip from an old (but classic) comedy movie ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’ (the Black Knight sketch, if you must know!) And that set me thinking.

Isn’t that what almost every internet marketer is doing?

Searching for the Holy Grail, that one single thing or secret that is going to be the answer to every question that he (or she) could ever want to ask?

But, of course, we all know that such a thing does not exist, don’t we?

There is no marketing Hoy Grail is there?

Well, no there isn’t, of course.

But, if a marketer’s grail is having access to the answer to every question, then I believe that the tool to bring this impossible dream closer to reality than it has ever been before is available, right here and right now.

Got it yet?

Well, the clue is in the Black Knight. Watch it again (it’s worth it anyway) and then see if you have got the answer…

No?

Okay, the answer is video!

There is literally nothing that you cannot demonstrate, describe, and show using video.

And the ability of video to utilize both sound and vision together means that, for the viewer, the whole video learning experience is going to be totally unlike anything that they have ever experienced before.

Video is the closest that you can possibly get to actually being there and doing it, without being there and doing…..well, you understand!

So, the question that I would ask is why aren’t more web marketers using video in their business, and why do the vast majority of marketers that do, make such poor quality videos to promote with?

The bottom line is that, if you are not using video, you MUST start now.

Whatever it is that you are trying to promote or sell in your online business efforts, you know as well as I do that your sale page has only a few brief seconds to make enough of an impression to keep your visitor from clicking away.

Every big product launch that I have seen these past few months has included a mass of video content in the sales message. And that stands to reason, really – people buy from people, and what better way of showing that you are real person that an extended video appearance. It’s not quite as good as being there, but it is definitely the next best thing!

So, these sales pages and the videos are raising the bar of website visitor’s expectations, and whether I like it or you like it, that’s a fact!

Website visitors are starting to expect high quality video presentations as an integral part of considering whether to buy a product that the creator claims is high quality.

Having no video will significantly reduce your chances of sales success.

And using a video that is poor quality, an amateur effort that even a few short months ago would probably have been good enough on the basis that ‘anything is better than nothing’ – well, they will just not cut the mustard now either.

Any internet marketer who is not using video to promote their products or services in the next couple of years is probably going to find it very tough indeed to make a living online, and you need to wise up to that fact NOW, before it is too late (or until we send the Black Knight around to your house!).

If you want to know how to make videos properly, then there really in only one book that you need to look at for everything that you need to know –  and it’s right here, Viral Video Profits.