Your Own Website

Utilizing all these methods for promoting your videos outside of YouTube is important, but as Michael likes to remind me on a weekly basis, any of those sites could be closed, purchased, or remodeled at any time. Websites come and go, and when they go, they usually take all their content with them.

Having your own website, your own domain, can help you safeguard against losing your entire online presence should the websites you rely on fail you. Hosting is cheap, and you can buy a domain name for about $6 a year. You have to also pay for hosting, but that can be as little as $5 a month for a lot of space and throughput. (You can learn more about this, including specific recommendations, in the O'Reilly Digital Media site article about RSS referenced below in the "Blogging" section of this chapter.) Then the space is yours to do with as you wish—blog, upload photos, stream your videos, and embed your videos. Your own website means you are in control of the design, the features, and the content. You can even place AdSense ads on the site and monetize the traffic you drive there (www.google.com/adsense/) (URL 10.10). O'Reilly has a good book on using AdSense called Google Advertising Tools: Cashing in with AdSense (http://tinyurl.com/6kjljy) (URL 10.11).

Note

To create your own website, you need only two things: a hosting plan and a domain name. Usually you can get both from the same service.

When you start your website, your first focus should be content. Many new website owners spend a lot of time on a fancy design only to write "Under Construction" across the top of each page.

Write a few blog posts or upload a few videos before showing anyone your site.

Note

Michael adds: And use spell check! Much of the Internet is not spell checked, and people who can spell will often immediately click away from a website full of typos. Even people who cannot spell will notice that something is not right, even if they're not sure what it is. Also, read a post out loud to yourself after you write it and before you hit Publish. Blogging software usually includes a spell check feature, but a spell checker won't catch when you meant to type their but instead typed they're.

Computers are good with math but not yet very good with language.

PRO TIP

When you write a post in Microsoft Word and paste it into your blogging interface, a lot of "junk" is also posted in the form of formatting at the top of the post. This doesn't always show up in the post, but it will show up in things like Google feeds of the post. To delete this formatting, click on the HTML button in your blogging software to show the code, and delete everything above your first word or first image reference.

When you're ready to start driving traffic to your site, do some link exchanges. A link exchange is when you place a clickable link (those ever-important backlinks just keep coming up time and time again!) to someone else's website on your site in exchange for them linking to you on theirs.

When exchanging links, you'll want to contact websites similar to yours. First, start with other YouTubers who have their own sites; then, branch out to sites that cover topics related to your hobby—digital video, graphic design, independent music—whatever it is your site might contain.

CONTACTING PEOPLE YOU DON'T KNOW

Michael adds: It's tough to find the right balance on this. People regularly delete link requests from strangers or even block their email addresses as spam. (I know I do, if I get several requests to "check this out!" from someone I don't know, with no other information.) It's tough to find the right balance, especially if you're just starting out and the first email you send to an Internet rock star is you begging for a link. The best links are the ones that people put up for you without you asking. But sometimes people need to be shown what you do so that they will want to link to you. Just put yourself in the frame of mind of the person you're writing and ask yourself whether you're being slimy. Ask yourself whether you can picture your favorite rock star asking someone for a link trade. It might surprise you that many do this, or have done this, but they've probably done it in a way that didn't make people hate them.

It often helps if you write a short paragraph about why the recipient might want to "check this out." That will come across as less random and more personal. You'll probably want to tailor it for the individual person, rather than using a cut and paste. It helps if you say something specific you like about what the recipient does rather than just the generic "I like your videos" or "I love your website."

Even though I'm usually the person getting emails like this, rather than sending them, I still occasionally send them if I come across someone whose work I genuinely dig and think they might dig something specific of mine. And it's not always someone more popular than me. Often it's someone just starting out, but I really think something I did will be of use to them. Live to help poeple; don't just spam people. Be "part of the solution, not part of the problem."

Conversely, don't be sad or mad or write something snitty back if a popular person you don't know ignores your email or even writes back with "Who are you, and why are you sending me this?" People at a star level of media fame often get 300 actionable emails per day.

Once you have some interesting content up and some backlinks, focus on updating regularly. Nothing will keep people returning to your site like new daily or weekly posts. If you update on Fridays, always update on Friday; don't update on Tuesday one week for no reason and then skip a week. Visitors (and more importantly, search engine spiders) love consistent, fresh content.

The exception to this is if you really have nothing new to say on the day you usually update; if you have nothing to say, don't just post something lame. It's a good idea to have a few posts "in the can" that aren't specifically timed to any current event so you can post them if you have writer's block or video idea block one day. In most blogging software, you can write a post and save it as a draft to be posted later.

I also recommend regularly backing up your blog posts. You can easily do this in WordPress using the Manage/Export function on your dashboard. That way if your site is ever hacked or your server crashes, you can restore it from the last backup. (Don't forget to save your media too. The Manage/Export function saves only the text of your posts.)