small business Articles

What constitutes a small business varies widely around the world. Small businesses are normally privately owned corporations, partnerships, or sole proprietorships. What constitutes “small” in terms of government support and tax policy varies by country and by industry, ranging from fewer than 15 employees under the Australian Fair Work Act 2009, 50 employees according to the definition used by the European Union, and fewer than 500 employees to qualify for many U.S. Small Busines...

HOW TO: Create A Call To Action In Small Business Video

One of the topics of discussion in my last post, 5 Ways Small Businesses Can Succeed on YouTube, was the importance and challenge of creating a call to action (CTA) in your video that engages customers and stands out from the other CTAs in the ...

Pranks, Explanations, and Artful Videography - Viral Video Round Up

Sometimes the major brands just have a good week with viral videos, and that's what's happened this week.  From all the success stories this week in video, a larger-than-normal number are from brands.  And I'm okay with that.  It's always nice to have a ton ...

5 Ways Small Businesses Can Take Advantage of YouTube

We all know that YouTube is the number 2 search engine on the Web in terms of query volume.  It sounds impressive, but what does that mean for local businesses trying to reach customers? After all, aren't most of the 13+ billion clips watched each ...

mDialog Launches Video Platform for HTML5 Mobile Video

ReelSEO's Grant Crowell covers the video ad platform mDialog at the NAB Show in Las Vegas, and talks with founder Gret Philpott about monetization opportunities for businesses using HTML5 video and dynamic ad insertion.

Site Speed Now Affects Your Website’s Rank On Google

For years Google has been telling us how to present our content in a way that helps them understand what our websites are about.  Now, they want us to do it faster. On Friday, Google announced something official that many in the SEO community were ...

Ad Age Curates YouTube Homepage, Spotlights Best Viral Ads

YouTube likes to allow guest "curators" for their home page spotlight section, and today is my favorite choice for the honor by far:  Ad Age.

Goal Setting Is Step #1 In Creating Viral Videos That Convert

I have been thinking a lot about this topic ever since I read about how poor the sales have been for OK Go following the band's latest viral video hit, the music video for "This Too Shall Pass.”  You could argue that their original hit, ...

Video = Fastest Growing Website Feature for Small Businesses

Indeed, small businesses have been racing to get their websites video-capable over the past year - and those same small businesses are spending more on paid search advertising.  According to a new report, small business advertisers spent more than twice as much on paid search and nearly 4 ...

YouTube’s Overlay Display Ad Builder Is Big News for Small Businesses

YouTube is opening up display overlay ads to more customers, giving them the ability to create their own in-video overlay and companion display ads for YouTube videos via the AdWords system. For quite some time now, advertisers big and small have been able to allow ...

"Get Seen" Offers Tips Every Online Video Marketer Can Follow

A great number of Internet marketing specialists will wade into the waters of literature and publish a book about how to succeed at one of the many marketing methods available online.  A large number of these people choose to fill their publications with common knowledge, ...

Viral Video Round Up - The Draw of Destruction and The Power of Teamwork

Some weeks are more difficult than others for me when it comes to finding quality viral success stories to include in my weekly Round Up.  This week was easy… so easy it became hard, because there were too many stories I wanted to tell and ...

5 Tips for Using Online Video To Market Your Small Business

For small businesses, getting noticed online is a challenge, particularly when competing with big brands with large marketing departments and seemingly endless marketing budgets. But more and more local companies are finding success cutting through the clutter with online video. Statistics show that video improves ...

Video Ad Networks - Where Should You Place Your Video Ads?

2009 was a massive year for the online video advertising industry as a whole. But some ad networks did far better than others. I've compiled the statistics for the last third of 2009 and have some ideas on where you should place your video advertisements ...

Download YouTube Videos - How, Where and When Is It Okay?

Is it wrong to download YouTube videos? I guess that depends completely on who you ask.  I'm sure YouTube would tell you that it is.  In fact, they do. Their terms of service says the following, in Section 5: Your Use of Content on the ...

How To Use A Virtual Set - Virtual Studio for Online Video

ReelSEO's Grant Crowell interviews virtual set producer Earle Greenberg of Chicago Video Works, who explains some of the business advantages of promoting your business with videos featuring virtual sets, what's involved with building a virtual set, and some tips on how to to prepare yourself for a video show featuring a virtual set.