Online Video Marketing Tips: Hosting Online Video

If your online video marketing plan calls for including videos on your website, you have several options available as for as placing a promotional video goes. For example, you could upload your video to YouTube and then embed the video into one of your Web pages. You could also store your videos on your own website or use an online storage service such as Amazon S3 and then host your own videos.

Hosting Videos on YouTube

Using YouTube for Internet video marketing is almost a no-brainer. After all, YouTube is wildly popular – and it’s free. All you need is a YouTube account, a series of short videos to upload, and the ability to copy and paste an embed code into your website. There are a few downsides though from an online video marketing perspective. For starters, even if you embed the videos on your website, they will play in the YouTube player and will bear the YouTube logo. If you’d rather use an unbranded player and want the ability to insert clickable links into your player, consider hosting your video on your own website and using an alternative video player for your Internet video marketing videos.

YouTube may also display ads, which can dilute your online video marketing message. In addition, some Internet video marketing professionals have had their YouTube accounts closed by Google for a variety of reasons. If you want more control over your online video marketing, self-hosting your promotional video files may be the better choice.

Hosting Videos on Your Own Website

If you have just one promotional video or a few video testimonials, hosting online video marketing videos on your own website shouldn’t take up too much bandwidth or server space. However, if you have numerous promotional video clips or plan on creating an extensive Internet video marketing program, be aware that you may need to upgrade your hosting account to accommodate these large promotional video files.

With hosted online video marketing videos, you’ll also need to install a video player onto your website. This can be as simple as installing a Flash video player plugin on WordPress sites or can involve ordering and installing a commercial video player loaded with features. An advantage to using a commercial player for online video marketing is that you can set up clickable links within your promotional video. As people embed your promotional video into their own sites, when their visitors click the video links, they’ll be directed back to whichever website you linked to.

Using a Video Hosting Service such as Amazon S3

If you plan on extensive Internet video marketing, consider getting an Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) account. This service is low cost and easy to use. You can use either free or commercial video players in conjunction with your Amazon S3 hosted videos.

Other Online Video Marketing Hosting Options

Other services are available for Internet video marketing. For example, Viddler.com offers branded video players, analytics, embeddable widgets, and other features. Another service, Fliqz.com offers several different plans both branded and unbranded players available. Numerous open source Internet video marketing players exist as well.

Whether you invest in a commercial player and video hosting or not, consider hosting your promotional video on your site as well as on popular video sharing platforms such as YouTube.

What are your thoughts about hosting online video marketing files? Share your thoughts in the comment section below: