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Here is what I’ve accomplished on my youtube channel, as of February 2012:
• Joined YouTube July 31st, 2006
• 25,000+ subscribers
• 3,600+ uploaded videos
• 140,000,000+ total video views
• 120,000+ views a day (average)

2 Minutes: We are now in the age of the “Multitasker” and multitaskers say they multitask very well, but studies have a totally different picture to paint. So, keep your clips short, so they can do other things at the same time. The only exception is, if you are making a full tutorial…but the average person won’t watch it the whole way through in one sitting.
Ask for Comments: Ask people to comment on your videos, because it helps make people feel more part of the whole experience and you will get great feedback.
Big Break: YouTube will feature videos every now and then and it might take a while (it’s never happened to me), but that will make you an instant hit. You can also pay to get your videos featured and that is just like all the advertisements out there, but the video you use for advertising will only be shown on youtube and it will be on the front page (every now and then) and can be placed more strategically in the search results for certain videos. You only have to pay per click and you can control how much you spend. I’ve never gone that route, but I’ve been doing this for 4 years now. My big break was back in 2006 with http://www.MetaCafe.com/ and I got featured on their site.
Blog and Vlog: Even if you are a Blogger, then you should give people the option and vlog about it too. Start a free blog on: http://www.blogger.com/ or http://www.wordpress.com/ and embed your videos on there.
Camcorder: You don’t have to have a $1,000 camcorder to compete with the big girls/boys. My first camcorder was a $200 one that I purchased 5 years ago and it worked for me. I recommend the Flip http://www.TheFlip.com/ and it’s digital, easy to use and has simple video editing software built into it and you can get one for under $200. You can even use your web-cam to make videos.
Channel Name: Think of a easy channel name and not a whole bunch of letters and numbers. Http://www.youtube.com/massagenerd not http://www.youtube.com/massagenerd
Comment: When you comment on other people’s videos, then that makes a direct link to your youtube channel and if you have decent content, then they might subscribe.
Competition: So many people are afraid of competition, but the reality is this: you can give tons of people your knowledge, but only a few will truly use it. I love seeing other people make massage videos on youtube and it helps me feel like I started a revolution.
Constructive Criticism: People will let you know what they think, so get use to it. Some can be nice and others can be down right nasty.
Contracts: I have my models sign a contract, because you can never be too careful.
Copyrights: It’s hard to police your own videos and each month I find a lot of people stealing my content. Let the video sharing website know that someone uploaded your videos without your permission and hopefully they will take them down.
Critical: Don’t be so critical of your own videos, because you are your own worst enemy! I know I’m not an Erik Dalton, Tom Myers, James Waslaski or another big name in the massage field, but I try my best at videos and I can’t be too critical of myself, because I would never put anything out there. A great way to succeed is to learn from other peoples mistakes. Why reinvent the wheel, when others have screwed up for you.
Descriptions/Keywords: Some people believe in it and others don’t. Google keeps changing have they index things, so it’s better to have some, than none at all.
Direct Links: The first thing in the description section should be a direct link to your website, blog or facebook account. Another mistake people make is this: use “http://www.massagenerd.com/ instead of www.massagenerd.com, because the http:// makes it live on youtube.
Embedding: Allow people to embed your videos on their site. You can control this once you upload the video and it helps get you more traffic.
FaceBook, Twitter and Others: Add your facebook fan page, twitter account and other social media places that you have accounts with, to the descriptions of your videos and remember to make it an active link with http://
Free Advertising: YouTube, FaceBook, Twitter and others are the new generation of advertising! People are sharing so much these days and that is why print media has taken a nose dive. In the past 5 years, I have only paid about $500 for advertising, because when you give information away for free, then that is a form of marketing.
Free Information: So many people think they should make money the old fashion way by giving people only a small portion and then getting them to buy their book or video. That’s to be understandable, because if you go through a publisher, then there is only a small profit margin for you and the publishing companies don’t want you to do that. Here is a site to upload your music, videos or books for free and then they will list them on Amazon for FREE: http://www.CreateSpace.com/ I started being really greedy with my information, but then I found out that I can have control of what I publish, if I self-publish. By self-publishing, that gives me the rights to share as little or as much information as I feel is needed.
Free Videos: It sounds really weird, but I get more content this way and I get to meet tons of cool people too, by asking them if I can make videos for them. Most people don’t have the time or the knowledge to make videos (it just takes time and it’s a learning curve), so why don’t you help them out. I plan on shooting free commercials for everyone at all the WMF, FSMTA, AMTA and the CMC I’m going to this year.
Haters: You will run into haters and some people that will do whatever they can to make you look bad or make you fail. Haters are not worth my time and energy and it bothers me now and then, but it gets better with time.
Have Fun: Try to have fun making the videos and I’ve learned from my mistakes about being too serious and I still have a serious side in my videos, but my humor is starting to take over more now
Leading People On: Don’t lead people on and only give them a taste. That is a thing of the past and it just makes people think they were taken advantage of. So, for your videos make sure you give them enough to be a little satisfied, but don’t make them believe that there is some hidden secret in the information you are selling them. Some people think I’m nuts for sharing so much information with the world, but I feel it’s better to give than receive.
Lighting: The lighting situation can be difficult and it will be a lot of trial and error and more error. Some lights and camcorders make a buzzing noise and that can get really annoying. Try not to have too many shadows and if you are using a greenscreen, then make sure there are no shadows.
Live Show: I host a live www.Ustream.Tv show every Wednesday night at 9 p.m. CST and I absolutely love it! I get to ask some of the bigger names in the massage field questions and I also help some people get known by having them on my show. Then I post the whole show on my youtube channel and it’s live for eternity!
Long Haul: The longer your videos are out on the web, the more than likely they will start to be indexed by major search engines.
Massage is Personable: Most of your clients have been from referrals and people will talk to their friends if they thought the massage was great and if they felt comfortable with you. So, a video of yourself is a great first connection and it will give you an advantage over just a website with no pictures or videos.
Microphones: Make sure your microphones are not so close to your mouth, that they can hear you breathing and make sure they are not rubbing up against your clothes.
Models: I’ve hired over 20 models and I usually pay them between $20-30 an hour. I’ve mostly hired past students, because they know what to expect and they understand massage. Some models I’ve hired have never had a massage before and you end up explaining to them what you are going to do a lot more, than actually massaging.
Music: Do not use copyrighted music! This is one of the best places for Royalty Free Music: http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/
Network: Start reaching out to others that share your same passion. Good luck on having some well known youtuber’s respond to you, but that is to be expected, because they get tons of emails a day. I use to get frustrated when the famous youtuber’s didn’t respond to me back in the day, but now I understand, because I get tons of emails a day and it’s impossible to respond to everyone.
Perverts: You will get a perverted comment now and then, so set your videos to: “Allow all comments with approval only.”
Pictures: Do not use other people’s pictures in your vidoes, unless you have permission! A very cheap way to purchase pictures is through http://www.ClipArt.com/ and they have over 10 million images for a low subscription charge and you can pick how long your subscription is.
Pleasing People: Don’t try and please everyone, because it can never happen.
Popular Topics: Pick popular topics, because they will be more searched for.
Product Reviews: Do product reviews about massage products you already have. It’s a great way to let others know about them and it gives you more video content.
Quality: Don’t worry too much about the quality, because the more you worry, the less content you will be making available. You can always delete your older videos, because you will be constantly improving your skills from watching your own videos and reading what people have to say about them.
Quantity: The more content you put out there, then you have a better chance of being seen. You honestly will be deleting more videos in the beginning, because you will be more critical of yourself. Some believe quality over quantity, but I believe the opposite way on youtube. YouTube is more for amateurs and even thou there are big media corporations that upload to youtube, the majority of the content is for the average person and that is what totally matters.
Regularity: You KNEAD to put content out on a regular basis to get known and you can’t just upload something once a month or once every few months, because people will forget about you.
Scripts: Write a script before you make a video, but be careful about sounding too robotic. Or another option is just to write some notes and ad-lib.
Searching: When people type something into a search engine, sometimes videos pop up without clicking the video tab. Here are the top websites: Google, FaceBook, YouTube and Yahoo.
Sound: Make sure you play around with your camcorder with the sound, because some camcorders might need an external mic, because most camcorders mics are not that great.
Subscriptions: Subscribe to other massage related channels and even see if you can help each other out. You can also keep up on the trends that way.
Sub 4 Sub: Don’t ask people to do this and it might work once in a great while, but it sounds like you will only subscribe if they do and the underlying thing is…more than likely they won’t even view your videos and they will likely unsubscribe later.
Tutorials: There is tons of tutorials on youtube and I’ve never taken a video editing class or a website class. I’ve learned from watching videos on the topics I wanted to master.
Upload and Share: YouTube gives you the option to automatically share it with other social media accounts you have, so take advantage of it!
Video Editing: There are tons of programs out there to edit videos, but more expensive usually means that it entails a larger learning curve. If you have a MAC, then use imove and if you own a PC, then use Windows Movie Maker. They both work fine and you will eventually outgrow them, the longer you make videos.
Video on Your FaceBook Group or Your Fan Page: Take advantage of this, but don’t spam your videos on other peoples groups or pages with your videos, because you will lose your virtual friends really fast. One nice thing to do is ask permission to post on someone’s wall or if it’s something they were chatting about, then comment with your video link.
Video Responses: When you leave a video response to another video, then people will more than likely click on your video when they are done watching that one. You can even leave a quick video response if you have a web-cam and there is a program built into the youtube website. http://upload.youtube.com/my_videos_upload
Video Responses to Questions: Make video responses to questions people ask you. Make sure you ask permission, if you are going to use their name in the video.
YouTube or FaceBook: I upload mostly to youtube, because I will get more traffic there and I can embed the youtube videos on facebook anyways. Some studies say that facebook videos are starting to be indexed by the major search engines, but youtube is still king.
All of the above comments, please take with a grain of salt. They might work for you or might not…so give them a try and comment below!
There is so much more, but I’ll make a video about it later

Palpate You Later,
Ryan Hoyme A.K.A. MassageNerd
www.MassageNerd.com
www.YouTube.com/massagenerd