New Video Viewing Page

It's been in beta testing for some months now, but YouTube has finally moved to its new video viewing page. It's basically a redesign of the old page, with a larger video player screen, better organized features, and the like. You should be happy with what you see.

Ads in YouTube Videos

Google has finally figured out a way to serve video ads in YouTube. For videos from selected partners, YouTube now displays an ad overlay that appears about 15 seconds into the video. The overlay takes up the bottom half of the screen; you can click to close the overlay, or it will disappear on its own after 10 seconds. To view the associated ad, just click the appropriate part of the overlay.

Right now, these ad overlays are added only to videos from YouTube's major content partners, and Google shares the ad revenue with those partners. You don't have to worry about Google popping an ad onto your own personal video. (At least not yet, anyway.) The response to this development is divided -- advertisers love it, while the YouTube community hates it. At least it's better than being forced to watch a pre-roll full-window ad -- isn't it?

Video Blogging for Business

I've received a lot of publicity about a relatively small part of my YouTube 4 You book, specially that part dealing with using YouTube to promote your business. Building on that interest, I've just launched a new blog, called Video Blogging for Business. It's a series of video blog posts designed to help any business, large or small, use YouTube to create their own video blogs and webcasts. Check it out -- I add a new post each week.

New Custom Embedded Video Player

YouTube has always let you embed their videos in your website. But now you can embed a custom video player, complete with your choice of videos, color theme, layout, and the like. To create the code for a custom player, go to your My Account page and click the Custom Player link.

More Product Placement

A reader has pointed out to me another firm offering product placement for YouTube videos. WePlace is the name of the firm, and it looks like they work with larger companies for their product placement needs.

YouTube Product Placement

If you're interested in making money from your YouTube videos, you may be interested in a new company called Brandfame. This is a product placement service that connects advertisers with video producers. You use Brandfame to find companies that will pay to have their products placed in your videos, just like the big boys in Hollywood do.

Michael Miller on BlogTalkRadio

On June 28th I did an hour-long interview with Wayne Hurlbert on the Blog Business Success Internet radio program on BlogTalkRadio. The interview was all about YouTube, and my book YouTube 4 You. You can listen to a podcast of that blog here.