Online video is nothing new.  But not everyone knows how to effectively use video. 

• You can use video to get more traffic to your sites – Post humorous or entertaining videos on YouTube and display your site link.  The viral effect of a good video can launch your site’s traffic.’
• Create free video content for your website and incorporate some good keyword-rich article content on the same site.  Search engines will index your videos to improve your ranking.
• Turn your old articles and ebooks into videos and sell them on your site.  You can set up a membership site and provide new videos each month for a monthly subscription fee.  Use a membership script like AMember or DLGuard to protect your video downloads.
• Use videos to promote your own products or promote others’ products as an affiliate.  Provide some useful bit of content in your intro video, and give the link to your product at the end – or better yet, redirect to the product automatically at the end of the video.
• Use videos to encourage visitors to sign up to your mailiing list.  Fewer people want to give away their email addresses due to spam, so a creative and useful video can help to persuade them to trust you.
• Link to your videos and sites with video content from twitter.  But be sure the content you provide is actually useful.  if it’s obvious that you’re simply promoting a product for quick profits, you may just lose some followers.

There are numerous ways to use video content.  And if you’re not comfortable in front of the camera, you can create a PowerPoint presentation or a screen-capture tutorial video with Camtasia.  If you’re the creative type, you may also enjoy creating your own cartoons with a tool like Toon Boom Studio.  With the right approach, you could become the next YouTube celebrity and have all the traffic you can stand.

The problem with that method is that it actually is usually a full-time job.  That’s because you must locate, purchase, and warehouse the products.  Then you must ensure prompt and safe delivery.  Then you have to deal with unhappy customers.  And you often have to contend with criminals trying to “game” the system.

In my opinion, a much better way to make money online is to set up membership websites in hot niches for which you get a monthly subscription fee.  You can include tips, resources, ebooks, audios, videos, and more to provide value to your subscribers.  You could have an exclusive forum for members only, and you could offer special members-only offers on products of interest to them.  With a nice list of monthly subscribers in your group, it would be easy to attract vendors willing to provide incentives in exchange for the traffic.

How do you set up a membership website?
One of the simplest ways to get a membership site set up is to use a membership script that already includes everything you will need.  A good membership site script will handle recurring payment processing through PayPal or your own merchant account, multiple levels of membership, simple method of securing areas of your site to only allow paid subscribers, and integration with other systems such as AWeber, 1ShoppingCart, and popular CMS packages.

With the membership script in place, you can put your site together as you normally would, while securing access to certain files on folders within your site.  This means you could use a tool like DreamWeaver to build the site front-end, or you could even use a CMS such as Drupal or Joomla to make maintenance even easier.  A good membership script will integrate with those systems to synchronize member details and to handle logging into both the CMS and membership system.

With the membership script installed, you may begin to sign up affiliates to help you promote the system.  They will then share in the monthly revenue while you continue to grow and improve the site.  Because the typical customer will remain a member for only 3-6 months, you will want the extra assistance of affiliates to help you maintain a steady stream of new subscribers.  This will help you to build an extra source of recurring income that you can continue to build on.