In a study, 85% of men with ED taking VIAGRA 100 mg achieved grade 3 or 4 erections (versus 50% taking sugar pills)*

Before I start looking up videos and looking at the money, here’s part of the perspective I’m thinking about this from….

What if the Internet had as one of its central concepts that television is largely based on – the content draws the people, and the advertisers foot the bill? If I could somehow turn my knowledge share largely into video, sponsored by companies larger than me, could I imagine a time where my business could be sustained purely by advertising?

Of course it’s every content creator’s dream. Many people live this dream from AdSense/FeedBurner’s Publishing Network/BlogAds…. and I’m one of those people – though to a lesser extent than others, because I spend most of my time teaching people how to do what I’ve done.

(Planning your business around revenue rather than just what you love doing – a topic for another day. Me? <—- Guilty of the latter.)

But, that aside, it would be so much bigger with video. If the revenue stream was there, I could turn Free Traffic Tips into a weekly show, sponsored perhaps by full service search engine optimization companies, pay per click search engines, etc. How would you like to get my $97 products for free, forever?

On the other hand, you think about what the consequences would be. If the web had those possibilities, two years from now, let’s say, where I could force insert ads into my videos, and get paid per view of the ads instead of per purchase of my product, would the commercials be the skippable type like they are on TV? What value would that have to my clients, or my advertisers.

On the third hand (I have four hands, of course. Didn’t you know? I used to be in the circus.), what about the other issues. What if the web never became a viable place for video advertising, despite the ability to hyper-target a consumer, for whatever reason? What if it’s just a traffic draw?

Do you have to make a funny video? Can you make a how-to video that’s actually commercial in nature, and yet useful, and still be able to use some of these viral sites to draw traffic to you? Do the numbers support these theories?

Some of those questions I’ll answer today. Some of them I’ll come back to another day. But without further ado, let’s go ahead and look at some of them there numbers, shall we?

Myself, I stopped marketing my site with mass distribution of articles for about a year when I realized that publishers were having trouble digging out my article from among the riff raff. By riff raff I mean piles of articles that were poorly written and published merely for link exposure, rather than for traditional purposes.

In one of the best articles I’ve read on Article Marketing in years, Bill Platt examines whether or not we have “ Really Seen The Death of Article Marketing?“.

Some powerful information from this conclusions:

But, no matter how we cut it, we have in fact passed “the end of article marketing as we once knew it.” Here is why:

* Some people will never have the chance to read this article and make their own mind about whether what I say has merit, or not.
* Some people will simply trust the fear mongers who have been trying to declare article marketing dead for years.
* And, some people will decide that they are not willing to take the chance that I might be right.

…fact is that many people have quit using article marketing as a promotion technique. This outcome will only strengthen the hand of those of us who continue to utilize article marketing to promote our websites.

Emphasis mine. If you want to take advantage of a powerful traffic technique, this article is a must read.

You see, gone are the days when you’re an expert online just because you claim to be. Even if you, you have to prove it somehow. You’ll need either:

1. Social Proof
2. Applied Proof, or,
3. The “Proof” of Popularity

Get the trifecta (that’s all three of these winning horses in that order), and you’ll never be broke again.

How do you achieve such a thing? The exclusive content angle can take you through all three of these if you’re diligent.

First, write a list of all the online and offline publications in your industry. The online ones will probably be easier to get into.

Second, go find out more about all the editors. Follow them for a while and find out what they read.

Third, see if you can get into publications they read, or, failing that, get widely syndicated on a topic they read about.

Fourth, give it a week or so and see if they come to you. It’s most awesome when an editor asks for your work.

Fifth, if after a week you aren’t noticed, well hey, folks are busy. Think of some way that you can give to this editor and help them with their mission. Then, ask how they most like to accept submissions – having been an editor of poetry and business resources, I can’t tell you how many submissions get rejected for being in the improper format. They may be good but if they’re too hard to re-format, they get trashed and often, a less impressive article goes in its place.

Exclusive, time-sensitive, well-written work gets the most exposure.

Sixth, follow up.

This does not mean harass.

This means, after at least a week, maybe even up to a month has passed, if your work hasn’t been accepted or published, find out how your work was received, and if there is anything you need to work on.

If you did get published, bravo. Can you get on their staff or write another piece? Do it!

Writing benchmark, high quality work for a wider audience will first gives social proof of your expertise – you can’t be a chump with no clue if you’re writing for About.com, right?

If you include tips, it provided applied proof – you tried my free tips and they worked, didn’t they? Now you have a basis upon which to invite them behind the curtain.

When that publication gets read by thousands or tens of thousands more people than you do? Popularity proof. I don’t like this one as much, because I’m of the mind that is everyone is jumping off a bridge, they should be doing it because I did it first. I’m a skeptical follower, and prefer to investigate, then lead the crowd.

However, the reality is that most people are waiting for someone to follow into battle. Often, it’s with good reason. The thought and action leaders take all the bruises and scrapes, and find out what the safe path through the wilderness is. Sometimes it’s smart to be the one following.

Easy enough, yes? Good. Remember that “publications” has a wider definition online. If you can be a guest blogger, or have the following to create a publication, they count too.