Creating a Youtube Channel that drives traffic back to your website is not easy and takes dedication, harddrive space, and time. Figuring out how to create a YouTube channel that drives traffic to your website is what this series entails and details. For a movie webmaster, it all begins with setting up a YouTube channel and uploading movie related files e.g. movie trailers on to it. Be aware that uploading videos can put extra strain on your bandwidth.
Before we get to uploading, lets start at the beginning so that you know exactly where I am coming from and what perspective I have on creating a YouTube channel that driver traffic to a website.
YouTube Logo
In the beginning
I have been battered and beaten up by the YouTube channel-to-website traffic generation process. It began with a horror movie called Victim. I was sent the trailer in my inbox by a movie PR company (a resource written about here: 7 Movie Trailer Resources). After I watched it and saw its disturbing nature ( I watched it two or three times. I could not believe what I saw and what was implied), I downloaded the trailer than uploaded the trailer to YouTube. I knew this movie trailer was fresh, few had it ( a quick search of YouTube confirmed this). I tagged it properly (more on that later) and wrote a post for it: Victim (2010) Movie Trailer. Needless to say the trailer was popular on YouTube. I found this out because of the views it was getting and because I had placed a link back to the homepage of my site in the description for the trailer. People were clicking through to my site from that link. I began seeing traffic from YouTube on my WordPress Stats dashboard (written about here: Starting a Movie Website: WordPress Plugins). That Victim movie trailer was uploaded onto my first YouTube channel.
The first YouTube channel I created for my movie website (approaching two million ‘Total Upload Views’, nearly six hundred Friends, nearly three hundred Subscribers) got shut down for copyright violations e.g. uploading movie trailers and clips I did not have the authorization to upload. The headstone can be found Here. Two of the strikes were for uploading deleted scenes that were appearing on an upcoming release of one of The Twilight Saga segments (I know what you are thinking but the ‘Twihards’ are massive on YouTube). I got two additional strikes (which shut down the channel) because I had uploaded clips for I Spit on Your Grave (2010), clips (I Spit on Your Grave (2010): You’re Lost Alright, Pretty Little Thing Movie Clips) a company promoting the film sent to my inbox five months earlier.
With the DVD and the Blu-ray about to be released, it seems the company behind the home release did not want clips floating around (especially ones with over two thousand views each) plus the fact that I had branded the clips was not looked upon favorably. Through the company promoting the film (they were very understanding) and the copyright claims process (laborious) I was able to get those two strikes taken off my YouTube channel and it was restored with its original two strikes for The Twilight Saga (Summit Entertainment). What I should have done at that point was not upload anything else to that channel and start a new one.
I was not thinking clearly.
Clarity would come at a steep price later, a terrible learning experience.
Rooney Mara, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The third and final strike came from uploading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) Teaser Trailer. I would seem Sony Pictures Movies & Shows wanted no one uploading that teaser trailer onto YouTube but them. The copyright claims process was of no use that time, though I tried. I knew no one at Sony Pictures to vouch for me to YouTube.
All of my uploads were gone. I had to start all over again. All the posts on my site that housed them now showed nothing.
If I started a new YouTube Channel right after the first one had been restored (after the I Spit on Your Grave incident had been resolved), that YouTube Channel would probably still be up right now. That channel was sending me hits from multiple uploaded trailers because of proper branding and links.
One note: YouTube keeps terminated channels stored for some time after they are eliminated so if you know somebody, the right somebody, your terminated YouTube channel may be able to be restored, just like it was for me.
There is another story that runs parallel to this one. One YouTube channel (not mine but one I was learning from when I started out on YouTube), The Movie Reel, had sixteen million ‘Total Upload Views’ and many major movie websites were using that YouTube channel’s uploads as embeds in their websites. In addition, it had millions for ‘Channel Views’ so I am guessing that YouTube channel had a good Page Rank as well. They got shut down for copyright violations, one of them being for uploading the same The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo teaser trailer. View the headstone for yourself. Its other two violations were from Summit Entertainment (The Twilight Saga) and Warner Bros. Entertainment uploads. The Movie Reel got triple tapped (did I just coin that) all at the same time. One day I checked their channel and I saw those three violations and nothing else. It must of hit the owner of that channel like a sledge hammer.
He, she or they had put a lot of work into it (which always struck me as odd because they weren’t back linking to anything, not a website, a blog, nothing). Their YouTube channel was not even monetized. They were just doing it for the love of doing it it would seem. They had started a new channel, The Movie Reel Trailers, (not until recently, which has also been terminated) and I have started multiple ones.
The second YouTube channel I had created that got shut down was due to compliancy. I had followed the strategy of starting a new YouTube channel when a strike occurred for a few channels, then my second latest channel received a copyright infringement strike from Dimension Films for uploading the Piranha 3DD (2012) Teaser Trailer that was presented on the 2011 Scream Awards broadcast. I thought: Its just one strike so instead of starting a new channel, I kept right on uploading videos to that channel like a true back-birth. Months later I received two more copyright infringement strikes at the same time: One for uploading a promo/sales trailer for The Grey from Open Road Films and the other for uploading the new Elite Squad: The Enemy Within (2010) Movie Trailer from Revolver Entertainment.
I was sent the dreaded channel termination letter once again. I love these YouTube emails:
This is the third notification we have received alleging copyright infringement in one of your postings. Consequently, your account has been terminated.
If one of your postings has been misidentified as infringing, you may submit a counter-notification. Information about this process is in our Help Center.
Please note that under Section 512(f) of the Copyright Act, any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material was disabled due to mistake or misidentification may be liable for damages.
Sincerely,
— The YouTube Team
A hundred uploaded videos wiped out, a hundred holes in my movie website. The headstone is Here.
Lucky, I had learned from (some) of my mistakes and had saved all the movie trailers I had previously uploaded to that channel and to other YouTube channels on one of my harddrives. I started a new YouTube channel, bulk uploaded ninety-six of the erased movie trailers coterminous, then replaced (extremely tedious) the dead trailers in my posts with the live trailers.
With that in mind, that brings us to signing up for, starting, and setting up a new YouTube channel.
The future segment of this series:
How to Create a YouTube Channel that Drives Traffic to Your Website: Set Up
How to Create a YouTube Channel that Drives Traffic to Your Website: Strategies
How to Create a YouTube Channel that Drives Traffic to Your Website: Conclusion
Until then, a question for discussion:
- Does your website currently have its own YouTube channel?
