This is a Fitness Internet Marketing guest post by Jedd Johnson of the Diesel Crew. Most days you can find him at home writing about Strength Training, Grip Strength, and other topics related to the Iron Game.

You’ve taken Chris’s advice and begun setting up a website in order to pull in the clients.

You’ve invested time in your site to maximize it’s potential to bring in trainees and you are executing other strategies to keep them with you longer.

So what’s next?

YouTube may be the next step in your journey toward dominating your market and becoming the go-to fitness trainer.

Hello, my name’s Jedd Johnson and I am a strength coach in Pennsylvania. I love doing Feats of Grip Strength, including levering giant sledge hammers down to my face and back to the vertical position. That’s why I chose the words “Leverage” and “Grip” in the title.

Anyway, that is not what I am here to talk to you about. I want to tell you about some ways you can harness YouTube and make it work for you in getting a more loyal following and more fitness training prospects.

Why Use YouTube?

According to Alexa.com, YouTube is the #3 most visited website in the world behind only Google and Facebook and right ahead of Yahoo. So it makes sense to spend some time and put in some effort there in order to use it for getting clients.

The first thing to understand about YouTube is that the scope of what people are searching for is enormous.

Maybe they want to check out chicks with barely any clothes on. There are plenty of results there for that.

Maybe they want to find out how to change the oil in their car. YouTube has tons of results for How-to style videos.

Still there are plenty of people who are going there looking for training advice, like ways to get a bigger chest, build their biceps, get stronger, get in better shape, and many other fitness and strength training related search terms. This is another reason why trainers should register on YouTube and post some videos.

The downside to all the content and the fact that people are going there for various reasons is that the visitors’ attention spans are usually very short.

They may only watch a few seconds of a video before they notice that in the similar videos section there is something else there that they’d rather see. You may only have one short chance to get their attention, make an impact, and retain them as a contact, so it is important to get your video in front of them and keep them coming back.

Getting Your Video in Front of People

YouTube was purchased by Google in October of 2006, and since then it has become much easier to have your video pop up in search engine results.

Ranking high with Google is an outstanding way to get people to see your stuff, because lots of people would rather watch a 2-minute clip on how to perform Romanian Deadlifts correctly than read a big long article on it.

In order to rank your video high in Google, employ the things Chris has told you about here on this site.

As Chris has said many times on this site, ranking high with search engines is heavily dependent on good quality links that are related to your key words. So what you need to do is not only post you videos on your blog, but also link to them in various posts on your blog, as well.

For instance, if you shoot a video on workouts that burn fat, then when you make a post about workouts that burn fat, turn some of the related phrases into links that point to your video on YouTube and add some key words in the alternate text. Do this every so often on your blog and also do so when writing some good quality blog posts for other sites and you will build the reputation for your video in the eyes of Google and other search engines.

Stay in Front of People

Think of YouTube as a way to increase potential prospects. Because people may not take you on as a trainer or make a purchase from you after just one time seeing you, it is important to get them to subscribe to your video channel and that way each time you pump out one of these highly valuable and information-packed videos, they will be notified of your new masterpiece.

If the viewer subscribes to your channel, then when they visit YouTube and go to their home page, they will see the Subscriptions section in the middle of the page:

If you go to YouTube right now and sign in, you will be directed to your home page there and one of the top sections is your Subscriptions section. Depending on how you have this set up, it could have 4 to 9 results there. If you are readily posting new videos, then a thumbnail for your new videos should appear there on your prospect’s screen.

Now, here’s the thing about people subscribing to your channel. For whatever reason, a lot of YouTubers don’t always subscribe when they watch a video they like, so you’ve got to tell them to do it.

YouTube has made it extremely easy for you to get people to subscribe to your channel because they allow you to add what they call “Annotations” to your video. Think of these little Annotations like the ones on Pop-up Video. As your video streams along, you can implant these little bubbles so that they come up and you can ask them to Subscribe. This is how you do it:

While signed in, open one of your videos. Above your video you will see a button for adding annotations. Click this button.

It will take you to a slightly different page. In the bottom, left hand side of your video is a set of three other buttons. Click the center button that says Add Annotation.

When you click Add Annotation, it will give you a choice of four annotation styles. I like to use the Speech Bubble Annotation.

When you do this, it will add a speech bubble somewhere in your video and it will say “Edit your text here.” You can edit the text, place the bubble wherever you want it, and position the bottom stem of the bubble wherever you want. I like to point the step upwards towards the SUBSCRIBE button.

You can change the fill color of the bubble with the color tool that is shown below and to the left.

You can make this bubble appear and disappear whenever you’d like by editing the time frame selector above and on the right hand side.

Once you hit the Save and Publish buttons on the right hand side, you are all set. In a few minutes, your video will contain the speech bubbles you just programmed in. If you like, you can add one of the Subscribe bubbles near the beginning and the end of the video as well, using the same steps.

Once you have subscribers, another way to stay in front of your subscribers is to let them know every time you post a video by sending them a bulletin. This is a rather new feature that was added in April of this year and is quick and easy.

Just go to your YouTube Channel and check out the top line of buttons, where you will see “Post Bulletin.”

Click the Post Bulletin button and you can type in a message that will go to all of your subscribers and your friends.

With the bulletin tool, you can type in a clever little message as well as input a link to your latest video which makes it simple for your subscribers and friends to check out your new posting. This bulletin goes to your contacts’ home page on YouTube, emails if they have opted in for these messages, as well as on your own channel page.

Get Popular

Now that you know how to add bubbles to your video, you can also add a prompt for your viewers to give your video a thumbs up and comment. By getting thumbs-up ratings and comments to your videos, your “popularity” goes up and you could get your video on the Most Popular page of YouTube. This can get you WAY more views and a hell of a lot more Subscriptions and Friends, and the cycle goes on and on.

Another way you can keep people viewing your videos is to actually send them there yourself. You can do this, again, with the annotations tool. What I like to do is choose the “Add Note” Annotation, which turns out to be more of a rectangle than a speech bubble. You can then edit your text, and add a link by clicking the appropriate buttons. Remember to send them to videos that are somewhat related. This keeps them happy and hungry for more. Sending them to something completely different like a video talking about a product you’re selling could tick them off and they might not come back.

The above tips will help you improve your YouTube videos and with the end result of enhancing your viewers’ experience. The more they check out your videos, the more they will come to know who you are, what you are about, and what you have in common with them. They will be more apt to follow your developments and check out your site, as well as potentially buying a product or services from you down the road.

Other Things to Keep in Mind

There are other things you can do to show up on people’s radar and potentially create a larger and more loyal following.

Add Comments When you watch a video that impresses you, there’s nothing wrong with leaving a short congratulatory comment. This could lead to other users clicking on your username and checking out your channel.Read Comments on Your Video When someone comments on one of your videos, you will get an email in your inbox. Respond if necessary. This can build loyalty with that particular YouTube member. If someone asks you a question or for more information about a specific aspect of your video, reply to it, but also log it in a notebook somewhere. If one person asks a question, there are probably dozens more that had the same question but didn’t take the time to comment. You can prepare a new video some time down the road that addresses that question, making your subscribers happier, and building your following.

Add a Solid Description There are so many wasted opportunities for SEO on YouTube it’s sickening. At the very least in the description box, you should put a link to your website, blog or your channel that viewers can click. In addition you should also include a short description. That is about all that is necessary these days because the design of the description box recently got changed so very little is visible. Before, the description box was positioned vertically and more info could be displayed, but now most of it is hidden. In the past I have included condensed articles, key words and links to products in my description boxes, but rarely do anymore because the viewer has to hit a drop-down box in order to view it.

Add Friends As you make more videos, you will be Friended by more viewers. Go ahead and add them back because this helps you out to send more people your bulletins and makes the other member feel more warm and fuzzy, especially if you respond quickly.

Subscribe If someone impresses you on YouTube, go ahead and subscribe to them. For instance, if you think Grip Strength and Grip Feats are cool, subscribe to my channel. Your subscriptions show up on your home page when you log onto YouTube, so you can check out what has been newly posted by your subscriptions and get quick access to it.

Facebook and Twitter Whenever you upload a new video, you can direct your Facebook and Twitter friends to check it out by sending the link to them. You can do this manually, or you can set your preferences to do it automatically bu connecting your YouTube account with the other sites. You can set this up on the Upload page, right beneath the transfer panel.

The Most Important Thing to Remember

YouTube is a social networking site, just like Facebook and Twitter. If you are going to spend time on sites like these, it is a good idea to use the above practices to optimize your videos. However, be conscious of the point of diminishing returns. Social sites can eat up your time like the cookie monstereats chocolate chip cookies. Investing 2 hours a day on YouTube is probably too much, while 20 to 30 minutes of making sure each new video is optimized is probably more reasonable.

So, there are a few things you can do to improve the YouTube process. It does not take much time to do these things once you get the hang of it, so give it a try and make it a habit and soon you won’t even notice it.

If you have any questions, I’d be glad to help. Don’t even hesitate to email me at jedd dot diesel at gmail dot com.

All the best with your business.

Jedd Johnson

Jedd Johnson is a Strength Coach, and Grip Strength Competitor in Pennsylvania who loves Internet Marketing. His main interest is helping people accomplish their goals, whatever they may be. Check out his site at DieselCrew.com for fun, challenging and beneficial training ideas.