As the brand new start-up that we are, we here at Veobrand are heavily spending time deciding on the direction we want our online video marketing company to take. We know exactly what we want to accomplish and know what we want to do – develop an online video advertising network, however, the question is, what are the first, second and third steps to achieve our goals.

Considering we are starting with skill sets that do not include computer programming, we have a big challenge in deciding upon our first steps. Do we invest the little money that we have in putting together the customized and automated solutions that we want to roll out or do we begin with a more simple approach to launch using online tools that even we know how to use and have access to. Considering we are bootstrapping all the way, it wasn’t hard for us to decide to push off the full implementation of our customized solution until our cash-flow situation improves. So, for now, an organizational psychologist (that’s me) and an internet sales director (my partner) are also wearing the hats of graphic designer and programmer. I have to admit, it’s quite challenging, but, we are on the way with our new business, and that is what counts!

Interestingly enough, the desire to create Veobrand came about as a result of being involved in an exciting business initiative to create a niche-market based Youtube video sharing site.

A group of very diverse and talented people got together to make this project happen and it almost made it, but timing wasn’t right, and timing for business is a major factor.

One important lesson that came from that experience was the huge potential of monetizing online videos. The question isn’t if it will happen, but how and when it will happen.

When we started our initiative, Youtube did not yet even play around with pre-rolls, post-rolls or mid-roll video ads, like they are doing today. Most of the video sharing sites were still advertisement free, but everyone knew that money had to be made and video ads were the main method to bring in the money.

Interestingly enough, we here at Veobrand, have a strong hunch that the market potential of online videos is much deeper than various video advertising solutions, but I’m getting ahead of myself here. As we clarify the online video solutions, I will go more into that.

After producing my own movie, self-distributing it worldwide and promoting it online, I have come to learn that online video marketing is much more than posting videos to YouTube, embedding on your website or sending out via email.

Looking back at how I got started with online video marketing, it’s actually quite funny to realize that Youtube didn’t exist then! I got started when I decided to produce my first video clip to go viral. Actually,  now that I think about it, the term “go viral” didn’t exist then either!

This was back in the fall of 2005.

When I wanted to upload my video clip to the internet to “go viral”, I think the first solution I used was a website called archive.org, and all it allowed for was to have a web address for an online video. To spread the video around I used my blog posts and emails to friends, family, colleagues etc. I was honestly quite surprised to find out that my video was watched over 50,000 times in less than a months time! Considering that the online video industry was not even in its infancy, I must admit that that was quite an accomplishment.

You might say that my interest in online video marketing started then. However, it took 5 years to develop from an interest into a full-blown business initiative, with the creation of Veobrand.