Be accessible, and communicate regularly

If you have
your own Web site, include the address in your videos
or their descriptions. Lots of video sites have embeddable
players that can drive cross-promotional traffic
from your site to theirs—and vice versa. Take advantage
of this. Also, provide an e-mail address on your
site or in your videos—making it easy for the people
who like your work to get in touch with you helps put
a human face on it. This, in turn, can help drive viral
distribution of your video, because people have a connection
to the creator. As you establish connections
with people, start building an e-mail distribution list
that you can contact when you have new work to
share. Some sites will do this heavy lifting for you
through their “User Channels” functionality. This is
a great way to collect and showcase all your work in

one place. And you can even have people subscribe to
your channel—with subscribers automatically getting
e-mail updates when you upload a new video. If the
site you submit to allows people to comment on your
videos, be an active participant—answer questions directly,
and don’t take criticism too personally. And be
sure to comment on the videos you like—the world of
online video really is about community, so be a good
online neighbor.