From Network Webcams
Take your webcam to the next level
Our 10-point Plan to Maximise Return On Your Webcam Investment
Don't hide your webcams away. Be proud of them. Make it so your visitors don't miss them. Think of your webcam as a valuable asset to your website: it'll bring people in and make them come back again. However, make sure that the view is interesting and worthwhile, and most importantly, make sure it's related to the reason they hit your site in the first place. Your viewers won't be back unless it holds real relevence for them.
Too many webcams are hidden away and hard to find. Don't chain them up in the basement like Sloth from The Goonies, let them fly!
A webcam opens up a world of opportunities to you and to your website's visitors. Once you've piqued their interest, take it a step further. Anticipate the questions you'll be asked: where is it?, what's it looking at?, what's that thing in the distance? and so on, and answer those questions for them.
Also, provide information about the possible problems users might encounter in viewing the webcam. You can bet your dear reader will have a different setup from any you've ever tested before.
Give 'em something to see and they will come? Nope. It doesn't work that way. However, a webcam is a great way into the rest of your site, especially for hotels and those in the leisure market, plus they make fantastic, relevant content for the search engines.
'Webcam' is one of the most popular search phrases today and with a great webcam which other sites want to link to, your webcam page is likely to be found first of all your pages.
Tip: One-way incoming links are extremely powerful in getting your website listed in the major search engines, particularly Google. Your webcam can generate these incoming links without you lifting a finger, or paying an SEO company (phah..!) wads of cash to do it for you.
Surround your webcam with related content using your site's targeted key words and phrases. You can bet your webcam will be the first thing found on your site from organic searches and will quickly become your website's most popular page. But you don't want the wrong kind of visitor, so make sure it's all relevant to your website and interesting to your target audience.
Your webcam gets lonely. It wants to be watched. A great way to get viewers is to add your webcam to all the major webcam directories. An even better way is to use streamdays.com (subject to vetting by our esteemed quality control boffins) to promote your webcam. It has a great Google PR and this will help your site achieve higher, and more consistent organic search rankings.
As we've said, your webcam will bring more visitors to your website in a variety of ways. Naturally, more business will follow. Sure, you measure how many sales you make through your online store, but don't forget to quantify the business which your webcam brings to you. You will quickly see that a webcam makes a large, and swift return on investment.
Treat your webcam like you would any marketing campaign (though much, much cheaper) and make it earn its biscuits. It'll perform for you, provided you give it the support it needs, and keep tabs on its welfare. Your webcam can become your website's, and your business's single most useful asset. If it ain't working, it ain't earning.
Let's face it, whilst your webcam will bring in targeted traffic, it will also encourage what we like to call 'splash & dashers'™ - a quick view of the webcam and they're off again. These surfers are often just passing through and you can make money from this traffic with tools such as Google Adsense. A few ads on your most popular page with each click paying you a few pennies, can pay for your webcam and make money on top of that. Can you see how good an investment a webcam is yet?
A press release can be a great way to gain exposure for your webcam and your website. You've got a great view, why not shout about it? Every story has an angle and a simple press release can create a buzz.
Using sites like PRWeb.com and PRWire.com can also gain you valuable incoming links to your webcam, but don't forget to talk about your webcam on all the forums and blogs you visit too. Remember though, relevence is key to its success.
Devise viral marketing techniques based around your webcam.
Viral marketing uses the communication networks of your site visitors and current customers to spread the word about your web site and webcam exponentially. Some examples include word-of-mouth, public relations, referrals, blogs, videos, creating "buzz", and other forms of network marketing.
Perhaps your dog swallowed the webcam, but it still kept broadcasting? Funnies like this can spread like wildfire over the net and your website address with them. Although this was just an silly example (we do not, of course, condone feeding webcams to any dog, or animals of any kind - our vegan Technical Director would have a heart attack) it gives a flavour of the kinds of things which make superb viral marketing subjects. Get creative! Get viral! Get infected!
Please don't get us wrong, we're not trying to insult you. We just truly believe that the more webcams you have, the more business you'll get. It's a tried and tested formula and like E=MC² it works! (Energy = Mass x [Speed of light in a vacuum] squared if you didn't already know ;-) ).
Your website and your business NEED webcams. It's not rocket science.
