I love stats. Well, good, fun, informative stats that is. Check out the video below that I caught from a Mashable post.

Among the more fascinating statistics in The Economist’s Fall 2009 “Did You Know?” video on media convergence include that 40 million people have been rick-rolled, 95% of all downloaded songs last year weren’t paid for, there are 2 million TVs in bathrooms in the U.S., and 90% of some 200 billion emails sent per day are spam.

When you can take stats like those listed above, and drop them into a fun and entertaining video… you’ve got gold Jerry, Gold!

What did you think of this video? Good stuff, eh? Now… what kind of simple video like this can YOU make? I know you can do the research and find good stats. Then you simply have to find a video editor to put it together for you. Search your local colleges for a video department and find a student who has some time and who wouldn’t mind a few extra hundred bucks. Or look on Craigslist. Believe me, there are tons of people out there now looking for extra work.

When you make your video… post about it here. I’d love to see it.

You’re not going to find a better example of a viral type video built specifically to drive an action than this one.

Go watch this now and come back.

Notice how smart this was done? A powerful, emotional story, told without voice, in music and images.

Also notice how smart the call to actions are at the end of the video? They don’t interrupt. They are relevant. They help you easily share it.

This video will go viral because it’s that good. And frankly, this is something you could make over at www.Animoto.com for free.

Use emotions and tell stories.

One of the best things you can do in video that you can’t do in text, or even audio, is explain things. You know, like a tutorial. Guy Kawasaki has a great article about tutorials here.

This week I sat through eight hours of companies pitching themselves to a panel of experts at SXSW. It was a challenging experience because the companies had two minutes to explain what they do, and very few could. Indeed, in most cases the first question that the panelists asked was, “What exactly do you do again?” The same thing happens hundreds of thousands of times every day as people visit company websites. How many websites pass this simple test: “People can understand what the company does in two minutes or less”?

One of the video tutorials he talks about is this one below.

Here’s another tutorial video below that talks about the credit crisis.

You should watch for two reasons. 1. Because it’s a good video that explains how the USA got into this financial mess, and 2. Because it shows an effective way to explain something in visual form.

Of course, Lee over at CommonCraft.com is the master of these types of videos as well. Here’s a video on investing in what they call “plain English”.

These types of tutorial videos are an extremely effective way of getting your point across about a complex issue. Try it.

I should point out that making these types of videos is not easy. Many of them require effects that need to be done by a professional video editor or animator. It’s not going to be cheap to get this done. Contact me if you need a resource.

In part one of this series, we got five amazing tips on how to promote your videos from video expert Jake Ludington of JakeLudington.com. Part two, below, is the final five tips to promoting your videos on YouTube and beyond.

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Jake Ludington helps over 500,000 people answer their video and audio questions every month. From detailed tutorials on complicated video editing scenarios to finding useful tools for isolated problems, Jake provides ongoing research on the best methods for making Internet delivered video.

Also watch at:
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Everyone wants to know… How do I get more people to watch my videos? Well, here’s some answers for you. On today’s Daily Flip, I convinced video expert Jake Ludington of JakeLudington.com to give his top ten secrets to getting more views on your videos.

Whether you want more views on your blog, or on YouTube, or wherever, Jake’s tips work, and will give you the knowledge you need as a new video producer to climb your way to stardom in the world of online video. Watch this blog for Part II where Jake will give his final five tips. Subscribe to be notified!

Subscribe to my email update list. No spam.	Subscribe to my YouTube channel.	Grab my rss feed!

Jake Ludington helps over 500,000 people answer their video and audio questions every month. From detailed tutorials on complicated video editing scenarios to finding useful tools for isolated problems, Jake provides ongoing research on the best methods for making Internet delivered video.

Also watch at:
YouTube, Metacafe, DailyMotion, Blip.tv and Veoh

If you aren’t watching sXephil on YouTube yet, you should be. His main site is PhillyD.tv. The guy does a daily show that is one of the best I’ve seen. No, not as good as ZEFrank (who is?), but he’s close which is a pretty big compliment in my book.

The other day Phil talked about the things you need to know if you are trying to make videos for YouTube. Watch his video first, then my video response below.

YouTube link: How to be a YouTube Star?.

TheDailyFlip.com is a web show about online marketing and being an entrepreneur. Jim Kukral is an award-winning and long-time blogger, as well as speaker, writer, online marketer and web entrepreneur. You can read more about Jim Kukral here.

Subscribe to the rss feed for a chance to win your very own Flip Ultra video camera.

Dwight Schrute has one, why can’t I? I love the Internets. You can order all kinds of crazy things you previously wouldn’t have known about.

Someone buy me one? Visit http://www.whoopassenterprises.com.

Also, check out this video. Well done. YouTube is my life! Hat tip Nalts.

Found this great site tonight as well. Brotherhood2.com. Great concept, great execution.

There’s so much fun stuff out there to see. I need to start exploring more online, that’s for sure. Enjoy, I am.

If you read this “guide to viral video” at Techcrunch, there are actually some really good tips in there about tags, and other tips about how to create videos that people want to watch.

But in the end, the article is crap for you and me… why?

Because viral videos are a waste of your time, just like traffic.

You tell me something. How do you monetized a viral video? Seriously, I want you to explain to me how to do it? That article didn’t explain it. In fact, that article specifically points that “they make money by taking other people’s videos and making them get viewed a lot”.

A. That’s not viral really. Views aren’t viral per say. Sharing is what really makes something viral.
B. That’s a good model if you can sell it and find clients, but is that really your thing?

Again, that article tells you nothing about how to make money from your “viral” videos. Why? Because it’s really, really hard to do, unless you’re a porn site.

People, stop chasing b.s. dreams like “viral” and “traffic”!

I’m here to tell you, that it’s a complete and utter waste of time. The odds of going viral are extremely low, and even if you do, it’s hard to monetize it.

Now, let me just say that if your goal is to become famous… then you should absolutely attempt to make videos that go “viral”. But to monetize… forget it.

More from Mathew, the dudes at Commoncraft chime in as well, and Centernetworks writes a great headline.