The other day, I came across an animated and interactive infographic called State of the Internet 2011. Like the State of the Internet video, this infographic details the different Internet statistics but the only difference is that the data/numbers in the infographic are more up-to-date.

Here’s a short introduction for the State of the Internet 2011 infographic.

The Internet is a strange, huge beast. It is getting bigger, faster and more mobile each day. Ferocious social networks fight each other to be on top and gain more of our attention and personal information. An entire economy is generated from our browsing habits. This is the face of the Internet now. .

Some interesting data from the infographic:

• 1.2 Million Editors editing 11 million articles per month on Wikipedia.
• 1 person out of 13 is on Facebook.
• 2 billion YouTube videos watched daily.
• 89% of emails are spam.
• Only 20% of individuals in the developing world are online.
• There are 152 million blogs on the Internet.

The screenshot above is only a sample. The real infographic is interactive so some of the data are interactive and dynamic so it depends on how long the user has viewed the infographic. The data are reset when the user refreshes the infographic page.

The infographic must’ve been made earlier this year because it doesn’t include or contain any information regarding Google+. It would be interesting to see an updated version of this infographic that includes Google+.

Click here to access the State of the Internet 2011 animated infographic.

When you’re looking for ways to better drive traffic to your website, you have to consider YouTube. YouTube is an asset that many marketers have found indispensable, yet many others continue to disregard this top video search engine as something that can take their business to the next level.

YouTube’s Stats

While there are other video search engines available, none of them even come close to scratching the surface of YouTube. Let’s take a look at some statistics amassed by Website-Monitoring.com:

• Twenty-four hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every single minute
• YouTube exceeds two billion views a day
• The average person spends fifteen minutes per day on YouTube
• More video is uploaded to YouTube in sixty days than has been created by all three major US networks in the past sixty years

Over thirteen million hours of videos were uploaded to YouTube during 2010 alone. When all these stats are laid before you, you can’t deny that YouTube is the best video search engine around.

Every day, web surfers visit YouTube for a multitude of reasons. Some want to catch up on the latest news, some are car enthusiasts who want to watch videos of their favorite cars, some want to see some funny videos, some are DIY specialists wanting to see a video tutorial for their new woodworking router, and some are photographers looking into digital camera reviews.

I can’t list the thousands of reasons why people might visit YouTube. The important thing to think about here is the statistical significance.

Getting Going on YouTube

Creating a video for YouTube really is a lot easier than most may think. You don’t have to be an expert videographer by any stretch. All you need is an inexpensive HD video camera that you can purchase online or at an electronics store for about $100.

When you’re actually shooting your video, the best thing to do is keep it simple. Less, as they say, is more. You should also plan your shoot ahead of time so you don’t waste money and time. You should also shoot your video in sequence so everything stays better organized.

Two more tips: avoid walking and shooting at the same time and avoid using the zoom feature as much as possible, as both sequences will likely be edited out in the end.

Another tip that I heard Steven Spielberg talking about on TV is that there are essentially three main shots: the wide shot to establish the scene, the mid-range shot, and of course the close-up. Stick with these three according-to-Spielberg shots and the story you are trying to tell in your video will come across much better through your use of imagery.

My Very First Foray into YouTube

My very first undertaking into harnessing the power of YouTube traffic was in November of ‘07. YouTube at that point had not yet developed into the powerhouse it is nowadays but it had been going strong for a few years and I was curious to see what I could make happen with it. So I registered on YouTube and proceeded to upload a video my friend created from some footage my son Justin shot of me cruising around town in my Shelby Cobra kit car, my dream car.

I’d wanted to know how much exposure I’d gain and I was very surprised at how well it did. My video’s viewership increased month after month and viewership has continued to rise ever since. Today, my video’s viewership has rocketed to over 313,000, as you can see in my graph.

YouTube’s great built-in features are what made it possible for me to track all of these statistics. If you couldn’t tell already, I was really impressed by what YouTube had to offer and nowadays I have a lot of YouTube videos working for me every day – and I plan on adding more videos. If you aren’t using YouTube today, you should start now!

7 Ways to Put Your Video at the Top of YouTube’s Rankings

Since publishing my first video back in 2007, I’ve learned quite a bit on how to highly rank a video on YouTube:

• Tip #1 – Don’t forget to include the keyword phrase you want to rank for in the headline for your video.
• Tip #2 – You want your video to keep people’s attention. If your viewers are clicking away early, your YouTube rankings will be negatively impacted. The video’s length isn’t all that important; you just want it to keep people’s attention.
• Tip #3 – Include a description of your video. Sit down and write an interesting and keyword-rich description in the “Show More” section below your YouTube video. Include links to drive traffic in this section as well.
• Tip #4 – Put your video in the correct category and use the correct tags to boost your rankings.
• Tip #5 – Always allow comments and actually encourage people to comment – this will help guide any future videos you may post. Viewers can also “like” and “dislike” your YouTube video, which will give you even more direction. You should ask your viewers to “Favorite” you and you should also ask them to visit your site. You can also insert calls to action throughout your video with text overlays.
• Tip #6 – YouTube automatically tracks embeds, so you can see how your video is being shared with other sites. Keeping that in mind, don’t forget to share your YouTube videos with any social networks you take part in. If you are on Facebook, let’s say, you can embed your videos on your Wall to further boost your social media traffic.
• Tip #7 – Always stay informed about your statistics on YouTube. The amount of information you can put together using your stats there is amazing. You can see the number of viewings per day your video is getting and where they drop off, your female versus male viewers, and you can also get some great graphs that are absolutely chock full of information. You can also download all this information in a spreadsheet.

Another thing worth saying is: always make sure that you stay within YouTube’s terms of use. It may seem like a no-brainer, but you can easily break these terms by using copyrighted music in your video. It’s pretty crazy, but YouTube actually detects copyrighted music during uploading and removes it automatically. So the lesson here is that if you want your video to be seen as you intended it you should use songs that are public domain.

More, More, More

To further illuminate things, let’s talk about ShareASale. If you are into affiliate marketing already, you may know about ShareASale already. Every year, I attend the ShareASale Think Tank and I have since it began back in ‘06. For the last 4 years, I have also recorded the event in a video.

Go to YouTube and do a search for “ShareASale Think Tank.” You will find my YouTube videos ranked highly. You can also Google “ShareASale Think Tank” and see my videos ranking highly there as well, which gives them even more exposure.

While lots of people still use text (I am typing this, after all), every day more folks are adding YouTube videos to their marketing program. What you are promoting or selling on your website isn’t important; whether it’s router lifts, Tonka Toys, mobility scooters, motorcycle insurance, mobile phones – YouTube simply must be a big part of your marketing program.

I’m sure that you’ll see great results using the techniques I’ve laid out here. As always, I look forward to any commentary and questions, so let’s share.

Found out earlier today via email that popular social bookmarking service Delicious was recently acquired by the founders YouTube – Chad Hurley and Steve Chen. This is great news not only for current Delicious users but also for other people who plan on using this awesome social bookmarking web service.

Here’s the official announcement via the Delicious blog:

April 27 2011
YouTube Founders Acquire Delicious

Today, we’re pleased to announce that Delicious has been acquired by the founders of YouTube, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen. As creators of the largest online video platform, they have firsthand experience enabling millions of users to share their experiences with the world. They are committed to running and improving Delicious going forward.

Providing a seamless transition for users is incredibly important for both companies. Yahoo! will continue to operate Delicious until approximately July 2011. When the transition period is complete, your information will be moved over to Delicious’ new owner.

Starting today, we will ask you to login to Delicious again and agree to let Yahoo! transfer your bookmarks to the new owner. That way, you’ll enjoy uninterrupted use of the service and will keep your account and all of your bookmarks when we make the transition. For more information on the Delicious transition, please refer to this FAQ.

Thank you for your patience in this time of transition and thank you for using Delicious!

As a Delicious user, I also received an email containing the official announcement of the acquisition:

Dear Delicious User,
Yahoo! is excited to announce that Delicious has been acquired by the founders of YouTube, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen. As creators of the largest online video platform, Hurley and Chen have firsthand expertise enabling millions of consumers to share their experiences with the world. Delicious will become part of their new Internet company, AVOS.

To continue using Delicious, you must agree to let Yahoo! transfer your bookmarks to AVOS. After a transition period and after your bookmarks are transferred, you will be subject to the AVOS terms of service and privacy policy.

If you’re an active Delicious user and would like to continue using the service and also keep your bookmarks, you’ll have to let Yahoo! transfer your bookmarks. The current Delicious will only be available until July 2011 so if you don’t transfer your account/bookmarks before that time, you’ll lose access to your account, account information and bookmarks.

Click on this link to learn more about moving your bookmarks.

Today we’re doing a little bit more to bring you all the goodness of Google, plus the opinions of the people you care about. As always, we want to help you find the most relevant answers among the billions of interconnected pages on the web. But relevance isn’t just about pages—it’s also about relationships. That’s why we introduced Google Social Search in 2009, and why we’ve made a number of improvements since then. Today we’re taking another step forward—enabling you to get even more information from the people that matter to you, whether they’re publishing on YouTube, Flickr or their own blog or website.

Here’s a demo video of Google Social Search’s new features:

Social Search Results:
Link Shared on Facebook

Link shared on Twitter

To use these Social Search features, users have to be logged in to their Google accounts and link to their social networking accounts. Another option included in the recent update is the ability to privately link their social networking accounts to their Google account. If you have multiple accounts, you can link all those accounts and choose which one you want to be public or private.

These new Google Social Search features are currently available only to the English version of Google.com and will start rolling in the coming week.

What do you think of the new Google Social Search updates? Are links shared by friends more reliable? Please share your thoughts.

This infographic breaks down the top social media or social networking sites according to gender, age, income and other demographics. The sites involved in this infographic are: Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, StumbleUpon, YouTube and Digg.

Key Points:

• MySpace has the greatest gender divide, with a 64% female and 36% male membership.
• Twitter has the largest division of wealthy users with 27% earning $75,000/year or more.
• Facebook has the largest division of older users with 37% being 45 years or older.
• Digg has the largest division of users with a graduate degree at 9%.
• Stumbleupon is very popular among graphic designers. You’re 14.2 times more likely to reach a graphic designer through Stumbleupon than if you were to cast your marketing message broadly across the internet.

This infographic doesn’t only provide interesting data to regular users but it also helps bloggers, webmasters, advertising and marketing people to determine what or where they should be focusing their marketing efforts on.

What do you think of KISSmetric’s Who Likes What Social Media infographic? What particular statistic or data do you find most interesting? Please share your thoughts.