Since 2011 is over and we're rapidly hurtling toward the end of the world, or at least, the end of the Mayan calender, I asked everyone what they thought 2012 would have in store for online video. As I said in my online video advertising forecast , politics is going to be a major factor across the board in my mind

Along with talking to people about online video advertising in 2011, I also asked around about how many thought the year went for online video in general.

In parts 1 & 2 of the ‘promote’ chapter of our series on running a successful online video contest, we looked at ways of utilizing paid media & owned media to promote your video contest while remaining on a budget. Today in Part 3, we look at ways of using earned media channels to increase awareness and drive users to your video contest site.

As users upload videos and share them with their friends, your video contest will form a viral loop and begin to naturally promote itself. Until then however, it’s worthwhile investing some time & effort in promoting your contest and in the first section of the ‘Promoting on a Budget’ chapter of this series, we will look at several ways you can use paid media to create awareness and drive traffic to your contest site. This post was made possible by Launchpad6 , an out of the box solution for creating video contests.

The premise (or contest idea in layman's terms) is the most important ingredient in a successful video contest. If your contest idea appeals to your target market and content is readily available or easily created you have taken the first step to success. In order to evaluate and improve your contest idea, ask yourself the following questions: This post was made possible by Launchpad6 , an out of the box solution for creating video contests.

This post is the first in a seven-part series that looks at how to plan and execute a successful online video contest. We'll examine what separates the successful video contests from the unsuccessful one’s, and offer a road map marketers can use to help ensure a great contest

Online video contests are growing in popularity and complexity and are now far more savvy than the upload a YouTube video and get people to like it ,etc. A crop of online video contest platforms have sprung up and more are coming all the time.

Earlier in the year I ran an online video contest at Gamers Daily News through Launchpad6, for whom I have done some writing work as well. Since I used their system, it means I could give an accurate run down of the system’s features and usability for those looking for an online video contest platform