(Guest Post by Simon Gornick, CEO of Spotcher)

As the economy tightens, advertisers and their agencies are looking inward to discover the best way to deliver effective marketing messages.

The landscape is in a state of deep flux. There are a flood of new approaches out there, all competing for eyeballs. But there’s one that’s rising faster, and burning brighter than most. Affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketers are some of the most confident, entrepreneurial and innovative people in America. They don’t need hand-holding.

And they’re a big reason why we created our new web app.

It’s called Spotcher. Think of us as the “Craigs List of Online video”.

Spotcher is designed to help bloggers, affiliates, small businesses and mini-moguls of all kinds monetize their video libraries with interactive overlays.

At Affiliate Summit West, there was a great deal of buzz about how affiliate marketers can leverlage video, but also some hesitation.

Video adds value and staying power to a web page, and especially a landing page. Plus videos are treated well by the search engines.

And one more thing. Creating, hosting and syndicating an effective video is easier than you think, and we can point you in the right direction.

Whether your video is global, national or locally targeted, our simple system gives UGC and small business video a path to real revenue potential. If you’re interested in selling products via your own videos, Spotcher can really help you.

We don’t host videos. We just give you more control of them. Partnering up with video share sites gets you a ‘portion’ of the ad revenue. With Spotcher, we know you do an awful lot of revenue sharing as it is. Do you really need another outfit taking a bite out of the hard-won revenue your content is earning?  Didn’t think so.

THE WORKFLOW

• We’re a simple, no frills app that offers only two things. One, Interactive Overlays for your hosted videos, and two, the help and guidance you need to use them effectively.

• Affiliates drive their self-hosted videos through our brandable player, create and add monetizing or info links to their own interactive overlays, then market,  distribute and share their videos.

• Links can continue to monetize across all instances of each video for as long as they’re active, so the process works well for long-tail e-commerce.  And the good news is that videos index better the longer they’re around.

• Our site guides and helps our users on creating great videos, as well as converting, hosting, linking, indexing and marketing their libraries.

• Except for our free plan (which starts free and stays free), we charge a small subscription based on number of videos users link to us, and that’s it.

WHY INTERACTIVE OVERLAYS

• Interactive Overlays are a seamless, intuitive, opt-in way to get commercial messages across without compromising enjoyment of your video content.

• When used best, commercial message overlays enhance a video rather than distract from it. That can mean a big boost in engagement and click-throughs.

• We think self-generated overlays will be a far more effective way of monetizing the video explosion than any other ad format. So why offer anything else?

• Because the content is driving the consumer’s decision to buy, that potential buyer is often far more motivated punch that ‘click to order’ button.

• The best indexing algorithm is the one in your head. You know best the relevant products and links for your video content.

• With the help of our easy to use metrics package, as well as your network stats, you can figure out what’s what’s flying and what needs changing.

LINKING WITH SPOTCHER

CPS Text URLs work best. Use Skimlinks, Viglink or any deep-linking engine from your CPS networks like CJ, Linkshare, and Google to create product, category or site links that you can add to your overlays. If it works in your browser’s address bar, it will work in an overlay. Simple as that.

TRY SPOTCHER FOR YOURSELF

We’ve just got started, so we’re keen to get your feedback on how to make our service even better. And remember, Spotcher helps you monetize your first two videos for free, so you can get to know the system before you move to a pay subscription.

Simon Gornick is the CEO of Spotcher

http://spotcher.com

@spotcher