Business Video Contest Produces Early Adapters And Unexpected YouTube Benefits

SBI! Contest Produces A "YouTube Collection" That Drives Affiliate Sales

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

SiteSell.com designs a hands-on contest to encourage its small business Site Build It! clients to implement video marketing, and capitalize on an emerging advertising strategy that is gaining significant traction.

SiteSell's contest gave participants 3 months to create a video to communicate their feelings about Site Build It!, its popular Web hosting platform. Participants had access to in-house resource information/tutorials on how to create and upload a video to YouTube. Prize money ranged from $10,000 for top place to $500 for Honorable Mentions.

The timing of the contest, according to Ken Evoy, President of SiteSell.com, was right. "The signs are all around us. Surfers are showing their preference for visual content, especially as high-speed Internet connection becomes more affordable. Words will be important for at least another decade. But if you're not seriously learning about video now, if you are not making your first mistakes with your first productions now, your competitors are going to pass you by."

There were thirty-eight prize-winning videos from the contest. These highly engaging and personal videos are currently promotional tools for SiteSell's affiliate force, known as the 5 Pillar Program. Affiliates can send visitors through their affiliate link to www.ilovesbi.sitesell.com or they can collaboratively promote the "YouTube Collection" (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL124BAC6397CC48F3), which contains the top SBI! contest entries plus ongoing contributions by other SBI! owners.

According to Evoy, the YouTube Collection, which was not part of the original plan for the contest, is having unexpected benefits. It is already generating stickiness at YouTube, attracting traffic, and driving affiliate sales. The collection keeps viewers in the SiteSell channel, rather than losing them to other unrelated videos on the YouTube site. "It's the contest that keeps on playing," notes Evoy enthusiastically. "And what's really exciting is that SiteSell has just broken into the Top 10 Directors for this week. It's snowballing."

"Not only do 5 Pillar affiliates benefit from this collaborative effort, but so do the video producers themselves. Almost daily, I hear about lucrative spin-offs. For example, one SBI! owner secured contracts from two other local business owners to produce videos for them. Another, a trainer of Andalusia horses in Spain, sold a horse to an American client via a video. And then there is the realtor in Arizona who, due to his SBI! video, was interviewed by CNBC for its Real Estate segment. Exciting stuff, especially when you think that none of these producers had prior video experience before the contest! Video simply connects. Our clients are now ready to make that connection happen."

About SiteSell

SiteSell Inc. is a privately held Canadian based company that has become an international provider of a proprietary small business Web hosting platform called Site Build It! (SBI!). SBI! is a comprehensive, integrated, business-building system that provides site building, hosting, and marketing tools. SBI! (and SiteSell¹s courses and books) has empowered hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs and small businesses to build Web sites that succeed.

Headquartered in Montreal, Canada, SiteSell Inc. has been profitable since its inception in 1997. Ranked in Alexa.com's top 300 sites, SiteSell Inc. has over 100,000 customers and is growing rapidly, all through positive word-of-mouth promotion by its customers and its affiliate force.

Led by President Ken Evoy, and a seasoned management team, SiteSell Inc. employs 45 professionals from Canada, the United States, Australia and Europe.