People love videos, and if a picture can paint a thousand words, just think about what kind of message you can get across with even a short video. YouTube is the most popular site on the whole Internet for people to share videos of all kinds, and many of these videos are viewed by hundreds of thousands or even millions of viewers. In fact, YouTube has some 490 million registered users, and many more who simply view videos without registering.
YouTube makes posting videos on your website quick and easy, without taking up a lot of space or needing extra time to load. You simply post the actual video on YouTube, and then put the HTML code that YouTube provides you to embed the video right into your website. The video shows up on your site just as if it were actually there, but when the viewer plays it, they're actually accessing it through YouTube.
When you create a YouTube account, you not only get the privilege of posting videos, but you can actually establish a presence for your church on YouTube by creating your own channel, where parishioners can find all of your videos in one place. It's a great way to set up an archive without having to use up space on your own site.
Create Your Own "Sound Bytes" Consider videotaping whole sermons and then editing them to three to five minute clips, highlighting the most powerful parts. Then you can post the "sound bytes" on YouTube, embedding them in your site, and post a link to where the viewer can either download the whole sermon, or purchase it from your Web store. What great advertising!
Not only will you get business from the viewers who come to your site, but from potentially thousands more who stumble across your videos on YouTube. And every video you post increases your Web presence, much as the size of your website can improve your listings on Google searches. You Tube is actually the second largest search engine behind Google.com, and is owned by Google, Inc.
You don't have to only post sermons, either. Consider editing together videos from various events, like picnics and bazaars and church outings. Make sure to highlight the most exciting parts, and perhaps even put them to music. You can use these kinds of videos to attract young people to your church who are looking for fun things to do on weekends. Video is your way of presenting the best parts of your church to the world, and YouTube is the conduit.
For more information on this and other topics, get your copy of "The iChurch Method Volume 1: How to Advance Your Ministry Online." or The iChurch Method Volume 2: Changing the World When You Login or even sign up for the iChurch Method Online School.