Gary Vaynerchuk has a great video about following your passion and not a buck. He talks about how those who are passionate but not as talented as those who are just out for a buck in an industry will still do better because they will put in more effort and in the long run do better. Gary does a better job of explaining. I’d like to hear your POV. Post your comments below:

In the ongoing effort to monetize, YouTube is now testing letting partners offer downloadable videos. Partners can allow downloads for free or for pay via Google Checkout, which requires a fee.

Partners testing the free downloads are educational, including Stanford, Duke, UC Berkeley and UCTV. Partners testing the paid downloads include users khanacademy, householdhacker and pogobat.

via YouTube Tests Downloading; Offers Creative Commons – Search Marketing News Blog – Search Engine Watch (SEW).

Image: Search Engine Watch

This is a great way for not only YouTube to make money off the talents of the masses, but also for the masses to be able to finally monetize the viral videos that often take lots of effort to produce.

This downloading capability will also probably spur the growth of more innovation an creativity through re-mashing of downloaded videos.

Another positive point to the video downloading is that it will give Apple’s iTunes a run for its money. Competition is always good.

I know I look forward to seeing where this development takes us. What are your thoughts. Post them below.

Rand over at SEOMoz did a great video on the misconceptions of Microsites and how to fix the problem. Check it out below.

SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday – The Microsite Mistake from Scott Willoughby on Vimeo.

Very good quick video from GaryVee on how to get into the trenches and get your content found. Worth a watch. I’d like to hear your comments. Post them below.

Social media guru Perry Belcher has a great new video out on how to organize your thoughts coming out of your brain. Check out the video below. It’s really neat how Perry is using YouTube to share his messages with his fans and build his social media chops. I’d like to hear your comments on it. Post them below as well. Thanks!

Common Craft has put out another great video, this time it’s on Social Media. With Social Media growing in popularity, more and more people are trying to learn what exactly it is. This video does a great job of doing just that. Enjoy.

TwiTip.com has a great post on what the differences and what the similarities are between Facebook and Twitter. The article highlights the pros and cons of both services and what type of person each service appeals to.

A very interesting article. Below are the pros and cons of each service. Take a look.

Twitter Pros

* Easy to navigate and update, link to and promote anything

* Reach far beyond your inner circle of friends

* One feed pools all users; anyone can follow anyone else unless blocked

* Pure communication tool, rapid responsiveness

* You don’t have to be logged in to get updates; you can just use an RSS reader

* Very interactive, extensible messaging platform with open APIs

* Many other applications being developed (Twitterific, Summize, Twhirl, etc.)

* Potential SMS text messaging revenue from wireless networks (although Twitter states they are not currently getting any cut)

* Potential future advertising and/or enterprise subscription-based revenue streams\* With its “thin” overhead, Twitter is probably more scalable than Facebook, giving it a cost advantageTwitter Cons

* Limited functionality; find people, send brief messages, direct replies

* Limited to 140 characters per update

* Not all people find it immediately useful

* Over-emphasis on follower counts

* Easily abused for spam and increasing the noise level

* Relatively smaller installed user base

* As yet no readily apparent monetization strategy

Facebook Pros

* Application mashup; find people, make connections, email, instant messaging, image/video sharing, etc.

* Most people can quickly grasp the value of connecting with friends, family and established contacts; some people report they use Facebook instead of email and IM

* More emphasis on deep connections with others vs. who has the most connections

* “True Friends” feature increases your transparency to selected connections; almost like having private and public profiles

* Huge, rapidly growing installed user base

* Inherit stickiness, third party applications, “gift giving” and personal data collection make Facebook a powerful advertising platform

Facebook Cons

* More difficult to navigate and update

* Requires investment of time to realize sustained benefit

* Opt in model requires a user to allow others to connect

* Less immediate responses; unless you stay logged on continually

* Overhead of mashup and “thick” applications could limit scalability, bloat cost structure

via Facebook vs Twitter.

A must watch:

Image Credit: Junta42.com

There is an interesting term circulating on the Web lately. The term is Social Media Marketing and it has become the newest hip thing to offer clients. Many marketers are touting the skill. Is this wrong? No. Is it wrong to boast a skill that you really don’t have? Yes. That’s exactly the problem. Many are saying they offer it but don’t have a clue how to leverage it for business purposes.

I know that when I decided to offer “Social Media Marketing” as a service to my clients, I decided I needed to know as much about the inner workings of these social media sites as possible so that I could explain them to my clients in simple terms that they could understand. I immediately went to Amazon and bought as many books on services like Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter as well as books on the philosophy behind social media and how use it to grow your business. After all this reading was I ready to offer the service to my clients? No. I still had to test it out on my own brand first to make sure I was able to do it. Have I found success? Yes and no. Social Media Marketing isn’t an overnight task. Like Search Engine Optimization, it takes time to grow a community around yourself and your brand and gain their trust.

A good example of how I’ve slowly built up my brand and myself in social media is on Twitter. I’ve been a member of the microblogging service since September 2007. When I first signed up, it was merely to see what it was all about. I didn’t quite understand the power of it. Honestly, most didn’t at that time. Slowly I began to gain friends on the service and build relationships. About a year and a few months later I have 550+ followers and I’m slowly seeing the effects of my hardwork.

I’ve started to do some social media work for my clients and before I start I always tell them that it takes time. They won’t see results overnight and they need to be patient and actively participate in the discussions and discourse on these services. Honestly, if any “social media marketing guru” tells a client that they can do it overnight, show them the door.

I think “Social Media Marketing” is becoming a buzz term that is popular because it has a good ring to it. What bugs me is those Twitter users or Facebook users that say they’re social media gurus but have no website with examples of how they’ve applied it to their own company. Why would you hire someone to grow your company if they haven’t even tried to do it for themselves first.

The best test-subject is yourself. Before you go to market with a product try it out on yourself first. Iron out the bugs and figure out how you can apply it to other people. Only then do you market it to others. Not before.

Even with the growth of this new industry, people are going to continue to claim skills that they don’t really have. It’s up to the customers to find the ones that really are the real deal.

I want to hear your views on this. Please post your comments below!