The Best Way to Display YouTube Videos on Your Squidoo Lens

Adding YouTube videos to your lens can help jazz it up. Although many people might associate YouTube with mindless entertainment, not all videos can be lumped into that category. There are many instructive videos, too. For instance, if you have a lens about biscuits, you can almost certainly find a YouTube video that shows you how to make your own homemade biscuits. And of course, don’t rule out the idea of adding entertaining videos to your more silly or lighthearted lenses.

There are two ways to display YouTube videos on your lens. You could display one large video in your YouTube module, or you could display a bunch of little ones. Which option is best?

Answer: A single video is almost always better than a bunch of little videos.

When you display a bunch of videos in one module, it ends up looking busy and cluttered. That’s not easy on the eyeballs. It’s hard to tell them apart and decide which one is worth watching. As if that wasn’t bad enough, people will have to go straight to YouTube before they can watch a video. It’s not like you get commissions or kudos from YouTube, so this is a traffic leak you don’t need.

That’s why it’s better to display just one video. People won’t have to leave your lens just to watch it, and it will be big enough to appreciate. It also doesn’t look so busy or confusing. Finally, it’s just better to pick out a few stellar videos to display on your lens rather than just tossing in a mess of videos that are mediocre or only loosely related to your topic.

Speaking of which, you should ALWAYS pick out the videos yourself. Don’t rely on Squidoo to make these decisions for you. Only your eyes can judge whether a video is good enough and relevant enough for your lens.

If you really want to make sure your visitors don’t stray to YouTube’s site, here’s another quick tip: Turn off the link to comments in the YouTube module. You can do this by clicking on the Display Options tab and unchecking the option that says “Video details (runtime, views, link to comments).”

So let me just sum up those YouTube video tips:

• Display one video per YouTube module. Looks nicer, cleaner, and doesn’t send visitors away to YouTube when they decide to watch a video.
• Handpick the videos yourself and watch them first. This can save you a lot of embarrassment.
• Turn off the link to comments in the Display Options tab. Not necessary, but it does turn off one more traffic leak.

Tags: youtube