There was a time when it didn’t matter how long your videos were because people were happy to watch almost anything online, if they had a fast connection.

Then came the video deluge, with millions and billions of videos all competing for eyeballs. “Make it short! Make it snappy!” was the cry of the day.

These days people watch all lengths of videos, as long as they are interesting. Think about Netflix and the other movie and television services – viewers stay glued to those videos for hours at a time, which is great training to watch your videos, too.

But that doesn’t mean you can bumble and stumble and ramble on. Here are seven tips for getting your videos watched and acted upon:

1. Continue to favor short videos. If you can make your video shorter while still delivering the same content, do it.

2. Don’t get crazy with the intros. Have you ever clicked on a video only to get a 30 second intro before the actual video started? Did you stay for the whole 30 seconds? Most people don’t. Start your videos off with a bang, delivering immediate content to get the viewer hooked.

3. Don’t bury your lead. Burying the lead is an old newspaper term for hiding your biggest point somewhere in the story, instead of leading with it. If your video is going to show them how to double their profits, start with that – not with how you grew up on a Kansas wheat farm.

4. Use energy and enthusiasm throughout your video. Steven Wright the comic can get away with speaking in a dry, monotone voice because he makes it funny. The rest of us need to inject plenty of energy to keep viewers watching.

5. Don’t hide your call to action at the end. No matter how great your video is, not everyone will watch it all the way through. If you want them to click on something, try inserting a clickable annotation within the first few seconds or at least within the first minute. People in a hurry will appreciate this.

6. Do you have a long training to present? Break it up into a series of shorter videos.

7. Have you got a great speech or show to share? Don’t break it up. Instead, allow your audience to sit back and enjoy the full experience of it.

The best rule of all – never, ever, ever be boring – not even for a second. If you can follow just this one rule, your videos will be viewed and shared like gangbusters.

If you’re like me, you’ve got so many things to do that you forget half of them. But I’ve got a solution that works great…

I set up daily, weekly and monthly alerts on my phone to remind me to do these things.

For example, once a week I receive a reminder to spend two hours finding new JV partners and affiliates.

This alone has added major revenue to my bottom line.

I set alerts to remind me to do my “to-do” stuff, take my vitamins, get my exercise, check certain websites and so forth.

So here’s how you can most benefit from this technique:

Make a list of all the little things that tend to fall through the cracks.

Pick out the ones that have the most value for you – such as finding new affiliates, new products to promote, new people to interview – your list will vary. These are your priorities and not to be ignored.

Set an alert for each one. Depending on what it is, the alert might be daily, weekly, etc.

Very important: Attach a note to each alert so you know what it is you’re supposed to do. If you’re like me and you don’t attach a note, you won’t have a clue when the chime goes off as to what it means.

Add alerts as you think of new things you should be doing.

After a few weeks of this, I think you’ll be pleasantly shocked at how much more you get done, and how much faster you’re growing your business.

This takes a bit of work but it’s pretty simple and straightforward. And if you position it correctly, it works year round, too.

Become an Amazon affiliate. Now search Amazon for the best toys for kids. It could be for a certain age of kids, or a certain type of toy (like educational) or whatever you choose. If Halloween is coming, you can do the best kids costumes. For Christmas it will be the best presents for kids, and year round it can be the most popular, or educational, or most fun, or whatever criteria you choose.

Build a page with each toy listed. Give each toy a fun description and a good picture.

Under each toy and description, put a “click here for more information” link. This is of course your affiliate link.

Now haunt the mommy forums and sign up with a woman’s name (yes, even if you are a man.) Find the busiest threads, leave comments, and mention where you got some great present ideas for your kids. Give out your link.

I know for a fact his works. You won’t get rich, but you will make some extra money. And you can always outsource the forum comments to someone else to perform for you.