If you are a little digital-savvy, or if you already have a blog or website of your own, you can market your own video and services just as effectively as any professional marketing agency.

You have put your heart and soul into your video production - now you want the whole world to see it, but you are not sure what to do about it. The good news is that these days you have many options from which to choose. Web-savvy videographers have been inventing new markets and opening up distribution opportunities with minimal resources. You have the potential to reach millions every day using such tools as blogs, social networks, even your own website. They are your opportunity to let your work be seen by the right people and they are all as effective, if not more, than if you hired an advertising agency to do it for you.

Podcasts

Often overlooked by videographers, Podcasts are a great way to distribute your work. Podcasts are audio or video clips that are downloadable at no cost. Because a podcast is subscription-based, use "teaser videos" like the behind-the-scenes of your video or interviews with cast members to get people to subscribe. Once you have a significant number of subscribers, you will be ready to debut your video or film.

Video Portals and Social Networks

Video portals and social networks can establish the value of your video with like-minded people sharing common interests. Getting their attention can be as effective as meeting in person. Your profile page can serve as your website, and using their tools, you can embed video clips, launch podcasts, and even link back to a blog or a website.

YouTube is the most popular video portal in the world. Create your own channel on YouTube, upload your video and send out invitations to people interested in watching your video. Asking for comments and feedback is a great way to establish relationships. Publishing videos on YouTube has propelled some videographers to celebrity status. Amanda Baggs' video about autism caught the attention of CNN executives. Amy Walker's video 21 Accents has received four million hits and an invitation to appear on The Tonight Show.

VodPod is another social networking video sharing site. As with YouTube, you can get your very own video channel up and running in minutes. Use your video channel to power your own video site and connect your channel to your blog, Facebook, even Twitter. Take advantage of their stock templates or customize your video site from scratch.

Facebook is by far the most popular social network in the world. If you have a Facebook account, you can upload your video to your profile page and let the comments pour in. For a more professional presence, create a Facebook Business Page, just for your video distribution.

Although MySpace has lost some of its popularity in recent years, it is still a favorite among musicians. MySpace boosted Tila Tequila to celebrity status, a singer who became an overnight sensation through her MySpace appearances and singing.

Flickr is yet another social network where you can show your video to millions. Upload your video as you would a photo and make it "public."

Do you have a Blog or Website?

If you have your own blog or website, you are already ahead of the game. Use them to distribute your video. However, before you upload it to your blog or site, you need to attend to a few technical details that are necessary to ensure optimal video quality. You will need to convert your video to a web-optimized format. The most widely used video format on the web today is Flash. Any video conversion program can help you with this. You might already have a built-in video conversion plug-in inside your video editing application. Some of the more popular video converters are Handbrake, Sorenson Squeeze, and QuickTime Pro.

You will want to add search engine friendly (SEF) metadata keywords along with your video as well as to your video page so that search engines can find it and list it. Use Google's Webmaster Tools to submit your video information so they can list it on their video index.

After you have converted and optimized your video for search engines, you can then upload it to your blog or site. Every video portal and social network site has its own uploading requirements. However, they are all very similar and not hard to figure out. If you are uploading to your own website, you can use an FTP client like FileZilla to upload your video.

But what if you don't have a blog or a website, and you don't know squat about how create either one? Lucky for you there are thousands of free tools available that you can use to create a blog or web site. Here are just a few of the more popular ones:

Blogger is one of the most used blogging tools in the world, no doubt in part because it is so easy to manage and because it is free. Using Blogger, you can have your own blog in minutes. Moreover, because it is a Google product, you can easily link all of your other Google applications, like Google Docs, Spreadsheets and Gmail to your blog. These are useful tools to have for communicating with clients, buyers, and other distributors.

LiveJournal describes itself as "a community publishing platform, willfully blurring the lines between blogging and social networking." It's a virtual global community where users can interact on common interests. Using LiveJournal, you have a combination of blogging and social networking tools, giving you the opportunity to double the distribution of your video without doubling the effort.