This holiday season, some video marketers are getting a gift from YouTube. The company announced it is giving 500 business partners $1,000 worth of credit at a camera equipment store. […]

This holiday season, some video marketers are getting a gift from YouTube. The company announced it is giving 500 business partners $1,000 worth of credit at a camera equipment store.

In a YouTube blog post, the company explained it would be investing in video marketers as a means of helping them "create great video and further push the boundaries of what's possible online." Further being the operative word.

Google's YouTube has already helped push the boundaries of what internet marketers may have deemed possible. The latest comScore online video rankings show that Google sites, primarily YouTube, are driving the booming online video market. The company attracted more than 145.8 million unique viewers in November, who participated in nearly 2 billion video sessions. (The second most popular video site attracted a mere 61 million viewers, who watched 241 million videos.)

YouTube's millions of viewers represent a valuable online audience. As Brafton has reported, online video viewers are more receptive to ads than their traditional television counterparts.

YouTube says the recipients of this year's $1,000 gifts are partners with a specific online focus whose video content proved most popular during 2010.

Marketers hoping to catch similar gifts from YouTube in the future (or simply hoping to attract brand enthusiasts among its millions of viewers) should review YouTube's top searches for 2010. As Brafton reported, these recently released searches offer insight on the types of content most compelling to consumers; video content can be created accordingly.

Katherine Griwert is Brafton's Marketing Director. She's practiced content marketing, SEO and social marketing for over five years, and her enthusiasm for new media has even deeper roots. Katherine holds a degree in American Studies from Boston College, and her writing is featured in a number of web publications.