Things don’t always “pan out.” Just ask Enron. They crashed and burned. Polyester. That seemed great at the time. 8-Tracks. Baby, those were the days. As companies, fashion, and music industries strive to set the next trend, most eventually fade and become relics of history. If something is going to “pan out” there needs to be logic. It must have intrinsic value. It has to endure. It needs to be precious. It has to be like…well…Gold!

The origin of the expression ‘panning out’ comes from the California gold rush. “Panning out” a cubic foot of gold enriched gravel could produce instant wealth. It’s the same today as it was back then. A brick of gold bullion lying in the street will send people into a raucous frenzy. Web 2.0 is the same kind of tumult. Only, video is the new gold. Today’s top internet marketers agree video is your fast track to success. Its value is just starting to emerge. Online video is going to “pan out” and in a big, big way. Internet TV is already here. The rush has begun.

The following excerpts (all from 2007) highlight the consensus of online marketing firms that agree video is the internet’s gold mine. Grab your pick axe and sifting pan. There’s plenty for everyone!

ABI Research “Nearly a billion consumers worldwide will watch Internet video by 2012, up from roughly 300 million today.”

Pew/Internet “Online video now reaches a mainstream audience; 57% of online adults have used the internet to watch or download video, and 19% do so on a typical day.”

Advertising.com “The majority (62%) of consumers are viewing video online.”

Bill Battino, Communications Sector managing partner, IBM Global Business Services. "Consumers are demonstrating their desire for both wired and wireless access to content… an average of 81 percent of consumers surveyed globally indicated they’ve watched, or want to watch, PC video, and an average of 42 percent indicated they’ve watched, or want to watch, mobile video…"

Online Publishers Association “Watching video online is becoming routine with 5% viewing daily; equaling millions of consumers.”

Lumin Collaborative “Traditional radio is losing its significance in people’s lives. US adults are spending more time each day on the Internet and watching TV than listening to the radio.”

Edison Media Research, Larry Rosin “It is not a stretch to say that the Internet has become just as important as television as an important source of information and entertainment in the lives of Americans."

EMarketer.com "2008 will mark a watershed for Internet video. More than 50 percent of the U.S. population will have watched video online. That percentage should reach more than 61 percent of the U.S. population in 2011, with viewership defined as a person who has watched Web video content at least once a month.”

Video offers luxury real estate professionals the most dynamic form of online marketing. Judging by the forecasts it is only going to get bigger. Presently, some sophisticated buyers and sellers are satisfied with agents marketing virtual tour “fools gold.” It won’t be long until they demand the real thing. Check in with a professional real estate videographer to find out how your can be apart of the internet gold rush. Some of the best professional real estate videographers catering to the high end market include: RealtyVideoUSA, Nashua Video Tours, RealtyImpactMarketing,TurnHere, and OnlineWalkThru (now LuxuryWalkThru)

Imagine the Greek deity Atlas carrying the world on his shoulders. Quite the load even for someone with muscles the size of Africa. Now, imagine Youtube, the Atlas of internet videos. It carries the weight of millions of videos and users. Its dominance has continued following its 1.65 billion dollar Google buyout last October. According to Hitwise (a web analytics research firm) traffic data shows the market share of visits to YouTube increased 70% between January and May in the United States. To put this in context, the market share of visits to 64 other video sites only increased by 8% during the same time. While Youtube may be king there are still many innovating competitors in the market. The following is an abbreviated version of a who’s who list of video sites posted by the Mashable team on their Blog.

Google Video - Since Google bought YouTube, Google’s Video player is mainly used for for-pay content like TV shows. There is also a search indexes for all video sharing sites on the internet.

Blip.tv - Blip.tv is designed for video podcast makers. It allows for easy uploads with all types and qualities of media. It then sends them to their feed for the users. Advertising options are also available.

Ourmedia - Where you can upload audio, video, images, and text and share them with the world. The OurMedia community contains over 100,000 members.

Veoh – Allows users to watch high definition quality videos and publish personal videos.

DailyMotion - Video sharing platform with multiple video search options. People join groups based on publishing videos with common interests.

Metacafe - A site that helps you discover the best videos through a community that filters, reviews and rates new videos every day. UnCut - Video uploading and sharing community by AOL. Embeds videos into you blog.

Kewego- A video sharing network where you can upload your own videos and view videos by others.

ClipShack - Video sharing community that allows you to upload video clips, make friends, keep a collection of your favorite videos and comment on clips. 5min- Video sharing site with a particular vision: collect videos that can explain anything in five minutes.

Brightcove - Search, click and watch. Music videos, news, travel, recipes, adventure. Thousands of channels, including the best in online video.

Viddler– Allows you to add tags and comments to video that will show up at specific times. It also has unique features like flickr and twitter integration.

Revver - The first video sharing site that provides users with the possibility to earn revenue from the videos they upload.

Yahoo Video- Yahoo’s version of online video. Similar to Google Video.

Livevideo- Video sharing site that lets you create personal channels. Upload your own videos and share them with the world..

VMIX - Another video sharing website; All content is screened.

Grouper- Video sharing site with a big selection of content; enables you to create playlists and upload videos to MySpace.

Videosift- a Digg-like site which lets you submit, vote, and comment on videos.

Stage6 - A video site that uses the Divx player so you can upload High Definition video, This requires longer upload times, and you need DivX support (usually a browser plugin).

Tube Battle- vote for the best videos, organized by category.

Many of these sites are excellant venues for you to syndicate your videos. However, should a luxury video really be posted all over the web? Should luxury professionals really be marketing a high end property on a mass market website? Do discreet sellers really want their property plastered all over the internet? Of course not. Targeted marketing and distribution is paramont. Forget trying to be Atlas and forget trying to carry all your online marketing on your shoulders. There’s help out there…LuxuryProperty.com

Photo: Astramate