Online video has become a daily fix for millions of people. Now entrepreneurs are starting to cash in on that obsession.

Consider Valentina Trevino. The 29-year-old Chicago artist and filmmaker regularly posts videos on YouTube, showing how she created a painting and what it means to her -- and musing quirkily on a host of matters. In one clip, she ruminates about the strange connection between the ballerinas in Edgar Degas's art and Britney Spears's custody battles.

The unorthodox formula has brought her a total of 8.2 million views on YouTube -- and, just as important, a host of buyers. At the end of her clips, Ms. Trevino includes a link to eBay, where viewers can buy the featured piece. (See an example.) So far, she has sold every painting she has offered this way -- 49 at last count -- at prices ranging lately from $500 to $1,000 each. She also sells prints of her work and merchandise bearing the images and her slogan, "Eat Your Cookies." Before she started the YouTube diary, she says, she had to give up painting to pay the bills. Now it brings her a regular income.

A host of small businesses are trying this new twist on Web promotion, sending short films to Google Inc.'s YouTube and other popular video sites, advertising everything from root beer to blenders to bullet-resistant backpacks. For one thing, it's hard to beat the price: It costs nothing to put something on a video-sharing site, unlike buying television time or a regular Internet ad. And the videos let companies use a creative and personal touch that wouldn't work in traditional ads.

"It's so different than the message-driven approach to marketing that most kinds of advertising is," says David Meerman Scott, author of "The New Rules of Marketing and PR." "You don't have to talk about your product per se. You can just have fun with it."

But that leaves some big questions for companies that want to try their hand at videos. How does a small business thrive in a YouTube world? What makes some videos skyrocket in viewership and others bomb? Are there guiding principles that will produce a bankable ad?

Many entrepreneurs say luck or timing had at least something to do with their success. But a closer look at their stories reveals valuable lessons that any small business can apply. Here, then, are some of the most successful small-business videos, and the factors that took them to the top.

BLENDTEC: BE FUNNY

By far, the most common element among successful videos is comedy. Rather than offering airless advertisements or canned commercial messages, these videos deliver laughs as well as pitching a product.

Case in point: Blendtec, a division of K-TEC Inc., of Orem, Utah. In the past year, the high-end blender maker has drawn more than 60 million views for its "Will It Blend?" video series. The premise is simple. A laconic host, Blendtec CEO Tom Dickson, uses the company's blenders to grind up everything from credit cards to golf clubs to an iPhone. Cheesy music plays in the background, and cheesy jokes fly freely.

George Wright, Blendtec's director of marketing, says the series got started with a simple observation. He realized that Mr. Dickson tested his blenders by putting 2x2 boards inside and letting them rip. (See a video.)

Retail sales of the blenders have shot up 500% since the company started the series last year. This year, total sales are projected to top $40 million. And the series has brought Blendtec tremendous name recognition. When employees demonstrate the products at big-box retailers, people come out and say, " 'That's the blender that can blend marbles!' " says Mr. Wright. "Before that, [employees] were having to introduce the company."

The videos have also brought some new opportunities. Earlier this year, Novell Inc., a Waltham, Mass., provider of open-source software and services, paid Blendtec about $5,000 to do a "Will It Blend?" video for a company event. In the movie, a number of items got blended: a Microsoft Vista CD, razor blades, a stuffed animal, a flash drive and a Red Bull beverage.

"We thought this would be something fun for our customer base," says Russ Dastrup, Novell's corporate videographer. The message? "Novell Technology allows you to blend a variety of operating systems and applications into a seamless network," Mr. Dastrup says.

Source - [WSJ Online]