It sounds like an old chestnut, but facts are facts: Successful marketers are always on the lookout for new avenues.

The crucial aspect of marketing is finding good, strong ways of reaching your target audience. Without an audience, your products and services are of no use. Your whole business success depends on your marketing skills, and if that’s weak at the knees you’re sure to lose.

If you dwell on it, you’ll realize that there has been a seismic shift in the core experience of marketing or advertising your business online. Video has made a difference in people’s lives. Statistics show that nearly 200,000 users are asking for updates from commercial channels from different advertisers. That’s almost like people are saying “I would love to watch that commercial on TV.” This is a dramatic shift from the days when people found commercials not as tolerable. Of course, these are well-made commercials that are created with the intention of earning and maintaining the loyalty of subscribers.

Video marketing has exploded of late, with the continuing improvement of software and systems like Easy Video Suite which has hugely advanced the options for internet marketers.

Google has taken this craze for video further with Google helpouts. If you think I’ve misspelled Google hangouts, then you haven’t heard about Google’s new baby yet.

Google Helpouts?

With the outsized success Amazon and eBay have had building online marketplaces that seek to remove the barriers around buying and selling on the web, it was only a matter of time before Google decided to pull its chair up to the e-commerce table. Today, TechCrunch has learned via a tipster that Google has quietly been pursuing its marketplace ambitions under the auspices of a new platform that leverages its increasingly powerful cloud services to power live, real-time commerce. ~ Rip Empson via techcrunch.com

You don’t have to wait for those yearly marketing seminars to impart knowledge and expertise one-on-one; you can do it right now, without flying anywhere.

Google has created a marketplace for individuals and all levels of marketers to buy and sell services through live video. Google Helpouts is still taking shape and in the testing phase, but it looks promising and I wanted to give you people a heads-up.

Google says it’s, “currently inviting people with expertise across a number of topics to be able to offer Helpouts when we go live – and to make money sharing their skills and knowledge with the world.”

Are you an expert in Spanish, looking to offer your services online? You may have planned to create an eBook on “How to learn Spanish in 30 days,” or you may even have created a video teaching some basic Spanish.

Or you understand Adwords like the back of your hand. What are you doing with that knowledge right now? Offering Adwords PPC services to businesses?

How about offering your expertise through one-on-one video sessions under the Google umbrella? As we all know, the Google umbrella is pretty reliable.

The Intention Behind Google Helpouts

Why are they so sanguine about the future of online video advertising? Probably because it works. In May of 2012, over 10 billion online video ads were viewed, more than double the 4.6 billion in May of 2011. ~ Chris Horton via socialmediatoday.com

When Google can show us the millions of searches being performed for every single keyword people type in, it goes without saying that it must have done its homework before getting into this.

Google has obviously seen a big market for this kind of service where professionals and experts “share [their] knowledge with people who want to learn from [them] by giving a Helpout.”

Online marketers who like doing videos and want to take their marketing efforts beyond YouTube to gain additional exposure should know that Google Helpouts do just that. Similar to Hangouts, where you can host or attend live discussions on video, Helpouts connects users with experts with a one-on-one real-time video service, where experts can offer advice or teach something.

The intention behind Google Helpouts is to allow people to help others, while earning money for that. Google wants to provide a platform where people can talk to a knowledgeable person and get their help, with no time or place constraints.

If you’re an Adwords expert from the UK and someone in Malaysia gets stuck over an ad, they get in touch with you. You’ll take a look at their ad and show them where they’ve gone wrong or you create an ad for them right then and there, explaining it to them.

How Does It All Work?

Now Google is testing an extension to Google Hangouts called Google Helpouts by invitation only where you can charge a fee for time or per Hangout. The transactions are all done via Google Wallet (Google Checkout) and Google takes a rather chunky 20% of the fee. ~ Peter J. Ricci via yakadanda.com

Experts create a Google Helpout profile with a description of the services offered. Since it’s not possible for anyone to be available 24/7, dates of availability and timings have to be designated.

Unlike Hangouts, experts and business owners listed on Helpouts will be able to charge a set fee for each video session. All payments will be processed through Google Wallet. Google of course will also charge a fee for such paid video sessions.

Want To Check It Out?

If you haven’t received an invitation, but are interested in Helpouts, tell us. We’ll let you know when we’re live and accepting more applications to give help. ~ Google via helpouts.google.com

I’m excited as I see a lot of potential with this. This could really help us marketers who enjoy doing video. If our service kicks off, at least we would be able to gain something out of it before a million others start offering the same service.

You can leave your name and email address to be included in the beta test. Google will send invitations to people who (according to Google) are a perfect fit for this service. If selected for the beta test, you’ll get a hang of it and you can see if it works for you. Since you’d be one of the first ones to get in, you’ll gain an in-depth understanding of the whole process even before it’s released to the public. How many times have we had the opportunity to actually use something before it’s really saturated?

Google Helpouts Conclusion

We all know how huge video marketing is. This could open up a world of opportunities. Video is proving to be the future of marketing within the social media sphere. Presenting “one-on-one videos” could be the most successful social media marketing strategy yet to surface in the cyber universe.

What are your thoughts on Google Helpouts?