Magnify.net's CEO uncovers the secrets of successful entertainment innovation in the online video space.

So, you want to be a web video entrepreneur. Good. So here are some habits that will help you in your quest, and a little insight as to how you can use them for fun and, eventually, profit.

1.  There are no lost points for embracing video early, just knowledge gained. Your website looks great. Your blog is elegant. Your ecommerce site is generating great clickthroughs. Simply put, you've taken all your knowledge and experience -- and no small amount of money -- and created a great consumer experience. So dramatic change is, well, something that can wait for the market to shake out a bit, right? Wrong! This could be a disastrous attitude.

Why? Because the folks who are engaging in video now are doing two things that are critical. They are learning the various ways that video can inhabit their websites and, at the same time, they're teaching their communities that they're willing to help them participate and interact through video.

So, if you've been sitting by the sidelines, it's time to get in the game.

How? Well, you can start by deciding what kind of video belongs on your site. There are three basic options. Videos you create, videos your visitors create and videos you discover across the web.

Let's look at these more closely:

Videos you create are going require some gear (a web cam or DV camera); something interesting to say, do or show and the interest in either hosting these videos or putting in the effort to produce them. There are great advantages to becoming a creator of contextual video around your site's focus. First, the video is exclusively yours. Second, if you host your channel, you become the "face" of your site. And, if you make videos with some regularity, it can become the basis of a 'long tail' asset that will make your site more valuable and searchable.

The only downside is that making your own video requires skill and an investment of time, and often money. So that may mean that you can afford to produce a video a week, but it may not be enough content to make your site a full-fledged video destination.

Option two is inviting your visitors to create content for your site. User-generated content has lots of pluses: it's authentic, since your visitors made it. It's low cost -- or free -- since most of your visitors aren't looking to make any money on a video that they create to be part of your site. And finally, allowing visitors to create video actually has the added benefit of strengthening your community, since you've broadened the number of voices that now contribute to and have a stake in your site.  

The only complexity of using UGC is that we are still in the early days of video, and the number of visitors you have that will be willing and able to make a video is probably very small, for now. So don't expect a flood of submissions.

Option three is discovered video. This is a relatively unknown new option, but it's fast-growing. The ability to use the width and breadth of the web to search, sort and bring in video from a wide variety of sources is powerful, and has some natural advantages.  Searching and finding video provides your community with a new role, one that doesn't require special technology or gear. The idea that peer review can sort large collections of gathered video -- and catalog the best community-appropriate video for your site -- is economical, empowering and makes use of the distributive nature of the web.

2.  Embrace your inner TV network programmer. How many times have you sat on your couch watching TV and said, "I can do better than that"? Well, perhaps you can. TV programmers are just folks who create a set of programs and put them in order. We call them content curators. And what's happening on the web is that increasingly content curators are individuals (or companies) with a deep but narrow set of interests. So when you think of being a network programmer, don't think about NBC or CBS. Think about Favorite Golf Courses from around the world, or Best Snorkeling Reefs in the Bahamas, or Most Absurd Speeches from George Bush. Whatever your passion, there's a network waiting to be built and programmed by you. And don't think "programmed" means that you have to create video. In fact, just the opposite, because the web is full of videos that can populate your site. You just need to put in the elbow grease to find, sort and organize them.  

This idea of Channel Producer as idea-centric, as opposed to distribution-centric, is critical for companies, and for brands as well. If you're SAAB or U-Haul or Purina, do you want people telling Saab stories, or moving tales of moves or cat tales anywhere other than on your site? Nope. You want to convene a conversation, invite participation and embrace user-generated content. Don't let anyone else program your niche; do it yourself.

3.  Don't count chickens (or checks) yet. Ok, so are we rich yet? If not, how come? Well, hold your horses. Most of the money is still in old Madison Avenue budgets, and it's not going to gallop from the mass media ocean into your little pool just yet. But take a look at Revver or Metacafe or a few of the others. Slowly, audiences are moving to the web. And dollars follow eyeballs.

And if you think about it, it's not happening so slowly after all. The big shift comes as Google begins to embrace and launch a video version of AdSense. This will allow sites that have focused traffic and high quality verticals to begin to deliver video ads. And that is going to be cool.

And don't think Google is the only game in town. The guys at Ad Bright, Bright Roll, ValueClick and others are all working hard to build their own ad networks. And that's going to mean that there will be more and more sources of video advertising coming on line. 

But this isn't a space where waiting and building your site later is a good idea. In fact, the opposite is true. My friend Tim Carter runs Askthebuilder.com. He's been making and uploading videos like there's no tomorrow. He's building a collection of videos that will make him the single best place to go for home repair info. He's branding, promoting, curating and packaging. And it's working. He's got a huge collection of videos, Google is working with him on advertising solutions and he's a fast-rising expert on YouTube. Man, this guy isn't counting his checks yet, but he's sure to be getting ready for a tidal wave of new revenue. Are you?

Steve Rosenbaum is CEO of Magnify.net. Read full bio.