By Mikal E. Belicove|For Entrepreneur.com|August 4, 2011

Entrepreneurs and small-business owners often think that incorporating video into their marketing or communication plan — let alone configuring a website for video — is costly, complicated and beyond reach. With the launch this week of Vimeo PRO from Vimeo, nothing could be further from the truth.

Online video is expected to account for half of all consumer Internet traffic by the end of next year, according to a recent Cisco report. Further, a Forbes Insights survey from last December showed that nearly 60 percent of those online will watch a video before reading the text on any given webpage — and they’re more likely to make a purchase.

These findings should prompt businesses of all sizes to see the urgency of matching the growing demand for video-related content with videos of their own.

Enter, Vimeo. The second most popular online video portal behind YouTube, is finally giving small businesses and commercial enterprises overall their chance to get in on the video action. With Vimeo PRO, $199 a year gives businesses a simple and affordable professional video-hosting solution, complete with analytics for gauging return on investment. Each year, users receive 50 gigabytes of storage and 250,000 plays for video embedded on your own website in a player branded with your company’s logo. That’s enough to upload between 700 and 2,000 five-minute videos, depending on the video format you use.

Think you’ll need more? It’s $199 for each…

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