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It depends a lot on what you're going for.  For example this video of a tiny cat wearing a tiny hat eating a tiny ice cream cone as an ad for an ice cream company has hundreds of thousands of views: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMnpWYaCKB0

As a person, I love this video.  I show everyone, it's kind of ridiculous.  As a marketer, I'm curious about it's value in terms of direct human visits to the ice cream shop.  I've seen this video many many times, and for the life of me as I write it I can't think of the name of the shop.  I'm also east coast based, so my love of small cats doesn't transfer into money for their shop.  Obviously they're building brand awareness (and improving their rankings) but they aren't necessarily bringing people in the door.

Conversely, lots of law firms (my specialty, shameless plug) and other complicated service companies will have informational videos on various parts of their practice.  It usually does very little for SEO since these videos barely break 1000 views, sometimes even 100.  However, we've noticed a great return on these ads, since they fulfill a specific need, and are so highly specific (long tail search for location, type of lawyer, specific legal claim) that the few people who do see them are generally far in the buying cycle, and contact us.

It really depends what your goals are.  Finally, this article on the moz blog " A SEO's Guide to Video Hosting and Embedding" is very helpful. :http://moz.com/blog/hosting-and-embedding-for-video-seo

It's important to include a small logo, that way if the graphic is not correctly attributed to you, it is still associated with you or your company.  Include a small non-obtrusive logo on the bottom of the graphic.  Professional photographers, infographs, etc. usually include a logo, and perhaps a link.  Just be sure that including it doesn't take away from the graphic.

Moz has a very comprehensive list of recommended firms here: [http://moz.com/community/recommended].  I can't personally speak for any of them, but the list seems well researched and vetted.  Hope this helps.

Yup!  When you're in the Share > Embed on a YouTube video there's a check-box option that reads " Show suggested videos when the video finishes".  It's there automatically, but if you uncheck it then the code YouTube generates for you won't have suggested videos at the end for your embed.

No -- thankfully it's not that bad.  Thanks for the answer!

Google is definitely your friend in this regard.  If you can find something easily on Google, a link from them will generally carry more weight.  Directories are mostly out of fashion at this point, as is some forms of guest blogging.  It's fair to assume a site relying on a directory for guest posts on their blog is doing a lot of things Google isn't fond of anymore, and a link from them would not be valuable.

Thanks, that's very helpful.  Signals on the video are mostly positive, I was just a bit worried about the repetitive word, but I guess I really should have been focusing on the user experience, which is just fine.

Another thing to keep in mind is that if someone does leave, and continues to build their credibility (through the ever-elusive potential Author-Rank) your site could benefit from having had them as a contributor in the past, regardless of the fact that they are no longer with you.

I would be wary of misappropriating authorship, as that seems like a practice Google would go after as authorship becomes more developed.