Digital Hollywood

I've spent a good portion of the last two days at Digital Hollywood. It's a event that has a ton of six person panels pontificating about anything and everything digital. Creative people are far and few between the suits of tech marketing people trying to launch the next white label do it yourself broadband channel for studios and networks.

Hayden Black of Goodnight Burbank and Abigail's X-rated Teen Diary http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif Paul Kontonis from For Your Imagination and John Evershed from Mondo Media the people that bring you Happy Tree Friends were but a few of the video peeps there.

Victor Harwood puts on a great show that brings in key players that know their stuff. If you are looking to get in to anything in Digital Entertainment Digital Hollywood is the place to start.

Walking around the trade show floor I was hoping to find other companies that are doing what Revver has been doing for the last year or so and that's dumping money in my Paypal account every month for advertising that they place on my videos but unfortunately I didn't find any of those types of companies exhibiting on the floor or having cocktails at the parties. I bet once the whole YouTube Advertising thing takes off other companies will copy what Revver is doing.

I'll be back there today as at the last minute The Daily Reel has asked me to join a panel they have at Digital Hollywood about Viral Videos. I'm looking forward to being on a panel with Judson Laipply, Creator of "Evolution of Dance", Ben Relles the Prodcuer of "Obama Girl", Lisa Donovan the creator and star of "LisaNova", Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox the Creators of "Smosh and Mark Day the editor of Rooftop Comedy who will be moderating it.

Con - FU - sed about Jetset

Today Bill Cammack posted in the Yahoo videobloggers group that http://jetsetshow.com is now http://epicfu.com/. I was really shocked about this and I'm not sure why I'm shocked and I'm not sure why the shows creators Zadi Diaz and Steve Woolf would change the name of Jet Set to EPIC-FU.

At first I thought it was a legal decision and that they must have had a run in with Next New Networks. But after watching the first episode I saw that they were still with Fred, Herb and Tim so it wasn't that.

I thought about calling Steve and Zadi but they work all night and are likely sleeping so I visited their site and found:

"Wasn't this show called JETSET?

Yes, it surely was. From June 2006 until October 2007 JETSET was born, grew up, and thrived. But it wasn't unique, and we reached a point where the name was no longer right for what we were doing and where we wanted to go.

With EPIC-FU we have something unique that we can fully own. And it's just cooler, to be honest. :)"

Okay, I'm starting to get my head around it. I just hope Zadi doesn't dye her hair blond next just to be "cooler."

Right Recipe, Portion Size a Little Too Big.

Right now we are in an online video snack world and longer videos are a little too hard to digest. I’m certainly guilty of creating videos that are too long but I have to do what the client wants and I don’t have a creative director or executive producer looking over my shoulder to make those hard cuts because I am the executive producer.

Anyways, when making your videos you should make sure the production values are as high as possible without breaking your bank. Average Betty does a great job. Take a look at the attention to detail that went in to this Halloween episode about butternut squash soup. The orange background behind the witch, the night vision camera mode ala The Blair Witch Project, the scary music and sound FXs as well as the lighting of the food and the step by step instructions.

I think the Betty Witch Project is great except it may be just a little too long. I know from experience that when you are having this much fun creating something it’s hard to make those decisions and cut your babies.

Beyond the serving size Average Betty has done a great job building out their advertising inventory both in their video and on their website including text on the website that people will find when searching for Butternut Squash Soup. But most importantly they have a sexy witch with cleavage for the photo on their video thumbnail. This will get them more clicks than a photo of Butternut Squash Soup. Although, these clicks might bail when they don’t get to see a naked witch. But such is life on the Internet and Average Betty is off to a better than average start.

If you are looking for an example of what you should do to get started in online video take a close look at all the Average Betty episodes and make a list of what you like about each and every one. Then make sure you use those concepts when developing your own show. There’s no film school for online cooking shows yet so you’ll have to teach yourself by studying those who are already producing online viral video show.

A New Video Rev Share Place?

Okay when I first cam across this mashable article about Channelmetv ad rev share I thought ah maybe another Revver is kicking into gear which may be the case but what I discovered when I went to the channelme.tv website was something a little more brilliant.

Imagine if you were back in the days of the California Gold Rush and you were planning on heading out West to strike it rich. You would need a way of getting out there and you would need to know where to go to dig for gold.

Now imagine if when you went to the stagecoach company to buy a ticket to get to Sutter's Mill they asked you if you wanted to buy some land near Sutter's Mill and they would throw in the picks and shovels for FREE? Well that's kind of what channelme.tv is doing.

When you go channelme.tv to see how you can strike it rich with online video they ask you if you would like to buy your own .TV Domain, (which I assume they make money selling.) They have a search box for you and all the tools set in place to get your very own Online Video Channel up and running including an advertising rev share. Sounds pretty cool if you are just starting out and time will tell if it works or not.

I poked around their "most viewed" channels a bit and had trouble navigating. It looks like a bunch of video blogs full of Youtube videos to me. Imagine if when you went to Blogger, Blogger asked if you wanted to buy your own Blog name for $24 and that Blogger would provide you all the tools to build your blog for just $24.

That seems to be what channelme.tv is doing and if they can get people to part with $24 for a .TV name or if you already have a .TV name you can sign up. I'm not sure if this will work and if it does work how long it will keep working once people figure out they can do the same thing at Blogger for FREE but I still think it's a brilliant business model that is a throw back to the days of the California Gold Rush and it has my head spinning thinking about other ways start up companies can provide tools for people to strike it rich with online videos.

Now the really wacky thing about this post is that I went to Revver, searched "channelme" and I found the above video of Dave Coulier from ABC's Fullhouse discussing ChannelME.TV for Demand Media. So if you watch that video advertising channelme.tv that I've posted here on Blogger for FREE and then you click on the ad at the end I will get paid a few pennies by Revver.

Does that play with your head a little?

Uploading and Tracking Your Videos

So you got yourself one of them there fancy new viral videos that you made and you want to post that sucker all over that ol' Internet and keep track of all your viral video view counts.

Well cowboy, have you checked out that there TubeMogul Instructional Video?

That new fangled TubeMogul lets you upload once to TubeMogul then post on YouTube, Metacafe, MySpace, Yahoo Video and track your video counts.

Who knows what happens when they start charging money or get bought by someone who makes them start charging money but they did get a little "seed investment from NetService Ventures" and it could save you some time.

Oh, they also have a really cool "tips page."

The Real Number for 800-GoFedEx

So if you have a new or used Blackberry Pearl, a Blackberry 8800 series or a Blackberry Curve and you try to dial 800-GoFedEx you might not get connected to the phone number for Fedex (800)463-3339 because you don't have the old letters on numbers that old phones have. The real number for 800 Go Fed Ex is 800 463-3339. Why is an online video guy blogging about the real number for FEDEX? Well...

Today I needed to call FedEx and ask about shipping a FedEx package to Canada. So I Googled "phone number for FedEx" and got 888-GO-FEDEX and not the real fedex number of 800-463-3339. I kept Googleing and along the way I discovered 1-800-GOOG-411, Google's new 411 service. I called GOOG-411 or 1-800-GOOG-411 or 1-800-466-4411 and asked for FedEX. Its automated voice recognition service didn't understand me and sent me to San Francisco where I then asked for "Federal Express" and it connected me to FedEx. I went through a series of automated questions and finally got to a human, got my question answered and was on my way to the nearest local Fedex drop box. On the walk to the fedex drop box I thought about how I must not be the only person going through this problem and that got me thinking some more...

But as I was googeling all this I discovered the GOOG-411 video up above that I thought I should share because it's a great example of what small businesses should do with online video. It's fun, simple and does a super job of explaining what GOOG-411 is and how you can use it. It also has a little interactive contest attached to build community.

So other than the GOOG411 video the reason a video guy is blogging about FedEx's phone number is that I thought I would blog about fedex using different spellings of FEdEX to see if it brought me natural traffic through Google Search.

We'll have to wait a few weeks to see how this little experiment on contextual search works out. It's not like blogging about Robert Scoble, Mark Zuckerberg or Andrew Baron from Rocketboom where you know it will get you a few clicks just cause everyone is using their Google Alerts to track those boys.

Short Pranks Can Pay More Than Long Clips

Short video pranks can combine both spectacle and story in just a few seconds. Short videos can also generate a lot more ad revenue because people sit through the whole clip and are more likely to click on an ad because they see the ad as apposed to viewers that never make it to the end of a clip and never see or have the opportunity to click on the video ad.

Emotion, Spectacle and Story

Although The University of Arizona Football doesn't have the BCS ranking of Arizona State they do have spirit or at least one spirit.

In 2003 about the time of Mike Stoops Football Camps a beloved University of Arizona student died unexpectedly. Today the restless spirit of this little Wildcat still haunts the U of A campus.

WARNING: The following video contains emotional content.





When you watch the above video how many different emotions do you feel? Do you feel different about yourself after watching the video and experiencing those emotions? Are you wondering about how this video was produced? Are you wondering how this ghost was captured on video. Are you curious about what compelled the producers from Tycoon Studios to create and distribute this video? Do you think this video will be a popular Halloween viral video? Are you dying to show it to a friend or relative?

Try your best to move as many emotions as you can.

Legal Help for Online Videos, Podcasting and New Media?

So you are getting started in video podcasting, new media and the whole online video thing. You've picked up a cheap used Panasonic AG-HVX200 1/3" 3CCD 16:9 HD/DVCPRO/DV Cinema P2 camera, you have your Sennheiser G2 Wireless Lav, a Handheld Mic, a Audio-technica Shotgun Mic w/ Boom Kit, a NRG Varilux Pro On-board Light w/ Dimmer, anArri Lighting package includes the Arri 150 Fresnel Light, Arri 300 Fresnel Light and an Arri 650 Fresnel Light all well packaged in your Arri Light Kits with a couple of CHIMERA Lightbanks along with a few Kino Flo’s VistaBeam® 600s and 300s. You've written a great script full of emotion, spectacle and story. You've cast actors, found incredible locations and have a production crew booked and ready to shoot. Your post production team is standing by with the latest version of Apple's Final Cut Studio. You are loaded for bear but did you talk to a lawyer?

"A lawyer? Why would I want to talk to a lawyer? I'm a creative person."

Exactly.

Two places you might want to start are Colette Vogele's Rules for the Revolution and This WEEK in LAW with Denise Howell. These two lawyers know more about New Media, Audio Podcasting, Video Podcasting, Blogging, Vlogging and all the legal mumbo jumbo you'll need to consider in creating and distributing your new media masterpiece.

So get cracking and listen to their podcasts, then give them a call and do a little new media legal check up to make sure you've done everything you need to do so that you don't get hurt down the road.

Do you have talent releases for your actors? Do you have deal memos for your camera man and your editor? Have you trademarked the name of your new online series? Should I go on?

The $300 bucks you spend today could save you $30,000 or more in six months.

Can You Build a Mass Audience in Second Life?

I've never been a fan of CSI. I don't know why. It looks like a cool show but I've just never gotten into it.

I've never been a fan of Second Life. I don't know why. It looks like a cool online community but I've just never gotten into it.

I've been a big fan of videos on the internet and I like the above one for CSI going into Second Life but I still don't know if I'll watch the show or go into Second Life to participate in the event. Maybe I'm just too lazy. It looks like a lot of work.

I will be watching to see how many people they get into SL and if CSI's ratings increase but how could they? CSI is already a top rated show. Let me know if you hear anything or talk to Eric Rice about it.

What Revver Really Did

When Steven Starr and his indi-minded crew launched Revver they had a dream of connecting video content creators with an audience then connecting the video content and the audience with advertisers but beyond that they have created a community of Revver creators that are a Farm League for major entertainment companies. By offering money to talented video producers Revver attracted the likes of Ask A Ninja, Goodnight Burbank, Invisible Engine, Zoomilk, Psychic Bunny and Big Fantastic.



Several of these creators have since left Revver due to other deals but the Revver community is still alive and growing.(Last night Revver threw a great screening party.)

Sure these funny videos that the guys from Invisible Engine created for Revver of "What Revver Did" are lots of fun to watch but beyond these entertaining little online shorts what Revver really did was respect talent and reward talented people while letting them retain the rights to their own creations.

As someone who creates original video content for the Internet, as a producer, as an artist I truly respect what Revver has really done.

Thanks Revver!

A Dating Site for Publishers and Advertisiers?

According to Cynopsis ADSDAQ has opened up their advertising exchange site to more than just top advertisers. Will this extent past websites and include Online Video Advertising? Let me know if you find out anything.

The World is More Dangerous

As a guy who watches the girl spin clockwise I know that I'm one of those people who doesn't like details or anything tedious. Learning HTML or How To FTP has never been anything that I've wanted to learn just because it looks "not fun." But the other day someone asked me if I could flow chart a website for a project we were working on and I decided I would give Apple's iWeb a try to build out the flow of the website rather than flow chart it. Boy o boy, golly gee Willickers am I glad I did.


iWeb is a dream to use. I couldn't believe how easy and fun it is. After I got done playing with it I downloaded Cyberduck and actually FTPed the site that I had created. Well I know a bunch of you are saying yeah, so what? Well the so what for me was that I never touched this stuff before. I've always had a someone else build my websites for me. Now I'm on a mission and I'm creatively inspired to create more and more.

In doing so I found the above video from Don Macalister and I stumbled upon Don's business model because of a search I did looking for more info on iWeb.

Don creates Screencasts Online and sells a subscription to a premium video podcast that he calls the "ScreenCastsOnline Extra! Membership" Don charges just $25USD for a full six months membership plus a "one-off joining fee" of $20USD to gain access to the entire back catalogue of ScreenCastsOnline shows. He also has created Free versions of his tutorials about Keynote, email for the iPhone and other Mac topics that don't give away all the good info. They just give a little peak. Next Don posts these "promos" on Revver and Youtube and that's how I stumbled upon them by searching for videos about iWeb.

Now I was so impressed with Don's business model that I signed up for his affiliate program just to give the whole thing a test run and see if I like the way he's handling his affiliates (the people that send him sales.)

Truth be told, I know Don from the podcasting community and he created the first media kit for French Maid TV for me so being in his affiliate program might let me earn back some of the money I paid him to create that first FMTV Media Kit.

So now the world is a more dangerous place because I know how to create a website and FTP. Now if Don can talk Google AdSense into creating something as cool as iWeb for posting text and video ads then it will be really dangerous.

If You Missed SNL You Might catch it on YouTube

I've noticed since Dick in Box the SNL Digital Short and other fair to great SNL skits keep getting posted by NBC on Youtube after they air on NBC with no advertising attached. That's great for viewers cause you don't have to stay up late to watch SNL, you don't have to eat up space on your TiVo and you only get to see the best skits without watching any commercials.

NBC must know what they are doing. They are a business with shareholders. Right?

How 250 Million Dollars Works

When I first read the headline that Discovery Buys HowStuffWorks.com for $250 Million from the Wall Street Journal all I could think of was, "Their videos aren't THAT good." then I found out it wasn't their videos Discovery was after. It was their almost 4 million unique US visitors that they get each month and the 11 Million world wide users.

They should do a How to Get High in Google rankings then get bought by a big US Media Company video.

Moral of the post: Keep your production values low, your site visitors high and you can make a lot of money.

Changing Vernacular

Well times they are a changing and so is the terminology.Three years ago if you told someone that you, “watched a video” they would have assumed that you either watched a video tape that you rented from Blockbuster / Hollywood Video or that you viewed a Music Video like the about one from Roz Bell entitled Papercut.

Now it can also mean that you watched a guy ride a horse.



Although I'm excited about the technology and the opportunity it brings I'm not sure if our language is changing for the better.

Google AdSense Video Units

When it comes to creating online video I feel pretty comfortable writing, producing, directing or tackling any creative problem that comes my way. I’ve produced all kinds of things for traditional TV from underwater shots to air to air helicopter shots. I’ve worked with thousands of extras, big name celebrities and nightmare directors and I always enjoy a good challenge but when it comes to Google AdSense and their new Video Units I feel like I’m going to the dentist.

I’m a creative person. I like things to be fun and amusing. I find the user interface of Google AdSense to be cumbersome and uninviting.

I’m really excited about Google’s new Video Units but when I visit their blog
I can barley pay attention to the video and I really want to know how to make the most out of Google AdSense and Google AdSense Video Units. I don't want to pay some pyramid marketing evangelist to teach me how to use Google AdSense and Google AdSense Video Units. I want it to be as easy as uploading a video to Revver or searching and downloading a video podcast from iTunes.

Is it just me or do any of you other creative people out there feel like you just want to run away when you log in to Google AdSense and try to figure out how to make money using their tools?

That said, I’m looking for an easy way to get the most out of Google AdSense Video Units and I’m hoping that by blogging about it an easy way will come to me.

I've forced myself to watch the above How To video several times and I understand what I need to do to make this happen but I'm just not motivated to do it and I can't really put my finger on why that is.

Do we need a Writers Guild on the Internet?

There’s a writers strike looming but I’m not sure we need a Writers Guild on the web. As Craig Rubens of NewTeeVee writes, The last Writers strike spawned Reality TV shows like Survivor. Now there are Independently produced Reality Shows like The Next Internet Millionaire that are up, running and building an audience with global distribution on the Internet.

As an artist plagued with ideas this is the first time in my life I can afford the canvas to create whatever pops into my head. Creating entertainment with moving pictures, written words, pictures and digital code I’ve now reached a threshold where I can write, shoot, edit and distribute all by myself. I’m not as fluent in editing and the creation of HTML as I’d like to be but due to necessity I’m working on it and it’s exhilarating to be able to dream something up, write it, produce it and distribute to the world in the same day. Now I’m one of a handful of people making money in viral videos but I’m still not able to survive solely on my personal creations. I supplement my income with new media “work for hire" projects for studios, networks, consulting with Web 2.0 companies, podcasters and wanna-be podcasters.

Thanks to the Internet and the low cost of digital canvas this is the first time in the short history of filmed entertainment that writers and other digital artist don’t need a Movie Studio or TV network to make a living by creating moving pictures. Unfortunately it may not be the lavish lifestyle they have been used to living complete with residuals and it most certainly will be a bumpy ride to transition from traditional media.

The people best positioned to make the most out of this WGA Writers strike are the 20 year old kids who can write, produce, direct, edit (maybe do a little motion graphics and music) and have some understanding of HTML and sales. (Little mini Robert Rodriguezs) These mini RRs will be able to create online entertainment, distribute it and monetize it enough to make a production assistant’s wage to start but with additionally attached advertising to their evergreen work or what I like to call “Digital Residuals” they will make a writer’s salary and maybe more. If they are smart enough to build their own brand like Ask a Ninja has done they will never need a Movie Studio, TV Network or a Writers Guild. The other benefit they will have if they are smart, is that they will retain ownership of their properties and be able to license them to other platforms making even more money.

If you are a talented writer and make a good living right now in traditional media you really need the WGA fighting for you because the kids coming out of school now are mini RRs and what they can do on a used Apple MacBook Pro MA610LL/A 15" Notebook PC with a 2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GB RAM, 120 GB Hard Drive, DVD/CD SuperDrive and a Sony HDR-UX7 digital video camera that they buy off Craigslist is amazing. They not only pose a threat to you they also potentially can threaten movie studio and TV revenues, especially if those studios and networks have to pay a lot of money for writers now when they aren’t making any money online yet.

Sure the production won't be the same quality as traditional media for awhile but when viral videos start getting paid the advertising dollars that Cable TV gets for delivering more eyeballs than Cable TV delivers, production values will increase. Remember the early days of Cable TV? Shows looked like crap but the content was there and the eyeballs followed.

WTF Blinkx ?

According to New Media News Guru Cynthia Turner "Who We Love!" and today's edition her daily email Cynopsis: DIGITAL "That We Love" Blinkx is going to do a revenue-share with website publishers who post the embed Blinkx player on their site but content creators will not be compensated.

Wow that sounds like such a great deal, NOT. "Hey give us your content for FREE and we will let other people post it on their sites and we will pay them money and you will get great exposure."

When is the last time your landlord let you pay your rent with video views?

They do have a really cool looking player though. It's pretty cool how it loads different video windows. I wish I could get a French Maid TV player or an Ask a Ninja Player or a Getting Away with Murder Player or .... that would do that.

Pranks

Part spectacle, part story and even when you know what's going to happen, pranks are still a great crowd pleaser.

KISS Keep It Short and Sweet

Keep It Short Stupid is what they really used to say to me and if you want to make money at Revver or any other site that pays for click-thrus that's what you'll want to do.

With Halloween right around the corner you could make some fast cash with videos about real ghosts that are short, sweet and scary.

Like this one of the ghost of a little boy:



If any of you are up for a trip down memory lane and would like a little late night creepy thrill, have a look at the story of My Son Peter that goes with the video above. This lost website comes to us courtesy of the Wayback Machine.

Some of the links are broken so you may need to use your back button.

PARIS IN JAIL Viral Video beats VH1's Best Rated Show by 2 Millon Views

According to CNN.com "Last October, 7.5 million people tuned in to the second-season finale of "Flavor of Love" to give VH1 its biggest audience ever and adding to the channel's ratings recovery after its overdose of the "Behind the Music" bio series." and according to Youtube.com the PARIS IN JAIL: The Music Video has over 10,019,709 views. Now it did take four months to get those views but Chris Crocker's LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE! had 10 million views in just one week and that beats any VH1 Show. Leave Britney Alone now has over 11 million views.

What do media buyers pay to advertise on a VH1 show that only gets 7.5 million viewers? I don't know (please tell us if you know)but I bet it's a lot more than the creative team behind Paris in Jail got...but not for long.

As soon as online content producers are able to deliver millions of views on a consistent regular schedule and have a market place built where media buyers can find them, adverting dollars will pour in to the online video space.

If you can build your audience now and built out your advertising inventory that you control along with advertising that is a revenue share with a hosting company like Revver.com you will be ready to play ball when the Advertising Media buyers come a buying.

Does MTV Need to Pimp its Website?

So yesterday I went to MTV.com to checkout full episodes of Pimp My Ride and I was blown away by the fact that they had no advertising attached directly to the videos of Pimp My Ride. That's right, FULL EPISODES of Pimp My Ride with no advertising attached to the video. Now they did have ads on the web page but NOT in, on or on top of the video. After I got over this fact I noticed some videos of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg talking about Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. When I clicked on Steven I then got a video that took forever to load and only played advertising. I never got to see Steven tell us how it's 18 years since the last "Indy" flick, "We all look the same,"

I should talk. I'm sure there are tons of guys that click on French Maid TV expecting to see naked women and all they get is advertising.

Navigating Episodic Internet Shows

With the exception of Apple's iTunes Podcast subscription I have yet to find an enjoyable way of watching Episodic Shows on the Internet.

When Prom Queen launched earlier this year it was a pain in the ass to watch the shows in order and catch up if you missed one. Eventually team Vuguru created a weekly recap show but it was hard to figure out where I left off and it still required some work. When the Big Fantastic launched their Summer season of Prom Queen called Summer Heat, Vuguru sent out a daily email and this made it much easier to catch up if I missed an episode. I could just go to my Apple mail and sort my messages from Prom and click on the shows in order.

If you go to Youtube or Revver or Veoh or Metacafe or any other video site and search for your favorite Episodic Show you will find it and it's trailers/promos in some crazy order. If you are at work trying to find that episode that you missed before your boss walks by and busts you for goofing off at work you are going to bail and wait till later to find that episode if you ever get around to it.

So far there are no Episodic shows on the front page of Youtube's Most Viewed (All Time) All: page. This says a lot about how we are still in a time of "spectacle" and have not yet moved into "Story" as far as Internet video goes. Even the Internet's biggest "Hit" story Lonely Girl 15's most popular episode only has had 1,708,683 views and if you want to start from never having seen an episode of LG15 and get all caught up, good luck. There are over 21 pages of search results for "Lonely Girl 15" on Revver and I couldn't find Episode number one so I went to LG15.com. There I found a place to start and a recap video of season one that brought me up to speed but that was work.

We need to speak with our contacts at the video sites and ask them what they can do to help. One viral video could bring a ton of viewers to your show but if that viewer can't find the next episode or the previous ones in a nice neat way that is easy to navigate it will take us all a lot longer to build audiences. The big boys in Hollywood already know how to make a programming dial work. It won't be long before they figure this out too and make it even harder for us little guys to break through the clutter.

Sure there are work-arounds but that involves "work".

Spectacle vs Story

My head hurts thinking about this spot and who created it. Not just the product Dove but all the creative types and production people who have spent their professional careers working on beauty campaigns that have now launched a new project to help women with self-esteem. Will these people give up their advertising careers and never work on a campaign with a skinny woman again? I really doubt it. But beyond the pot calling the kettle black this video is emotionally engaging, has spectacle and one hell of a story/back story that people will be talking about for quite some time.

Now if you will excuse me I have to go find some new French Maids.

Boing Boing is the Sound Something Makes When it Needs to be Fixed

Well Boing Boing TV Launched today and I have a feeling that like most great TV shows of the past the first episode will not be as good as those to come.

Whenever I visit boingboing.nethttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif I always find something that makes me smile and even something that makes me laugh. After watching the first episode of Boing Boing TV I’m mildly amused at best. Maybe Boing Boing TV should pick up the Boing Boing Phone and Ask A Ninja how they can make their new Internet TV Channel as funny as their website.

The Revver Wordpress Plug In

Okay, so now Revver has created a Revver Video Plugin for Wordpress. What does this mean for you and me the Online Video Producers well other than Revver needing a French Maid TV episode explaining "How To Install the Revver Video Wordpress Plugin" and another French Maid TV episode explaining "How To Upload Video" it means quite a lot. Especially if you produce an online video that people want to create video responses to.

Just think of all the videos on Youtube that get video responses posted on them. Well if you use the Revver plugin and people post video responses to your Revver videos on your site, you will get paid money from Revver when people watch the ads that get posted on the video responses.

Nuff said?

Have a look at LOLCATS and see how it integrates into their site. Maybe someone can talk Steve Garfield into posting a video response to one of the cat videos and we can all see how it really works.

Make Your Content Evergreen and Simple.

If you are an online video content creator who believes in the "Long Tail" then you should really think long and hard about the type of online video content you are producing and stay away from content that will be of no interest to viewers two months from when you post it.

After spending this past weekend at the Podcast and New Media EXPO, Podcast Academy and popping into Podcamp for a few minutes I realized that there are a lot of people producing video content that is "of the moment" and that "of the moment" content has little or no long tail value at all. Sure CNN.com can make money aggregating a daily audience with news but I don’t think independent content producers should create current affair video programming because you need to make money every way and anyway you can. To do that you are going to need long tail search.

(For those of you who haven’t read the book The Long Tail you should at least get your head around it and understand the concept because I’m not the only one who talks about it.)

Hayden Black from Goodnight Burbank has launched a new video series entitled Abigail’s X-Rated Teen Diaries and while I think the title of the series will get him some interesting traffic I also think it will make advertisers pause before placing their brands next to something that has “X-rated Teen Diaries” in the title. I also think there could be some issues with the type of traffic that finds Abigail through search and becomes very disappointed with what Abigail looks like and that they don’t get to see any naked teens having sex. I could be wrong but I do know from first hand experience with French Maid TV that those types of concerns are real. I’ve mentioned this to Hayden and I hope for his sake I’m wrong. Now that said, I do think that Hayden has been very smart in making this content evergreen much like what Sarah Atwood of Nontourage is doing with her new project Dear Addy May. Sara plays Addy May, a white trash character that gives advise to viewers in a trailer park trash kind of way. This is Dear Abby with a new media spin much like what Ask A Ninja has done.

Ask A Ninja, Addy May and Abigail’s X-rated Teen Diaries are all evergreen, simple to produce and emotionally engage viewers with spectacle and story that take place on screen and in the theater of the mind.