5 Tips for New Web Video Producers - From What the Buck

Today I'm at NewTeeVee live in San Francisco and by using Twitter I managed to track down and get an interview with Michael Buckley the Host,Writer and Producer, "What the Buck?"

Michel Buckley didn’t have an Internet connection or any writing/hosting experience when he started the What the Buck Show in the summer of 2006 in fact he was on public access TV but when his cousin posted one of the clips on YouTube he started getting viewers. Now, over 400 videos later, What the Buck? is the 7th Most Subscribed channel on YouTube with over 270,000 subscribers and 95 million views. In July 2008, Buck signed a multi-platform development deal with HBO. He recently left his day job and is a full time Internet personality.

As one of the web's breakout stars of the year Michael's scripted show makes fun of celebrities but making the show is just part of the job.

Here are six tips for new and old Internet video publishers alike:

1. Find a format that works for you
Don't try and copy someone else's show just because their show is getting views. Come up with a show idea that you care about.

2. Enjoy what you are doing
If you don't enjoy what you are working on you are not going to do great job. You need to enjoy everything about your own show so that you can be passionate about it.

3. Don't get discouraged
Don't give up. If you know you have emotionally engaging content keep at it. People will eventually find great content and share it with their friends.

4. Get Enganged
If people connect with your show they will want to interact with you. Be "present" with the experience and engage your audience by replying to their questions and comments so that you continue the conversation and keep viewers coming back for more. Your audience will be glad that you are there.

5. Repost old videos that are good
Don't let dead videos just sit there. If you know you have a video that people will want to watch but they haven't found it yet, delete it and repost it. Remember if they haven't seen it it's new to them.

Why Is Seth Macfarlane's Promo a Big Deal?

Seth Macfarlane's Promo is a co-branded promo that is utilizing widget technology from Gigya to deliver a 300x250 banner ad that has video, click-able links and allows for embeds on third party sites.

So what? It's just a stupid promo for Seth Macfarlane's new cartoon comedy Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy?

No it's not.

It is a co-branded advertisement where Burger King paid not only for the creation of the 300x250 interactive banner and the promo in the banner they also paid for the ad buy on the placement of that interactive widget AND for the creation of Seth Macfarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy and a co-branded site.

THIS IS VERY VERY COOL!!!!

But more importantly, YouTube/Burger King allowed me to grab that widget and embed it on my site.

What's so important about that Tim? I grab embeds all the time and put them on my site.

Yes you do but you don't grab embeds that are 300x250 banner ads and place them on your site. Big advertisers have never wanted their ads to go places that they couldn't control but for now it looks like Burger King is willing to give that a try and who knows, with this widget technology they might be able to control it. (But that's another blog post for another time.)

This is a really big deal.

Why?

Because in the past if you were going to launch a new show you had to build an audience before you could find an advertiser who would be willing to spend money sponsoring your show but now the rules have changed.

Now I can find a sponsor who like the idea of my new show (that hasn't launched yet) and I can guarantee them ad impressions with my new show.

How can you do that?

If they sponsor a co-branded widget or co-branded Google Gadget Ad with my video content in it and I buy placement across the Google Ad Universe I can guarantee them the amount of impressions I buy from Google because I know Google will deliver those 300x250 interactive banners to any relevant site that I buy space on.

What? You're going to buy advertising on Google? Where are you going to get money to do that?

I'll get the money from the sponsor that wants to get their name out there. The will have their branding on the 300x250 banner right next to and around my video content. And they will get the impressions they pay for and I will build an audience for my show.

Do I have to have a new show?

No you don't. You just need a sponsor who believes in your show.

Take French Maid TV for example. Let's say that a big sponsor who would normally advertise in Maxim magazine or on Spike TV has a new product that needs to be explained to 18-34 year old males. In the past I know the French Maid TV videos would only deliver between 1 Million and 5 Million views for my sponsor. If I have a sponsor who wanted to get 30 million impressions I couldn't guarantee that. But now if a sponsor wants the French Maids to explain their product and service I know that I can reach as many people as my sponsor is willing to pay for and with the embed maybe even more.

So that's why Seth Macfarlane's promo a big deal?

Now get out there go meet some potential sponsors and get them to sponsor your new show!

Are There any Negative Revues of The Dark Night ?

Sure there are a few negative reviews of The Dark Night but most people seem to being going Gah Gah over Heath Ledger's performance and some are saying Oscar worthy.

All of that is fine and dandy but what I like is the extremely long hold on Heath Ledger in the middle of the above video.

For those of you not yet familiar with the dark arts of viral videos, the exact mathematical middle frame of your YouTube video is the one that YouTube will use as the little picture that represents your video on Youtube or what we call a video thumbnail.

How do you get to select the video thumbnail photo for your YouTube Video?

If you want to make sure you have yourself covered and know that you are going to have the perfect picture selected for your little YouTube photo make sure you stay on an emotionally engaging image in the middle of your video and you will get the YouTube video thumbnail that you want.

No Joke. Just look at the Joker.

How To Change Your Oil

I've been doing some different tests with the French Maid TV episode How To Change Your Oil. On Revver we shot up to number one pretty quickly but on YouTube we named it Oil Change and only got a couple thousand views in a few days. So we renamed it and reposted it on YouTube and we'll see what happens.

I have another version of it on the French Maid TV site with additional ads on it and it seems to be tracking well.

I'll let you know how the experiment goes when it's over.

Scale and Reach

She's popular, cute and she's singing a pop hit but she has no scale or long term reach.

Unless you have an online video series that is so niche specific that you will capture all the search inquiries for a certain keyword or you are able to bring in over 25,000 unique visitors per day you are going to have trouble monetizing through ad networks because you don't have scale or reach.

Can you get scale and reach? It depends.

A couple of years ago MySpace didn't have any video. MySpace members were using YouTube and Revver to post videos on their MySpace page. Now, MySpace videos like the little girl singing Hey Jude are starting to top the charts.

MySpace blocked the ad serving Revver videos and launched their own MySpace Video Player and they have scale and reach.

What are you doing to get scale and reach?

Ask Old White Men Questions About Thier Meds

If I told you there was a new Internet show where viewers could ask questions about the medications and sexual activities of sixty year old white men would you be interested?

What if I told you it was a YouTube Show called Living Legends and the old men were named Mick and Keith?

Contests

I'm not a big fan of "Contests" unless you get paid to explain the rules to a contest. Then I'm all for it.

It looks like Lisa Nova, the almost winner of last year's Sketchies competition "was asked" to read the rules to this year's Sketchies II competition, presented by the all new Toyota Corolla.

According to the YouTube site, "While Lisa's dream of winning is over, enter for your chance to live the dream! This years prizes are $25,000 cash & $15,000 worth of video production gear."

I sure hope she got some green.

Ask a Ninja Co-Creator Launches Blog

So Kent Nichols of Ask A Ninja fame started blogging today and he blogged about how you should not put your online video fate in the hands of YouTube. He's reffering to Perez Hilton being suspended on YouTube.

Kent also gives some great advice on the way you should do things because it worked for him.


"In this new media world, build your own domain. Create traffic that you can sell your own ads against. Build up your video views through your own site and then monetize them using Revver et. al., and then sell CPM ads as soon as you can."

He also says that because of his post about YouTube he's worried that his videos might be taken down.

I've posted one of his YouTube videos up above just to keep track. It's the What is podcasting? episode.

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?