Expanding Your Brand

French Maid TV is known for "How To" videos by French Maids where hot sexy girls dressed as French Maids take products and services from sponsors and explain to young men how to use them. French Maid TV has about 1 million downloads per month of our funny / sexy videos but finding sponsors takes a lot of time, money and effort because the marketplace for this kind of advertising isn't built yet and not every potential sponsor wants to have their brand associated with sexy French Maids.

While the online video integrated advertising marketplace is building I thought I would try a few new things with French Maid TV by creating new non sponsored videos to take advantage of the few online video advertising monetization options that have already come together. I also thought this might be an opportunity expand the French Maid TV brand along the way.

The first new type of video is French Maid Magic which is a new series of Magic Tricks by French Maids. The second thing is the above video 1 Minute Maid which is the first in a series of funny and sexy video profiles of the French Maids.

I've spent a lot of time on the phone doing sales calls to get integrated sponsors for "How To" episodes of French Maid TV and it took me awhile to realize that the marketplace was just not coming together fast enough for me. Instead of giving up I thought I would create some videos that were not "How To's" and I would attach advertising solutions that are now coming together.

I'm currently working on deals with online video advertising networks to add pre-roll, post-roll and overlays to these new French Maid TV series but it's very slow going dealing with contracts and legal departments. That said, I've always found that whenever I post a new episode of French Maid TV in our video podcast feed on iTunes new business opportunities come my way through unsolicited emails. No, I'm not talking about the Nigerian Generals who need bank transfers. I'm talking about real deals for distribution of French Maid TV on other platforms and potential sponsorship deals. So rather than wait for the pre-roll / post-roll overlay deals to be in place I thought I would post these new non sponsored videos and see what new business oportunites come my way.

I've spent the last few months redesigning the French Maid TV website and I (don't laugh) used Apple's iWeb to do it. I also installed and built out a banner and text ad server using OpenX to deliver IAB standardized ads from different banner ad networks and affiliate marketing networks.

In addition to all this we created a new Gift Shop using Zazzle where you can even make your own T-Shirt .

With social networks all the rage we have created a new community area but at this time it's invite only while we work out the kinks. I hope to have it open to the public soon and make it so that people can upload their own French Maid auditions and post response videos to our videos. All in good time.

If you would like an invite send an email to community at frenchmaidtv dot com.

French Maid Magic

So I've decided I try a few new things and see how they work. I've redesigned the French Maid TV website (using Apple's iWeb) and I've launched a new series on French Maid TV called French Maid Magic using Revver for the video hosting.

French Maid Magic is shorter than previous French Maid TV episodes, it's cheaper to produce and most importantly it's not sponsored.

I think I've left a lot of money on the table by not creating more episodes and I've also found that when I release a new episode I have more sponsorship inquiries come my way. So rather than spend time chasing sponsors I'm going to try and create more content that hopefully will generate income through attached online video advertising / new ads on the French Maid TV website and bring new sponsors to me.

I'm also trying a few other new things that I will let you know about as well.

Oh, I've also created an area on the site for Media Buyers

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.