MacWorld is Coming - Will you be my friend?

So MacWorld is coming in January and the MacMost podcast has reported that as usual Steve Jobs is keynote speaker for Macworld. Big surprise there.
In a more surprising move Lee Gibbons of Podango has asked me to speak at MacWorld about marketing your podcast but beyond that I'm going to be using my time there to make more friends. One of the best things I've learned in my time in new media is the power of friends.

I've signed up for the MacWorld Expo Social Network that uses Ning and I hope to make some new friends before MacWorld.

I used to go to conferences looking for business deals and sometimes I would find them but more often than not what I found was that I made a new friend that I did business with or that lead to new business in one way or another. The other business people that I met never really developed into anything because I didn't make friends with them and I didn't have a relationship with them.

As you move forward in your online video travels don't look for new business deals, look for new friends that you can do business with.

Pain Killers Not Vitamins

Companies come to me all the time with exciting new technologies that they want me to test or use for French Maid TV.

From subtitling technology to dynamic ad insertion to hot spot clickable video advertising I get to see a lot of cool Web 2.0 tech. What I don't get to see are a lot of good business models.

After I demo some new tech and like it I ask the people what their revenue model is and I can't tell you how many times I get the , "Well you pay us $xxx per month." If I was a big company with a budget for new tech that might be a way to go but I think a lot of these new start ups are really missing the boat.

Sure I've had a little success with monetizing online video but I'm not rolling in money. I need pain killers not vitamins.

"Tim's on drugs now, look out.", you say. No I'm not dating Tina. I'm talking about technology that is a win win for both sides without investment.

Take a look at Revver and Podango they both offer FREE Hosting and the ever so wonderful 50/50 Rev Share split. Kind of similar to some studio deals.

How cool is that? Two years ago when I launched French Maid TV I was paying $4000 per month in video hosting. Now with companies like Revver and Podango I can make almost that much each month by hosting my videos at sites like theirs. Truth be told I don't have any files at Podango and I sure would like to have them there but they are a "Family Friendly" site and I can respect that.

So my advice to you as a content producer is look for the technology to be FREE with a revshare that is 50/50 or better in your favor and for all of you Web 2.0 Techies that are slumming it at my blog / vlog about Internet Video I say, "Get your act together and help us monetize our video by offering us a FREE service that makes us both money that we split 50/50."

Lower your head, watch your step and enjoy the rest of your day on the Internet.