How to Make Your Own Online-Video Site September 30, 2006
Posted by Nalts in : Making Videos, Online Video, Revver, Video Advertising, Video Business, Video Sites , 8commentsThis 6-minute video tutorial (”How to Make Your Own Online Video Site”) is designed to accompany the post from last week titled “The Idiot’s Guide to Making an Online Video Site.” It’s really quite easy- even if you have no technical skills like me. Check out www.CubeBreak.com to see an example of a site I created without a lick of technical training.
Why bother?
- You’ll have your own URL to brand your videos
- You can easily tell friends how to access your videos without having them get lost in another video site
- You can make money (via Revver, Google ads, and Amazon affiliate fees)
Here are the 5 steps:
- Park a domain (Yahoo.com will give you monthly hosting with e-mail)
- Build a site (I use Yahoo Sitebuilder)
- Create video “collections” on Revver
- Grab the “widget” code from Revver and drop them into HTML boxes on your site
- Ad additional ads
The money won’t exactly pour in until you promote the site well (more on that in future and past posts). Good luck- let me know if you make one, or if you have questions. Contact information in the “About” page of this blog.
(Click picture below to play video)
Film Maker Embraces the Web to Promote Zombie Musical September 30, 2006
Posted by Nalts in : Online Video, Revver, Viral Video, popular videos , 9comments
Last week I wrote 8 tips for independent filmmakers to use the web to promote their work and earn money via the ad-revenue-sharing online video sites. The ideas came from some of the discussions I had with filmmakers when I spoke at the Independent Feature Project event in NYC.
Here’s a great case study. Austin Filmmaker John McLean has a movie called Z (click to see film’s website). Here are some “PSAs” he created (and uploaded to Revver.com) to promote his work. John writes:
You inspired me to pimp for my latest low-budget picture–a feature-length Zombie musical, with fully 14 song & dance numbers–in a completely different way than usual.
If I can just inspire one promising filmmaker to pimp online, I can sleep well at night. Check out the promos:
- Harvey Fierstein’s Zombie PSA
- Just Z It (Nike spoof)
- Blood (Spoof on Budweiser “Wuz Up” ads)
Jenna Fischer from NBC’s “The Office” is a big Zombie fan (according to her interview on Leno last week). Might want to get her as a spokesperson, John.
A Weatherman is Born for Media MoGirl September 29, 2006
Posted by Nalts in : Online Video , 5comments
I’ve been invited to do a short weekly weather segment for MediaMoGirl. It’s a soon-to-launch NYC-based online media site.
Since I know nothing about weather, I thought it would be good to get some survival tips from our local weatherman. So he gave me some tips on the condition of anonymity. Here’s the footage.
Here’s the clip (click image below)
“Living My Life Faster” (8 years of photos of a guy’s face) September 29, 2006
Posted by Nalts in : Online Video , 5commentsThere are a few of these, but none top this. Here’s 8 years of a guy’s face played out rapidly. Watch his hair grow. Watch his facial hair come and go. Amazing.
On Hold With Blackberry September 29, 2006
Posted by Nalts in : Killer Video, Online Video, Viral Video , 2commentsMy chest hurts from laughing at this. Submitted by http://www.mediamogirl.com/ via Revver. Watch for her. She launches her own site in October.
The Idiot’s Guide to Making Your Own Video Site September 29, 2006
Posted by Nalts in : Making Videos, Online Video, Revver, Video Sites , 13commentsCheck out the new www.CubeBreak.com. It’s using Revver’s new widgets, so I get:
- Easy way to customize the website with the videos I select from Revver.
- Free hosting/serving of videos
- Affiliate fee of 20% if someone clicks the ad. If they click ads on my videos I get the 20% and then 50% of what’s left.
- The ability to update site without having to go back to the hosting software (Yahoo SiteBuilder)
It will take you about 2-3 hours. Here’s how I did it, and you don’t need to know a lick of programming to do it. I’ve been in the interactive world since 1996 and I’ve never touched code.
- Park a domain via Yahoo.com. Get the package (I think it’s about $15 a month) that includes Yahoo SiteBuilder and e-mail. There are plenty of other alternatives like Magnify (which makes it easier but means you have to share the affiliate fee) and other hosting providers.
- Yahoo SiteBuilder is as easy as Powerpoint. You can create page templates, but I just copy all my stuff on blank pages (like the navigation bar and masthead). You can easily insert text, images and “HTML” boxes (but you have to size these right). Start by drawing a text box in the dimensions required, then draw an HTML box over it and delete the text box when you’re done.
- Go to Revver and set up an account. Create manual collections of videos in various classes. Once you’ve populated these, select the icon that looks like a puzzle piece. That gives you the HTML code to create your widget back on the site. Copy and paste the code into your HTML boxes on your site.
- One weird thing- you have to eliminate the first line of code from your second widget and all the rest. You can only have this puppy appear once… Here’s the line (<script src=”http://widget.revver.com/js/1.0/revver.js” type=”text/javascript”></script>)
- Be sure to drop some Google Adsense ads in- I’ve made about $50 a month which covers my hosting cost. The Revver revenue is then gravy. I’m running Amazon affiliate ads now, but they haven’t been as profitable. Putting in ads is the same as putting in HTML code for the Revver widgets. You do have to set up a Google Adsense account, which is kinda a pain.
- A few optional steps… Be sure to tag your pages so the search engines find you (since you won’t benefit from any of the copy in the widgets). You’ll notice I also dragged headers over the widget because each Widget had the same name… Revver video. I wanted viewers to know which widget was which.
Now when you want to update the collections you do it at Revver and don’t have to keep opening Yahoo SiteBuilder. Be sure to read more of this blog’s entry so you can learn how to publicize your site (for instance, watermarking your videos with the URL).
It sounds harder than it is. Post comments if you have questions, or visit the Revver Forum for more details.
The Consolidation Continues September 29, 2006
Posted by Nalts in : Online Video , 2commentsDigg Moves to Video September 29, 2006
Posted by Nalts in : Online Video , add a commentKevin Maney reports that Digg is moving into online video.
Forbes Cover Story on YouTube (Gives Me Headache Behind Eye) September 29, 2006
Posted by Nalts in : Online Video , add a comment
Micropersuasion reports that “Forbes Hearts YouTube.” Here’s the blog entry and a link to the story, which I refuse to read. Someone is welcome to summarize in a comment.
Red Herring article on how to make money on your videos