Will Video for Food » 2008

Online Video in UK: YouTube vs. BBC March 29, 2008

Posted by Nalts in : Online Video, YouTube , 7comments

Hitwise reported recently on the dramatic growth of online-video viewing in the UK. Time to start faking a Brittish accent in my vlogs.

The most interesting part of this, for me, is that YouTube’s total traffic is higher than the next 10 properties combined. And YouTube’s 69% share of the top 10 is followed by a paltry 5.6 percent share by the BBC. Can it last?

My First Shout Out (boring “history of nalts” post) March 28, 2008

Posted by Nalts in : Online Video , 22comments

Don’t know what a “shout out” is? It’s when you mention someone in your video. Don’t care? Stop reading. This blog entry isn’t for the industry watchers, but for the small group of obscure people that watch my crap.

I stumbled into my first “shout out” video recently. In this fake PSA I did about Revver.com, I spoof the “art” of independent creators, and shed light on the folks that were ripping content and then making money on it (my brother in law played the video artist that made $9 a week dropping forks on the ground). The video was called “Revverberation,” which would later become the name of my unofficial Revver blog that spawned this one.

At the end you’ll see a legal document that lists Marquisdejolie vs. Texas. I remember Googling for a legal template, then altering it with his name and then photographing it… wondering if he’d notice this homage since he seemed to be watching every new Revver video like I was.

I also remember going nuts that this video got thousands of views, since most got 50-100. To gauge the magnitude, I adjust for view inflation by multiplying 2006/2007 views by 1,000 times. So this was a 3 million view video, as far as I was concerned.

More related trivia. When I was first featured on YouTube with “Viral Video Genius,” I mention being called an Andy Warhol of online video… “by a homeless guy in Texas. He has a blog. Google it.” Well this time Marquisdejolie caught the “shout out” before I had to spoon feed it, and no response tickled me like his spontaneous laughter clip. Can you listen to that and not crack up?

Here’s Marquisdejolie’s recount from a year ago, but I can’t seem to find his original blog post calling me the Warhol of online video.

And then there’s this post from MarquisdeJolie’s blog:

Nalts doesn’t need a tribute from me. He’s doing just fine on Revver and Youtube and Livevideo and Metacafe and wherever else he may be…. Wherever 10 or more viral video fans collect to watch videos, you find a Nalts video there…. I just needed an excuse to use his name in my blog so that the Internet search engines will spot my blog and up my ranking. His screen name is a commodity now like gold or silver or pork bellies. Use it in your blog and watch your hits skyrocket.

How to Make a Great April Fool’s Video March 26, 2008

Posted by Nalts in : Online Video , 17comments

It’s not too late to make that killer April Fool’s video. Maybe you can get it on Metacafe’s April Fool’s section (see blog post, and April Fool’s channel), and get filthy rich. Here are some tips I probably won’t follow because I’m too sleepy to bother.

Fool the viewer. Make them think it’s about one thing, but shock them. Don’t start making a loud sound because that lost its charm about 10 years ago.
Get real reactions. People love public reactions to odd situations. Get their permission when you’re done, because I don’t.
Keep it short. A prank can be done in a minute or so.
Name it something funny but avoid giving up the gag. I’m thinking about putting a walk-e-talkie in a purse and titling it “talking purse.” But I can’t find the stupid walk-e-talkie much less spell it.
Charlie just woke up and said it was the worse day of his life. That’s not part of the list, but I felt I’d offer it. Oh- he wants to make a craft. Forget this list. You’re on your own.

The Curse of Subscriber Self Worth March 26, 2008

Posted by Nalts in : Online Video , 15comments

Seriously, if you’re one of those YouTubers that is on a mad mission to raise your subscriber level, you should know it’s a bottomless pit. You never reach a point where you say, “hey, I’ve made it.” You just keep looking up and seeing there are more popular ones. And suddenly your ego depends on that number, and how many views you get. Then you realize it’s all futile, and you stop caring. That’s when your videos actually get better.

So save yourself the headache. Just make stuff you like. Forget whether people view it, rate it, comment. It’s like trying to find yourself in the eyes of others. There’s my free philosophical advice for the day.

Oh- here are my least viewed videos on YouTube. They’s just as bad as the popular ones, only less popular.

Why I Haven’t Posted a Video in a While (Like You Care) March 26, 2008

Posted by Nalts in : Nalts , 21comments

Why haven’t I posted a video in nearly a week? You decide:

I’m out of ideas. Like Gary Larson, only I was never as funny.
I took Easter off. And can’t get back.
One of my irreverent videos went “viral” in my company, and unintentionally hurt someone’s feeling. I’m keeping a low profile.
I’m too sleepy.
Self deprecating Kevin says my ideas suck.
I’m too busy punching myself in the face because I’m so annoying.
I’ve decided to abandon NaltsGetsFit and do a NaltsEatsShit channel. Live Stickam viewings of my midnight cereal binges.
I’m busy getting Zen with Eckart Tolle, who tells me it’s madness to judge myself by how many subscribers I have. He doesn’t actually say that.
I’m trying to think of a big April’s Fools joke. I can’t find my walk-e-talkies to do “the talking purse.”
I want to give the nation constipation.
If you don’t have anything nice to say, say nothing.
Insert your own reason here.
Marilyn doesn’t like my blog anymore because it’s not fun and nobody is commenting. So she won’t like my video ideas.
I don’t feel like making room on my hard drive, despite my external drive count reaching 12.
I won’t make another video until Mac gives me a free Mac Air, the cheap bastards.
I tried to learn Final Cut Express, and it’s overwhelming. But I feel like going back to iMovie is a sign of weakness. Like going back to size 38 pants.
There is no 17th excuse.

Google Visitors Are So Weird March 26, 2008

Posted by Nalts in : Online Video , 11comments

Even if nobody reads your stupid blog, it’s worth it just to see what terms people use to find it. Here are some of the searches that led people to this blog. How random. How in the heck are people finding this blog by searching the word “grief”?

free episodes of the office 4
grief 3
how to promote a video contest 2
best boobs 2
fucking ben affleck cast 2
willvideoforfood 2
instrumental music to use in video 1
apple macbook air commercial parody 1
best quality external hard drive 1
five stages of death 1
grief 6
will video for food 6
how to become popular 5
napkin musical 4
doubleclick google food 4
willvideoforfood 4
nalts 3
youtube 3
youtube videos 3
shirtless celebrities

What’s “Fair Use” in Online Video? March 26, 2008

Posted by Nalts in : YouTube, copyright , 8comments

So it helps to get some guidance from Mark Levy, who specializes in intellectual property law, and wrote a piece on “What’s Legal: Producer’s Rights” in a recent issue of VideoMaker.

The least you need to know:

Copyright law protects you as a video creator, and gives you the right to authorize (or not) your stuff for reproduction, derivative works and distribution for sale or rental.
Fair use allows users to copy portions off a work for purposes of illustration or commentary. Journalist can quote speeches, but courts consider four factors to determine the fine line between fair use and copyright infringement:

The nature of the work: If it’s factural not creative, it’s more likely to pass.

Purpose: commercial or non-profit has obvious implications.

Amount and substantiality of excerpted work. The more you use, the greater the risk. TheStranger can probably use my image in this “Undies” award promotion. But the jackass that keeps ripping popular YouTube videos, posting it on their own channel, and linking to their stupid website? YouTube seems to be policing that well.

Potential effect on the value or potential market of the original work.

Don’t forget there’s a lot in public domain. For more details, Levy directs us to the Cornell page about public domain.

Be careful out there, kiddo.

“Sorry, Partner” says YouTube March 26, 2008

Posted by Nalts in : Google, Making Money, Making Videos, YouTube, google video , 31comments

Sorry, Partners. Seems a few YouTubers have been getting the following response when trying out for YouTube’s Partner Program.

“The current level of viewership of your account has not met our threshold for acceptance.”

Should they announce what that threshold is on the “who qualifies” page?
Or provide a message that is a little more human?
Maybe let people know that the ad revenue would be laughable if views are at x level?
Give applicants a banner and credits to the Google store, which would be enough for many?

Nah, I think they should just send this clip without any text.

Is Yahoo TV Closing or Widening Chasm Between Online Video & Television? March 25, 2008

Posted by Nalts in : Making Money, Making Videos, Online Video, Video Advertising, Video Business, Yahoo Video, YouTube, advertising , 13comments

Which online-video site is mostly likely to be part of the bridge between television and the Internet? You can fault the model, and question it’s sustainability. But Yahoo TV is well poised to leverage its partnerships with Verizon and TiVo to start serving its bite-sized video content via television sets equipped with broadband boxes.

Take, for example, Yahoo TV’s “Prime Time in No Time,” a show hosted by Frank Nicotero that recaps the prior evening’s television shows. It’s interesting on at least two levels:

It appeals to TV junkies. I’m not sure there’s a market for general prime-time recaps (since audiences tend to form around tighter niches). But it’s clearly targeted at TV viewers who maybe need some hand holding to start consuming via Yahoo’s mini-TV play. With some prime time promotion, I can see this audience growing.
The ad model is interesting. Verizon gets a brief intro (not a preroll that I noticed), some banner wrap-arounds, and even a logo tucked nicely in the host’s corner frame. It’s dominant without being obtrusive.

So we’re still in the infancy of the “TV and online video” collision, which is clearly going to take much more time than we hoped. I’m far less interested in television administered in once-a-day pills (instead of intravanious drips). I find the more fascinating side to be the amateur creators gaining broader exposure than they currently get (assuming they’re good enough, and have consistent content that appeal to steady audiences even if relatively small).

While YouTube is still better poised for the latter, Yahoo comes at the web more like AOL: looking more like TV on the computer than web video as most consume it now. So we see less and more polished content, but fairly superficial interaction between the content and its audience. It’s still “one to many” unlike the magic of online video “many to many” play.

It’s Amazon not eBay.

As an example, one of my few popular videos on Yahoo has 90K views but just 90 comments. While one in a thousand comment on Yahoo Video, most of my YouTube videos get 1-2 percent of viewers commenting. My Mac Air spoof got 27K views with 13 comments, while the same Mac Air spoof on YouTube got 374K views and 1564 comments.

Typically the initial online successes are “pure plays” and not an offline entity moving in. This is true with almost any industry: gaming, retail, travel and media. But it will take a few failures along the way. YahooTV is bringing TV and online video ever so slightly closer together — even if it ends up being a log over the river.

Note that Yahoo Video (the quasi amateur section) still exists, but it’s not part of the primary menu on Yahoo. In fact, I almost gave up in my search for it, so it’s not likely drawing in many Yahoo users (Alexa won’t let me isolate http://video.yahoo.com/ from Yahoo.com, so I don’t know how it’s fairing). The featured videos seem to get paltry views relative to YouTube features, and even the Yahoo Video Awards blog post has just 35 comments 4 days after announced (by contrast, most top 100 YouTubers get that kind of views and interactions within an hour of posting).

P.S. Updated 3/27: Check out what InsideOnlineVideo has to say about Yahoo.

Trend Spotting: Tag-Team Vlogging… Brothers, Awesome Girls, Guys, Kids and Dogs. March 25, 2008

Posted by Nalts in : Online Video, Viral Video, YouTube , 5comments

It’s the hottest new trends in video vlogging since ZeFrank jumped the shark. A video channel shared by multiple people, each of whom takes a certain day of the week. The possibilities are endless.

Thought it’s probably an art form that has roots in the 1700s, this was mainstreamed by BrotherHood 2.0, where two brothers shared a channel for a year and communicated almost exclusively on a public stage. Then along came FiveAwesomeGirls, in which each vlogger takes a day of the week (they rest and shop on the weekend). Not to be outdone, the second-most intelligent gender came out with FiveAwesomeGuys.

We started 7AwesomeKids, and now there’s 5AwesomeDogs (here’s their canine debut).

What’s next?

older posts »

Online Video in UK: YouTube vs. BBC March 29, 2008

My First Shout Out (boring “history of nalts” post) March 28, 2008

How to Make a Great April Fool’s Video March 26, 2008

The Curse of Subscriber Self Worth March 26, 2008

Why I Haven’t Posted a Video in a While (Like You Care) March 26, 2008

Google Visitors Are So Weird March 26, 2008

What’s “Fair Use” in Online Video? March 26, 2008

“Sorry, Partner” says YouTube March 26, 2008

Is Yahoo TV Closing or Widening Chasm Between Online Video & Television? March 25, 2008

Trend Spotting: Tag-Team Vlogging… Brothers, Awesome Girls, Guys, Kids and Dogs. March 25, 2008

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