CinemaTech Editor Scott Kirsner has prepared the definitive chart for video producers interested in making money via online video. In his article, Getting Paid: Sites that Help Video Producers Make Money, you’ll find everything you need to turn your videos into cash. This is the most comprehensive list of its kind online. Thanks to WVFF Reader Graham Walker for identifying it.
Category Archives: BlipTV
Comparing and Rating Video Search Engines
While Google/YouTube may change the dynamic of video search, it’s still hopelessly frustrating to find a video online. Wall Street Journal writer Jessica Vascellaro wrote a nice article on video search today. I liked it not just because it was the first time I’ve been mentioned in the Wall Street Journal. The article shows that companies have made significant efforts to address search. Ironically I can’t find the article online. But it’s titled “Finding Tom Cruise (Not Cruise Missiles). Have a go.
Inspired by the piece, I did my own comparisons of the online video search websites she referenced (and one she didn’t- Videoronk.com). My methodology was simple. I searched on my username (Nalts) which I also use to tag every video I upload to any video site. If nothing showed up, I can assume that the engine is crawling neither the username nor the tags, which means it’s not effective. If that failed, I tried a few of the unique titles I have for my videos.
In general all of the sites were poor at finding my videos. Results were incomplete, and they are based purely on the metadata (titles, tags, etc.) which I provide when I upload them. Eventually sites will convert speech to text and that will help. But it will be a long while before these operate with the success of search engines looking for text.
The ratings are in the image above. The winner by a mile is Videoronk. While it only indexes a small portion of my videos (and other people that have tried it), it’s still outperforming the other search tools). Purevideo was in second place because it also has links to each online-video site’s top videos. Pixsy was marginal, and Blinkx.com has actually gotten worse since the last time I used it.
Honorable mentions go to AOL Video and Yahoo Video — both video sites index videos beyond those on their site. Ironically, Yahoo Video ranked my Blip.tv videos higher than those that I uploaded on Yahoo Video. Revver seemed to be the online-video site that was most searchable by these engines. All but Blinkx.com found my Revver videos (which is ironic because Blinkx.com established a partnership with Revver earlier this year).
I didn’t include Metacafe in this test because it’s a destination site, but it’s planning some advanced search features like language translation in search. We can only hope that Google will start to do a better job of indexing YouTube videos and videos on other sites.
For now the easiest way to find a video is to start with YouTube, and then hit Videoronk if you don’t find it.
Best and Worst Site for Getting Your Videos Seen Fast
In my unscientific study I have identified the best and worst site for getting videos viewed quickly. This is based on my own experiments as well as feedback from some of you that have found this to be true as well.
Best site for getting views quickly: AOL Uncut (the consumer-generated portion of AOL). Example- something I uploaded 2 hours ago has more than 100 views. The exception to this would be when Metacafe, Yahoo, or Google feature you. Then your views rock.
Worst site for getting views: Eefoof (a company that shares ad revenue). Example- videos I uploaded a month ago have accumulated fewer than 10-20 views each.
Is this consistent with your findings? The winners for most-viewed appear to be (according to my videos):
- Metacafe (if your video is featured). I’m still making very decent money when they feature my videos. Dig the new logo.
- Google Video (slow and steady increases over time… a video never seems to die there)
- Yahoo Video (better than YouTube, and if they feature you your video can skyrocket- but that’s only happened to me twice)
- YouTube (really hard to get traffic there… 50-500 views seems about the average. Too much competition). I’ve had 250K views total at YouTube, but I’ve done much better on Google (million) and Yahoo (nearly million).
- Revver traffic is modest, but that’s because it’s up to the creators and affiates to get the video seen. Significant views don’t happen at Revver.com because it’s an infrequented website. All those EepyBird Mentos-Coke views occured on EepyBird via Revver. Not at Revver.com.
Remember that only four sites are paying (Revver, Metacafe, Eefoof, Blip and Lulu). I’ve had no luck with Eefoof and Lulu, but Blip should be “one to watch” if they embrace paying content creators.
Now we can only hope that our videos on Revver and Metacafe get as much traffic as the more trafficked sites.
New Way for Amateur Videos to Cross Chasm Between “Lean Forward” and “Lean Back”
How many technomarketing cliches can I work into one headline?
The majority of consumer generated video is consumed while we “lean forward” (computer). Now there’s a new way to reach those “leaning back” (television). BlipTV and Akimbo (a set-top box maker) have partnerered so Akimbo users can access the best user-generated videos. Although BlipTV isn’t sharing revenue, it is a top-rated video site. And Akimbo is well financed and has partnerships with AT&T and Microsoft. News via Reel Pop.
As Reep Pop’s Steven Bryant writes: “If these two companies can help me circumvent Web Junk’s Patrice O’Neal, giddy up.”
Convergence is a good thing. Let’s hope that if viewership expands the amateurs are compensated in more meaninful ways than $100 a video.
Online Video Sites: Upload Scores (and Pet Peeves)
Those of us that upload videos frequently have certainly developed a preference based on speed, convenience and “instant gratification” (ability of a site to show video soon after uploading it). Let’s review the common online video sites based on how well they facilitate uploading/posting of videos:
- YouTube: Used to be faster. The past few weeks I seem to get a delay whereby my video doesn’t show thumbnail for a while even if the video is there. Search terms don’t appear to be indexed quickly either. B-
- Metacafe: UPDATE: Now takes .mov files (as of 9/11). Also allows you to tag and add descriptions while the upload occurs (the only site so intuitively designed). Still has minor bugs but went from F to B- in the past week.
- Revver: Often slow, but improving. Terms are searchable as soon as it’s live, but upload-to-live time can take hours or even most of a day. C-
- Google: Used to be the worst- required multiple phases with horrendous delays. Now it’s almost instant. A- (from an F just weeks ago)
- Yahoo: Seems pretty good. Don’t think I’ve encountered problems, even if there is sometimes a minor delay. B+
- Eefoof: Tried a dozen of my videos over the weekend- quite easy. Would be an A but for the annoying requirement that the file name not have spaces. B-
- BlipTV and iFilm: I can’t remember. Anyone?
Note to video sites. We have some UPLOAD PET PEEVES.
- Let us identify the video on our hard drive (assign name/location) before we clasify it. It’s logical, and YouTube goes backwards. If I upload several videos I like to do them by date so I don’t miss one or upload twice, and that requires starting with file search so I can check the “saved on” date of the file.
- If you’re not going to make it live immediately, tell us where it stands. Otherwise we’ll upload it again and get error messages… I did that three times on YouTube this weekend.
- Don’t force a naming convention that’s “off the beaten track.” I won’t mention any names. Eefoof.
- For goodness sakes settle on a tag convention. Commas or spaces, people? We don’t care, but you’re making us think too hard by having different rules. And if you give us a limit please don’t make it fewer than 10-12 words.
- If we need to clasify it by genre, give us more choices (some sites only offer 6-8 options). And allow us to give it multiple genres. This will be very important as people want to refine searches.
- Would someone PLEASE develop a software that automates submissions to multiple sites?
You Won’t Get Discovered on YouTube
I’d like to take a moment to dispel the biggest myth of online video. Since a few “cross over” stars have been discovered on YouTube, people have begun to think that they can too.
Folks, it’s like playing the lotto. You have the same chance winning whether you play or not.
You won’t get discovered on YouTube. You’ll be a waitress in Hollywood taking a lunch break for your 177th audition. It’s not that you’re unworthy. You have talent. You’re even quite funny!
Here’s the problem: While it’s true that YouTube dominates online-video share, it’s wayyyyyyy easier to get yourself seen on a 2nd-tier or 3rd-tier site. Sure the BoobTube gets 10 zillion viewers a day. But there are eleventy gazillion videoscompleting for mindshare, and the viewers only look at the really popular stuff. So you won’t get popular because you’re not yet popular. I’m sorry to let you down. There’s just too much crap seeking the same eyeballs.
Try submitting to the 2nd-tier sites (Google Video, Yahoo Video and AOL Video) and you’ll be surprised how much more traffic you get. Even better, get on Metacafe, Blip or Revver. The deeper you go the bigger fish you’ll be in a smaller pond.
Let me close with this little story… My friend Tony Braithwaite went to LA to become a movie star. He tried for a year, and then got wise. He came back to Philadelphia to do stage theater. He’s now a living stage legend in Philly. That’s you on a 2nd tier site, friend.
Another Ranking of Top 10 Video Sites
Here’s another ranking of top video sites (by LightReading.com). I’m reminded that it’s probably time for me to update my ranking of the top revenue-sharings sites.
I admire LightReading’s thorough review, but I’m surprised that it overlooked the fundamental differences in business models between these sites. I suppose LightReading is an infrastructure site that is looking at it from that angle, but it does get down to comparing user experience and functionality.
However how can you review online video sites and not talk about the advertising models and whether you can make money by submitting… or not?
- Here’s the “cheat sheet.”
- Here’s a deeper dive on criteria for the cheat sheet.
- Here are the specific reviews for LightReading’s favorites.
Blip.tv
VideoEgg
Dailymotion
YouTube
Veoh
Google Video
Grouper
Jumpcut
AOL
Eyespot
Fynding Online Video Cites When You Can’t Spel
So here’s my way of helping people find online video sites when they can’t spell… oh, yeah, and for creating traffic for this highly profitable blog:
- Medacafe, Medicafe, meticafe, Metecafe is Metacafe
- YouTwo, YouToo, UTube, u-tube, YouToob is YouTube
- Rever, reffer, revur, revvur, river, rivver is Revver.
- Google Video is Google Video
- Yahoo Video is Yahoo Video
- eBamsworld, ebalmsworld, ebalm world is eBaumsworld
- Efoof, eefoof, e-foof, eefof is Eefoof
- Blip.com, Blipp, Blimp is Blip.TV
- Blinks, blinx, blinxk is Blinkx.tv
- Cuebreak, Cubebrake, Qbreak, qbrake is CubeBreak.com
- Brake.com, stupid videos, break is Break.com
Creating The Frankenstein of Online Video Sites
Did you ever play the game in college where you tried to imagine the perfect woman, and you’d combine parts from various people you knew? Kinda like building the Frankenstein of women? Jennifer’s nose, Cathy’s eyes, Christy’s… um… personality, etc.?
That’s what we’re going to play now. I’ll start. I’m going to create the perfect online video site, and you tell me what I’ve missed or called wrong.
- The popularity, speed and community of YouTube
- The commerce functionality of Google Video
- The ability to search multiple sites of Yahoo Video
- The ad-sharing model of Revver
- The simplicity of Metacafe
- The advanced sharing functionality of Blip.tv
- The search power of Blinkx
- The hysterical content from eBaums and Break
What am I missing?
Blip Your Video to a Blog
Blip.TV has automated the process of uploading videos to its site and then blogging about ’em. That last post was an example. I didn’t log on WordPress to post it. I just selected “blog it” once I had uploaded my video to Blip.
Quite cool. I initially had problems with it, and received quick feedback from one of the Blip founders even though he didn’t know I had a blog about online videos. Turns out the problem was that I gave them my username without the capital N.
I probably won’t use this feature very often, though, because ideally I want my videos streamed on Revver so I can make ad money if people click the ad.