Last year my video roundup of the best Superbowl ads was seen more than 7 million times, so I kinda had to make a sequel. Since this year’s theme (for both aired videos and those banned) seemed to be about guys being gay or wearing underwear, it felt right to use “I Wear No Pants” (used in the Shazam Dockers ad and written by The Poxy Baggards).

Want to see how the ads were rated? Check out USAToday’s Ad Meter, see Advertising Age’s Report, or watch them all at YouTube’s AdBlitz channel.

I just uploaded version 2 of “How to Get Popular on YouTube Without Any Talent” (a free eBook originally written 2 years ago). Thanks for the feedback on the first one. We’re all still figuring it out, eh?

Nalts doesn’t feel as popular as when he first wrote it, but he’s having fun, dangit. The original motive in publishing this was to help people avoid getting scammed by stupid products or services that promise to boost your YouTube views. Puh-leez.

I’m finalizing “Beyond Viral Video” for Wiley, but that one’s for marketers and agencies… so it’s going to be a real book with a price tag and fancy cover. 62,000 words so far, but necessarily in the right order.

I put “youtube popular” on Scribd and SlideShare because it’s too big to post as PDF here. Use it as you wish, but if you steal it and sell it I’ll punch you.

Can online video make any money? I don’t remember right now, but I’m guessing the answers are in this Streaming Media Online Video “Redefining Monetization” expert panel that Larry Kless led. It’s an all-star cast and me. Just shut up and read his article from yesterday or watch an excerpt of the video, and make a funny comment on Larry’s blog.

No, all social-media articles don’t have to suck.

MediaPost’s Kelly Samardak takes us into a speakeasy during a social-media Mental Prohibition in this coverage of “Digital Cocktails: Keys to Social Media Success.” The piece, part business and human interest, chronicles the event — hosted at the NYC studios of ForYourImagination (where you can pass the social-media “dutchie on the left hand side“).

It’s a cool and quirky narrative exploring the social behavior of those advancing the NYC social media ‘n digital media advertainment scene, while these well-intentioned expatriates try to make enough money for this month’s rent, a new book, and an $11.50 pack of Merits (not necessarily in that order).

Maybe I’m charmed by the article because I’ve had a bong snap of the venue’s mojo, and can almost smell the couch at FYI studio as I read.  Samardak refers to it as “funky…. soft, coffee-house-like, velvety furniture bordered the usual white chairs used for panel viewing.” Now can you see why I get offended at a list of “The New Establishment” (Revision3, NextNewNetwork, Mondo, etc) that fails to include FYI?

ForYourImagination's studios, captured during a less cool event

You haven’t whiffed the inner belly of the online-video-social-media-digital-branded-entertainment advertising coup d’éta until you’ve been “shhhh’d” by Paul Kontonis (professional squealer and one of the most huggable people in emerging media). Can you blame him? You were gabbing too loudly with YouTube nerd stars while he was trying to introduce his virtual family members to some… new video hosting streaming adver-creative case study thing. “Hey, Radio Shack… we’re learning here.”

Parenthetically, have you not had the pleasure of sipping Kontinis’ invisible juice? That video’s up to a not-too-shabby 600K views, Paul. Will “Businessman Snow Fail” top Invisible? We doubt either of our YouTube Miller’s Bests will impress the martini web-series production man. He indulged me with his cameo despite visible befuddles, reverberated by qualms of co-unwitting-cast member Daisy Whitney… the Ginger to Samardak’s Mary Anne. Just keep moving, kids.

Feel your heart rate lower as you sink into Samardak’s recount of the crowd chuckling to pictures from “This Is Why You’re Fat (TIWYF).” And you’ve got to love this byte: “Kontonis is a moderator to benchmark… rather than asking a question, listening to each panelist, responding with “great,”  and then moving on, he talked with them, sometimes even challenging them to answer questions better, as if saying “if I were in the audience I wouldn’t accept that — go further.”

Samardak pokes Carrot Creative’s Katy Kelly, noting that the crowd giggled when Katy accidentally called TIWYF, “this is why I think you’re fat.” And Katy’s quote, (“you get what you pay for,”) quipped Samardak, put her in the “minor vs major league quoting strategy with clients.” snap oh no you dint.

Just when I was thinking 12 e-mail newsletters from MediaPost might warrant an opt-out surrender, I’m rescued by Samardak’s bid-ness poetry (check out the “Sneeze on the Salad Bar” piece).

Have I met her? I think so. I don’t know. It could have been Shira Lazar wearing a sombrero. You perky brunette journalists start to all look alike anymore.

When do you book your plane flight to AdTech (April) in San Fran?

a) When you commit to speaking

b) When Daisy Whitney reminds you

c) When AdTech puts you on its homepage

d) A week before the event because you forgot

e) Never because you don’t know the difference between LA and SanFran, so you end up driving there

I hope people visit AdTech.com, then wander to my YouTube page and find this video I shot this morning. Then they won’t worry about taking an early flight and missing the closing act.

Meet Daneboe of Gagfilms, creator of the extremely popular “Annoying Orange” series. I interviewed him remotely in late 2007 for Metacafe Unfiltered, a short-lived “behind the scenes of popular creators.” Since he was in Florida, Freddy Nager suggested we do a homage to his popular “screaming eggs” video.

So when I saw his recent Superbowl video surging on YouTube, I went on a binge. Imagine me and my four kids laughing hysterically at the wonderfully sophomoric and simple concept: An orange annoys fellow fruits and vegetables, but always gets the last laugh when their rudeness is followed by their demise.

My favorite is episode three, featuring the Tomato that can’t be both a vegetable and a fruit.

Thanks to Dane for digging up the digital file, and allowing me to post it.

I’ve grown increasingly frustrated with social-media monitoring tools, and their inability to filter out old content or spam bots using my old content. It’s very easy for me to assess a social-media tool by querying my own name (Nalts). I know instantly what content about me is new, and can recognize old content that has been repurposed by spam sites, which often grab my old blogs and video descriptions to fool search engines and people into thinking they’re not autobots.

Here’s an example from my Google Alerts, which I am about to discontinue. None of this is new! Even Google can’t determine what’s old anymore... and some of this links to my own blog posts that are ancient. This makes me question the prevailing myth that Google will overtake the social-media monitoring landscape with its own free solution.

Is there a solution? Even the best social-media tools can’t seem to discern between legitimate recent posts (of me anyway) that are on my sites or others.

… be hurting you. Why do keep writing about video search-engine optimization?

• Your viewers or customers are increasingly using specific terms in their search, and including the word “video” into searches more than the word “sex.” In the past 5 years the term “how to” has grown steadily as a search phrase (Google analytics).
• Eye charts show that when a thumbnail image (representing a video) appears among a search-page results it gets an early glance before people read.
• Approximately a third of the views of a video are driven by search. It may surprise you that search engines overtook social media as a driver to videos back in early 2008 (Hitwise, 2009 via ReelSEO).
• Google, by far the leading search engine, incorporates many forms of media in its results. Since it currently indexes far more text than video, you have a distinct advantage with video content.

There are two solutions: the hard way and the easy way. The hard way: you can ensure you or your agency is current on video SEO techniques. The second is that you post content on YouTube (which Google crawls quite well) and ensure that your title, description and keywords are aligned and words are ranked by priority. Don’t try to optimize against impossible phrases with lots of competition. Be specific and add words people are increasingly adding to search queries (video, how to, etc).

Larry Kless did  a nice summary of the Online Video Platform Summit (sounds saucy, huh), and quotes SEO Video Guru Mark Robertson. Nico McLane discussed her article from StreamingMedia that is subtitled “The secret’s in the sauce, but nobody’s sharing their recipes.”

Robertson puts it simply, “video SEO is purely an extension of SEO.” The more I research it, the more I realize it’s true. The tips for optimizing video content, with some exceptions, are typical of a good search-engine optimization plan.

This Today show report highlights Lauren Luke, a single mom from England who found fame via YouTube make-up tutorials. Now she’s making money on YouTube, and has launched her own makeup line with Sephora. Her own makeup talents are more evident by her glowing face in the in the live shot than the interview clips preceding it (which, perhaps due to careful NBC lighting direction, give her that requisite homely amateur look).

Check her out at YouTube as Panacea81 or see her fashion line here. If you last long enough in this video, you’ll see a rare quote from YouTube about the financial upside for creators. Go get ‘em Lauren.

Lessons learned:

• Sometimes you can go from obscurity to a full-time revenue on YouTube.
• That can transcend to additional opportunities.
• NBC, like every other network, will never fail to show “Charlie Bit My Finger” or some of the other most-viewed videos whenever covering the medium.
• Eyes in thumbnails sell. See her most popular videos below:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I couldn’t help reflect on my commute this morning about how very sad the iPad must be from the scathing reception he’s received. Perhaps he’s hurting deep down, and needs to vent in a “hater” vlog. So I gave him the chance.

It was fun to watch the faces of people as I drove up Route 202 through New Jersey with a mask on my face, a camera on the dashboard, and a paper taped to the window with some notes I drafted up (while at a red light, of course).

Poor guy. Can you blame him for being so angry? He’s doing the best he can within his own limitations.