Category Archives: Nalts

I am to Korea what Jerry Lewis is to France.

Well maybe the headline is an overstatement because I have no idea what this Korean website is saying about me. But I’m sure it’s something like “he’s a viral video genius” who knows marketing and online-video better than anyone else in the globe.  If you happen to speak or read Korean, I’d invite a translation. Google Translator isn’t much help, and the other sites turn this text into something that makes no sense…

, 자칭 바이럴 비디오 천재입니다. 온라인 스타도 아니고 머라고 해야하죠. 자칭이니 힘들군요.

모바일 비디오 – 현재 아주 소수만이 모바일을 위핸 비디오를 제작하고 있다. 모바일 비디오는 다른 카메라 샷, 그리고 더 타이트한 스토리가 필요하다. 소수 제작자들은 스폰을 받기 시작했고 모바일 업체들은 컨텐츠 수급에 목말라 있다. 따라서 2008년은 암흑기를 지나 일본과 핀란드에서 일어난 일에 근접하는 기간이 될 것이다.더 중요한 것은 모바일에 있어서의 근본적인 교착상태이다.사용자의 요구는 천천히 늘고 있고 망사어자와 컨텐츠 소유자는 서로 권한에 대한 양보를 하고 싶어하지 않고 있다. 거기다 수익은 작다. 밴처는 상황을 조용히 해결하고 싶어하고 큰 업체들은 컨트롤을 위한 전쟁을할 것이다.

비디오 광고 – 구글의 InVideo광고가 명확한 모델이다. 덜 성가시며 타겟팅이 가능하다. 그리고 마케터들에게 먹힌다. pre-roll은 고급컨텐츠에서 보게 될 것이고 비디오 주위의 배너는 일반화될 것이다.

누가 망할까요? – 2진그룹의 비디오 서비스들은 큰 회사에 팔리거나 아니면 사라질 것이다. 2007년 Youtube와 그 외 서비스들의 market share의 격차는 엄청나게 벌어졌다. 온라인은 아마 하나 또는 두개의 major player로 정리될 것이다. 최고의 기술을 가지고 있더라고 사용자를 모으지 못해서 또는 광고주를 모으지 못해서 다들 사라질 것이다. 예로는 Revver가 있겠다.

온라인 비디오 스타 – 아쉽게도 인터넷 비디오를 통해 아마추어가 스타가 되는 일이 예상만큼 일어나고 있지 않다. 헐리우드 스타일은 무시할 수 없다. 비용구조가 받쳐주지 않음에도 불구하고 투쟁없이 변하는 것은 없을것이다.

드라마작가 파업 – 작가들은 그들이 원하는 것을 얻게 될 것이다. (그러니까 다른 매체를 통해 얻어지는 광고 수익에 대한 배분)

일시적인 비디오 유행 – 광고에 기반한 공짜 라이브 비디오 스트리밍 서비스들은 고객에겐 아주 좋으나 돈이 될 곳이 안보인다.돈을 받게 되거나 사라지는 것을 보게 될 것이다. (Stickam / Skype)

자칭 천재시지만 많은 부분 매우 현실적인 상황인식이 보이시는 분입니다.

Nalts Gets Killed

Fiction and reality can be ironic. Last Thursday night I joined some folks in NYC to shoot the recent “Farting Unites,” but not before meeting in Newark to get killed by PaulScott1972here’s his frightening video threat.

Ignored YouTubeAnd here’s a video called “Ignored: Part 5.” It’s graphic and involves a car being tampered, but be sure to enjoy the outtakes to decompress.

In true irony, during this same time I received real death threats and car tampering that has resulted in an ongoing police investigation. See “more” to read about that too-close-to-home drama.

The fictional series, titled “Ignored,” (see entire playlist) was inspired by the behavior of YouTube viewers who feel dejected because their favorite creators don’t respond to e-mail or messages… K80Blog was fake killed last Halloween. Musosf and GeneticBlend are two of the creative brains behind this disturbing but intriguing storyline.
It’s unfortunately true that as a YouTube creator’s viewer audience increases, it becomes impossible to dignify each person with a response. This makes the “famous” recipient perpetually guilty, and offends people who don’t know what it’s like to receive hundreds of messages a day via YouTube. I remember feeling “ignored” when I was new to YouTube and didn’t get responses from popular YouTubers to whom I wrote
The death video is atypically dark for a Nalts one, so my kids won’t be watching it and neither should yours. But I have been known to fake my own death before (see GooTube Conspiracy). I’ve even had a firework smash through my eyes thanks to the special effects of Davideo Designs. Continue reading Nalts Gets Killed

Study Shows People Who Don’t Watch Online Videos Are… Boring

zipster loco mama terryA recent study shows that the shrinking percent of US citizens that don’t watch online-video regularly are more likely (by 45%) to be boring than their video-watching counterparts. This study, mind you, is based not on a significant N or any official methodology. It’s just based on my own experience.

For example, here’s a result of last evening with Zipster08 and ChristopherMast. It’s a video called “Loco Mama and the Boys from the Hood.” Call them crazy, but don’t call them boring.

Incidentally, Mast (an Indie singer and nurse) is “couch surfing” with the Nalts family this week, and documenting every waking moment. Again- call it what you will, but it’s not boring.

And, all things being equal, life is more interesting when it’s not boring.

eBaums Features My Worst Video Ever… L33t Dwarf Horses

eBaums featured my worst video ever a few hours ago. It’s called “l33t dwarf horses,” and it’s a parody of “Internet gaming speak.” It was inspired by DigitalPh33r (see recent post on him). For more about l33t, see this Wikipedia entry. Or the Urban Dictionary version of it.

eBaums must have ripped the video from some website, and posted it. So I just set up my own Nalts account, posted the same video, and asked them to provide correct attribution.

Then again, with 224 scathing comments (in just four hours) and a 1/5 star rating, maybe I don’t want credit…

Nalts Live on Rhett & Link Tonight

rhett and link wetting bedSorry. This is the kinda post that industry people don’t care about, but some of my viewers might. I’m going live with Rhett & Link tonight (Thursday, April 17 at 9 EST). That’s 2 am for you folks in England, but you never sleep anyway. [Added April 21: here’s the archive of the show].

Rhett & Link are Musical Comedians, Web Comics, Content Creators, Magicians, Grocery Clerks, Bed Wetters and Indie Filmmakers.

Here’s the website with details. I think I’ll shave my goatee tonight live.

rhett and link live

Top Secret YouTube Tricks & Hacks

Okay maybe “top secret” is an over statement, but most readers of this post will find a few surprises here. I give you some of the lesser known tricks on YouTube to optimize your experience as a viewer or creator…

  1. Find Best Videos on YouTube
    Don’t surf the homepage or most-recently uploaded section if you want to find the best videos. There are two places to go… the “top rated” section and the “most viewed.” I prefer the latter, because the community decides what’s lands there. Note that some creators live on this page because their fans rate them 5 stars without fail, so it’s not all good. There are also a few people that are “gaming the system” by artificially rating themselves 5 stars with sock accounts or autobots (boo, hiss). If you like vloggers, check the “most discussed” section of “People and Blogs.” You can also surf the “most subscribed” creators (by category) and when you find someone good (say, for example, Nalts) be sure to subscribe. Then visit your subscription page first, which is like an RSS for new videos by your favorite creators.
  2. Watch Blocked Videos.
    See previous post on this blog to see how to hack YouTube if a video’s URL is blocked by your ISP.
  3. See “Recently Deleted” Videos.
    Delutube and ReviveTube allow you to find deleted videos if you know the 11-digit URL. Source: ReelPopBlog.
  4. Make Your Videos Upoad Faster.
    Apparently SpeedBit Video VideoAccelorator makes YouTube videos load more quickly. It works for other sites as well (see site details at Accelorator.com).
  5. Upload to YouTube and a Bunch of Other Sites at Once.
    I use TubeMogul whenever I want to upload beyond YouTube on a mess ofwebsites including, currently, Yahoo!, MySpace, Metacafe, Google, Revver, DailyMotion, Blip.tv, Veoh, Crackle & StupidVideos.
  6. Reference a Video in Comments Section.
    You can post a URL in the comment section of videos, but you can provide the 11-digit alphanumeric code, and then people can post this before it:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
  7. Get More Views on YouTube
    I’ve written a free eBook about how to promote yourself on YouTube (“How to Become Popular on YouTube Without Any Talent“), and there are other books including this 25-pager I haven’t read.
  8. Download YouTube Videos
    This is a post with some tips, but I like VideoBox from tastyapps.com (but it’s Mac only). KeepVid can download videos as FLV files pretty quickly. I’m also using Snapz Pro or Snagit to grab short sections of videos very quickly.
  9. Upload Videos for Best YouTube Quality
    For starters, you gotta export your videos in the best resolution possible — that means making them larger files (mine are 100 megs or more) and ensuring all the specifications are YouTube friendly. Trippy’s blog covers these specs well. Some argue that it’s best to convert it to an FLV per YouTube specifications before uploading, but I don’t like the idea of sending YouTube anything compressed so tightly.
  10. Subscribe to Someone When You Can’t.
    YouTube accounts without videos don’t have a “subscribe” option. To get around this (or to make it easy for people to subscribe to you), use this code, substituting the profile name where I have “Nalts.”
    http://youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=nalts

What did I miss? I’m updating this!

Appear Better Informed About Darfur in 3 Minutes: The Onion Makes Me Cry

Darfur. We both know how serious it is, but we’re not sure exactly why or where it is.

The Onion (helping you seem more informed”) has produced this fantastic parody of news analysis. It’s called “How Can We Let Darfur Know How Much We’re Doing For Them.”

picture-10.pngI’ve never laughed as much in preparing a post for this silly blog- in fact cried laughing (to use a bad pun). The Onion, I hope you know, is a website/print publication that has made the single finest transition to online-video content. The Onion News Network is as well written as the website I used to eagerly anticipate each Wednesday (in fact, it was literally the only website besides Google that I checked routinely in the early part of this century). But the acting is what cinches this. The acting is better than amateur online-video content, and most of television.

Watch each of these actors and realize how easy it is to believe that they’re real analysts and you’re not supposed to be laughing- the cadence, the off-camera glances, the “pile on” comments, and the timing. Folks if you’re watching, I’d kill for a cameo. No charge, and I’ll get their with 24-hours notice. 

The onion logoAccording to Wikipedia, (but watch out because The Onion reminds us Wikipedia is prone to error), The Onion launched The Onion News Network, a daily web video broadcast that had been in production since mid-2006. An early story featured an illegal immigrant taking an executive’s $800,000 a year job for $600,000 a year. The Onion has reportedly invested about $1 million in the production and has hired 15 new staffers to focus on the production of this video broadcast.[11] Carol Kolb, former editor-in-chief of The Onion, is the head writer.

In a Wikinews interview in November 2007, Onion President Sean Mills said the ONN has been a huge hit.

“We get over a million downloads a week, which makes it one of the more successful produced-for-the-Internet videos,” said Mills. “If we’re not the most successful, we’re one of the most.”

TheOnion has a YouTube account (with an atypical banner that allows viewers to drop directly into its podcasts, website or RSS) since March 2006, but its videos are all relatively new to YouTube (past several months). As of this post, I have about 35,000 subscribers on YouTube, and The Onion has about 13,000. I’m willing to bet that the network has twice as many subscribers as me by the summer.

I’ve often said that quasi professional content is on the rise, but this isn’t fair to call “quasi.” The only reason this content isn’t a better version of SNL is because there’s not enough of it, and perhaps it appeals to a smaller segment of the SNL audience with primarily news parody. Then again- it works for Jon Stewart.

See: FDA recalls pot pies because they’re hungry and the plight of lost hikers.

The Best of Cats on Skateboards (YouTube Advertising)

It’s the biggest myth of online-video advertising. If a brand advertises on YouTube it will appear with consumer-generated media that includes such content as cats on skateboarders. TVweek’s “New Media Minute,” hosted by Daisy Whitney, featured a recent interview with YouTube’s Jordan Hoffner to set the record straight (via WebVideoReport).

cats on skateboards on youtubeNaturally I couldn’t resist a parody that includes Hoffner’s “that never happens” quote in a montage of nostalgic ads mixed with cat’s skateboarding. Here’s hoping Hoffner can laugh at the parody. I’m a YouTube Partner (paid content creator), but I didn’t monetize this puppy, Jordan.