Tag Archives: most popular

Online Video

On YouTube, Popular and Good Are Different

11 Comments

I would have predicted that by April 2010, YouTube’s “most popular” videos would be consistantly good. In fact, however, we’re seeing some all-star talent like Mediocrefilms and BlameSocietyFilms getting far fewer views than they would have a year ago. And we’re seeing some YouTube channels ranking consistently on YouTube’s most-viewed and most popular sections that are (how can I put this nicely?) kinda “Naltsish.”

Why? Sure there’s an increasing amount of competition, but the only common thread I’m seeing among the high performers (in views and subscription growth) is regularity (videos posted daily or several times a week). To some extent this isn’t entirely new, but I would have thought by now that the “most popular” content would kinda sort out the good from the bad. Has my taste departed from fellow YouTube viewers, or is the algorithm screwed up?

It would appear that routine posting, more than anything else, is key. Talent continues to be far less important than regularity, as well as the basic standards I address in “How To Become Popular on YouTube Without Any Talent” (engaging with audience, collaborating with popular creators, etc).

Joe Penna, MysteryGuitarMan, is an exception to a new rule: popular and quality YouTubers channels are hardly correlated.

There are notable exceptions. Nobody in web video has produced more consistently creative and awe-inspiring videos in 2010 than Joe Penna, known as The MysteryGuitarMan. It’s perplexing that even the most extremely awesome and popular YouTube amateurs is virtually an unknown beyond YouTube. When I speak at conferences, few recognize the most-viewed or most-subscribed people like Fred… and certainly haven’t heard of MGM (aka JP).

Check out a few of these videos from this playlist and you’ll quickly see why he’s predictably on the “most viewed” or “most popular” pages. His videos are not just audible and video joy, they’re painstaking acts of labor. Each take creativity to a new level, and is the output of countless hours of work.

MGM for free wrote my Nalts theme song back in 2007, and I’ve watched his videos over the years. He kinda fell off the grid in 2008-2009, but 2010 has been his year. I think about him at least once daily. I literally go to the computer just to see his new video (versus stumble into him on a YouTube binge). And when it’s something especially awe inspired like “Happy Dance (looping around),” I bring the whole family around the computer, like a 1940 family gathered around a radio to hear Orphan Annie.

According to Penna’s Wikipedia entry, he was going to pursue medical school. While the world could have used a creative and determined doctor like Penna, I’m really, really glad he chose to put his passion into film, video, creativity, illustration and music. I think his more than 750,000 subscribers would agree.

Parenthetically, Penna recently joined Rhett and Link (who haven’t posted a video in weeks and it hurts) to collaborate in the Swamps of North Carolina. Given Rhett and Link’s collaboration with MGM that produced this painstakingly wonderful t-shirt video (read more), I can only imagine what we’ll see next week as the result of sleepless nights by Rhett, Link and Joe.

Online Video

Breaking News: Video, Mobile & Social Media Trends

29 Comments

At today’s iMediaConnection “Breakthrough Summit” in Vegas, Hitwise’s Bill Tancer (ilovedata.com) told hundreds of leading marketers about three trends based on research of “early adopters.” Tancer will release the data this week on his blog, but here’s what matters:

  • Tancer developed three classifications of “early adopters,” in part by isolating the people who began using YouTube in the early days (fall 2005). He and his team observed their recent web behaviors (via Hitwise’s panel of 10 million US and 25 internationally), and noticed two video-related trends.
  • First, early adopters are shifting from finding videos via “most popular” (crowdsourced) content to portals with editorial viewpoints. Remember when YouTube editors picked what was on the homepage? Seems these early-adopters want their help again. Maybe your blog featuring your favorite new videos will be more useful to us than the most-viewed pages? Certainly there are some of you who send me videos, and I’m far more likely to trust Nutcheese or Jan’s opinion about something I should watch.
  • Second, video and social-media are colliding. These “avant garde” peeps want more social-media tools mixed with their video content. YouTube, in an attempt to attract more mainstream users and monetize content, has minimized its attention to social-media tools that facilitate dialogue adjoined to video. Instead, the videos “spotlighted” are chosen presumably based on a) “hot” trending videos, b) videos which captivate viewers longer (relative to similar videos of the duration), and c) based on content that commands higher advertising revenue. I’m not sure I fault that algorithm, but it may not satisfy the early-adopters. If Tancer is right,  perhaps there will be a surge in Facebook or other social-media sites offering video as an add-on (either hosted or via embedded YouTube widgets).
  • Third, he expects to see more mobile-driven sharing of video and other content. So watch for sites like TwitVid (I’ve been asked by TwitVid founders to advise the company, and Alexa shows the site is taking off). The site allows for sharing of video content using the Twitter API and login.

I’m keenly interested in any WVFF readers who might have been among these early adopters… people who joined YouTube even before I did (in January 2006). How are you finding videos now?

  1. By surfing YouTube’s most popular content (like this page that shows the most-popular of the week),
  2. Via your subscriptions (which is again broken, causing subscribers to not see recent videos from those to whom they’ve subscribed)?
  3. Or have you found a niche site that alerts you to the most interesting content? There are no shortage of sites that track trending videos, but are there blogs or websites you use to find videos that aren’t crowdsourced? Will Renetto solve it all via RenettoTube or Sorff.com or Vloggerheads!? See Renetto announcing Sorff.com in this video.

This could be a new niche for people who watch lots of videos, and have knack at finding videos that many other people may enjoy. Perhaps in the next months, we’ll begin “subscribing” to individual’s “favorites” (which YouTube functionality permits) because we trust their opinion of good content.

Perhaps the day of the YouTube editor (or even novice) is soon to return. I’m going to try using Twitvid now that I learned how to do so via my Blackberry.

Online Video

Most Popular YouTuber of the Week

10 Comments

It’s amazing how one popular video about Superbowl commercials (see video, which is at 1.6 million views) can turn a YouTube “has been” into one of the top partners of the week. (Bows, humbly).

The problem with a popular video is that it makes you scared to post another. It’s hard to go from a big one, to a regular daily one that gets 20-40K views. Kinda blocks the creative juices.

Note that this explosive Superbowl video had lots of views, but barely impacted subscribers. These were views by “grazers” and don’t really help in the long term…

most popular youtuber

Online Video, YouTube

I Am an Internet Superstar, so Bow to Me.

29 Comments

Read the blog’s masthead, friends. WillVideoforFood is about big ideas in video creation, new means of advertising and marketing, constructive debates via comments (even the ones about gymnast bulges), and the advancement of the “little guy.” But it’s also partially self promotion for this mythical beast named Nalts. There aren’t any ads on the blog, so instead I do “product placement” for the hot-headed jackass (and he in turn lets me, Kevin Nalty, write about stuff I actually care about).

But here’s the weird thing. I’m blogging about the fact that I was on Revision3’s Internet Superstar show (hosted by Martin Sargent) and I haven’t yet watched it. Last week we did the interview live, but I taped my side and mailed it to him so we didn’t have to use some crappy webcam.

Now I’m blogging about this appearance without time to watch it. Gotta run to a meeting (actually first I have to take another doody, which I hate doing at work… but Ultram ER or Celebrex makes you take a lot of work “grasshoppers”).

So I ask you, dear reader, did this clip make me look cool or an idiot? I’ll come to my own conclusions when I get back to my desk (and will comment below- but write yours first). I’ll let you know how that poop worked out too if you’d like.

The funny thing about this show is that it’s not really popular yet. Touch niche: shows about video creators. I’ve tried with Metacafe Unfiltered and The Bubble Gum Tree Show (sorry- taped a BabyEaters and Happyslip one but it just keeps slipping to quadrant 3 and 4 on the Franklin Covey Time Matrix).

Martin’s format is more lively and television like… and maybe that’s the trick. Hey that poop just entered quadrant one of the Franklin Covey Time Matrix.

Dang I\'m hot.