When Comments Are Worth More than Cash
Remember the short story “The Lottery”? The town would hold a lottery and the “winner” would get stoned to death. That’s how I think about online-video comments. They’re usually demoralizing. Then suddenly I posted a video that almost never made it online. It’s me and my son sharpening pencils. Yahoo featured it on its homepage, and suddenly it was seen 60,000 times and received dozens and dozens of comments. Most of them are really kind. People shared their own experiences of father/son moments, and it was a brief celebration of parenthood. A little oasis on the desert of “wft, gay, lame” comments I typically read. One person said I look like World Wrestling’s Tommy Dreamer (which is clearly because of my biceps).
I write about making money through online videos, but clearly if I was strictly trying to subsidize my income I could probably do better selling timeshare. There’s clearly something else that makes it rewarding, and hearing people reflect on parenting was really encouraging. I think I’ll turn off the camera and hang out with my kids. For at least 23 minutes.
WTF?! gay, lame!
Kevin –
Beautiful. Now, I’m *really* feeling a bit sentimental, if not downright melancholy.
I just returned home from walking my 6 year old to the bus stop, with my 3 year old in my arms.
Maybe it’s the cooler weather. The change of seasons. Noticing my son’s pants are too short as he climbed on the bus (“Hey kid, where’s the flood?”).
I’m a little too aware this morning of those fleeting moments of pure joy that come upon you every now and then when you’re with your kids.
A walk to the bus stop. Goofing around while sharpening pencils.
Simple times you want to hold on to forever. But they somehow always manage to fade away like sand running through your fingers.
At least you were able to capture yours forever. Good for you.
OK, I better stop now before I start weeping like a little girl.
joe
I think that’s part of my videoddiction. I capture these moments because I’m afraid of them leaving. Weep away. You’re among friends here.
Nalts, anything you want to say specifically now about the MetaCafe commenters?
Just an aside about Yahoo video. My videos there get 5 or 6 views. That’s it. Never much more than that (so far, I’ve only sent them my oldest stuff–the stuff I made while I was living in the vets shelter).
But the other day I noticed one of my videos jumped the track and suddenly got 441 views (and no comments). 441 views for no good reason I could figure. Reckon Yahoo featured it for a second or two?
Darn, I would’ve liked to have screencaptured my Yahoo 1.5 minutes of fame. Missed it.
Nice pencil play. Was there a pencil-whipped pun in there for accountants?
I’m having the same experience with Yahoo… nothing, nothing, nothing, then BAM. I think it’s completely do to them featuring it. The 60K views were due (I’m told) to a Homepage feature. That’s how LayMeOff got 700K views. I can only guess they’re rotating videos faster now. So the former must have had a couple hours, where the latter had the better part of a day.
Yahoo is the easiest to check progress in one glance. Google remains the most difficult (you have to log in to check views and it takes forever to load).
I did a Yahoo Video search of ‘Nalts’ and only got 7 of your videos as the result. Yahoo Video results are great and fast, yes, but if one has, say, 150 or 200 videos on a site, then, in my opinion, the Yahoo video views becomes more cumbersome than the Google Video reports page.
Yes, Google Video reports takes ‘forever’ to load up, but once it does, looking up the progress of 150 or so videos is a pleasure.
And then there’s the mainstream/not mainstream effect. I’m not mainstream. I’m tacky, vulgar and lazy and really don’t give a goosecrap in Marshall if people “get” me or not and my videos reflect that. I can’t get the views you get.
But Google Video gets me a steady piddle of views, week after week, month after month that I’m not seeing anywhere else.
Google is really cummalitive. It just builds. Nothing dies. It builds slow, though.
You know what’s weird? Yahoo doesn’t pull up all of my videos when you search Nalts. I don’t get that. It’s a search engine.
I love turning off the comments on my youtube videos,then seeing how many people get ticked off and just have to P.M me.Those get even more interesting than just leaving the comments on! On another subject,nalts,do you or any of your readers have BPL(broadband over power line)? I live east of Dallas,Texas and i hear that TXU electric will be rolling out BPL across 70% of its grid (to over 2 million people)by the end of this year.Its supposed to offer net access from any electrical outlet in your home or business,with symmetrical download/upload speeds,which would be great for uploading large videos! I posted a link to currentgroup.com,who are partners with Txu and they will be handling the Bpl retail applications.alrighty then,hope every one is enjoying this cooler weather,i know i am,danny.
Did you hear whether this BPL is extending east of Dallas as far as Marshall? It’s costing me $71 a month for a broadband connection here just because there’s no competition. I’d love the option of a lower rate.
$71! I’d get a dish. Damned monopolies.
It rains a lot here and my mother’s house is surrounded by tall, tall Pine trees.
P.S. Google Video is getting me around 100 views a day, come rain or come shine, whether I’ve uploaded anything lately or not.