Archives for January 2006
Rocketboom Does Ebay
As many vloggers try to figure out creative and innovative ways of making money while vlogging instead of making money to spend on video blogging, Rocketboom has done just that.
Yesterday the folks at Rocketboom announced that they are selling five advertising spots at the tail end of their vlog to the highest bidder on Ebay. Each of the five Rocketboom-original commercials will last from 15 seconds to one minute and will run Monday, March 6 through Friday, March 10. According to the description on Ebay, the ads will contain no blatant product placement, and the porn and gambling industries are excluded from consideration. There are currently 8 days left to bid on the spots, and the current price of the ads is over 7,600 (reserve not yet met).
Just like any other post, the ads will remain in Rocketboom’s archives along with their videos in perpetuity, so interested consumers can view the ads in perpetuity as well. Although those at Rocketboom are selling these spots, they are still reserving the rights to solely own the content under the Creative Commons License.
So what does this mean for video bloggers? This daring move will likely get the attention and publicity following the first-ever sale of a major advertisement in the vlogosphere. This may mean more opportunities for established and fledgling vloggers trying to make it without breaking the bank. Perhaps this move will spark interest among large companies to be at the forefront of new opportunities in advertising. This could also mean the beginning of a(nother) long debate over why people vlog and perhaps even a shift in the current culture of videoblogging.
One thing is for certain; change is happening, my friends.
For more information about making money in the vlogosphere, see Ted Tagami’s excellent article on Income from vlogging. And don’t forget to get on over to Rocketboom and check out their ad specs–who knows, perhaps your bid will win.
Published by Jennifer Rundle on January 31 .
3 Comments.
Hope Orphanage and Expedition 360
Vlogging can help bring people together, it can be entertaining, but it can also help to bring about social justice. An example of this is What Jason Lewis is doing with Expedition 360. Jason recently posted a request on his vlog for help for orphans in East Timor.
The Hope orphanage was set up in 2001 to service the immediate needs of 25 children whose parents were either killed by the Indonesian occupation forces and militia in or around 1999, or who have since died of diseases such as tuberculosis. Check it out, share it with your friends, and help if you can.
Beginning at the Greenwich Meridian in East London in the summer of 1994, Jason Lewis and an eclectic band of travelling compatriots have bicycled, roller bladed and kayaked across continents and have pedaled Moksha, a one-of-a-kind pedal boat across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
According to the Guiness Book of World Records, no one has ever accomplished this immense task. Today, after 12 years and 26,000 miles the adventure is entering its final stages. China, India, Africa, the Middle East, and Europe lie ahead. Since its inception, Expedition 360, has been documented by an international crew with over 600 hours of broadcast quality Betacam and DV footage recorded to date.
Published by tagami on January 30 .
2 Comments.
Behind-the-wheel talk show makes commuting fun
Jessica Berthold of The Morning Call Online reports on Boston vlogger Ravi Jain’s DriveTime in Behind-the-wheel talk show makes commuting fun:
“People will do anything to make their commutes more bearable: rack up peak cell-phone minutes, play solitaire on the dashboard, listen to recordings of books they’d never want to read.
Then there’s Ravi Jain. A Bostonian who drives 30 minutes each way to his job, he’s raised the bar for vehicular multitasking by conducting a weekly talk show from behind the wheel.”
Published by Steve Garfield on January 27 .
1 Comment.
Is a Democracy for, of, and by consumers possible?
Jock Gill writes for Greater Democracy, : Is a Democracy for, of, and by consumers possible?
“With respect to the democratic IP communications revolution emerging in America, three critical communication questions are:
1] Where is the power of choice located? In the nexus of centralized government and corporations or at the edges in we, the people?
2] Where is content produced and distributed? Only in the center by corporate entities or at the edges by we, the people for oursleves?
3] Are we Consumers or Citizens?
We can find hints of the new answers on, of all places, the .Mac home page on the web.
Clearly, Apple wants people, in their homes and offices, using their personal, ever lower cost and ever more powerful technology, to be full fledged producers of audio, video, text and graphic content, to be shared [distributed] over the internet to as few or as many other interested people as there may be.”
Published by Steve Garfield on January 27 .
No Comments.
FireAnt is on… fire
“I love FireAnt because I can keep track of a lot of videoblogs.” So says Ryanne in her FireAnt interview video. It’s true. FireAnt just launched a new version of their excellent videoblog client, which plays every format under the sun and, unlike iTunes, makes it easy to comment on videos. Even better, FireAnt now has a comprehensive videoblog directory - both on the web site and within the FireAnt client. Cool! You can browse, tag and rate videoblogs and individual videos. You can also queue up videos you want to download to the FireAnt client - it’s all synced up. It’s hot, it’s fresh, it’s where you’re going right now: fireant.tv
Vloggers, don’t forget to add your channel.
Published by Chuck on January 26 .
5 Comments.
Income from Vlogging
Videoblogging is many things: creation, sharing, opinion, expression, etc. This is all fine and good. But how can a Videoblogger generate revenue?
Earlier this month Ron Watson, from the Yahoo Videoblogging Group, challenged the group to think of ways Videobloggers could create revenue without advertising. He wanted us to use a tool called a Provocative Operation, which is a tool used for proposing an idea which may not necessarily be a solution or a ‘good’ idea in itself, but is designed to move thinking forward to a new place where new ideas may be produced.
Here is what he posited:
Goal: How can videoblogs generate revenue for vloggers?
Provocative Operations: Advertising does not exist, and; Ban advertising on vlogs.
Using this methodology, what are some ways you can think of to generate revenue?
Here is my original response:
I’ll start by making two assumptions.
Assumption #1: No advertising is the Provocative Operation.
Assumption #2: The Goal of Revenue is to offset costs; provide for you (and your employee’s, if any) living expenses; and increase your overall quality of life/time. This may or may not also include shareholder value depending on the scale of the endeavor.
We therefore have at least 5 obvious choices exposed:
(1) Donation,
(2) Subscription/Purchase,
(3) Sponsorship,
(4) Benefactor, and
(5) no revenue model (creation for creation’s sake).
Donation: relies on the random good will of your viewership. If donations do not reach revenue goals in assumption #2, you will need to advertise yourself to your viewership (think public radio/television) to keep your P&L (Profit and Loss) in check.
Subscription/Purchase: In order to view content viewer must pay a fee. This generally reduces your audience, especially in the Internet space where price is constantly being pushed to zero. As in donation above, if P&L goals are not reached you will again be looking to advertise yourself to your visitors in hopes of converting them to paying viewers.
Sponsorship: A cousin of advertising, more closely tied with branding. This may include a logo or “bug”, or perhaps a “brought to you buy”, or “This program made possible by” types of messages.
Benefactor: Find yourself a Sugar Daddy that loves what you do, and they pay you for it. Think de’Medici.
No Revenue: decide that “real musicians have day jobs” and leave it at that.
Using this Provocative Operation methodology, can you think of other ways Videobloggers can directly generate revenue?
Published by tagami on January 23 .
14 Comments.
Current Provides Great Information
Current TV has created a number of tutorials and informational videos for people who would like to submit “Pod’s” to Current. The information, however, is relevant to anyone who is looking to learn a little bit more about Storytelling, Gear, Shooting, Editing, and Compression. It even includes storytelling tips from very talented storytellers such as Robert Redford and Sara Vowell. If you want to gain some knowledge, or just brush up on the few video-making topics, head on over to their Survival Guide and put the knowledge to use!
Published by Josh Leo on January 22 .
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Easy Software for Making Vlogs realtime
Ever since I did a presentation at the meet the vloggers gathering in SoHo this summer, people have kept asking what software I use to do my vlogs. I’ve been using Wirecast from Vara Software. It’s rather pricey, but it allows for simple changes of precomposed shots with videos, titles, and 2 cameras. It saves the videos right to the desired QuickTime format, or even sets up a video stream. Wirecast is available for the Mac and Windows platforms.
Vara Software has released a lighter version called VideoCue for Mac platform. It is really great as it allows for simple drag and drop of videos, pictures and live camera into a storyboard cue. It also has direct support for adding it to your blog. There is a free trial download to get your feet wet and to see if it is something for you.
Published by GabeMac on January 16 .
5 Comments.
Want to Write for WATM?
Have you ever seen a peice of news that would look great on We Are The Media? Have you found the latest and greatest vlog that nobody knows about?
Well registration is open at WATM for new reporters. Go get yourself registered and write that article that you want the vlogging community to see.
Here are the basic rules. By becoming a writer for WATM you agree to abide by the guidelines and have your work edited by the editors. Make sure to go read those guidelines before you sign up so there aren’t any surprises.
1. Keep it positive. No mudslinging.
2. Your article should be about vlogging. No articles to the latest viral commercial.
3. No blatant self promotion. It just doesn’t look good.
What we like here at WATM is articles about vlogging and glowing reviews for the vlogs you love. Now go sign up and get to writing.
Published by Bre Pettis on January 15 .
6 Comments.
Talking About CoWorking and MashPit at Meet The Vloggers MacWorld 2006
Lots of fine folks were there including Steve Garfield (who organized the meetup - thanks Steve!), JD Lassica, Dave Toole, Ted Tagami, Eric Rice, Ryanne Hodson, Michael Verdi, Enric, Renegade, Josh Wolf, Irena Slutsky, Mary Hoder, Des, Josh Kinberg, Schlomo and many other wonderful folks.
We were chatting about projects when Chris Messina of Flock brought up the MashPit event coming up on January 17th in the Bay Area.
Published by Markus Sandy on January 12 .
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