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Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Online Video Publishing: How Do I Publish My Video Site On The Web?

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A few days ago a passionate reader of Master New Media sent me this email asking information on how he could build his own video site online and my advice on how to monetize it.

video-user_id300187_size490.jpg
Photo credit: Andres Rodrigues

I thought that sharing this email exchange could have been proven very useful for the many of you wanting to start a video publishing site but having some doubts as to where to start.

"Dear Robin,

I would like to create a site to gather locally-produced video clips.

Are there Internet providers that offer the needed storage space to hold such kind of material without going bankrupt?

In your opinion, is this an effort worthwhile pursuing?

Smile,
LS
"

To which I promptly responded:

"Ciao L...,
you need no special Internet provider to do what you have described.

Utilize the video storage infrastructure freely offered by Google Video, YouTube, Blip.tv, Brightcove, Splashcast and similar ones and let these online services take care of the hosting of your video material which, at no additional cost, you will be able also to seamlessly integrate inside your blog or web site pages.

Revenue-making with this kind of activity is all very much dependent on the quality of the video material you will be able to aggregate as well as from both the existing and the newly sparked audience demand you will be able to generate.

I am positive that in any case, you will be able to learn a lot of useful things in this process."

The day after reader "L" wrote back again asking for more.

"Robin, could you give a bit more details relative to:

a) Which topic would be best to cover for me to guarantee myself the possibility of some future income?

b) What video gear is best to use to shoot this kind of video production?

c) How much should I charge for the videos I will produce?"

Again, I took time some time off my task at the moment, and tried to bring my new video passionate friend up to speed.

"Dear L....,
notwithstanding my desire to help you, I do not have enough time to reply in-depth to all of your valuable questions.

Please accept the following humble and brief suggestions which should help you find your way in the video publishing arena you have decided to enter.

a) Small video productions that have the greatest potential to generate a tangible revenue are those designed to cover a very specific topic / theme and which contain content that is both interesting and well shot. Here is a populist but very effective example:
http://www.alienvideo.net/

b) It is not a good idea to go immediately after shooting a video series if you have no experience in video or film production. An easier road to effective and possibly profitable video publishing is the one of selecting and aggregating quality video produced by others. There is so much video content being published out there right now, that the apparently simple ability to pick and choose the good from the bad is definitely worth a lot for your viewers.


c) Offering free quality content is and will increasingly be the main road to profitable revenues for independent publishers online. Offering free content, whether text or video provides a unique opportunity to open a dialogue, a conversation with those individuals interested in the theme you give coverage to. Free content must be seen like building a beautiful water fountain inside a park. If you are a smart businessman you will not charge people for drinking at your fountain, but you will leverage the magnetic attraction that the fountain will play on passers-by to open a newsstand, or a pizza counter.

History shows how such fountains and squares have played a vital role in the economies of past times, where markets and shops of all kinds have flourished around them. The same happens today, right in front of your eyes when free online service like Google Search (free search), Pandora (free music), YouTube (free video) offer free contents not to make money directly from them, but to allow those who want to promote or market a message to their specific type of readers to do so in a very effective manner.

To me it looks a phenomenon that is as evident as yet misunderstood by the most, especially from those who could profit the most from it.

d) Yes, it is true. Online service companies are increasing the share of their revenue gained from those who want to talk to their customers / readers, over selling directly products and services to them.

e) Do not be negative. Use ideas and the lack of them from those others competing with you, to find your own video publishing route.

But remember that to find something useful you will have to experiment."

And yet that wasn't enough.

L... wanted to know more.

He fired another email after a few minutes of me sending the reply above.

"Hi Robin! Here is always L....

I wanted to ask you which is the way in which I can place the video clips I find inside my blog site?

Is there some code I need to add? Where do I find this code? And where do I place it next?"

...and here again, my prompt reply:

"Dear L...., the code you need to use to place the video clips can be found directly on the video sites where you will find these video clips. Say you will use YouTube, Blip.tv or Brightcove to search and find for video clips you want to include in your series; each one of those video destinations provides somewhere near the video a little piece of code generally referenced by a caption saying "embed" or "share" next to it. For example Google Video has a button that says "Email - Blog Post to MySpace" - click there and then select "embed HTML". On YouTube next to each video (when you are on a specific clip page) you find a little code titled "embed". That's the code you need to use. That code needs only to be copied and pasted inside a new blog post or web page article just as if it was normal text.



Google-video-embed.gif
This is where you need to click next to a Google Video clip to obtain the code that needs to be pasted in your site



Google-video-embed-2.gif
By clicking on "Embed HTML" you will see the above code which you can easily copy and paste in your article/post



Also...here find some of the best online video sharing sites where you can host your video clips for free:
Video Publishing Online: Where To Share Your Video Clips On The Web
"

After this last reply, I thought the guy had enough info to start moving, and in fact he didn't write back. But only for a couple of days. On the following Friday he wrote in again to ask:

"Hey Robin, what do you think, is it better to focus on just one topic or being generalist? Can you give me some tips? Travel? Interviews? Cooking? what else? "

"Niche, niche, niche." I replied. "Search within your passions for what you like the most, not in "what could work better".

"Perfect!" he wrote back: "I have tried Google Video but it looks a bit limiting.... what do you think? I have seen also Ning which seems it can offer me a lot more possibilities in terms of layout. Typepad costs some money, but is it worth it?

What do you say, Robin?"

...I didn't reply right away.... then I jotted down in an instant:

"Dear L...., you are on your own. You can now walk with your legs.

Here some extra resources and articles I have written on the topic that you may want to check before diving into this video publishing adventure :-)

"

Enjoy!



Originally written by for Master New Media and originally published as: "Online Video Publishing: How Do I Publish My Video Site On The Web?"

 
 
 
Readers' Comments    
2007-04-11 09:38:27

Dave

Robin - Your patience and help with your reader was highly admirable!



 
posted by Robin Good on Wednesday, March 28 2007, updated on Tuesday, May 5 2015


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