I just finished reading an article that says that by 2013 there will be one billion people watching online videos around the world. Why is this a big deal? Because it raises the awareness of online video in general. If you don't have online video on your own site, then you're going to stand out as someone who's not an expert. (link: Video SEO and Original Report)

In (sort of) related news, it turns out that lawyers (attorneys) who use online video with their website tend to have more contacts through their website than those who don't.

Why is that?

Because it helps people who are choosing a lawyer to get a feel for the lawyers personality before they even pick up the phone and make contact. So if your lawyer make sure you hire a good personality.

(link: legal blog)

I was just browsing through the current chatter in online video, and it seems that several people in video production and hosting are having a tough time making some income with their businesses.

Are they blind?

They're just focusing on the wrong thing. This guy has been involved with sites that provide free hosting (think YouTube, but smaller). Hey says that even though there are dozens of sites offering free video hosting, none of them are really making money, and they really just buying each other out to try and get more market share.

The other part of the conversation here is that companies are focusing on revenue generation through ads they carry on their site or added as a layer to the video. They're thinking "old school" revenue model and are about to make the same mistake that is driving people away from TV: people don't like ads!

If they count on revenue from people actually going to the hosting site, then they are competing directly with YouTube. They will have better luck catering to video producers (such as myself) rather than end users.

Why is that?

Because the end users (viewers) of the content could be watching the video in embedded form just about anywhere. At least, that's what they should hope for. If the content is good enough, they may be able to drive people back to the hosting site to view similar videos. That's why they need to attract good content producers.

Making Money From a Show?

Apparently, even if you run a regularly scheduled show, it's difficult to make a good profit just from that alone. One of the producers of Ask a Ninja talks about how he has trouble really "making it" even though he has one of the more popular shows on the internet.

Where the Real Money Is

I'm truly thankful for free hosting sites like YouTube, Revver, Blip.tv, and all the others. Their service makes it possible for people to really get into video and use it to more effectively promote products and services. This is where the real money is - the end product.

But not by selling in your video. Instead, teach! When you provide something your audience wants for free you begin to build trust with them and will feel more comfortable doing business with you. Here's an illustrative example of a guy who offers a voice lesson video course giving part of the lesson for free.

Friends do business with friends, and video is another great way to make that connection with your audience.

You get a couple of pretty cool links today. They have to do with tracking your visitors using video. Well, more accurately tracking the visitors who watch your videos.

You see, for the most part the only metric you can get on people viewing your videos was only how many people were actually watching them. You had no idea where they were coming from or even how your video compared to other videos in your market, or with your keywords.

Now, one of the benefits of Google purchasing YouTube way back when is becoming apparent. Google is bringing its tracking tools to YouTube. So now you can see all sorts of tracking information about each of the videos that you have uploaded right from within YouTube.

The tool is called YouTube Insight and is available by clicking "about this video" when he go into your account (within YouTube).

Here's the link to the Google blog and to the YouTube blog for more details.

The online video space really does have something for everyone.

While browsing through some of the feeds I have in my feed reader, I came across two concepts that may seem to be diametrically opposed. One involves the big strategic thoughts on online video and getting your name out there, along with advertising in this new space. The other shows a great implementation of someone demonstrating an arts and crafts project.

The "Big Fish" example is from an investor who is involved with several online video hosting sites. In his blog post he talks about strategic issues around getting positioned in online video.The online video space really does have something for everyone.

While browsing through some of the feeds I have in my feed reader, I came across two concepts that may seem to be diametrically opposed. One involves the big strategic thoughts on online video and getting your name out there, along with advertising in this new space. The other shows a great implementation of someone demonstrating an arts and crafts project.

The "Big Fish" example is from an investor who is involved with several online video hosting sites. In his blog post he talks about strategic issues around getting positioned in online video.His article talks about the chaos in the online video space right now and how to navigate it for maximum exposure and profits.

The other example, which I call "small guy" (not meant to be derogatory), is a video showing a step-by-step process in making your own greeting card. It's being shot with a simple set up that most people can do and there isn't a lot of additional production involved. But if you're in her target market, which is how to make your own arts and crafts, this is fantastic content. And this is an excellent example of the point that content will always beat out production value.

I just came across a fantastic new way for getting the word out about your business!

Well, part of its new but part of it has been around as long as newspapers. A lot of people already use press releases to help spread the word about their business, but just this morning while reading through the site on online PR trends,  I realized that including video with your press release would be a fantastic way to stand out from what everyone else is doing.

I mean just think about it, all the thousands of press releases that go out every day, and they're all text or only link back to a mainly text website. If you could actually include a video with your press release, that could give you even more audience reach and generate more interest. And even if you couldn't include a video with your press release, you can still link back to a video on your site that could give the press release in video format, or even go into some of the finer details.

There are no press release submission sites that allow for video yet (that I know of), but I'm sure they'll be coming along. Now isn't that exciting!?

I just finished watching an interesting video by Brad Fallon at FreeLineReport.com. Actually, it was a video about FreeLineReport.com as part of a training course that I'm part of. In that video he describes how he puts together a daily two-minute podcast using outsourced talent.

This "talent" will write his scripts, set everything up for him, and distribute the video to the outlets. He himself actually shows up in the videos. There's not much to production any covers five different topics in under two minutes, as advertised.

Best Practice?

It's an interesting idea, however it's hard to cover anything in any depth in under two minutes. I understand that's not the intent here, but the material that he covers me be more efficiently understood through text rather than through video. And since there is very little extra production in his report, such as graphics or other visual aids, it just shows him talking to the camera. This is one of those kind of videos that I'm really not all that fond of, to be completely frank.

If I'm going to watch a video, there should be some visual element that enhances the audio portion. If I just want audio, then that's what I should be presented with.

"Message To Market"

I don't intend to break Brad Fallon down, he is an excellent marketer and really knows his stuff, but he is not the best person for delivering content in this manner. The reason I say this is that it is obvious that he's using a Teleprompter and reading off of a script. You can tell where the laughs and smiles are written in! So rather than adding to the understanding of the content he is delivering, his actual delivery distracts me from what he is saying no matter how great it is.

And what we try to do here at FunkyWebVideo.com, is to make sure that the message gets across to your audience with as little distraction as possible, with the greatest impact.

Well, here we go!

The Beginning

The idea that was hatched while riding on a spinner and listening to some very smart people on a podcast, is coming to fruition. The more I look at this business model the more sense it makes. There is simply no one providing entry-level web video services for small business.

Wherever I look, it seems that there are just big production companies that want $1000 down payment before they even begin to talk to you. Being an e-commerce guy myself, I know that's just not how we do business here.

Most online business owners are "small guys" and have limited budgets. Taking a four figure risk is just not part of the business plan. This is why here at FunkyWebVideo we are really making the attempt to address the needs of the small business person.

Going Upside Down

In fact, one idea that I have is to have a "virtual coffee chat".

Have you ever seen the links that some people put on their blogs that asks you to buy them a cup of coffee? I think those are so annoying. But what if I buy you a cup of coffee?

I'm thinking about how to make this work, but the rough idea is that for someone who wants to take some time and discuss their web video project, I would like to buy you a cup of coffee. Seeing as most of the clients here will be web-based and in some unknown part of the world, the only way I can really pull that off is to send you something like five dollars, to pay for a cup of coffee.

How does that sound?

Personally, I like it. It's different and funky, so it fits in with our general theme.