video blogging Archive

I was finally able to get the Blogger King to stop by. Apparently after his videos on quitting blogging and snippy snips, his blog maximization services have been in heavy demand. Today Blogger King explains how to maximize traffic when creating lists of people. One additional note, if you can include people on your list as a "thank you" for conference inclusion, it will help for future buzz creation.

NY-based KickApps has announced the launch of a new video player product that allows Web publishers to inject advertising into the video stream. The "KickApps Widget & Video Player Studio" takes your videos from anywhere on the Web, packages them with an ad and generates a widget that can be embedded anywhere. The widgets can be used on sites powered by KickApps or any other hosting provider.

KickApps Marketing SVP Michael Chin took me through a variety of examples yesterday and it’s a very impressive system. Basically you create a design for your video player. Next you select the content for the video player, either a search, premade combination or add in any RSS 2.0 feed. Next you select the type of ads you’d like to display including Google AdSense for Video, ScanScout, adap.tv or 24/7 Real Media. There’s also an option to include your own pre-roll or post-roll ads.

For example, I could take the RSS feed generated by Viddler for CN videos, insert it into the KickApps video player and then ads will be displayed as I select. I’ve been asking Viddler for this type of revenue customization for a long time. The video players that you create can be syndicated to other sites allowing you to generate revenue no matter where the player is viewed.

Chin tells me that KickApps will generate revenue by displaying their own Google AdSense for Video ads randomly. For customers that use the ad buyout option, KickApps won’t display any ads. Last month KickApps partnered with Akamai for video hosting.

Note: KickApps is a sponsor of our sister site HTMLCenter.

There’s been a good bit of discussion recently with regards to online advertising spend. Om Malik wonders if Silicon Valley should be worried about the current state of online advertising. Large companies like GM have announced overall ad budget reductions. Blodget calls a lot of what’s currently going on, "Internet wreckage".

So I am curious, how do you compensate the content creators for the content you consume each and every day? By content, I mean audio, video, photos, text, etc. Specifically with regard to tech startups and tech blogs/content sites. More and more people I speak with say they read most blogs in a feed reader and never interact with the sites themselves. As we move more and more to mobile, are users interacting with advertising on mobile? No.

On our last frontpage Digg, my tracking noted that 52% of the visitors were using some sort of ad blocking software. This past weekend Michael Markman asked, "Can anyone remember the last internet ad you clicked? How many can you remember clicking in the past five days?" The majority of the replies were "no". Why not?

Please view the video below for my thoughts on the current situation and potential crisis. I am very interested in your thoughts so please leave a comment.

Over the past 24 hours, a story has blown up regarding video blogging and the lack of disclosure. We first wrote about the issues of video blogger disclosure with regards to Morgan Webb and her show Webb Alert. When she launched the show, it was produced (and still is I believe) by ad network Federated Media.

It sure seems to me like video bloggers have a different code when it comes to disclosure. Whether it’s with stories like the above, Amanda’s fiasco with DuPont, or other video bloggers, there seems to be little to no disclosure. Is that ok?

Let’s recap what happened over the past 24 hours. Techcrunch had a post about mobile video technologies and included Sarah Austin of Pop17 in the videos. Apparently Sarah is paid by Flixwagon to use their service and for some "consulting". There was no disclosure of this on the Techcrunch post. Author Jason Kinkaid says that Sarah was just the video model and didn’t actually comment on the reviews in any regard. Editor Mike Arrington says TC didn’t know of this sponsorship deal when they wrote their post. Pat Phelan caught word of this and posted an investigation of the Flixwagon deal. There’s a good discussion about video blogging disclosure on his post.

Let me disclose that I am friendly with both Sarah and her boyfriend Andrew Baron, Rocketboom founder. When Sarah uses Flixwagon it’s not required that she discloses that she is getting paid from them. But when she is promoting their service, she does need to disclose. Here’s what disclosures I believe were missing from the Techcrunch post:

1. Sarah is paid by Flixwagon
2. Techcrunch sponsors Sarah’s show Pop17

These simple statements would have avoided this entire issue. Sarah notes that she always discloses but I am not sure this is the case. Earlier this week she had Rocketboom on Pop17 but there was no disclosure of her fiduciary relationship with Rocketboom or her personal one. Should there have been? Hells yes. Last night she wrote about this topic and linked to Techcrunch. Should there have been disclosure that TC is a sponsor of Pop17? Hells yes.

Now let’s take this topic one step further to really drive home the point of video blogger disclosure at the macro level. In the videos she pimps her Web site, and says her favorite blog is Techcrunch. Which by the way is her show sponsor. Now let’s watch this video outside of the context of Techcrunch and view it on the Qik site. Here we see a video with a "popular" video blogger who pimps Techcrunch. Where’s the disclosure? The key to remember is that videos will travel further than text will and disclosure needs to be included in the videos so they travel with it.

Perhaps video platforms need to build in a disclosure option – this would certainly save us from future issues like this. As product placements in videos (see Diggnation) grow, this topic will become more widely discussed.

Here’s my video with some further thoughts on the topic of video blogger disclosure:

On a side note, it’s interesting to hear that for "a few dollars more" Sarah is willing to abandon Flixwagon for Qik. She says she would never take money if she didn’t believe in the product but she’s so willing to jump ship for a few more dollars. If I was running FlixWagon, she’d be fired immediately because that statement shows she is in it for the cash, not for the quality of the service. She pulled a Tila Tequila. Update: Just to be clear, this paragraph has nothing to do with disclosure, but more to do with endorsing products.

It’s simple. Disclose your relationships. Whether you blog on video, text, audio, whatever.