Best of Viral Video Wannabe 2008

2008 is coming to an end. Most of the collab channels are wrapping up their final videos (including the fiveawesomegirls and fiveawesomeguys), a few YouTubers are hosting live countdown parties on blogTV, and I wanted to take a minute to look back over the last year’s worth of posts.

I choose the top five posts of 2008 based on views, comments and backlinks. If you’re not already, please sign up for email updates by entering your email address in the right hand sidebar. And for even more insight into YouTube and online video in general, my book is available on Amazon and in most bookstores. Hope you continue to read and comment, and most importantly, find some quality tips here in 2009.

1. Free Resources for Your Next Profile Design
2. Cool blogTV Trick! (which I have an exciting update about coming soon!)
3. RIP Center Frame Thumbnails
4. When’s the Best Time to Upload?
5. YouTube Live Report

Thanks readers, and have a great New Year!

Happy Holidays!

Just wanted to wish all of my readers a very Merry Christmas!

Your viral video wannabe tip of the day: If you want YouTube to feature your Christmas-themed video, make sure to upload it a good three or four days before Christmas. Most of the editors are out of the offices for the holidays and features are selected in advance.

Hope you’re have a wonderful holiday season!

Tune In

Recently I was interviewed by CBS Radio, Forbes.com, and answered some questions for a PC Magazine piece that will be running soon about YouTube and my book, YouTube: An Insider’s Guide to Climbing the Charts. But my co-author, Michael W. Dean, is also doing some press. This weekend he will appear on “Into Tomorrow with Dave Graveline”, a consumer electronics radio show.

The show currently airs on one-hundred and twenty-eight AM & FM radio stations around the U.S., on SIRIUS XM Satellite Radio, radio stations in Germany, Bermuda, New Zealand, Canada and several other sources including Mobile Broadcast Network, BeOS Radio, Sprint Radio, TiVo, CelleCast and many others - every weekend. “Into Tomorrow” is also heard around the world on the Armed Forces Networks in several other countries. In addition, they also stream all their audio and video via their web site and provide free Podcasts of their show archives.

You can hear the interview this Sunday Dec 21st, (Today, Saturday Dec 20, in some cities), dates and times HERE: http://www.stinkfight.com/2008/12/16/me-on-into-tomorrow-with-dave-graveline/ or you can listen to an mp3 recording of the interview here.

Project for Awesome Pwns YouTube

Last year, the vlogbrothers, along with many of their fans, completely blindsided YouTube and all of its visitors when we “took over” the Most Discussed list with the Project For Awesome. The idea was to have many, many nerdfighters (fans of the vlogbrothers) upload videos talking about their favorite charity. All of these videos would feature the same thumbnail image (an image I designed). We would then comment repeatedly on these videos and completely blanket the Most Discussed list on YouTube. Which we were successful in doing, except for one slot, which was held by a Mike Huckabee video.

This year, we opened up the project to everyone on YouTube, and told them all in advance. I even contacted George Stompolos (the head of the Partner Program) to get YouTube involved this year (which, after some emails between Hank and George, lead to Hank’s announcement video being front page featured).

With the help of more YouTubers (some new participants this year included LisaNova, OlgaKay, TylerOakley and others) we were able to completely take over the Most Discussed list, including every slot on the front page of Most Discussed (as seen below). Read the rest of this entry »

blogTV is now Sharing Ad Revenue

blogTV has announced a public, revenue-sharing Partner Program for all of its broadcasters. Similar to YouTube’s revenue-sharing, the broadcaster will be paid a percentage (50%) of the revenue earned from the ads placed on live and pre-recorded video streams.

Most have figured out by now that the top broadcasters on blogTV have been collecting paychecks for months. But now the opportunity exists for everyone to apply.

CLICK HERE TO APPLY!

While those who got in early will still be making a much better salary (“a few thousand dollars per month” says blogTV CEO, Guy Eliav), it is good to see new start-ups not ignoring their less-viewed users.

blogTV has become a home to most of YouTube’s Top 100 Most Subscribed list, and beyond. My channel alone there has had over half a million live viewers since I started broadcasting in July, and some YouTubers, like Michael Buckley, Shay Carl and Charles Trippy bring in even larger audiences.

It will be interesting to see how this all pans out. Most don’t believe live-streaming can be properly monetized given the bandwidth and salary costs associated with its broadcasts. It’ll be a good day when a company finally figures out how to make that model successful, and given my past experience with their friendly and helpful staff, my hope is that blogTV clears the hurdle first.

On Collabs

As promised, here’s the bonus post from last week’s blogging series:

Many people have wondered “Who is this Michael W. Dean guy, and what did he write in the book? I see occasional sidebars and sections by him, and a few too many pictures of his darned cats, but what is this “Punk rock cheerleading” he says he did?”

Well, Michael Dean is my good friend who came up with the idea for the book, and got us the book deal with O’Reilly. He’s this guy.

I’ve never met him in person, but we are good friends. He lives in Los Angeles, and we talk a lot on the phone, and did a year before we even started the book. I’ve been aware of his film and book work for about five years, but first contacted Michael to interview him for Verbicide magazine 29 months ago, and we really hit it off. He’s 44, lives outside Los Angeles, and has been involved in punk rock D.I.Y. art since 1984, when his band “Baby Opaque” put out their first seven-inch vinyl E.P. record in 1985. Read the rest of this entry »

Tips for Businesses on YouTube (TGIF)

(Note: Even if you’re not running a business, your goals as an individual are the same, to “brand” yourself, so, read on.)

“YouTube: An Insider’s Guide to Climbing the Charts” authors Alan Lastufka and Michael W. Dean are doing a five-day blog post series on “How to create and promote more effectively on YouTube.” Here’s part five of five:

More and more businesses are trying their hand at YouTube. The allure of millions of eyeballs taking in their products for an investment of nearly $0 is mighty tempting. But it’s also an illusion.

There are no overnight success stories on YouTube. Every channel in the Top 10 got there by either working hard for 18 hours a day and getting involved with the community, or paying for their placement. Success stories like Michael Buckley only prove what I’ve been hammering home since the beginning of this blog: You cannot fake it. And even the New York Times has noticed that Buckley has put in the time and work and talent to get where he is. And he’s now making six figures a year doing what he loves.

And the flip side of that? Fred. Well, his production company spent tens of thousands of advertising dollars getting their channel to where it is (number one Most Subscribed on YouTube.)

But that’s not to say that a business can’t find success on YouTube. You just need a bit of direction, and a bit of wherewithal. Read the rest of this entry »

YouTube Writer’s Block

“YouTube: An Insider’s Guide to Climbing the Charts” authors Alan Lastufka and Michael W. Dean are doing a five-day blog post series on “How to create and promote more effectively on YouTube.” Here’s part four of five:

When my publisher asked Michael Dean and I to run this week-long blogging event, I sat down and planned out what I was going to write for each day of the week, except today, Thursday. I sat there confident last Sunday afternoon simply knowing that by now, a topic would have presented itself. But one never did.

This happens sometimes on YouTube as well. Especially if you try to make a video on any kind of a schedule. I’m Monday on the YouTube channel fiveawesomeguys, we each take a day of the week and make a video on that particular day. Every week. And some weeks I just don’t know what to say.

But I’m not the only YouTuber who posts on a schedule.

Michael Buckley, of the YouTube channel WhatTheBuckShow, attempts to post three videos a week. Every week. So I decided to ask him a few questions about writer’s block and keeping up a frequent posting schedule: Read the rest of this entry »

YouTube: It’s Not Just for Cats Anymore!

Guest post by Michael W. Dean

“YouTube: An Insider’s Guide to Climbing the Charts” authors Alan Lastufka and Michael W. Dean are doing a five-day blog post series on “How to create and promote more effectively on YouTube.” Here’s part three of five:

Greetings, eager blog reader! You probably expected another installment on “Making it big on YouTube.” But that’s Alan’s job. Alan’s handed the reins over to me to give him a rest on humpday, and I’m the guy who wrote the “punk rock cheerleading” parts of the book. I want to talk about making it important on YouTube. (Which, by the way, could actually also lead to making it big on YouTube.)

When Alan and I were first approached about doing this five-day blog series, one of the questions put to us, to get our blog juices flowing, was “I hear your cats are in the book. What are their names?”

Well, it’s true. There are cats in the book. Read the rest of this entry »

Upload Custom YouTube Thumbnails

A few days ago YouTube users were up in arms over some of YouTube’s changes posted about in their blog. I wrote about that here.

However, YouTube has just tonight added a brand new feature which allows for Partners to upload a custom thumbnail image of their choosing. This image does not have to come from the video itself, but it can not be sexually suggestive, violent or graphic, according to the notice that appears below the new thumbnail uploading tool.

Here is a screenshot:

To upload a custom image to be used as your thumbnail, simply go to edit your video details as you would to change the video’s title, description, tags or other particulars, and you will see the new tool.

This allows YouTube Partners to continue branding their content while not having to pause and insert awkward still images at the 50% point in their videos. It is a great move from YouTube, just one that I wish was available to all users, not just Partners.

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