Online Video White Paper
When you think about your web site, chances are you think mostly about text. Then, maybe a bit a about pictures or graphic art. Video, if you think about it all is dead last. That makes sense, because until a short time ago, video was impossible to watch on the web, and search engines had no interest in indexing video. Also, advertisers weren't looking for video on the web. But all of that is changing. Web visitors are increasingly expecting video on web sites that they frequent. And web search engines like Google are indexing video for both their video search and even now within their organic search results. And marketers and advertisers are exploring a myriad of options to allow them to market in, around, and associated with video content. Video on the web is here to stay - and adding video to your site doesn't have to be difficult, painful, or expensive. In the pages that follow, we'll try to provide you with a roadmap that you can use to explore, test, and implement video content on your site. Remember, one size doesn't fit all - so you may find that not all the suggestions in this white paper are appropriate for your site. For that reason, we'll include a few real world examples of video implementation - and you should be able to find a case study that fits your needs. Contents: Video: What is the value to your website? 1. Time On Site 2. Engagement 3. Participation 4. Long Term shift in value prop toward participation and UGC (lowers cost of content creation) 5. Advertising 6. Premium Services Revenue Today & Revenue Tomorrow: A Roadmap 1. Pages 2. CPM 3. CPA 4. eCommerce 5. Sponsorships
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Content: Creation vs. Acquisition vs. UGC - What's right for you? 1. Discovering appropriate syndicated content 2. Creating custom content 3. Inviting UGV 4. Mixing Content Genres 5. The future of content on the web - why community content is critical Tools, Solutions and Technology 1. Uploading / Storage 2. DRM Distribution 1. RSS 2. iPod 3. Syndication 4. Marketing 5. SEO Use-Case Scenarios 1. YouSurfTubes 2. Rodale – Bicycling.com 3. PrettyTough.com
Video: What is the value to your website? Let’s face it; you’re not that comfortable with video. Nobody is yet. It’s very very new… and yet, more and more visitors are expecting video to be part of the multi-media experience when they come to a site. So, first, take a deep breath. Not all video is like the stuff you see on TV. In fact, the whole idea of ‘quality’ video is changing. It’s no longer about production value or hairstyles. It’s more about authenticity and useful information. So you may find that the video that your visitors are looking for isn’t all that hard to come by. But first, why add video at all? Advertising. That is part of why we do all this. We want our sites to be advertising friendly and engaging. We want our visitors to come back more often (increased visits) and stay longer (time on site). Well, video helps with both of those goals.
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At the same time – we know that sites that encourage participation (engagement) tend to have more loyal visitors. Engagement and participation are emotions that are easier to trigger with video than with text. If you look at the comments or discussions around video on the current video sites – you’ll see people are deeply engaged. So, video that is tied to social media tools (comments / forward to a friend / link / share) will tend to drive up engagement and return visits. This is extremely important. And as more and more sites include video – the battle over video engagement will only become fiercer. So, now is the time to test some assumptions with your visitors and learn from those tests. We’ll suggest those tests in the pages ahead. The results should be some actionable data about your visitor’s interest in viewing video content on your site, and visitor’s interesting in contributing video content on your site, and the likelihood of being able to develop either an advertising model or subscription model around your video. Finally – and most immediately, what is the value of additional page views to your site? If you could increase page views per visit from X to Y, and each page generates Z in revenue, what would the net value of video be to your business today? Here’s the formula: Current CPM = N Current Page Views = X Increased Page views = Z X /1000 * N = Current Revenue X + Z / 1000 * N = Projected Revenue Our experience is that, video offered to your visitors with a widget on the home page (not just a ‘video link’) will increase time on site and page views by no less than 20%.
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Revenue Today & Revenue Tomorrow: A Roadmap The first thing to do is separate the question. Video advertising isn’t the same thing as in page advertising around video. Video advertising on the web is a very new thing – and there are lots of companies working to figure it out. It’s coming, but the first big wave of money in the video space will come to companies with existing trusted brands moving content to the web (NBC, Discovery, etc) and the second wave of money will come to trusted existing media brands adding video to their offerings (NY Times, Disney, even Amazon). Don’t expect emerging video brands to attract significant web video money in the near term. This is OK. Because there is a huge source of revenue that will power the evolution. Here’s the timeline.
Ad Revenue Today
Today there’s revenue coming to sites in a number of ways. CPM (cost per thousand) ads are coming both from agencies and networks, CPC or cost per click ads are coming from networks like Google AdSense, and CPA (cost per action) ads are coming from networks like Commission Junction and Performics. CPM, CPC, and CPA ads are the core revenue drivers on the web today. Certainly eCommerce and sponsorships are possible as well, depending on your site. Video adds a powerful contextual engine that helps a website’s ability to attract specific advertising.
Ad Revenue Tomorrow
While Google continues to get the headlines, there are an increasing number of ad networks that are specializing in content areas and technologies. The explosion in the need for advertising solutions on the web will make it clear that a one size fits all solution won’t be the end of the advertising game. As your site grows in quality, traffic and engagement, these specialized networks will be able to understand your increased value, which will then translate to revenue. Engagement is key to this equation, so focusing on return visitors and time spent on site metrics is significant.
Ad Revenue in the Future
As people’s time and attention shifts from existing media to new web based media sources, ad revenue is going to follow as well. This will be a transition over time, so that in itself is a reason to start adding video alternatives to your site now. Your users are going to start looking for video - they may come to you first, but if you let them stray, they may find video around your subject area elsewhere Magnify.net White Paper Page 4
Content: Creation vs. Acquisition vs. UGC - What's right for you? The first question is, do you already have a source of content for your site? Are you a noted expert in your field that is happy to speak on panels and share stories and experiences extemporaneously about your field of knowledge? If so, chances are that you’re ready to become a video content creator – you just need to get started. This is what we call SITE EXPERT CONTENT. The next question is – will your site visitors contribute content? If your site is a hotbed of passionate individuals who are excited about the space you occupy – then chances are they’re ready to dive in and share video. This is what we call Site Specific UGC. And finally – is there already a huge collection of video that exists on the web about your sites general focus. This Subject Specific UGC is going to be the big surprise for you. Almost without exception – there is a HUGE collection of Subject Specific UGC for you waiting to be gathered up, sorted and curated. This behavior is the least known, most efficient, and potentially most groundbreaking unknown resource for webmasters and site owners. Remember, Subject Specific UGC is free; you just need to reach out, find it, and put it in context. That’s pretty important, and we’ll explain how. 1. Site Expert UGC There’s a common misconception that creating video for your site is complex and expensive. This is not true. If you’ve got a webcam, you can start recording miniweb infotainment segments that are sure to get your visitors excited. Magnify.net offers a free webcam capture tool. Most Apple computers come with a webcam device built in, and sites like YouTube, Revver, and Magnify.net offer free upload and storage so you can experiment and try things out. Here’s a checklist: A) Get a recording device: Webcam, DV Camera, even a point and shoot with video recording. B) Make a list of topics you can share with ease. Don’t think it needs to just be big complex stuff. People are hungry to know what you know! Just be authentic and share. Make it short clips. No more than 3 or 4 minutes tops. Don’t feel the need to edit; it can be a bit loose, as long as it’s authentic. C) Find a place to record: Make it your desk or a place you’re comfortable. Ideally, you should be able to record yourself so that you are not selfconscious and can delete bad takes. Magnify.net White Paper Page 5
D) Don’t overdue it. You may find that you can do a few at a time. If that doesn’t seem like enough content for your website – that’s why we give you other sources for a content source mix for your site. 2. Site Specific UGC Right now, you’re in charge of your site. Maybe you’ve got a discussion board, but most of the content is either created by you or curated by you (organized and filtered). Well, that can change – User-Generated Content (UGC) is already a huge business at places like YouTube and MetaCafe. So, why not ask your visitors to share their video with you? If you’re a knitting site, then how bout sharing a pattern? If you’re a motor-boating site, how about a great lake or a wild waterskiing video? If you’re into organic gardening, invite visitors to post their favorite compost pile techniques. You get the idea. The thing that gets lost here is that you requesting video submission won’t put off really passionate members of your site - in fact they’ll find the participation fun. Take a look at The Huffington Post - All of the blogs are contributed by the community – and no one gets paid. User-Contributed media is fast on the rise, and inviting member submission to your site could be just the boost you need to keep your site fresh, original, and on the forefront of your space. 3. Subject Specific UGC This is the big surprise. No matter how narrow, focused, and niche your site is – there is content out there ready to be added to your site for free. The trick is to know how to find it, and how to curate it. Here’s an example: DC Smitty is the founder of a website called YouSurfTubes.com. Dean is a surfer who lives in San Jose California, and he wanted to create a site about surfing. The problem is, he didn’t have any video. So he went out and crawled the web and discovered videos from YouTube, Revver, AOL, Yahoo, Metacafe, Daily Motion and more… and then embedded them in his site (yes – they allow that!). The fact is that these sites encourage secondary publishing. By some estimates 60% of YouTube traffic comes from embedded players. DC used Magnify.net’s automated search and discovery engine to find videos from multiple sites to give him the power to post, delete and even ban certain sources and videos. The result was that he had a collection of hundreds of videos about his passion, surfing, that he collected and curated in just a few hours. Keep in mind, he’s all about serious semi-pro surfers or better. No amateurs, no first timers, and no low quality video. DC wanted videos that were as ‘pro’ as his site. And he got them.
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So this isn’t simply key word searches – that wouldn’t do it. It’s search, capture, and curate that makes the difference for Subject Specific UGC. 4. Mixing Content Genres When you think about what kind of video you want on your site, there’s a temptation to say – “I’ve got a professional site, so I want professional content.” What does that mean? Does it mean ABC News? Well, if you’re a surfing site like our friend DC Smitty – ABC News isn’t going to be a regular supplier of surfing video. But there is a huge community of surf video folks out there – and much of their video is ready to be collected and included on a video page. This is important. You can create a site that includes and distinguishes your “high quality” video from your “discovered” video and your “visitor submitted” video. So don’t think that one kind of video needs to limit how video is used. In fact, with a webcam capture tool like the Magnify.net WebCam tool – you can even add a daily ‘video blog’ to a site that includes video discovered from across the web. Tools, Solutions and Technology: As you begin to think about video, you’ll have some decisions to make about how you gather, encode, upload, and manage your video. There are a number of tools to do this, and a few platform solutions. It isn’t our place to recommend a particular tool or solution (though we’re partial to Magnify.net of course). If you want to make your own video: A) DV is a great format. Consider HD but it will add a complexity in post production. B) For editing, Final Cut Pro rocks. C) For webcam capture – there are lots of choices and Magnify.net has a free webcam capture tool. D) Uploading / Storage
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Distribution: Sharing is the name of the game. Video is going to be discovered – so make sure that you’ve convinced yourself and your team that sharing is good. Here’s an example, a huge piece of YouTube’s traffic comes from off-site video plays (some say it’s as high as 60%). So don’t expect that all of your videos need to be seen on your site, or even be housed on your site in order for you to reap the benefits. That said, here are some things to think about: RSS is important. Is there an RSS feed for your videos? For your site? For your most recent videos, most popular, and any other sliver of video that you may want to distribute? There should be. Devices are going to be critical. Think about what it takes to get your videos to move around the web. Getting your feeds device ready is important. Video for the mobile device will be significant by early 2009 if not before. SEO: Making your video collection friendly for visitors is one thing. Making it findable and optimized for search engines is even more critical. Does your host or platform strategy include SEO? It should.
Use-Case Scenarios: What follows are three very different users, who’ve decided to embrace video in very different ways. Each of them should give you an idea of how you might be able to engage video on your site.
Rodale’s Bicycling Magazine.
Rodale had a strong print publication and was looking to expand their video offering. They were making professional video with their team, but wanted to expand their video without incurring costs. They chose to implement curated (filtered) UGC. The results were a coherent mix of high quality video and video discovered from across the web. The site traffic and page-views continue to grow and users have begun to submit content that has significantly added value to the site and the community.
PrettyTough Woman’s Sports Network.
Jane Schonberger is the mother of two athletic teenage girls. She found that there was no place on the web for serious female high school athletes, so she began the PrettyTough network. Now
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more than 15 channels strong, Jane manages the content, filtering, reviewing and publishing with just herself and her family on the editorial team. The result is a highly professional and remarkably engaging network of channels that is user friendly and video-centric.
YouSurfTubes.com
DC Smitty is a major surfer – he’s also a professional videographer. But when he decided to create a video-centric web community, he didn’t want to start from scratch. Instead, he looked for a platform that would give him the freedom to discover, upload, and share videos without the tech headaches of running it himself. He chose Magnify.net more than a year ago, and has been building on it ever since. Three use-cases, three stories, and three different results. See what they have to say for themselves in the pages ahead.
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“It's hard to imagine a better way to show someone the epic new ride you found the previous weekend than with a video.”
David L'Heureux, Online Editor Bicycling Magazine
Q. Tell us about the Bicycling.com community. People who love to ride also live to ride, and in many ways, they are fanatical about anything and everything having to do with bicycles. Q. What has been the biggest surprise in your video experience? Without a doubt it is the willingness of people to share what they know, or have experienced or learned the sport through the medium of video. Q. How easy is it to manage your Magnify channel? The Magnify channel essentially manages itself, to a large extent; it is user generated, user reviewed, and user managed, which lends itself to a hands-off approach from our end editorially. Q. Would you recommend Magnify to print partners? I would recommend Magnify to anyone really.
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“If anyone has ever dreamed of running a TV network, this is their chance.”
Jane Schonberger, Founder PrettyTough.com
Q. Tell us a little bit about Pretty Tough. Pretty Tough is a consumer/lifestyle brand and online community for female athletes who love to play hard, compete, and succeed. Through the website we support and celebrate girls who kick grass on and off the field. Q. What do you love most about your Magnify channels? There's a lot to love and new features are added on an almost daily basis. Q. How easy was it to make your Magnify network? We literally had a network up and running in less than an hour. Q. Why video? We really wanted to integrate video into our site to showcase Pretty Tough women in a cross-section of sports. Seeing is believing and nothing demonstrates the power of Pretty Tough better than video. Q. What do you think of the Magnify team? We think the guys (and girls) at Magnify.net are Pretty Smart.
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“I've been a surfer my whole life but I've never built a web site before.”
D.C. Smitty, Founder YouSurfTubes.com
Q. Was it difficult? I built my channel in 30 minutes. I used an email campaign with the surfers and their websites that I knew on both coasts. Q. Was it fun? I'm really "stoked" that there is a community of surf videographers/filmmakers checking in at my site daily. Q. Do your members like it? I truly did not realize how many other surfers, now on a global front, would take to this site. Videos from Long Island, NY, NJ, Nova Scotia, North Carolina, Florida, Barbados, New Zealand, Australia, the UK, Scotland, Ireland, Panama, Costa Rica, Chile, Bali and Sardinia. I'm completely amazed. Q. What's one word to describe Magnify? Outstanding!
What’s next? Want to learn more? Contact: BusinessSolutions@magnify.net
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