Still only a few hours left in the contest being run by soon to be released Vidli.com. If you spend any time at all reading the posts here at BG, you likely know that I’ve been participating in their Social Media challenge. They designed an interesting way to weed out the wannabe Social Media “expert” types from those that can actually produce results.

The rules? Simple: sign up, get URL that points people to Vidli’s Beta Invitation sign up form, get people to sign up for their free beta program to be launched early 2010. The top five referrers are then invited to talk with Vidli folk in order to be further considered for the new position they are hiring for.

Some saw this as an exploitation of unemployed workers to further Vidli’s cause. Obviously, even in a losing effort, I never considered this to be taking advantage of me. Just like my response to those that argue Boxing is an exploitive sport: no one makes fighters step into the ring and compete based upon mutually agreeable rules and regulations.

Hell, even Nelson Mandela is on record as being a big fight fan. It’s true!

Anyway, if you are into making videos for whatever topic or niche, being able to monetize them is usually a lofty goal. Sure some of them are simply created to market other products or brands, but of the billions of videos viewed everyday online, only a super small percentage have any sort of video monetization associated with them.

If Vidli.com lives up to its self professed promises, the opportunities for you Camtasia, Pling, screen grabbing, Audacity recording junkies to make some money seems quite good.

Even though I didn’t get into the top five, I know the methods I chose to employ in this contest were sound, longer tail applications of using both social media marketing and solid content creation. There were several contestants that started emulating my techniques after they observed my efforts in action. Must be something to that, you know?

In a nutshell, this pursuit isn’t over. 2010 is just a few hours away. As such, I’m already working on taking advantage of this exercise in its fullest. As those products are ready, I’ll be sure to post information here for you lucky friends of mine that subscribe to this feed. If you don’t subscribe to this feed, no worries, just click here.

If you were among the 35 who took the time and put forth the effort to sign up thank you so very much. I am grateful that you efforted to help me out. Promise to make you proud!

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Ebay Stuff

[affmage source="ebay" results="2"]audio video equipment[/affmage]

Amazon Stuff

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Overstock Stuff

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From ripping off live MMA to trying to figure out just what works and doesn’t regarding the monetization of online video, today’s stories are all about searching for the answers.

Startup companies like Vidli.com will definitely need to be way on top of their game if they are going to go head to head with the Ooyala’s, Apple’s and Ustream’s of the video delivery world.

We shall see! In the meantime, here’s what seems to be more pertinent snippets about licensing video and delivering profitability and ROI to the content owners and network operators. Just click through on the headlines to read their entire stories.

The Future of In-Stream Video Advertising for Yu and Me

On the topic of measuring performance for online video advertising campaigns, Jayant agrees that what may be considered acceptable performance metrics for many interactive ad formats does not necessarily translate in terms of measuring the complete success of a video advertising initiative.
“In the search business and in the display business, the primary metric people use is clicks… In video, depending on the campaign, a click may not be the best metric… You have a myriad of things that you can try…”

Apple TV Talk, Talk, Talk, Talk

Once again, talking about Apple’s future as a multichannel video distributor is all the rage. But people familiar with the discussions between Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) and video programmers over a possible subscription package say the talk is far ahead of the action, one reason why details are still murky. If the subscription package could be pulled off with an announcement from a single player, I have no doubt Disney (NYSE: DIS), which isn’t commenting about this but multiple sources tell me is open to the idea, would be first in line.

UFC targets online piracy. Let’s just hope it doesn’t go all RIAA on us

It’s been a running theme for the past few years, and as more and more people get faster Internet connections, and as video compression technology continues to improve, we’re going to be hearing a lot more about it. I refer, of course (of course!), to illegal streams of live sporting events. Whether you’re firing up TVAnts on Sunday to watch Arsenal take on Aston Villa, or trolling USTREAM for a live feed of WWE’s Royal Rumble, or looking for MMA-TV to watch this month’s UFC pay-per-view, you are, in fact, breaking the law. Not only are you breaking the law, but you may even be taking money away from the companies/teams/sports you purport to support. But is that all there is to it?

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Cool Amazon Stuff

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Cool Overstock.com Stuff

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The other way to generate revenues to charge for subscriptions to a site that plays all of your favorite videos. In veiled promises, both Youtube and Ooyala have indicated they are leaning towards pay to watch models “in the near future”.

None of the video delivery networks are yet willing to make the stand on just when they are going to start charging visitors to watch videos they serve. It’s clear this business model, one which Vidli.com hopes to compete in is heading somewhere. Vidli just hopes it’s towards profitability.

Some of today’s pertinent stories about video monetization, pay per view (or pay per video as Ooyala’s calling it now), and video licensing:

YouTube Is the Top Social Media Innovation of the Decade

YouTube didn’t even exist for more than half the decade, but a perfect storm of increasing bandwidth, advances in Flash, and the rise of social networks (where YouTube content could be embedded) made 2005 the perfect time for the site to make its debut. The growth was meteoric, and within 18 months, the website became one of the most trafficked on the web and the company was sold to Google for $1.6 billion

Video Monetization via Pay Per View – Ooyala Interview

I Interviewed Bismark Lepe, Founder and President of Products for the online video platform Ooyala , about how their solution also allows content providers to make money from their “premium” video content via subscription models and pay-per-video (PPV) models – or what I refer to as, “video for sale.” I caught up with Bismark after his session at the recent Streaming Media West / Online Video Platform Summit in San Jose, California, where he was speaking on the panel, Defining Online Video Platforms . As the session preview stated, “There have never been more people publishing online video, and there have never been more online video platform solutions on the market. But with so many choices, it can be confusing to decide what services are right for your online video initiatives.”

YouTube Paid Video Could Come “In the Not Too Distant Future”

YouTube is serving up more than a billion videos per day and all of them are free. That could change soon, says YouTube executive David Eun. Eun, who runs partnerships for Google’s site, confirmed earlier reports that YouTube is looking to stream movies and/or TV shows that aren’t available on the site now and won’t be supported by advertising. So someone, either consumers themselves or a sponsor who picks up the tab, would need to pay for them directly. When? “In the not too distant future,” Eun says–while leaving enough wiggle room for Google (GOOG) to avoid actually saying that it is committed to any particular plan.

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Great Buys at Amazon.com

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Great Buys at Overstock.com

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As the new year is strapping up its boots and getting ready to launch us all into a brand new decade, those of you (and I) interested in online video may be wondering what’s next. As I continue my quest to become Vidli.com’s next Social Media person (you can help by clicking here and signing up to receive a free beta invite. TIA!) I find myself learning more and more about the marketplace.

The work I’ve done in the past for EPI, LLC (where I’m a founding partner) as we attempt to launch TheFightChannel.com, an all fighting online video network has been very educational. In fact, during 2008 I actually designed and submitted to applications for patent protection on processes to deliver audio and video online in new and unique fashion.

Couple the above with the thousands of hours of fight related video we hope to one day launch to fight fans around the world, and you can better understand why having all this knowledge around video licensing and monetization is important. From a business model perspective, we needed to be able to talk to content owners in terms they could understand.

So, now I’m more closely following the happenings in delivery, licensing, monetization and more in the world of online video. Following are some interesting stories from the past couple of days.

Internet TV advances with Boxee Beta and FCC probe

The maturation of Internet TV software like Boxee signals a shift to a more distributed media environment. However, bridging the gap between television and online media is a difficult proposition, not least because traditional content producers are slow to embrace these services.

How Digital Distribution is Changing Viewers Habits {Web Strategies for storytelling}

This paper will identify the current advancement of digital distribution channels and its viewers imminent behavior habits. I hope to prove that today filmmakers, storytellers, and documentary producers can now bypass the traditional methods of video circulation and target their own markets directly using social media websites, live streaming and video podcasting.

New Year’s Wishes For Online Video In 2010

The very best thing to happen to the execution side of our business in 2009 was the emergence and adoption of the VAST standard. VAST compliance allows buyers of inventory to integrate with publishers in a matter of hours, as opposed to custom integration processes that could take days, weeks or months. The efficiencies inherent to VAST enable increased productivity across the board by letting buyers get time-sensitive campaigns up faster, dramatically reducing the potential for errors caused through manual trafficking, and by allowing publishers to significantly reduce trafficking burden. A growing VAST adoption rate coupled with more embracement of standards will benefit all participants in the online video value chain.

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[affmage source="amazon" results="3"]online video[/affmage]

[affmage source="overstock" results="3"]video camera[/affmage]

photo credit: gbaku

You probably know that I’m attempting to get hired by Vidli.com and as such really need to increase my knowledge about online video and how it works from a business model perspective.

The work I did with TheFightChannel.com as we tried to launch that business really got me hip deep into online video. From content delivery networks to transcoding, I learned a lot. In fact, as part of that experience I actually filed two patent pending processes for delivering online video and audio in some interesting and unique ways.

Below are recent stories that seem worthy of in depth study. Thanks!

Kyte & LEVEL Studios Formulate Partnership Allowing Brands & Enterprises to Maximize Online, Social & Mobile Web Presence

Kyte, the online, mobile and social video platform for live and on-demand content and LEVEL Studios, an independent digital agency, today announced the formation of a strategic partnership that will provide brands and corporate enterprises with the ability to maximize their online, social and mobile Web presence through interactive, multi-platform social video experiences. Monster Energy, the leading provider of energy drinks in the United States, is the first brand to benefit from the partnership – having recently unveiled its new Web site designed by LEVEL Studios and incorporating Kyte’s online video platform to engage audiences and build brand awareness across the social Web.

TVDeck Is All Kinds Of Awesome – Finds The Best Videos Online

TVDeck, a newly launched website, wants to organize all the best internet video content, and give it to you with a beautiful UI. In the words of their leader: “TVDeck is a video show search and aggregation site. We find the best videos and categorize them by topic showing the most recent headlines from each show.”

iBNSports and Vootage Raise Standards for High School Sports Broadcastst

Internet sports television network iBN Sports announced today that they have joined forces with their primary competitor for high school sports, Vootage. For the past four years, the two companies have led the way in live broadcasts of high school sports in California and sports fans will now benefit from the strengths of both companies. Vootage’s advanced in-video tagging technology and statistical data tracking will combine with the robust streaming platform and back-end infrastructure of iBN Sports to deliver the most comprehensive high school sports broadcasts on the Internet at the highest quality.

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photo credit: gbaku

You probably know that I’m attempting to get hired by Vidli.com and as such really need to increase my knowledge about online video and how it works from a business model perspective.

The work I did with TheFightChannel.com as we tried to launch that business really got me hip deep into online video. From content delivery networks to transcoding, I learned a lot. In fact, as part of that experience I actually filed two patent pending processes for delivering online video and audio in some interesting and unique ways.

Below are recent stories that seem worthy of in depth study. Thanks!

Kyte & LEVEL Studios Formulate Partnership Allowing Brands & Enterprises to Maximize Online, Social & Mobile Web Presence

Kyte, the online, mobile and social video platform for live and on-demand content and LEVEL Studios, an independent digital agency, today announced the formation of a strategic partnership that will provide brands and corporate enterprises with the ability to maximize their online, social and mobile Web presence through interactive, multi-platform social video experiences. Monster Energy, the leading provider of energy drinks in the United States, is the first brand to benefit from the partnership – having recently unveiled its new Web site designed by LEVEL Studios and incorporating Kyte’s online video platform to engage audiences and build brand awareness across the social Web.

TVDeck Is All Kinds Of Awesome – Finds The Best Videos Online

TVDeck, a newly launched website, wants to organize all the best internet video content, and give it to you with a beautiful UI. In the words of their leader: “TVDeck is a video show search and aggregation site. We find the best videos and categorize them by topic showing the most recent headlines from each show.”

iBNSports and Vootage Raise Standards for High School Sports Broadcastst

Internet sports television network iBN Sports announced today that they have joined forces with their primary competitor for high school sports, Vootage. For the past four years, the two companies have led the way in live broadcasts of high school sports in California and sports fans will now benefit from the strengths of both companies. Vootage’s advanced in-video tagging technology and statistical data tracking will combine with the robust streaming platform and back-end infrastructure of iBN Sports to deliver the most comprehensive high school sports broadcasts on the Internet at the highest quality.

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• Is It Still Podcasting? (techstartups.com)
• TVDeck creates a TV Guide for web video (digital.venturebeat.com)
• SBTV.com Unveils Small Business News Online Video Web Site (prweb.com)