RE: [videoblogging] Lies, Damned Lies And Statistics
Stat tracking for media is a bitch. Content can be linked in and pulled around by so many aggregators, rss-forwarders, etc. that one single piece of media can appear in 10 different places quite easily. I have no solid suggestions yet :) but this is a conversation dear to my heartand all my pulled out hair. -- -Devlon http://devlonduthie.com | http://mefeedia.com | http://node-64.com/blog MSN: du.th.ied AIM: devlond -Original Message- From: videoblogging@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Rupert Sent: Thursday, July 05, 2007 7:06 AM To: videoblogging@yahoogroups.com Subject: [videoblogging] Lies, Damned Lies And Statistics I'm on a roll, today. I'd like to suggest that more of us should try to be open about how many views we get. I mean, not *all* of us, obviously. There are those of us who won't want to say for commercial or other reasons. But I keep hearing people worrying about how few views they're getting. And I'm sure that part of their worry is that other people are getting far more. And I'm not sure that that's true. I'd bet any money that 99% of the people on this list get two figure views for all their videos combined per day. And I'd bet the majority get single figure views per day. This is important in the discussion of monetizing videoblogging, too, perhaps. I think Youtube has distorted expectations - by its nature, it attracts clusters of people to feast on certain featured popular videos in a way that's quite different to what a lot of us are doing. And as Mark Day said last week, even on Youtube the really big view numbers are rare. Personally, I don't think that getting just a few people per day or per week is bad at all. Your films are still being seen by more people than they would if you were taking them to a local film night, or showing them in a local gallery, which was the only forum for them before the web. And you're actually connecting with the people who are watching them, in a way that wouldn't happen otherwise. And probably in a more profound way than you would if you had 1000 people all wanting to talk to you. You don't have to join in this game - it's not Truth or Dare! - but to get the ball rolling, here are my own stats. They're a bit weird compared to most, probably, because I only started Twittervlog 3 months ago, I've made 89 videos in that time and I pimp it all the time on Twitter - that must be where I get most of my views. I feel it's been successful on a personal level - I've met all sorts of great people and it's been a lot of fun. But featured status on Youtube - or even on Blip - it ain't. I have posted 89 films. With 14,000 views in total. That's an average of 150 per film. I figure - what? - half of those have actually watched the video to the end? 25 videos ( a third of them) have less than 100 views in total another 57 videos (almost two thirds) have between 100 and 250 and only 7 have more than 250 - all of these have been featured somewhere, like The End of Pixelodeon, or the Vlog Deathmatch video. The Vlog Deathmatch video is the most popular, and has topped out at 765 views. Which is a fraction of what Irina and The Burg's total votes were, I'm sure! At the end of the Deathmatch, I think it'd had 350 or so views. The only Youtube context I can give to this is the Flashmob video, which has had 13,000 views on Youtube, and 746 on my site. Oh, and I now have around 50 or so subscribers (Feedburner number). I don't know - maybe I'm wrong and you're all getting thousands and thousands of views for every film you make... but my heart tells me that's not so... and if it isn't, do we average non-commercial videobloggers need to readjust our expectations? Is getting 100 views on a video after it's been out there for a few months really so bad? Imagine those 100 people in your local bar or in your house! That's quite a lot of people. And then add all your videos together. You've made 50? And they average 100 views in the end? That's 5000 in total! And 5000 was a big number for Jesus... :) I remember a time when we complained about people's Feedcounters, and the pressure of popularity that comes with people talking about statistics. I hate that. But on the other hand, it's terrible if everybody thinks that they can't say how many viewers they have because they'd be perceived as unpopular and unsuccessful. I'd be really interested on your thoughts about this. Rupert http://twittervlog.tv/ http://feeds.feedburner.com/twittervlog/ [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Yahoo! Groups Links
Re: [videoblogging] Lies, Damned Lies And Statistics
I'll share. My videoblog has been around since Nov. 2004 and has had a long time to build up what following it has. Certainly there are videoblogs out there with many times the number of viewers as mine but these numbers are like a miracle to me. According to Feedburner, I have between 350 - 375 subscribers which is how it seems that most people view my videos since Google Analytics says I get about 60 unique visits on average to my website each day. So I'm guessing by this and by the comments that I get that it's mostly you guys, other videobloggers, who watch my videos. According to my blip.tv stats, over the last 28 days my videos have been downloaded 5,564 times but about 500 of those have been for a video from 7 months ago that was on the front page of Digg and is still getting views. So if you subtract that out, my videos get about 180 downloads a day. Of my videos from the last month, the one with the most views is the one of Rupert ordering pancakes, which has 825 so far. My Lumiere video, Partly Cloudy has 229 downloads. Usually, after about 3 or 4 months my videos end up with anywhere from 900 - 1200 downloads. And when you put this into context with other things that I've done it really is amazing. For example, a number of times I've worked for months and spend hundreds of dollars making a short film and have had 100 or 150 people see it. The biggest live audience I've had is at big public event with tons of other acts - that was nearly 300 people. And when I look at the theater stuff I've done it makes this look even more amazing. Probably the biggest theater piece I was ever in was one of my first. Close to 2 dozen people worked on it all told. It went through numerous works-in-progress versions over a 2 year period and had dozens of performances in all of it's incarnations. All together I'd have to estimate that it was seen by about 1800 people. Which is just about as many times as a 23 second video I made of a light post. Yes, a light post. Like I said, this is like a miracle to me. - Verdi
Re: [videoblogging] Lies, Damned Lies And Statistics
I've been vlogging for over two years now, and I don't have a big following. There were some people at pixelodeon who were kind enough to pretend they'd heard of me though, and that's good enough for me - Casey McKinnon talked to me ... vlogging mission accomplished. :-) For the record, feed burner tells me that my for all time average is 62 subscribers ... 12 are from MeFeedia, and at least 3-5 total are probably me. :-) (one on my PC, one on my Mac, ... etc) My 'Reach' according to Feedburner (subscribers that area actually clicking on the links and what not) is on average 18 or so which (given that 3-5 are probably me) feels about right. (For the past 4 months of data), Blip tells me I have 62 posts with 39,320 views ... but I'm not sure I believe it. According to Blip, my most popular video is apparently Hawaiian Shave Ice (http://www.davidmeade.com/archives/58) with over 6,200 views ... but I didn't think it was all that special ... I'm tempted to believe something is off with those stats. (but why look a gift-horse-ego-boost in the mouth?) I apparently - according to blip - have: 6 other posts with 1,000 views (and I think I believe that - but not sure) 5 others between 900 - 1000 views 12 between 600-900 views 15 between 400-600 views 8 between 200-400 views 14 with 200 views ... but again this is over a very long period of time and is no doubt at least somewhat inflated by my being 'self subscribed'. (I also have a nasty habit of watching my own videos on my website rather than from the local copy ... so some of those blip views are me too). also ... my early work was all WMV, so I'm wondering if there isn't some inflated numbers due to the initial wonkyness of microsoft bits clients messin' up the stats everywhere. I have 19 friends on MeFeedia, 11 of which have returned the favor. I think I value comments the most. I don't get alot of comments on my stuff ... but I'm pretty bad about commenting on other blogs, so I try to be forgiving of that. I try not to look at stats too often because a) Half the time I don't believe them b) I've always loved the 'that stuff doesn't matter' aspect of long-tail publishing. c) When I allow myself to care about stats I tend to think of them as 'ratings' and that's both depressing and discouraging. It tends to inspire my making FEWER videos for fear I wont or cant do them well enough. d) Casey McKinnon pretended to know me, so I've pretty much already succeeded. ... I am however gettin' ready to start a new vlog, and I expect to have HUGE numbers on that one. :-P - Dave On 7/5/07, Rupert [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I'm on a roll, today. I'd like to suggest that more of us should try to be open about how many views we get. I mean, not *all* of us, obviously. There are those of us who won't want to say for commercial or other reasons. But I keep hearing people worrying about how few views they're getting. And I'm sure that part of their worry is that other people are getting far more. And I'm not sure that that's true. I'd bet any money that 99% of the people on this list get two figure views for all their videos combined per day. And I'd bet the majority get single figure views per day. This is important in the discussion of monetizing videoblogging, too, perhaps. I think Youtube has distorted expectations - by its nature, it attracts clusters of people to feast on certain featured popular videos in a way that's quite different to what a lot of us are doing. And as Mark Day said last week, even on Youtube the really big view numbers are rare. Personally, I don't think that getting just a few people per day or per week is bad at all. Your films are still being seen by more people than they would if you were taking them to a local film night, or showing them in a local gallery, which was the only forum for them before the web. And you're actually connecting with the people who are watching them, in a way that wouldn't happen otherwise. And probably in a more profound way than you would if you had 1000 people all wanting to talk to you. You don't have to join in this game - it's not Truth or Dare! - but to get the ball rolling, here are my own stats. They're a bit weird compared to most, probably, because I only started Twittervlog 3 months ago, I've made 89 videos in that time and I pimp it all the time on Twitter - that must be where I get most of my views. I feel it's been successful on a personal level - I've met all sorts of great people and it's been a lot of fun. But featured status on Youtube - or even on Blip - it ain't. I have posted 89 films. With 14,000 views in total. That's an average of 150 per film. I figure - what? - half of those have actually watched the video to the end? 25 videos ( a third of them) have less than 100 views in total another 57 videos (almost two thirds) have between 100 and 250 and only 7 have more than 250 - all of these have been
Re: [videoblogging] Lies, Damned Lies And Statistics
Great posts, Dave Bill :) We're all coming from the same place... I guess we wouldn't all still be doing it, if we weren't. These long, thoughtful funny responses are good for the soul :o) Rupert http://twittervlog.tv/ http://feeds.feedburner.com/twittervlog/ On 5 Jul 2007, at 22:15, David Meade wrote: I've been vlogging for over two years now, and I don't have a big following. There were some people at pixelodeon who were kind enough to pretend they'd heard of me though, and that's good enough for me - Casey McKinnon talked to me ... vlogging mission accomplished. :-) For the record, feed burner tells me that my for all time average is 62 subscribers ... 12 are from MeFeedia, and at least 3-5 total are probably me. :-) (one on my PC, one on my Mac, ... etc) My 'Reach' according to Feedburner (subscribers that area actually clicking on the links and what not) is on average 18 or so which (given that 3-5 are probably me) feels about right. (For the past 4 months of data), Blip tells me I have 62 posts with 39,320 views ... but I'm not sure I believe it. According to Blip, my most popular video is apparently Hawaiian Shave Ice (http://www.davidmeade.com/archives/58) with over 6,200 views ... but I didn't think it was all that special ... I'm tempted to believe something is off with those stats. (but why look a gift-horse-ego-boost in the mouth?) I apparently - according to blip - have: 6 other posts with 1,000 views (and I think I believe that - but not sure) 5 others between 900 - 1000 views 12 between 600-900 views 15 between 400-600 views 8 between 200-400 views 14 with 200 views ... but again this is over a very long period of time and is no doubt at least somewhat inflated by my being 'self subscribed'. (I also have a nasty habit of watching my own videos on my website rather than from the local copy ... so some of those blip views are me too). also ... my early work was all WMV, so I'm wondering if there isn't some inflated numbers due to the initial wonkyness of microsoft bits clients messin' up the stats everywhere. I have 19 friends on MeFeedia, 11 of which have returned the favor. I think I value comments the most. I don't get alot of comments on my stuff ... but I'm pretty bad about commenting on other blogs, so I try to be forgiving of that. I try not to look at stats too often because a) Half the time I don't believe them b) I've always loved the 'that stuff doesn't matter' aspect of long-tail publishing. c) When I allow myself to care about stats I tend to think of them as 'ratings' and that's both depressing and discouraging. It tends to inspire my making FEWER videos for fear I wont or cant do them well enough. d) Casey McKinnon pretended to know me, so I've pretty much already succeeded. ... I am however gettin' ready to start a new vlog, and I expect to have HUGE numbers on that one. :-P - Dave On 7/5/07, Rupert [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I'm on a roll, today. I'd like to suggest that more of us should try to be open about how many views we get. I mean, not *all* of us, obviously. There are those of us who won't want to say for commercial or other reasons. But I keep hearing people worrying about how few views they're getting. And I'm sure that part of their worry is that other people are getting far more. And I'm not sure that that's true. I'd bet any money that 99% of the people on this list get two figure views for all their videos combined per day. And I'd bet the majority get single figure views per day. This is important in the discussion of monetizing videoblogging, too, perhaps. I think Youtube has distorted expectations - by its nature, it attracts clusters of people to feast on certain featured popular videos in a way that's quite different to what a lot of us are doing. And as Mark Day said last week, even on Youtube the really big view numbers are rare. Personally, I don't think that getting just a few people per day or per week is bad at all. Your films are still being seen by more people than they would if you were taking them to a local film night, or showing them in a local gallery, which was the only forum for them before the web. And you're actually connecting with the people who are watching them, in a way that wouldn't happen otherwise. And probably in a more profound way than you would if you had 1000 people all wanting to talk to you. You don't have to join in this game - it's not Truth or Dare! - but to get the ball rolling, here are my own stats. They're a bit weird compared to most, probably, because I only started Twittervlog 3 months ago, I've made 89 videos in that time and I pimp it all the time on Twitter - that must be where I get most of my views. I feel it's been successful on a personal level - I've met all sorts of great people and it's been a lot of fun. But featured status on Youtube - or even on Blip - it ain't. I
