--- In [email protected], "R. Kristiansen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hey all, > > Since I started videoblogging, I have had this mantra about focusing on "the > audience of ten". To treat the audience of my videoblog as a circle of > friends. Friends I would want to show what's going on in my life at the > point. I have had this mantra because I, for instance, did not want to get > lost in some numbers-increasing schemes.
I've been thinking a lot about "shows" over the last two weeks. David had some interesting ideas about audiences and subscribers, especially as it pertains to closed environments, that he shared with the group. This post started me thinking about the ends vs. the means a month ago. I've just recently "gotten over" blog metrics, and re-reading Ray's post, I now understand what he means by "numbers-increasing schemes". I think that whether your blog is personal or a show, it's important to know what "the numbers" are doing for you. I mean, YOU... personally. If the answer is "nothing", then they're not worth paying attention to. A friend of mine studies Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Renzo Gracie's Academy. Because of that, I've been around Renzo a few times, and I put a clip of him on my site the other day. He just had a fight on Showtime that ended controversially, when his opponent illegally kneed him in the head while Renzo was "grounded", twice, and was rightfully disqualified, because EVERYBODY knows you can't do what he did. Since that day, I've gotten (relative to my normal stats) A TON of hits, specifically from people wanting more information on what happened in the fight. Every time Showtime plays the fight again, there's another surge of people watching the video... which has NOTHING to do with the Showtime fight. Is that "audience"? No. That's like when it's raining and you see the guys selling $3 umbrellas in front of the subway stations. Are they good umbrella salesmen? No. They supplied something that was in demand. Ask them to sell umbrellas when it's dry out and see what happens... Nothing! :D The numbers are higher than usual, but it's completely worthless to me. I also agree with the "treat your audience like..." idea. It makes a difference whether you're reporting a news story to a general audience or telling the fellas about some chick you met last night. The delivery's going to be different. The content's going to be different. I think that how you deliver the content is more important than how many people actually _receive_ your communication. The people outside the ones that you created the video for are entirely collateral... even if they're the overwhelming majority of your viewers or subscribers. I pay more attention to my Democracy numbers than my Google search numbers. > My question to you is: What amount of subscribers do you feel "comfortable" > with? > > Of course, if you make a Show (insert sarcastic tone here), you only want > more and more subscribers. But if you make a so-called personal videoblog, > suddenly having 3000 subscribers might be a very scary thing. Generally, I agree that a show wants more and more subscribers. The question becomes "what are you doing to get subscribers vs what are you doing because you want to do it?" If those are the same thing, then that's great. There's a great potential for divergence between what someone did when their show had ZERO commercial viability and what they did after there was an opportunity to make money with their show, either through revenue-sharing advertising or direct sponsorship. The question is whether the new ends justify the new means. For example, there's an ongoing debate about using copyrighted music in video blogs. The closer you get to being commercial with your show, the more you're worried about the elements you use and the more your personal creativity is stifled. You might be better off with a completely non-commercial video blog where you can do anything you want with anything you have. This is why a lot of independent films have soundtracks that are made up of one guitar or a piano. They couldn't afford to buy music, and the composer they COULD afford was limited to the instruments he/she can play. That same film could have been a thousand times better with a REAL soundtrack of copyrighted music... except they wouldn't have been able to sell the film. Unfortunately, the film was made to sell, as opposed to being seen. The creative potential was limited because of future considerations. > Me, I know that the amount of people who have technically subscribed to my > feed is about 120. I must admit that even that number makes me feel the > goosebumps sometimes. (Ok, I have a history of receiving nasty emails > referring to videos I made as well, so I guess my personal paranoia is > linked to that). > > Raymond M. Kristiansen, > Copenhagen > http://www.dltq.org/v3 > http://www.textrecontext.com That's an interesting aspect... poor feedback from subscribers or random passers-by. I met someone this week that is planning an animal rights video blog. She's worried about all kinds of things, from production issues to negative feedback to investigation. :D I suppose it depends on what you make videos about. If it's a controversial topic, then you have to realize that you're STARTING discussions with your videos, not ENDING them. If you're voicing opinions about things, expect people to have differing opinions. Also, expect some people to agree with you an applaud what you have to say. Basically, you can have your 10-person conversation with your video camera. When you put it on the net, you and your 10 friends are now having that conversation in the train station or the pubic market. Anyone that happens by for whatever reason can drop in, make comments and vanish. If you can't handle that, block all comments other than people that you personally approve. If you can handle the remarks, but don't want them posted, enable "comment moderation" and let the comments through that you would like to be on your site. I think the consideration of what your TRUE audience is and who the people are that you're trying to communicate to and receive communication from is really important, all the way down to creating the concept and format of your show / video blog. Bill C. http://ReelSolid.TV
