Twitter should partner with YouTube

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This just in, according to TechCrunch, Twitter now has almost as many monthly unique visitors as Craigslist.

Well, TechCrunch didn't include Craigslist's visitor statistics in its blog report, I did, but the point is at 44 million unique visitors, Twitter is just shy of Craigslist's 50 million as of May 2009. If there was any question how large Twitter has become, or how important, that stat should answer it.

But with all of this traffic, where's the revenue model? Is it just burning venture capital cash or is there a plan? (Spark Capital's Todd Dagres says there's a money-making plan and his firm has pumped $35 million into Twitter with the confidence the approach will work.) As of this writing, Twitter is free of charge and is devoid of ads. While different approaches have been discussed, here's one I've not seen before.

Partner with YouTube.

In the model I envision, Twitter would allow its users to embed videos by YouTube Partners directly on their profiles. In turn, YouTube would pay Twitter a percentage revenue fee from the traffic generated by Twitter-based YouTube videos. It's a way of allowing Twitter users to "jazz up" their profiles with videos, much as they do with photos, which in some cases are corporate logos anyway.

My point is, Twitter's already becoming commercialized because businesses are establishing pages on it. Having a provision to add video isn't really pushing Twitter in a direction it should not go. I think this provision would be a massive hit, especially in cases where the YouTuber has breaking news on video that then goes viral on Twitter. Moreover popular YouTubers are also in demand on Twitter, like iJustine, one of LA's Top Twitterers, so Twitter become a way to expand the YouTube Partner reach.



I don't know what the overall revenue impact would be on the Twitter, but its certainly a win-win: Twitter doesn't have to worry about additional traffic weight to its servers, and YouTube makes more money from the additional traffic from Twitter that it then shares with Twitter.

So, if you notice Twitter pages having YouTube videos embeded, you know where the idea came from.

YouTube As-One Meetup in San Francisco

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On YouTube.com

A few months ago, a few vloggers (that's video-bloggers), most located in the SF Bay Area, and a few from other parts of the country came to meet in North Beach for the San Francisco YouTube As-One Meetup.

Now you're probably thinking "What's the heck is that." Well, the idea was started in 2007 by Cory Williams, AKA "Mr. Safety" who's current claim to fame is something called "The Mean Kitty Song" and who's knack for making viral videos has earned him celebrity status in the vloggerverse, if there is such a thing.

Ok. There is. The vloggerverse.

Anyway, the idea is for YouYube vloggers, or YouTubers, to get together at one place and get to know each other in a real-time physical environment. Mr. Safety organized the first one of these at Pier 39 in San Francisco and included then then major star of YouTube, Renetto, who flew out from Ohio to be a part of the event.



That gathering, helped along by YouTube's marketing staff, attracted about 200 people, 60 of them YouTubers, and was a ton of fun. There have been "As-One" meetups in New York, London, Australia and other cities I'm not aware of. (But frankly it hasn't really caught on as I thought it would for reasons I'll get into later in this post. ) The San Francisco As-One held in March was a new stab at re-establishing the trend of events like this. The organizers even made a cool video:



Personally, I really loved meeting all the vloggers and the wanna-be vloggers, but something's missing from the concept.

I think that something is a thing to do other than just standing around. The first As-One was really cool because the YouTubers that arrived really just re-started online conversations offine before the cameras, thus putting them online again. For example, Renetto's great at talking about race without bringing his emotions into it. He's a talker and an idea exchanger; that shines through in his videos. But a lot of that conversational activity that used to gain viewers has been replaced by fake sex tape videos, music videos, the Associated Press, and Oprah.

For Renetto, YouTube adding Oprah was the last straw. He helped start a new vlogger community of which I'm a part called Vloggerheads. There, the kind of conversations Renetto enjoyed on YouTube before it got big have been replicated on Vloggerheads. So now, the kind of community energy once there has gone to a degree and that's reflected in the As-One meetups.

What's the answer?

Well, having something to do is one. That could mean having the events at restaurants or bars which helps market those places. The As-One concept's also perfect for events, too (especially street fairs). In other words, when we YouTuber's come to As-One's the producers should have a plan for us. All that camcorder firepower's a waste just pointing them at each other.

So, if you're getting the view that I have a plan of my own, I do.

Something completely different.

Stay tuned.

YouTube Partner Program: What Is It?

 

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I'm often surprised by the number of people who don't catch on to the fact that for me making videos is much more than a hobby, it's a job I earn a living from. I recently created a video on the Star Trek movie that pointed to its depiction of the San Francisco skyline as unrealistic because of the size of the buildings relative to The City's culture of demanding "a human scale" of structures, and Star Trek's new generation of fanboys coupled with Internet trolls jumped all over me, saying "Get a life" and stop making videos, all the while contributing to the 43,000 times my creation was seen..and to my pocketbook.

That's because I'm a YouTube Partner or "YTP". The YouTube Partner's program was established in late 2007 as a way to For YouTube to share its advertising revenue with its most popular video producers like Renetto and Lisa Nova, as well as frequent contributors like me. At first, YouTube sent invitations to channel vloggers - I received mine on November of 2007 - then opened up the program to an application process. In other words, you too can become a YTP and here's how.

First, you have to make videos and upload them to YouTube on a regular basis. For me I have a schedule of a video a day and a subject mix of the topical, local, and political. Some people like Lisa Nova have shows within their channels like "The Affirmation Girl" that draw micro-audiences for that specific video playlist. What ever the case, do what is comfortable for you to start, but do something and do it often. And don't upload TV content because you don't own the rights to it; make something original.



I explain what video blogging is and how to do it above.

Second, you have to gain subscribers and that's the real meat of viewership and not an easy task at all. Michael Buckley of "What The Buck" has over 400,000 subscribers, Phil DeFranco has over 300,000 subcribers, where's Lisa Nova has 41,000, and I have just 3,000. It takes years and constant work - some people use PC-based YouTube subscriber software services - to get to those levels.

Third, make sure you have a blog to place your videos on. Blogs and websites are the main driver of video views other than subscriptions. The more visits your page gets, the more views your video will have.

Fourth, have an email list of people to send your videos to, or work them into your social networks, as I do. I'm on 41 different social networs, some that allow video embeding and I have a network of blogs, each with my video channel's latest creation in a special view box.

Once you've done all of that, and have reached a subscriber base of 300 people, apply for the program. It's connected to Google AdSense, the Google revenue sharing system, so the check you gain comes from them, but you only get paid when your monthly income reaches over $100. So you're wondering "How much can I make?"

Buckley is perhaps the most successful partner, bringing in a reported "six figure" income annually. I'm certain both De Franco and Lisa Nova are not far behind and I know Renetto's made a healthy living from YouTube but doesn't tell people about it, unlike Buckley. It's possible to clear $10,000 a month from YTP, and no, I'm not any where near that at all, so don't ask me for a loan!

So that's the YTP. Give it a try with the steps I listed and if you have more questions just ask. And if you want to know how to make a video, or how I do it. See the video above.

YouTube and Apple Almost One: QuickTime Sync With YouTube

 

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For whatever reason - proximity to each other in Silicon Valley, a mutual admiration for the culture of each firm, or more concretely Apple's constant drive to make its computers the best for video-bloggers - it seems Apple Computer and YouTube are all but one company.

Consider that according to Apple Insider, Apple now has built in support for YouTube across all of the latest versions of its main product lines: IPhone, Apple TV, iMovie, and now QuickTime. Soon, you will be able to directly upload your QuickTime-based video to YouTube right from the upcoming QuickTime X Player software (and part of the Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard operating system to be released this summer).

Why is this a big deal?

Consider what a video-blogger has to do as of this writing to upload a video. Let's take the one I installed today regarding ESPN and The Oakland Raiders. First, I used my Flip Video Camera to record my monologue, then took the camcorder and plugged it into my MacBook. That action opened the Flip Video software and I downloaded the clips I created. Then I opened iMovie6 (I'm not a fan of the current version of iMovie), edited and compressed the clips, and the result was a ".mov" file that I can open in QuickTime. Instead I used TubeMogul to upload the video to multiple sites including YouTube, Blip.tv, and Viddler.

(As a note, never use just one video-distribution site. You'll be sorry. More on why in a later installment.)

Now there are occasions where my video files are larger than 500 MB, making TubeMogul unusable. For those scenarios and this new provision I could just open QuickTime and do the uploading from there. What I love is Apple Computer has made creating video-blogs a nearly super simple task. And YouTube has altered its site such that its easier than ever to actually earn revenue from making videos and promoting ones channel. To digress for a moment, I can now embed a small version of my YouTube channel on a blog or website, like so:



But the bottom line is the constant advance of the mating of Apple and YouTube for the benefit of video-bloggers. Videoblogging is the next frontier of media but many people are still intimidated by it. Hopefully as these developments continue, more and more people will take up videoblogging in much the same way they blog today.

How To Get More Women to Be Video Bloggers

There's an idea out there that there are more male than female video-bloggers and an anecdotal scan would seem to confirm that. My video explains how we can change that by encouraging women to vlog, and protecting them from harm and harrasment online to the extent that's possible. Here's the iReport version .

Obama Shirtless? My Chest Is Better Than Barack Obama's

The sight of our President-Elect Barack Obama shirtless in Hawaii has some in a tizzy. But look, many brothers have hairless, sculpted chests, like me! My chest is better than President Obamas!

Big Penis - Will I Hurt My Partner? - DanAndJennifer's Video Gets 2 Million Views

In a recent NY Times article it was reported that some YouTubers are making $100,000 a year from posting videos.

As a YouTube partner myself I was interested in what kind of content generates enough views to have that kind of income? So I happened on DanAndJennifer's "ask channel" where this couple (I guess they're a couple), have this video posted in July and has been seen over 2 million times since then. Wow. Ok, sex -- even the discussion of it -- sells. But in fairness, they talk about it, rather than show it.

Ok.

More racy videos? I think I'll stick to politics and current events. Well ok, sex is a current event, sometimes I make a foray into that area.