Uh huh. We in the industry have been surmising--and hoping--that since people aren't spending money on new houses, cars, vacations, etc. they were hunkering down and making things. Sure enough, Jo-Ann Stores and Michaels are seeing an increase. BTW, so are booze sales, and at about the same rate.
~Jodie
The new publisher of Atlanta Woman Magazine contacted me a few weeks ago asking if I would do a video interview for the magazine's web site. Elisabeth Marchant is steering the magazine toward serving women entrepreneurs in Atlanta and thought my story might be of help to other women. See for yourself by watching the video.
Broadcasting via the internet opens a number of options not available on traditional television. One of those is varying program length.
With television's 30-minute program length, most how-to shows were divided into three segments. Often these segments feature different guests, projects, or subject.
Since QNNtv isn't constrained by the parameters of television we produce video programs according to content, to whatever length the content requires. So that one 30-minute show could be three ten-minute shows. Or one 4-, one 12-, and one 14-minute show. And can be its own stand-alone series, making serial programming more affordable for most any business. Powerful!
In a recent survey we asked whether viewers prefer programs of shorter length when the subject warrants it. Here are the results:
36% Yes
29% Prefer 30-minute shows
34% Have no preference
TV or online, we just want to get to the info, so length doesn't matter.
What a great idea. Beat the winter doldrums, give yourself a kick in the rear, by committing to one month of doing something creative every day and reporting it to the world.
"Join artists and creators of all types and backgrounds in a collective creative sprint. Thing-a-day invites you to join a daily creative endeavor where everyone who signs up commits to making one thing (project, sketch, exercise) per day and shares it online on this collective blog. Take advantage of the opportunity to share ideas and receive constructive advice while developing new work."
I'm having fun participating. So far 1,418 participants have posted 4,024 things and wrote 4,498 comments. One can post a comment or give a quick thumbs up to projects. Great encouragement.
What a wonderful use of social media!
After the overwhelming success of the first social media un-conference held last year, SoCon '08 picked up where we left off a year ago and kept running.
We've come a long way in a year. Social media has left the old vs. new media conversation behind. The big guns wowed us, but now we're translating what we learned from them into lessons useful to our own situations. And writing our own books. It's all about learning by doing.
The best news is that we are truly living social media; using the tools. And SoCon '08 provides a great example of just this point.
It all began before the event. We had our own gathering place set up ahead of time to meet and get to know one another. We had used Crowdvine last year as well, and it proved to be most effective once again in giving us a running start in networking and thus getting the most out of our 1.5 day unconference.
Once SoCon 'o8 began, the social media tools were put into use in earnest.
Robert Rhyne Armstrong live blogged the event from the opening presentation and open mic through the break out sessions. He used Cover It Live to do so. Check out his blog Tread Heavily and notice that it's all there--even comments from others as he blogged live.
Amani Channel posted video of the event on his My Urban Channel blog. Nice job, complete with interviews. (And not just because I'm on it!)
Several hundred photos were uploaded to the SoCon '08 Flickr group.
Josh Hallett made a very insightful observation of just what an unconference is on his blog Hyku.
While SoCon '08 is over, we're continuing the conversation with a new SoCon group on yet another social media networking tool, Ning, setup by Leonard Witt. Come on over and join in. Who knows what we'll cook up and be reporting next year at SoCon '09!
I had an interesting e-mail conversation last week with the person who runs the business of one of quilting's public tv stars. We've been airing their series since QNNtv launched over two years ago. Since then they have taken advantage of the reach of the Internet by putting their shows on their site. Smart! Now visitors can watch a video and buy the products shown right there on their site.
In response to my inquiry as to whether she'd be interested in QNNtv airing her new series she declined. Huh? I was flummoxed. Why wouldn't she want to get her shows in front of as many quilters as possible? Sure the show has been on PBS for years so she has a following, but I've seen the carriage rates for quilting shows, and theirs doesn't knock one’s socks off.
I wrote back expressing my puzzlement as to why she wouldn't want greater--free--distribution to a passionate quilting crowd. She said they're very happy with the business they have generated by keeping their videos on their site.
Okay, I get it—she’s eliminating the competition by putting the show in a venue where only her shows are watched.
So she has a captive audience. But how large can that audience be, and how is she going to grow it? How are more viewers/customers going to find such a small target?
And moreover, why would being on a large quilting network not increase exposure and therefore sales? What does she have to lose?
The key to growing quilting is to create a big magnet on the Internet, a common ground, where we as an industry all have a presence. By using the accessibility of the Internet and its video distribution abilities, we educate an unprecedented number of quilters and take the mystery out of quilting for wanna-be quilters, (I can do that!) and thereby create a rising tide for all of us. It’s beginning to sound like a Web 2.0 form of a trade association. Our common goal is to educate quilters and grow our industry. By being a big magnet we promote all as we promote one: a quilting web within the Web.
Back to our loner friend. She’s out there by herself, advertising herself. She thinks she’s gaining because only her show is aired on her site, so she has no competition. But doesn’t the same course of events happen, no matter where her show is aired? The viewer watches the show and has to make that quilt from the book of have that tool. She clicks through to order. It doesn’t matter where the viewer sees the show, she’s either going to respond or not. Seems to me the trick is to get as much exposure as possible thereby increasing the potential for eyeballs to turn into click throughs. Free exposure with a much larger magnet—a no brainer!
If it's anything like last year, SoCon08 (February 8 & 9 at Kennesaw State University) promises to be a dose of jet fuel. (Uh oh, not politically correct. Do I have to buy carbon credits?) It's a 1 1/2 day collective think immersion tank devoted to the extremely exciting phenomenon of social media. What's so exhilarating is that like the users of social media, the creators of social media create it socially as well--it's ever-changing. And that's what we're all doing and what the event is about; sharing what's going on, where it's going, and where it can go. And each one of us will be there with "Ahas" going off in our heads as to how it all fits into to what we're doing. Now this is what I call fun!
With video sites, the big question remains to be answered: How to make money with video on the Internet? Will people pay for it? Will advertisers foot the bill?
For sites that attract multitudes of eyeballs, traffic is the stock in trade, with advertising dollars that follow those eyeballs. In fact, some sites that were originally launched with a subscription model, are changing rein.
As Frank Ahrens wrote in the Washington Post: "The shift toward free, ad-supported sites should prove to be more lucrative, said Murdoch, who plans to conclude his purchase of the Wall Street Journal before the end of the year. The Journal, with about 1 million subscribers, is one of a few publications that have made a business of selling content online. But the number of users could increase to 10 million to 15 million if the site were free, Murdoch told shareholders in a speech in Australia. That would mean the site could charge more to advertisers who want to reach that broader audience or any part of it."
Of course, most sites don't have the traffic the WSJ enjoys. At this point at least at QNNtv we've found there simply isn't enough advertising money floating around to support our site. If the move is toward free content for mass-consumption, what about us little guys?
"The lesson seems to be that online consumers will pay only for niche content of intense interest to them... But most consumers expect free mainstream content, including news and mass-audience entertainment, whether they find it on YouTube or washingtonpost.com."
"Subscriptions thrive in an area where there's scarcity -- content that people can't get anywhere else," said Rafat Ali, publisher of PaidContent.org. "Other than that, you need an advertising-based model."
Hooray for the special interest site! And our business model.
Finally, finally, finally!
QNNtv was birthed as Quilters News Network. Fine and good. But try remembering quiltersnewsnetwork.com when someone tells you about this dream-come-true site for quilters. And then try typing it in correctly.
Naturally it became "QNN" very quickly. And people called us "CNN" which gave us a tickle. But--and that's BUT--the URL QNN.com was taken. (It appears to be owned by a Japanese and contains a draft of the Declaration of Independence. Interesting.) When teaching and even at my own local quilt shop people told me they couldn't get to the "QNN" site. Yikes!
So it's no surprise that one of the first things I did when I took over at the network in March of 2006, was to update the name to QNNtv, pointing quiltersnewsnetwork.com to QNNtv.com. Much more descriptive, and we then had a name and a site that matched Yeah!
But I never was able to get the "tv" added to the logo.
As soon as New Track took over, that last wish was granted. While I was totally pleased with the old logo and just asked for the "tv" to be added, Emily wowed me with what she came up with. And as I write this seven months later, I still think, "Wow!" when I see the logo. Thanks Emily!
On the catching up front, back in April QNNtv was acquired by New Track Media, joining the likes of Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting in the NTM stable. For those unfamiliar with the quilting industry, it's like being given the stall next to a Triple Crown winner. Check out the press release. As quilters say, I was doing the happy dance--and still am, which is even better.
Download press_release_qnn_tv.pdf
Here's the press release about the Fons & Porter acquisition which occurred six months before.
Download fons_porter_press_news.pdf
Read about New Track Media's launch of the affinity club, Quilter's Club of America, which debuted this fall.
Download press_release_club.pdf
Very exciting! I wonder what will be next?
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