It's TV on the Internet

Just The Facts

 
Evidently a competitor to our magazine business was spouting off at our trade show that Quilt Out Loud! has no viewership. Hum, okay, let's ask Compete. I compared The Quilt Show, which is our direct competitor (hugs to Alex and Ricky and Bernina), and QNNtv.com and Quilt Out Loud!.

Now, QNNtv.com is a network airing over 1,000 videos, including Quilt Out Loud! So, to compare apples to apples you can see that the blue line which is the Quilt Show and the green line which is QNNtv.com have about met since the launch of Quilt Out Loud! late this summer. What I take away from this is that having a new ongoing series is what viewers want. Oh, and...

Take that naysayer! (Competitive, me? No!)

~Jodie

Web Series: Harvest Eating

Chef Keith Snow has carved out an interesting niche for himself. Launched in 2006, his site, HarvestEating.com, offers video how-to's--apparently shot in his own kitchen--and recipes for "seasonal cooking made easy." It's a back-to-basics approach (as in his home grown web-based video series) to getting back-to-basics (as in the cook locally grown philosophy).

His business model:

• Create a regularly updated menu of 2-10 minute cooking videos
• Include recipes
• Serve them up online
• Use a weekly newsletter to whet appetites for more
• Create a community for sharing
• Offer premier advantages for a membership fee
• Sell products online
• Flagship product--a book out this fall--brings viewers to the site
• On the heels of the new book pursue distribution elsewhere, including PBS

~Jodie

Wine Library TV: Create Your Own Show and Broadcast it Too

Attending conferences, reading articles, and talking about the cool new capabilities technology offers is all fine and good, but putting it to productive use it what gets me excited.

As anyone who has read any of the blogs or books out there, the second incarnation of the Web has made everyone a publisher. Great! or in reality, so what. Cacophony.

The beauty of the technology comes about when it is married with a true passion to use it simply as a tool. And that is what Gary Vaynerchuk has done with Wine Library TV. His Internet show attracts about 90,000 viewers. And this is no fancy production. He's obviously delivering info people want. The delivery vehicle is simply that. The magic is still between the ears.

Read this article from Streaming Media Magazine. Power to the people!

~Jodie

It's Time to Quilt Out Loud!

A new made-for QNNtv.com series has launched!

Unlike any other quilting show, Quilt Out Loud! embraces the fact that quilters regard their hobby as a lifestyle. Quilting is infused into their lives.

Departing from the here-to-for compulsory all how-to format, Quilt out Loud! serves up six segments in each epsiode, only one being a how-to. The remainder address all aspects of the quilting lifestyle, from book reviews, to panel discussions of controversial issues; from making a quick meal to feed the family well and still have time to sew, to learning how to get published.

Check out the demo and see what all the buzz is about.

~Jodie-Oh, I happen to be the host.
 

The Silver Lining

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

Atlanta Woman Magazine Video Interview

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.

 

Video Content Length: How Large a Bite?

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.

Thing-a-Day

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!

Walking the Talk: Atlanta's SoCon '08

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!

Web 2.0: The New Industry Trade Association

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!