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Google has recently begun pushing adsense for video again.

Adsense is the popular advertising platform that allows web publishers to easily monetize their content.

There is one large catch to all of this, however. You have to be a big-time player in order to run these ads - at least for now.

In Google’s words:

AdSense for video is now available to publishers who, at a minimum, serve one million video streams each month and are based in the U.S. with English language sites. In the near future, we do plan to expand the program to more publishers of various sizes and locations.

The ads for video will take two forms - InVideo ads and text overlay ads.

InVideo Ads

With InVideo ads, a transparent bar pops up on the bottom of the video with a link. When you click the link, a video ad begins playing in the same player as the original video. InVideo ads are based on the cost per thousand impressions model (CPM). See below:

Text Overlay Ads

With text overlay ads, a tranparent bar also pops up from the bottom of the video; however, when you click on the link in an overlay ad, it will take you direclty to the advertiser’s website. Overlay text ads are based on the cost per click model (CPC). See below:

You can see examples of both types of ads in action at Google.

You can read more about the program here.

According to a new projection report by eMarketer, video advertising will account for 13.1 % of all money spent on internet advertising by 2011. It currently represents 8.2 %.

What the report doesn’t clearly define is the meaning of “rich media/video” advertising. As we have seen this past year, overlay ads have emerged as a strong player in the monetization of video. While many of the overlay ads themselves are not “video,” do they count as “rich media?” Surely some of the more sophisitacated ones would — those that are essentially little videos or are animated in some way.

But it takes some doing to produce those more sophisticated ads. No doubt that in the future the majority of advertising that will get embedded into or slapped onto user-generated videos will be little more than text links. Does a simple text link made with flash count as “rich media” in this report?

In any case, for those who make videos, the important element is not what the ads themselves are made of, but rather, what type of content people are interacting with when they become exposed to the ads. Is it video? Or is it something else, such as text or audio?

In other words, what’s drawing the viewers in the first place? Unfortunately, that question is beyond the scope of this report.

LINKS:

See the eMarketer report here.

YouTube recently announced that they were opening their advertising “Partner Program” up to the general public. The program is currently open to those from the U.S. and Canada with international implementation coming “soon.”

YouTube says the following about what a “partner” is:

These partners decide which of their videos they would like to generate revenue on YouTube, and in turn, they receive a portion of the revenue generated from ads that run next to those videos.

I notice that they say “from ads that run next to those videos.” I assume this means that the ads that actually show up on top of the videos are not included.

According to YouTube, to become a partner, you should meet the following criteria:

• You create original videos suitable for online streaming.
• You own the copyrights and distribution rights for all audio and video content that you upload — no exceptions.
• You regularly upload videos that are viewed by thousands of YouTube users.
• You live in the United States or Canada.

LINKS:

YouTube Partner Program Sign Up Page

YouTube Terms of Use Page

There is an interesting article over at Adweek about how universities are leveraging YouTube by putting PR videos, classes, and even entire semesters of classes online at the video sharing site.

The article concentrates mostly on the efforts of UC Berkeley, which has set up its own channel. Under the current agreement, YouTube has agreed not to put ads on the Berkeley channel. Instead, they have traded the space for the extra cachet they hope to gain.

While there is no “outside advertising” on the channel, and there is indeed a lot classroom material, the Berkeley channel is obvious meant to be one giant advertisement for Berkeley itself.

In the article, Ben Hubbard, co-manager of Berkeley’s Webcast program, explains: “You can put together a one-minute spot that markets the university in a certain way, but there is nothing like showing the real thing.”

And so, is it working?

The article states:

Within three weeks of launching the YouTube partnership last month, Berkeley had 1.3 million views on the three channels it runs on its page. “When you really boil it down, the size of the YouTube audience is mind-blowing and it shows how hungry people are for this type of content,” he (Hubbard) says.

In somewhat related news, YouTube has just announced the addition of a few new video categories:

- Education
- Nonprofits & Activism
- Science & Technology

The new categories, however, won’t be available via the video tabs until they are more fully populated.

While there’s lots of talk around about advertising and vlogs, many people still wonder — Can you really make money with your video blogs?

Well, yes.

As you can see from the graphic above, Metacafe likes to promote the fact that people are, indeed, making dough from their videos. Some are making quite a lot.

Metacafe is very smart in the way they promote this fact. Not only do they show the all time top earners, you can also see the top earners for the week and even how much an individual video has made.

Clicking around Metacafe, in fact, you have dollar signs popping up everywhere.

While this might come off as crass to some, it seems it is something that would definitely attract the attention of vloggers who are serious about their video blogging. And these are exactly the types of people you want posting videos on your site, of course.

The vlogs of the top earner on the list above, Kipkay, are mostly in the Technology & Science / How To vein.

An example of one of his videos is below. When embedding, you have the option of showing how much money the video has made so far, and so I have included that.

Chill A Coke In 2 Minutes! - A funny movie is a click away

LINKS:

You can check out Kipkay’s channel on Metacafe here.

There are more developments on the advertising front for video bloggers. Well, for a select few video bloggers at the moment.

Above is an example of the new Video Units by Google Adsense. Run in collaboration with YouTube, website publishers can post these advertising clad videos on their sites and make money in much the same way they do with regular Adsense ads.

Adsense, for those not in the loop, is Google’s advertising program for webmasters. After signing up, webmasters are given a piece of code that generates ads based on the content of the page the code is placed on.

At the moment, the number of “content partners” whose videos can be seen is pretty limited. Like Adsense ads themselves, you simply place a piece of code in your website and the video is chosen for you. That’s right - at the moment anyway, you don’t have the ability to pick out specific videos.

Hopefully, that will change soon. Even better will be the day when vloggers will be able to use their own videos in conjunction with the ads.

While that sort of thing is already possible at other video sharing sites, the hard fact is no one has the breadth of advertisers that Google has. If you’re looking to make money, this makes a huge difference. The more advertisers you have, the more targeted your advertising becomes. It also becomes a lot more competitive — which is a good thing for the content creators.

Although you can’t currently pick specific videos, you do have some choices. In order to target the videos to a site, webmasters are given several options. They can either let Google detect the topic of the page (and also give their own “hints”), or they can choose from general categories or specific video providers.

Below is a shot of the ad set up at YouTube:

An example of choosing by individual video providers is below:

LINKS:

To read more about the Video Units and exactly how to set things up, you can go to this post at the Adsense Blog.

The Podcast Network has recently announced that it has landed former Monty Python star John Cleese to do a regular video blog. The vlog will be called Headcast.

According to TechCrunch, Cleese has described the show as “somewhat humorous, somewhat more thoughtful.” It’s been reported that there will be both a free version of the vlog and a paid, premium version.

Cleese certainly has lots of fans, but it’s hard to imagine how charging for this type of content will hold out in the end. People do indeed pay for content on the internet, but for the most part it’s not so much for entertainment.

It seems to me that, mostly, internet users will pay for things they feel will make them money or things that will solve a problem. They will also pay for things such as porn, of course. But a vlog from John Cleese?

Well, we’ll see. But as places such as the New York Times have discovered, even big names don’t necessarily bring in the dough on the web.

The Podcast Network is said to be profitable, however, and so maybe they know how to make it work.

The video blog is being produced in the UK by Funk. They also produce Cleese’s audio podcasts.

LINKS:

The Podcast Network

ScanScout — an interesting, new video ad service — is claiming to do for video what Google and others have done for text: search the content and then deliver relevant ads based on what they’ve found.

And it seems they are attracting both attention and money from some big players — the latest of which is Time Warner.

How It Works

As you can see in the image above, ScanScout identifies the material in the video and then serves up ads that might be of interest to viewers based on what’s being played on screen.

Another scenario of how this might play out could be the following:

• A vlogger posts a video about a Caribbean cruise. At the beginning of the vlog, ScanScout recognizes that the video is about a cruise ship. They then deliver an overlay ad for a cruise line.
• Later in the vlog, as the ship arrives in the Bahamas, an ad from the Bahamas tourism agency pops up.
• When the vlogger shoots footage of his hotel, an ad for a hotel on the islands suddenly appears.

No doubt lots of people are working on such a solution, including Google and the other major search engines. As was mentioned in an earlier post about indexing video, the ability for search engines (or anyone else) to “crack open ” a video so that its contents can be read and index by machines is extremely valuable.

Although we aren’t completely there yet, and there’s no word on how accurate ScanScout’s system is, this is definitely a peek into the future of online video.

Now, how long will it be before Google or Yahoo or MSN gobbles these guys up?

LINKS:

ScanScout

The mobile market for video is heating up quickly. A few companies attempting to get a piece of the pie are Transpera and ZooVision.

Both companies offer similiar service: teaming up with content sites to help them get their videos into the mobile space and monetize them at the same time.

While Transpera says that their pre-roll and post-roll ads ( i.e. video ads running before and after the clip) are generally under 10 seconds, ZooVision has 5, 15, and 30 second ads.

Because there is less flexibility with mobile devices, in general, it may be easier to convince someone to sit through a 30 second ad. If you’re on your computer at home with a high-speed connection and a mouse that makes navigation easy and fast, I would suspect you might get a lot of viewers losing patience and clicking off in search of something that delivers with more immediacy.

However, if it’s a pain to go search for something else, as it can be with a mobile device, then you might get more viewers sticking around for the longer ads. But my guess is you won’t do that for very long. After a while they will simply stop using your service.

A prediction: the day is coming when 10 second video ads will be on the upper end of the spectrum.

Ok, maybe that’s simply a wish. I can’t say I would put money on it. Not within the next year or so anyway.

However, without any data to back me up, I’m guessing that 15 seconds is quickly becoming the de facto upper limit.

Anything past 15 seconds these days probably leaves most viewers pretty antsy. So I’ll say 10-12 seconds as the upper limit within two years.

Of course, no pre- or post- roll ads may be the best of all. That’s what makes overlay ads so appealing. But the small screens on phones and other mobile device aren’t really ideal for overlay ads, of course.

LINKS:

Transpera

ZooVision

Revver has just announced that they have now paid out $1 million in revenue to its video creators and sharers. The site has also just hit its one-year anniversary.

Says Steven Starr, founder of the video sharing site:

The time and place to be an independent creator is right now, online. Smart advertisers are financing an online economy that supports these creators, and the top talent will build fortunes. This is historic: It is the birth of a sustainable art form, and it’s happening before our eyes.

While words like “fortunes” and “art” get thrown around in press releases to put a positive spin on everything, the reality is it’s probably true.

Granted, the number of people who will make “fortunes” will be a lot lower than those making “art.” And those who are making art are not very likely to be making the fortunes. And neither group, in the end, will be very large no matter how you slice it, but those picky details aside, we do seem to be entering a new era of video expression and revenue generation.

From Revver’s inception, it has sought to bring their video creators a piece of the pie. They currently use a revenue model that breaks down as follows:

• The first 20% of revenue is given to the videos’ “distributors.” These are sites that embed the videos.
• The remaining revenue is split 50/50 between Revver and the video’s creator.

The company also claims that it is able to match every video uploaded with an advertisement.

It seems we have another Lonelygirl15 on our hands — and by that I mean another lying little … ok, let’s call her a “lady.”

She lies; we lie. What’s the big deal, right?

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that 24-year-old Marié Digby, a seemingly unknown who hit it big on YouTube, was actually working with Hollywood Records for the last 18 months to cultivate her “out-of-the-blue, little ol’ me” image on the video sharing site. At every turn, it seems, her “story” has been crafted and twisted and muted to hide that fact from the public.

Some examples:

• Invited to a radio station to do an interview, the DJ pretended that they had discovered her on YouTube. In fact, the interview had been set up through Hollywood Records.
• Her MySpace page showed no sign of any professional involvement until the Wall Street Journal contacted her about it.
• Even now, as the story is slowly beginning to leak out, in public appearances it seems she still pretends as if all her success has come magically out of nowhere — as opposed to strategically out of the corporate offices of a major recording label.

The truth is, though they are complicit in the lies they perpetrate, I don’t really hold these young wannabes in contempt. They’re young; they’re unknown; they want to “make it.” And then suddenly some company comes along and promises them that if only they’ll “play along for a while,” they just might hit it big. Also, of course, there is nothing illegal about it.

The sad part is that like Digby, these young wannabes do indeed have talent. And so when the backlash hits, will it be Hollywood Records who catches the brunt of it?

Of course not.

When I think of Hollywood Records, I think it must be some non-descript building somewhere in L.A. I think they must have a logo of some sort, but I couldn’t tell you what it looks like. Like most who have ever listened to Marié Digby, I don’t know and don’t really care who Hollywood Records is.

When I think of Marié Digby, however, a very specific person comes to mind — Marié Digby. And, unfortunately for Marié Digby, Marié Digby is the only person she will ever be. If Marié Digby becomes tarnished now, Marié Digby may never live it down.

While that might be a slight blow for the likes of Hollywood Records, it would surely be a fatal one the musical career of … (can you guess?) … yes, Ms. Digby.

While what Digby is doing doesn’t seem to go as far as Lonelygirl15, one has to wonder why Hollywood Records felt it necessary to create such a story. Sure, it’s a good story to see a nobody from their bedroom suddenly pop up on YouTube and then a few months later play the late night talk show circuit; but in this day and age, don’t these companies know that sooner or later they’ll be found out?

What’s wrong with simply putting an unknown up on YouTube, letting her do all the “personal and authentic” things that appeal in this vlog age, things like singing unaccompanied in your living room and making video blogs that speak directly to your fans, but then just say that she is also working with a record company?

What would be the big deal? She would still be an unknown, and so the viewers of YouTube would still have the pleasure of “discovering” her. But you wouldn’t have to outright lie to people.

Maybe Hollywood (and by “Hollywood” I mean the mainstream entertainment industry) feels they NEED to lie to people. Maybe they feel they aren’t doing their jobs unless they’re lying to people. I don’t know, but the more I see them involved in the vlog world, the more lies I see.

The web is a great communication device, no doubt. That makes it a great tool for marketing too. And it’s only getting better and better. But it seems that many companies, large and small alike, still don’t get it. The heart and soul of any communication device is always the same: it’s the communication, not the device.

Even though a new device might make easier for you to lie to us, you’ll still be found out in the end if you do. And we’re still going to judge you on that.

And so I’m not sure why I have to keep asking for this, but it seems I do: Please stop lying to us. Please!

Below is Digby singing Umbrella – the song that seemed to catapult her to fame “out of nowhere”:

LINKS:

The Original Wall Street Journal Article - a good read

Marié Digby’s Page at YouTube

Ever wondered how you can get your video or vlog to appear in regular search results? Matt Cutts, the main representative “face” of Google for webmasters, has recently provided some keys.

Summarizing a session he and other representatives from the major search engine participated in at the recent Search Engine Strategies conference, he gives the following tips:

1. Make sure it’s on the larger video sharing sites such as YouTube.

2. Submit your video directly to the search engines. (I would also think that submitting to places like Google Video and Yahoo Video would help.)

In order to optimize you video for search engines (i.e. make it easier for search engines to identify it and pick it up in their search results), the panel recommended the following:

1. Make sure the title of your video reflects the content well.

2. Explore “Media RSS” .

3. “Make a kick-ass video.” (This, for those who don’t know, means that it will be more likely to attract links, which is what search engines like most.)

If you have a larger video site (i.e. more than a personal vlog site), and you would like your videos to be indexed, the following was recommended:

1. Make sure your videos play reliably.

2. Make sure there are no copyright issues.

3. Make sure there is no porn, etc.

The Current Problem Search Engines Have with Video

The difficulty search engines have with indexing video, of course, is that there is usually little text associated the video to tell the search engines what the content is about in an in-depth way. When someone at the conference asked the panel if the engines were working on ways to extract text from audio and video, Matt reports the following:

Everyone was silent for a while. David Bailey of Google gave the only reasonable answer that most search engine employees can give when you ask about future plans: we have researchers that work on such projects, but we have nothing to announce at this time.

Who knows how long it will be before someone has something to “announce,” but the good news is that it’s being worked on. In the end that will mean it will be easier for videos to be picked up by the engines and returned in their search results.

Blended Search / Universal Search

The larger context in which all these remarks were made was in a discussion about “blended search” (or “universal search” as Google calls it). Blended search means that when you search for something, the engines return all sorts of content: video, text, photos, blogs, news, etc. As you may have noticed, the trend towards blended search has been gaining momentum for a while now.

While vloggers may have somewhat of a disadvantage at the moment in terms getting their content represented in search results, it’s looking like the playing field is slowly beginning to level out. Therefore, the best advice from all of the above is to simply “make a kick-ass video.”

LINKS:

Matt Cutts’ Blog

Search Engine Strategies Conference

After all the rabble-rousing about YouTube’s new overlay ads , it looks like the world isn’t coming to an end after all. According to Google’s director of media platforms, Eileen Naughton, the new in-video, overlay ads are getting anywhere from five to ten times the number of clicks as other ads.

While some may still complain, the fact is people click because they’re interested. Of course the novelty of the ads may be generating some of the clicks, and so it wouldn’t be surprising to see those numbers go down. Still, the in-video advertising seems to be a remedy for the ad blindness that so many web users have developed. At least for now.

Although the cost of the ads isn’t publicly disclosed, video ads can run as much as twice the amount of non-video ads. However, with the click through rates being what they are, both YouTube and advertisers are reported to be happy with the results so far.

In Other Video/ Vlog World News

Lots of big money is flowing into the coffers of some of the more popular video sharing sites:

• Dailymotion recently received $34 million in financing.
• Metacafe recently received $30 million.
• And Veoh clocked in with $26 million.

When YouTube announced the other day that they would begin using overlay ads on some of their videos, many in the online video world decided that throwing a bucket of gasoline on this small, burning match would be a good way to put it out.

First, those who think everything in the world should be free (except for their own time, labor, and products, of course) took to the YouTube blog to denounce the move. You’ve ruined everything! they cried. I’m never coming back here ever again! It’s my video, and I’m going home!

My guess is they later sheepishly realized that YouTube was their home. But maybe they did go off to some other video sharing site, whereby they quickly surmized that the sheer size of YouTube’s community made up for a lot of its “problems.” They were on YouTube in the beginning for a reason, after all.

Just as large cities aren’t for everyone, not all sites are made the same. If YouTube ain’t your home, to paraphrase Jim Croce, then you simply get out. If New York isn’t your thing, you don’t stand in the street, screaming and kicking and crying because it isn’t Des Moine.

I said it at the time, and I’ll say it again: the overlay ads are a good move by YouTube. YouTube is a business. They’re in it for the money. And what’s even better is that eventually even your average vlogger will be able to make money off them too.

Sharing revenue with users who generate content is already a firmly established business model on the web. Although you may not see it everywhere, it is the way of the future — and Google (YouTube’s daddy, let’s not forget), has officially recognized this. Google representatives have gone on the record to say they are actively working on ways to make it easier for all sorts of users to get paid for what they contribute to the sites they visit.

And, of course, this only makes sense. Giving the little guy a shot at some dough by sharing revenue is a large part what made Google the behemoth it is today. (They do this for web publishers with their Adsense advertising platform.) Extending that even further to a site’s visitors, as well as to the publisher, is a logical next step.

Sure, it would be nice if there were no advertising, if everything were free, if we didn’t have to work or sweat or worry about cholesterol. But we live in a world of molecules. And as every 5th grade science book will tell you, advertising and molecules go hand-in-hand. (Ok, well, they don’t say that, but it’s true. I could flush it out for you, but really there’s not time for that now.)

So given that advertising is going to be a part of our web lives, the overlay ads are a hundred times better than pre-roll ads, in my opinion. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve clicked out of a website when I discovered I would have to sit through thirty seconds of a car commercial in order to watch a video that I may or may not be interested in.

I can’t ever imagine clicking out of a site because it has overlay ads. In the first place, personally, they just don’t bother me. But if they ever did, I would simply click them off the screen, as you can do with the YouTube ads. When I can control them in that way, I’m fine with them.

And so all the screeching about advertising on YouTube’s videos is a little silly, in my opinion. But then came the screeching from other video companies.

Someone on the YouTube blog accused YouTube of claiming they invented overlay ads. They never said that, of course. But then VideoEgg, a company that had been using overlay ads for about year, chimed in that they weren’t very happy that YouTube seemed to be ripping off their idea. YouTube shot back with some type of snide comment about using flash video well before VideoEgg, and that perhaps VideoEgg had ripped them off.

But then AdBrite and Brightcove jumped into the fray, saying that they had been using overlay ads even before VideoEgg. … Whoops.

And so now the question is: Who do we believe?

The official answer to that question is: Who cares?

Or, maybe I could say it a different way: We don’t care!

Or, let me say it this way: We don’t CARE!

Maybe this way will work: WE DON’T CARE!

No? How about: WE … DON’T … CARE!

It’s my guess that now everyone will want to sue everyone else, and the only ones who will really lose out are the vloggers and the viewers. These kinds of fights aren’t even fun to watch.

And so, as a consolation, a little bit of Jim Croce to soothe a vlogger’s soul:

Jim Croce - New York’s Not My Home

Add to My Profile | More Videos

YouTube recently announced that they are now offering select partners the ability to incorporate “InVideo” overlay ads into their content.

The transparent, animated ads appear on the bottom 20% of the screen at set points in the video and are generally perceived to be a less intrusive form of advertising than “preroll ads” — which are the video clips a user is forced to watch before watching the main content.

The viewer has the ability to cancel out the ad immediately by clicking on an “x” in the top righthand corner of the ad, or the ad will go away by itself after a time. In the example video (see link below), the ad disappears by itself after 20 seconds. No word on whether this is standard or not. No word either on how many different ads will be allowed in one video. I would assume only one.

If the viewer chooses to click on the ad, the original video will be paused and a video ad will begin to play on top of it. If the user clicks on the video ad, or a link in the video ad, a new window will open, taking the viewer to the advertiser’s site. The original video will remained paused and ready to go from the point where it was left off should the viewer choose to return to it.

In addition to the above-mentioned control, there is also a yellow marker in the video timeline bar indicating at what point the ad will begin. While this isn’t really necessary, it’s a nice feature. At least you know that an ad is coming, and so it may lessen the “annoyance” factor to a degree.

All in all, this looks like a good move. The overlay ads have been around for a while now and have been used by companies such as VideoEgg. They do indeed seem a better compromise than sitting through 15 or 30 seconds of advertising before the main content even begins. They may also prove to be profitable for content creators in the end.

Interestingly enough, it seems the ads don’t appear when embedded on other sites (at least in the example I’ve found, they don’t). This is probably to control where the ads appear. Companies can understandably be picky about what content they’re associated with.

To see an example on YouTube, click here.

According to eMarketer.com, the amount of money spent on internet video advertising in the U.S. alone will grow by more than 550% in the next four years. The current amount spent on video advertising is $775 million. The amount projected for 2011 is $4.3 billion. (Again, this is for the U.S. only.)

While this should be encouraging for professional vloggers, what’s even more encouraging is that it doesn’t even account for how videos and vlogs might otherwise be monetized or used for professional advancement. Everyday there seems to be new forms of monetization for video - be it a different kind of video ad, a different type of overlay, or even a new idea for using video to promote a business.

A few examples of these have already been covered before:

- Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV using video to sell products

- Hollywood generating a slow-burn buzz for the newest Indiana Jones movie a good year before it opens

- The creators of LonelyGirl15 creating a new series, KateModern, with product placement at its heart

- Services like Revlayer providing ads that go on top of video, ads that wouldn’t even likely get counted in any kind of “online video advertising” statistic

Although statistics show that online video advertising continues to explode, there is a similar rise in viewer annoyance over too many ads or too intrusive ads. But all advertising has this problem. The good news is that online video advertising doesn’t have to subscribe to all the limitations that video advertising on TV has to subscribe to. Online advertising, whether it is centered around video or not, always has options that more traditonal media never had. You click things, you can move things, you can hide things, you can interact with things.

The bottom line is that as online video continues to increase in popularity, more and more money will move into the space. When more money moves into the space, even more ways to get creative with the corresponding advertising will develop. While it might be a little tough at the moment for the average video creator to get paid, it should at least get a little easier in the future.

LINKS:

Emarketer.com

Well, all bad things must come to an end. Is that how the saying goes? And so it is for the first season of Lonelygirl15 today. In a marathon 12 episodes (one each hour for 12 hours) hosted exclusively on MySpaceTV, Lonelygirl will put an end to her first “season.”

That’s the good news. The bad news is the second season starts on Monday. That’s right - Monday. This is the internet, after all. Chop-chop. Wiki-wiki. Quickie-quikie. Turn the channel, please.

The hostility you may have picked up on in our tone is not imagined. The whole lie of Lonelygirl15 was and still is a big turn-off. (More on that from a previous post - KateModern is Dead - Or Let’s Hope So.)

Now that Lonelygirl15 has been outed and so isn’t really “lying” anymore, we think it’s basically fine. Still, the beginning of the whole thing still rubs us the wrong way.

That said, Lonelygirl15 still has a lot of fans. And the venture has vaulted the whole concept of online video storytelling into a different realm. And so for those reasons, if nothing else, Lonelygirl15 is still relevant.

LINKS

If you’re coming late to the whole phenomenon of Lonelygirl15, you can catch up with this entry from Wikipedia.

MySpaceTV.com

Lonelygirl’s MySpace Page

If you need a recap of Loneygirl15’s season, you can check out the video below from MySpaceTV.

Recap-Lonelygirl15 Season 1

Add to My Profile | More Videos

As vloggers want to make money, and more advertisers are getting into advertising in connection with video, more and more ad providers are springing up. One of the latest is Revlayer.

Revlayer is different from (so far) traditional video ads in that the ads are “layered” over already embedded videos from the likes of YouTube, Revver, Veoh, etc. We imagine the name comes from this style of delivery (rev = “revenue”, layer = well, “layer”).

While it seems like the idea could be a good one, when you look at the example of the ads being served up, it’s easy to see how end users might become frustrated with the experience.

The ad space covers the video nearly completely; and as many click on the video screen shot to start playing it, it’s likely to create a lot of unintended clicks.

The Revlayer site hints that such a system could be used to deliver up Google Adsense, but it’s my guess Google will have something else to say about such matters if the system gains traction and starts to take off enough to pop onto their radar.

Google’s terms of service for Adsense now prohibit webmasters from putting pictures misleadingly close to ads in order to “trick” the viewer into thinking the link in the ad is directly related to the picture. This type of ad delivery by Revlayer in its current state may end up falling under the same spirit of that law, but it’s yet to be determined.

However, there are options besides Google, and in addition to ads, you can choose to put other html material in the spot.

The Revlayer site says:

“You can also use Revlayer to show any HTML you would like. Would you rather display latest headlines from your blog? Do it! Would you prefer to show a demo of your latest product? Do it! Revlayer rolls with you.”

As of this writing, the ad service works with videos from the following sites:

Google Video
YouTube
Veoh
Viddler
Revver
MySpaceTV
Videojug
Dailymotion
SplashCast
Break
Brightcove
And a promise of “More added weekly!”

Links:

Revlayer Homepage

Revlayer Demo Page

Continuing on somewhat of the theme of yesterday’s post - KateModern is Dead - we have another situation where professionals are playing in the vlog world - or at least taking it up as their subject.

MySpace seems to have struck a deal to air an online series called QuarterLife from Hollywood heavy-hitters Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz (Blood Diamond, The Last Samurai, Thirtysomething, My So-Called Life, Relativity).

Although not much is known about it at this point, from the basic appearance of things, QuarterLife will not be another Lonelygirl15 type endeavor. Rather, it looks to be more like a regular TV show - but with a few twists.

The first twist, of course, is that it will be seen on MySpace, which has launched something they call MySpace TV for original programming. MySpace has already been working with the pros in this arena.

Earlier this year they worked out a deal with former Disney CEO Michael Eisner and his new online production company called Vuguru. The deal had Vuguru posting their teen drama series “Prom Queen” on Myspace twelve hours before it would show up anywhere else (such as on YouTube, or even the series’ home page - promqueen.tv).

But TV shows, even if they are cut into short episodes and put onto the web, don’t really qualify as vlogs in my book. What makes the QuarterLife series of interest is that the main storyline revolves around vlogging and what can happen when a vlogger takes to the web to talk about her friends.

According to the Internet Movie Database, the plotline is as follows:

Magazine editor and writer DYLAN KRIEGER (Tulloch) sends her friends into fits when they discover that she keeps a rather insightful video blog about them on a website called “quarterlife.”

It’s interesting to note that Zwick and Herskovitz had a short-lived TV show in 2005 called 1/4life. The term “quarterlife” comes from “quarterlife crisis” and is something analogous to a midlife crisis, only for twentysomethings. Zwick and Herskovitz, of course, made the very popular “Thirtysomething” in the late 80s.

The stars of Quarterlife, which is in post-prodction, are Bitsie Tulloch, Scott M. Foster, David Walton, Michelle Lombardo, Maite Schwartz, Barret Swatek, Kevin Christy, and Barbara Williams.

As of this writing, the website quarterlife.com is password protected, and so it seems there are things going on behind the scenes.

LINKS:

Info about QuarterLife at the Internet Movie Database

PromQueen main site

The PromQueen page at MySpace

Have faux video blogs already worn out their welcome? The British version of Lonelygirl15 (same creators) is something called KateModern over at Bebo (and other places). While it had some major press before its launch on July 16, a quick peek at “Kate’s” page shows that things might not be so promising.

Kate is young and artsy and appropriately angst-ridden. While known as “KateModern,” her Bebo name is actually AbstractHeart. KateModern seems to be a play on the name of the Tate Gallery’s museum of modern art – Tate Modern.

The idea for Kate was to give Lonelygirl a British counterpart, a cousin of sorts, and one day possibly a whole international family.

As co-creator Miles Beckett says, “Our audience has embraced (Lonelygirl15) so emphatically, we realized that other characters could live in other locations around the world.”

But is it working? And more importantly, does the concept itself, including Lonelygirl15, really work?

A week into the faux vlog and Kate has a little over 7,000 views on her profile at Bebo. Not too shabby if Kate were really Kate, but of course Kate isn’t Kate. Kate is a company-created character with major press pieces done on her before her launch.

The idea for KateModern was to admit up front that she wasn’t real, and to engage the audience with more “participatory” bits such as puzzles and mysteries to solve.

The big hope for Kate was that she could successfully integrate product placement into all of it.

Bebo’s Joanna Shields explains:

“At every stage, a user is involved with the story, whether blogging, uploading photos or simply watching the latest episode. There will also be the chance to be involved with the brands that take part. I’m not talking about traditional product placement, but the integration of brands such as Gillette, Pantene, Microsoft’s Windows Live, Disney and Orange into the plot, in a way that gives users a reason not only to remember the brand, but to create a long-term relationship with it.”

As mentioned earlier, however, perhaps it isn’t going so well. For all our sakes, that may actually be a good thing.

Why would we want a fake person invading what is supposed to be a “real” space? Characters from TV, books, movies, etc. are one thing, but building a cardboard user and setting them loose in our midst in order to “product place” seems like quite another. It’s not as if everyone is acting under the guise of an alter ego; it’s only Kate. And if only Kate gets to play, what fun is that?

Personally, I never really understood how Lonelygirl15 managed to keep at least something of an audience after she was outed. And while KateModern may be more honest about who she really is, or actually, who she really isn’t, the attempt to blur the line into the real-life vlog world still seems too contrived.

If the creators of KateModern want to give us a fictional character of a young artist as she deals with all the things such a girl would deal with, that’s fine, and possibly even creative, engaging, stimulating, and valuable. But when you want us to pretend that Kate is actually a real life human being 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, that almost seems a little like inviting us into psychosis.

Ever hear of those old women who think the people on soap operas are actually real? This is what they now seem to be encouraging.

Perhaps I hyperbolize, but I wish the creators would consider this:

If I were to write “Kate” a comment on her blog, as someone who isn’t psychotic (at least not clinically pronounced so), I wouldn’t think I was actually writing to a fresh-faced, artsy blonde girl with a penchant for pigeons and hyperactive arm-flailing. Instead, I would suspect I was writing to some 40-year-old marketer named Ian with a five o’clock shadow and the smell of tequila in his pores.

Do you really want me to think otherwise? For my own sanity?

Look, I stopped writing Santa Claus when the jig was up with him, and he was even still bringing me presents. Why in the world would I write Ian … I mean Kate? Is there anything she could put in my stocking?

This line of thinking got me to wondering whether others actually know that Kate isn’t real. While it was admitted in the press beforehand, her actual page doesn’t seem to make any mention of it.

Searching around about Kate on Bebo, I also came across a fairly dead “katemodernfans” page. I clicked on a picture and found one comment:

“Sally Walker said… 5 days ago
i absolutly dig this chick- she is a groovy spirited soul sister”

Now, because I know that Kate isn’t real, I don’t believe a word of it. I’m sorry, I don’t. Who IS this Sally Walker? I clicked on her name to find out (as if I could), but Bebo wanted me to register. Sorry again, Bebo.

I guess the bad spelling, lack of commas, and lowercase “i” was meant to engender verisimilitude, but because I know that Kate isn’t Kate, it does just the opposite. It makes me think everything associated with this “groovy spirited soul sister” is a sham. In fact, the more I interact with Kate, I start to think that not only is she a sham, I start to think of her as spam.

Now, does “Gillette, Pantene, Microsoft’s Windows Live, Disney and Orange” really want to create those types of associations?

The spam associations become even more pronounced on her “blog.” One post is titled “Final Cut” (as in the video editing program).

Ian … I mean Kate says:

“I’m actually very good with Final Cut but I’ve been messing about with video settings all weekend trying to figure out how to make this art stuff look perfect.”

Someone responds:

“Just thank your lucky stars you’re using Final Cut and not Avid…that editing program is ridiculous. We might only use it out here in the States though… ???”

Another says:

“Hi Kate. Final Cut Pro? Or Final Cut Express?”

Sorry, sorry, sorry. I don’t believe ONE word of it. Maybe these ARE real people. Maybe they’re just being duped. And if that’s the case, then I’m still sorry, just a different kind of sorry.

It should be noted here that I am firmly for vlogs making money. And the fact that large corporations like Gillette and Disney are willing to move some money into this space is also an encouraging sign for vloggers.

However, I would urge some thought and RESPECT be put into these decisions. When your first move is to dupe us (as in the Lonelygirl15 series), I’m not sure why you would expect us to trust you in any way, or even have anything to do with you.

Product placement may indeed one day have a place in vlogs – in real vlogs, that is, with real people. While that may not be ideal, advertising is a fact of life. Many vloggers want to make money, and why not? They put a lot of time and work into what they do. The more they can live off their vlogs, the better they can make them.

But in an appeal to the advertisers and creators who would venture into this area, I would just say: Please, please, please don’t treat us like idiots. It’s bad for all of us. You included.

While it’s too early to declare Kate dead, I can freely admit to wishing for her death — hers and all her international cousins’. And, you see, as Kate isn’t real, it doesn’t really make me psychotic to hold out such hope. Or does it? … What do you think, Ian?

LINKS:

Kate’s Page at Bebo

Kate’s section on the Lonelygirl15 site (looks like it will be katemodern.tv but it resolves here for now)

Groovy spirited soul sister comment

Kate’s Blog Post about Final Cut

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