The future is not YouTube?

YouTube is implementing video ads on user videos! Runaway, RUNAWAY! Here’s how their new ads work:
15 seconds into your video another video will overlay on top of that near the bottom, the video will stay up for 10 seconds unless the user clicks on it, by clicking on it the ad will play and the user video will pause, if the user doesn’t click on the video after 10 seconds the ad will disappear. This picture within picture sounds great if YouTube were paying the content creators!

YouTube Ad

While YouTube is still testing out ads there are a couple of services that already provide income to content producers:

Revver – Pre-roll/Post-roll ads. Requirements: original content, payments sent out after you’ve earned $20 or more.

MetaCafe – Banner ads at the bottom of the video. Requirements: original content, video needs at least 20,000 views and a 3 star or higher rating, payments sent out after you’ve earned $100 or more.

These two services are really the only ones that currently pay for your content. While Revver has less requirements before you receive a payment overall I’ve found it difficult to receive views from my videos on it. I don’t know if that’s because no one really goes onto Revver searching for videos or if the people using Revver aren’t interested in the content that I provided. MetaCafe on the other hand is easy to gain a couple hundred views in about a week, but the requirements of having to receive over 20,000 views and a 3 star rating or higher is ridiculous.

There is one more service that does pay users called Brightcove, but it’s really complicated to get your videos uploaded and just like Revver the videos that I did upload received extremely low view counts.

So while you might not get the view counts on these services as you do with YouTube at least you can start earning money today!

[Via SearchEngineLand]

Earn Community Respect

Since the dawning of social networking websites, the user has had the ability to design their pages however they wish. This has led to both good and bad designs. In some cases those designs make people runaway from your page! THIS IS NOT A GOOD THING! So I’m here to give you some Web 2.0 advice on how to solve this issue.

YouTube Profile

First choose the background for your page wisely. Usually a solid color is best, but if you want a image as your background be aware that others will be looking at your profile. Do not choose a image that’s overly flashy or distracting in anyway. Even if the image suits your personality, the idea is to get people to read your content – not be blinded by it.

Secondly avoid background music/video that automatically plays! Any sound that comes from a website is an automatic red flag to a user. They will quickly figure out how to turn it off and if they cannot within a couple of seconds they either have to turn off their own speakers or exit your page. If a visitor wants to listen or watch the content that you provide on your webpage allow them to do it manually.

The color and style of text is very important and always has been important since the creation of the Printing Press! Why would you bother to write something that no one can read? If you think it looks cute, the liklihood is that someone else thinks it looks dreadful. The way to avoid this is yet again simplicity. Times New Romain, size 12 = perfect. The color of the font depends on the background which the font is placed. Be aware that white text with a black background is hard to read. Read your profile information over and over and see how long you can stare at it without your eyes going blurry. If you can last at least 10 minutes without having any problems then you’ve chosen a good color.

In the world where anyone can create their own internet shrine, make sure that yours is user friendly. Why would you want to spend hours on something that only you read?

Blog Modifications

Wordpress Logo

You know if anyone told me that blogs were fun, I’d have to punch them in the nose. They’re tourchorous because you can do slight modifications so easily! That’s what I’ve been doing ever since we launched the blog in February!!! Every time I think there I’m done, it looks great, yeah right! It’s never done. It’s constantly evolving (hopefully for the better) and yet I receive few comments on them. So this time I beg you to save my insanity and write 1 comment saying yes David, now you can go die peacefully.

No Batman On Smallville

Smallville

I attended Comic-Con last week and went to tons of conferences. One of the conferences that I attended was Smallville, the show about a teenage Superman that should have ended three seasons ago. Now the Comic-Con panel included the series executive producers Miles Millar and Alfred Gough as well as several of the series’ actors.

Back when Smallville was first created, there was a lot going for it. Overall the twist of watching Clark Kent being raised on a farm was a lot of fun, but as the series progressed it lost its train of thought. Beginning in season 4 and definitely in season 5 the plotline consisted of getting Clark with as many super-kyrptonite girls as possible – if you know what I mean.

Hey, WB/CW is just targeting its audience. It was during this time period that Smallville truly started to alter the Superman legacy. Even to date Clark still has yet to consciously fly, his father didn’t die before Clark graduated from high school, etc, etc, etc.

So with all these changes it has angered some Superman fans. Both Millar and Gough answered the fans issues with the series by simply stating that they see the Smallville series as a spin-off, nothing more than another comic book interpretation. That one statement made me feel much better about this show. It was like an epiphany, now I finally understood where these writers are coming from.

As viewers know, one of the best parts about Smallville is that it has been the place to see a good amount of other DC super heroes such as Aquaman and Green Arrow. For the longest time Bruce Wayne who’s alter-ego Batman was rumored to appear on the show. Millar and Gough said that they both wanted Bruce to appear, but due to the Batman franchise revamping with Batman Begins, Warner Bros. would not allow them to have any episodes featuring the Dark Knight after the movie was released. So ultimately Batman did not and will not ever appear on the show.

Now this is why I hate Warner Bros.: if Smallville is a spin-off of Superman and any DC super-hero can be pulled in and out of this show as need be – why the hell can’t Batman be shown?! If the reason is because the show and movie wouldn’t tie in properly, all that I have to say is WTF are Smallville and Superman Returns doing on the air together?! I thought Superman Returns was the jump-start to Superman franchise again!

Seriously Warner Bros. get your head out of your ass and wake up! Stop running around in circles pissing off your fans.

This is why I’m a Marvel fanboy. Cross-overs are a good thing, that will bring in larger audiences. Embrace them.

If using DC properties correctly was Warner Bros. only issue, I wouldn’t care, but when they can’t even get their oldest franchise Looney Tunes to amass to any success, I come to the conclusion that Warner Bros. is the devil.

Video Game Review Compilation

What if I reviewed Lord of the Rings Online, Ancient Sparta, Infernal, Stalker, Tomb Raider Anniversary, Hitman Trilogy, Zendoku, Armored Core 4, Bullet Witch, and Shining Force EXA? Would it be possible to do it under 6 minutes? Yes, yes it is, but that might not necessarily be a good thing…

YouTube Behind The Times

YouTube.com has released a new player that mixes YouTube videos together. This “custom player” allows you to customize the name of the player, color theme, and video display layout. The videos come straight from a YouTube user’s playlist, favorites list, or the user’s own uploaded videos.

Here’s our YouTube example:

Now first with the good: the way that the video thumbnails are displayed is fantastic! Glossy, iTunes-ness gorgeous!

Now for the this is crappy portion: no Full Screen view, background colors only? – why not pictures for more in-depth branded players, and there is no way to categorize the videos – they all get lumped together into one player.I’m being serious here in saying that YouTube sucks. It’s an old fashioned system that needs some major updates to catch up with newer video sites that have higher quality video, no site branding, and are skinless.

That’s why I submit to you the future of StuffWeLike.com’s player The Pipeline! Get ready for the future of the multimedia experience. This new version (seen below) is planned to release in roughly 3 weeks.

The Pipeline v2.0

Major props to SplashCast for creating a great technology that allows users to create their own shows while still being able to syndicate other users shows **cough cough search for The Pipeline** all in one player.