The Pipeline v2.0 – Coming VERY VERY VERY SOON?

If you’ve been following this blog you’ve heard me talk about the new The Pipeline design that was supposed to be released a couple of weeks ago. Well it has taken more time, but I’m telling you it’s worth the wait. If you like or dislike the current design, get ready to be happy – very happy with the new design.

The StuffWeLike.com Toolbar

You know a website has jumped the shark when it has its own toolbar!I’m extatic to announce the very first StuffWeLike.com Toolbar! It’s available for free and for your enjoyment right now!

StuffWeLike.com Toolbar

It’s so simple to install, that even I can do it!

Click here and click on Download Toolbar. Don’t worry there’s no spyware. The toolbar provides you with the latest posts on the blog as well as the Forum via RSS feed. It also contains direct links to the blog, The Pipeline, and Forum. With Google search, weather output, and a pop-up blocker this toolbar will fit all your needs!

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]

The Pipeline Adds some Friends

Thanks to our partners we’ve added two new shows today. The first is Next-Gen Walkthroughs which has videos showing entire sequences of what happens in games. If you ever get stuck in a game, don’t bother reading a strategy guide just watch this show. The second show is New Gen Gamers Playground. This is a audio podcast from New Gen Gamers covering the world of games.

Add The Pipeline: Entertainment Within a Box to your page

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?

Editing With David

So what is it like to edit video with me? Apparently I made a video while I was editing the StuffWeLike.com Podcast Mashup episode. I’m not recommending that you watch this video, but I just found it in my account and it completely surprised me. I remember recording it but I never saw the video previously on Ustream and now it’s up. So here you go…