> Examination: YouTube Top Content Providers

rayw

rayw

Please visit
Social Brain Wave
@ facebook to learn more about how a group of us are
helping promote the works of the individual members to
a level that is beyond what could be done alone.
http://www.facebook.com/SocialBrainWave/info​

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

This is the investigation, analysis, and dissection of the top youtube content providers defined by those with the most subscribers.
http://www.indietalk.com/showthread.php?t=44191

The intent is that by understanding what elements go into the concept, design, execution, and promotion of market valued content that we ourselves may adopt some of these practices in developing our own content.

Why would we want to do that?
Why would we even care?

For my own reason -
From the light research I've conducted in crowdsourcing at the beginning of the filmmaking process and the marketing and promotion of the completed film products the key is to come to the table having already cultivated a following.
> Cold calling for fi$cal attention is grossly ineffective.
> Bring an interested crowd to your crowdsourcing campaign.
> Bring an interested crowd to marketing and promoting your finished film.


I would like to see some of the reasons others here at IT are interested in top youtube content providers.
Zen Steve?
Lucky Hardwood?
Icba Pictures?
Paul Griffith?
Any one else?



__________________________________________________________

http://vidstatsx.com/youtube-top-100-most-subscribed-channels

http://www.statsheep.com/p/Top-Subscribers

Looks interesting: http://willvideoforfood.com/

http://willvideoforfood.com/2012/10/19/why-are-ray-william-johnson-and-maker-studio-separating/

http://willvideoforfood.com/2012/05...ios-machinima-maker-full-screen-and-bigframe/
OVS = Online Video Studio
OVC = Online Video Company

http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Pr...eleases_March_2012_U.S._Online_Video_Rankings

www.reelseo.com/online-video-studios/

http://newmediarockstars.com/2012/09/which-youtube-network-should-you-sign-with/
This looks waaaaaay more complicated than just hanging out your shingle and hassling your family, friends, and forum friends to watch and subscibe.

Getting a little off the path with this one: http://videoproductiontips.com/equipment-needed-to-set-up-a-simple-video-studio/
 
Last edited:
Sort by date Sort by votes
Miken said:
Content Makers of the main show. So if Lucky is the one making the main news review show, some of the revenue generated should go there.


We could just all agree that we won't serve ads on the main channel or blog.
Click to expand...

The main channel can be ad free, but are you sure you want to go with a regular blogger blog? Shared hosting is pretty cheap these days, and at worst, I can just build up a wordpress or dolphin site that gives us the features we need, and share the current hosting I use for my website.

I have a dolphin license I am not using. Here is a demo of the tech:

http://demo.boonex.com/
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I'd definitely be up for doing a weekly or semi-weekly blog post about music, music in film, etc. And for main channel content, I can provide music as needed. Seeing as we have (at least) two music folks, we can split up duties between MetalRenard and I (we should keep in contact in case you want to more directly collaborate/farm out orchestration, etc).

Friends do not let friends use stock loops ;)

And any operational duties that someone needs a hand with, let me know and I'll be happy to try and pick up some slack.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Loops? I don't use loops... Lol Oh I see, you meant the film maker guys. :P
But sure, if you need me at some point you can get a hold of me via e-mail: metalrenardmusic [AT] gmail.com
All my guitar and bass recording is actual performance and I use virtual instruments for everything else.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
This part of "creating" is the big bummer for me. I am all for helping others out, but politics ain't my thing. I want to make stuff for folks to watch, sometimes laugh at and sometimes cry because of, and maybe everything in between. It's just that I can't do anything without a bl**dy income. So poke me into whatever you guys need me for that equal's 2 hours a week. I got show ideas, I got 2 1080 cameras and a 720. I got audio recorder, boom pole, mic.s, and ProTools. I got 4 tripods, a shoulder mount rig, a glide track, 3 light stands with umbrellas, and cam mount LED. I got masks, mustaches, hats..... just let me shoot somethin' already!!! LOL.
One of the biggest problems is I'm solo. Everything I've written takes 2-3 actors to pull off. I swear I'm gonna start taping myself doing all the parts of old SNL skits if things don't change...LOL. (idea #1)
I could do a mocumentery of a starving filmaker working solo to film a documentary about high end cars, using cut-out photo's carefully placed over the camera lens while recording regular cars driving around. He gets yelled at all the time for being in traffic, lurking in used car lots (pretending they are top shelf dealerships), following other drivers, etc. (idea #2)
There's also a retro themed "prepper" show involving - Gille Twobears. A Native American out in the woods on his own showing others how to be one with the land in an emergancy situation. Using oldskool tech, he creates a home, fire, food storage. BUT.. it's just recycling the abandoned property of others since they are away "surviving" elswhere. (idea#3)

Those were just made up as I typed... I guess I do have some solo content. Hmmmm. What can I get produced in 2 hours this week by myself? Votes? Which idea for this week?

(Also segueing into an idea (#4) to ask viewers to choose what episode ideas they want to see each week.)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
icba -

can you play with other mediums? i.e. 3d animation, traditional animation, stop motion etc?


Most of my channel will be animation & puppets due to similar issues plus my schedule has be available to do work on things between midnight and 3am. Not exactly peer friendly.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Miken said:
icba -

can you play with other mediums? i.e. 3d animation, traditional animation, stop motion etc?


Most of my channel will be animation & puppets due to similar issues plus my schedule has be available to do work on things between midnight and 3am. Not exactly peer friendly.
Click to expand...

Haha, funny you should mention that... I have my 12 year old working Blender as we speak. He started yesterday and by watching tutorials has already learned to do a few things. My older son is an accomplished musician (at 16...) and will be forced to provide music for any animations... which my 8 year old daughter will write the script/story-line for. Muhahahaha... Jackson 5 eat my dust. I still have a 4 year old in the wings as an actress (I think).:lol:

I do have some great idea's for stop motion or traditional animation though. Just time consuming formats for my schedule... Wanting to do some stop motion quite alot actually...
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Miken said:
Content Makers of the main show. So if Lucky is the one making the main news review show, some of the revenue generated should go there. Gah! "MAKERS", not "markers!" What an idiot I am sometimes. (Pay attention, Ray. Moron.)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I gotcha.
Yeah... that's going to be or has the slippery slope potential of creating more administration problems than benefits.

We could just all agree that we won't serve ads on the main channel or blog. Yeah. I'm leaning really a lot towards this as well.
This also means the central website and ancillary social media should also NOT be monetized.
Monetization of the channel&blog has corruptive aspects to it that I'd just as soon avoid.
Keep monetization to a minimum with any proceeds going towards advertising expenses for the central channel&blog itself.

If folks here want to have a greater discussion on the pros and cons of keeping the central channel&blog non-profit oriented I'm certainly open to that.
What's apparent to one person may not be to another, pro or con.
Click to expand...


mckinise said:
The main channel can be ad free, but are you sure you want to go with a regular blogger blog? Shared hosting is pretty cheap these days, and at worst, I can just build up a wordpress or dolphin site that gives us the features we need, and share the current hosting I use for my website.
Click to expand...
Shared hosting may be "cheap" but unless there's some legitimate evidence that consumers have a documented strong preference for a webpage (with expenses) over blogs (free) I don't believe they really care.


Of course, I'd be tickled to see links to studies that show otherwise.
PLEASE! If you got 'em share 'em!




I'm working on about three or four other related things right now, so ya'll bear with me.
I'll be spotty in and out today and this week.
EVERYTHING is important, so... :cool:


Here, ya'll watch these: http://www.tvrage.com/shows/id-31508 ("THANKS!", Sweetie!)
2_thumbs_up_-_animated.gif
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
rayw said:
Shared hosting may be "cheap" but unless there's some legitimate evidence that consumers have a documented strong preference for a webpage (with expenses) over blogs (free) I don't believe they really care.


Of course, I'd be tickled to see links to studies that show otherwise.
PLEASE! If you got 'em share 'em!



I'm working on about three or four other related things right now, so ya'll bear with me.
I'll be spotty in and out today and this week.
EVERYTHING is important, so... :cool:


Here, ya'll watch these: http://www.tvrage.com/shows/id-31508 ("THANKS!", Sweetie!)
2_thumbs_up_-_animated.gif
Click to expand...

I'm sure the data is out there, but I was honestly just going to buy a name and use the hosting I currently have. The most time consuming of it would be setting up the website and implementing the features.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
mckinise said:
I'm sure the data is out there, but I was honestly just going to buy a name and use the hosting I currently have. The most time consuming of it would be setting up the website and implementing the features.
Click to expand...
Thank you. :)


Do others here have an opinion on this subject, website vs blog?


* * * * * * * * * * * *


Maybe I'm reading more into a possible difference of approach to the "central channel" I had originally proposed, but I'd like to take a moment to illustrate what I'd like to achieve as well as what to avoid.

Achieve this:
20121210MemberChannelOrientedStructure.png


Avoid that:
20121210CentrralChannelOrientedStructure.png
​



I'd like like the central site to be an incubator diverting attention to individual member channels which each cross promoting each other's channels.
Monetization is optimized towards the individual.

What I don't want is a monolithic central programming site - just yet.
That is a distributor format where the contributors all get paid peanuts while most of the monetization goes to the distributor.


Debate is always welcome.
In fact, should we consider eliminating the central channel idea entirely and rely entirely upon cross promotion from each member's channel page as mckinise illustrated in this image? (right margin.)
group-channel1.jpg


My gut says "No" but I just wanted to lump that option out there.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
Shared hosting may be "cheap" but unless there's some legitimate evidence that consumers have a documented strong preference for a webpage (with expenses) over blogs (free) I don't believe they really care.
Click to expand...

It's really a debate over professionalism vs rising costs. Though, I suspect for youtube, it's different than a lot of the rest of the business world.

In the business world, you're looking for as professional as possible so a hosted, responsive, decently performing website is the only option.

For youtube I feel it is slightly different. You may want to downplay the professional look and go for a more trendy/grungy/"not get it as slick as you can" look on a web site.

The real issue though is your purpose of the website. If your purpose of the website is to drive traffic to the youtube page, the free options are almost never the right option. You can SEO the sh*t out of it, but if you're not retaining client data through lead funnels etc., most of the results will be for naught. Wasted.

If your final goal is to help crowd sourcing, you're going to want to be able to get the email address of your visitors and be able to keep in contact with them via a newsletter. Relying on customers to come to you is simply a stupid model to be working with. That is partly why youtube look at your subscription numbers and not solely your views. Youtube know that your subscription numbers is what is going to help boost your viewer numbers in the long run. It's something they can help control so they do it to increase their part of the revenue share.

Now back to the website. Part of it comes down to how people prefer to communicate. Email is huge for most people (it's SMS for me, and that is growing in popularity too), hence why the importance of a newsletter (and other forms of communication - Blogs, rss, podcasts and so forth) is so high for anything that relies on repeat business. Relying on subscriptions only is limiting your success. Though the others are a lot of work, there has to be a balance in there somewhere. This is why I'm saying we need a balanced, varied team, not just a bunch of filmmakers creating content.

Doing what everyone else is doing will get you the results that everyone else is getting. Which for the most part is none.

Website vs blog. The right answer is.... BOTH.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Sweetie said:
Website vs blog. The right answer is.... BOTH.
Click to expand...

I don't really even bother differentiating them mentally anymore. Formal content vs. informal content tends to be the way I section it.


rayw -

I basically agree with your "achieve this" model, as that was my initial thought. Let me play devil's advocate for just a moment.

Is the goal to build up audiences for content creators or build up youtube channels for content creators? There are overlaps, but differences.

If my goal was the former, I might be inclined to lean towards a non-monetized central channel (or if you can determine income via video...) with branding for each creator. Something like a non-monetized Geek & Sundry.

If the user wants to sell merch or something, cool. Want to do a kickstarter? Awesome, we can pimp it.

Due to all the overhead & complications, I think a central channel pimping the individual channels is probably best (realistically). However, if my stated goal was to generate the biggest possible audience for a group of content creators I would lean towards the group having a "network / channel"- just take money out of the equation on the delivery platform.


**Edit: If you needed to diversify based on content you could have a few central channels - basically genre subreddits.


I do think if nothing else comes of this, we need to take an active role as a community in evangelizing each other's work.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
Central Channel and Cross promotion works better.

The Central Channel will have a link to the WEBSITE and each of our Channels.

Our Channels will feature the CENTRAL CHANNEL and Each of the Main Contributors.

When a new show debuts on one of our Channels, we will submit a teaser/Trailer to the Main/Group Channel

The Review/Preview Show will be used to Pimp our Wares. It will feature whatever content we are putting out and focus on keeping our combined audiences up to date.

The main Channel will not be monetized.

The Website will feature a blog. It will link to the Channels and websites of the Partners.

It can feature written reviews of the content with links to the actual Videos on the page.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
"The Website will feature a blog."

"Website vs blog. The right answer is.... BOTH."

"I don't really even bother differentiating them mentally anymore."
Click to expand...

I've been reading things here and there that points to a major decline of websites in the near future. They will be replaced by blogs and FB (product) pages (not to be confused with a personal FB page).

At this time I can attest that blogs and FB generate considerably far more traffic (potential sales) than a website. A few years back that wasn't the case. What I'm saying here is the importance of blogs and FB can't be overstated.

----------

(I'm just contributing for some brownie points in the event this project becomes a successful billion dollar stock offering someday. :) )
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
At this time I can attest that blogs and FB generate considerably far more traffic (potential sales) than a website. A few years back that wasn't the case. What I'm saying here is the importance of blogs and FB can't be overstated.
Click to expand...

In regards to the potential sales, you're both right and wrong. While FB does get more impressions, you're often getting your message diluted down amongst all the other chaff that people have to wade through on a daily basis. I'm not saying they're not important, but its also important to not overstate their importance. There is also a danger to rely upon FB. When you get to a certain amount of followers, there are reports that your updates won't get to all your followers unless you pay for their advertising. You're trapped, either walk away from your hard work building up a fanbase or pay their fees. This is of course if fb still does that.

No doubt FB brings an enormous amount of traffic. Youtube too. Most of that is unfiltered unless you're willing to advertise or takes a lot of time to manage if you want to built it organically.

There is one huge limitation of fb. You cannot take advantage or the largest group of organic internet traffic. Google seo.

Blogs tend to work better for that. So long as you control the framework and you know what you're doing with them. Running your software on your own site, like Wordpress is almost essential unless you're happy to pay external services for theirs. There may be better options that I'm not aware of though. These days, you don't often see a lot of differences between a blog and a website except some minor preferences with displaying data.

Though, some blog software doesn't seo very well and there are a bunch of tricks you can use to help attract more visitors on a more traditional website than a typical blog setup. Having merchandising is often easier to have set up within your sites theme than on a blog.

There are pro's and cons to every platform. It's why movies use fb, twitter, a website, a blog, youtube, vimeo, iphone/android apps and much more. They all have their audience, their benefits and their own limitations.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I don't think there was any intention of marketing on one platform vs. another. I think the key is to have a blend (big fish small pond, small fish big pond) and eventually analyze the traffic patterns to find the target audience.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top