New Feature: YouTube Lets You Know Who’s Watching Your Videos

Now you can see who’s watching your videos at YouTube. Caught this from Mathew Ingram, who linked to Mashable. YouTube announced the addition of a few new features overnight. Here’s a summary: Most importantly, YouTube has added an Active Sharing feature, to let you see who’s watching your video, and videos that other users are watching. The last six videos you watched display on your Channel page, and when someone visits one of these videos they may... Read More »

Google Adwords Inside YouTube Videos - The Next Ad Frontier

Contextual ads appearing inside your YouTube videos? Robert Scoble talks about how it’s already in progress. C’mon, it was inevitable. Further proof that online video is the next “big” thing, the money men are figuring out how to spam it full of ads. Imagine this. You’re watching a Pop!Tech video, like we are right now (we’re watching Ask a Ninja’s Kent Nichols talk to the crowd about podcasting and how Ask a Ninja came about).... Read More »

In Between Jobs

Big day yesterday. I am the new Justin.tv. Special announcement at the end of the video. Why aren’t you a top banana yet? It’s a buck, geez, c’mon. Contact me and tell me to get back to work: Email: jim at jimkukral [dot]com Skype: JimKukral, AOL: Monkfish7 Phone: 216.272.4383  Read More →

Online Video Click-Through Rates Vs. Traditional Banner Ads, It Ain’t Pretty

Interesting news piece over at my old stomping grounds clickZ.com today. Entitled ‘Online Video Ads Leave GIFs and JPGs Standing Still, Says DoubleClick’. The entire piece can be summarzied into this paragraph. People are about twice as likely to play a video, or replay one that started automatically, than they are to click through standard JPG or GIF image ads. Video far outdistances plain image ads when it comes to the coveted click-through rate, said DoubleClick.... Read More »

How To Change Your YouTube Video Thumbnail Image?

Graywolf teased us a bit in his video entry here, and below about a technique that can set your YouTube thumbnail image. Here’s his video. So, does it work? I tested it out, after trying the math in my head. I’m probably wrong, but we’ll see. It worked! See the black video overlay with the message? This post from Crunchnotes, and the comments, are postulating that it is the center/middle of the video. That’s what I did above. However, YouTube... Read More »

ZEfrank’s Last ‘The Show’ Today

I gotta tell you, I’m a bit weepy after watching his last show today. Why? Well, I’m a sucker for sappy music and slow-motion montages, plus, you know, ZE is THAT good. It sucks this run is over. You can watch ZE’s first show one year ago here. My only solace is that I can be sure of meeting ZE in person and seeing him speak at the Affiliate Summit this summer in Miami. Bring it ZE, I know you will. Thanks for the content and follow through, you have... Read More »

How To Download & Steal Raw YouTube Video Files In 3 Easy Steps

Yep, it’s pretty easy, and I’ll show you how below. But first know something. I think this is wrong, and I hope that it can be stopped. If you’re not fully aware of copyright issues, you should know that stealing content (video or otherwise) is an offense, and stealing someone’s video out of YouTube is probably going to get you sued quick. Don’t do it. Step 1 To Stealing YouTube Videos The first thing you do is visit a site called KissYouTube.com.... Read More »

Video Search Results Making Their Way Into Major Search Engines

Take a look at one of the results for “kukral” over at Icerocket.com, which is a blog search engine. What will you see? You’ll see a video result, with direct links back to “kukral” tagged video in YouTube. (By the way, Technorati is doing this as well for tags already.) I predict Google will begin posting similar results for regular searches by mid-Summer 2007. Tell me why they wouldn’t. They own YouTube, and this is the natural progression... Read More »

Online Video Lighting Tips To Help You Produce High-Quality Online Videos

If you’re a regular reader, you know I’ve been harping on online video for quite some time now. Well, I’ve actually done more than just talk about it, I’ve taken the plunge off the high dive and worked very hard to create video content over the past month or so. I’m here to tell you one thing. If you’re going to do video production, you gotta get the lighting right. Case in point, here are two examples of videos of me talking on a white... Read More »

How To Manipulate The Media & Get Free Publicity With Creative Marketing Ideas

Got 10 bucks, an hour of time and a creative idea? Because that’s all it really takes to get all the media publicity and exposure you or your business could ask for, all for almost free. Don’t believe it? I can prove it. This is a story about how I did it, why I did it and the results I got from it. You can do it too. What, you don’t like free publicity for little work? I know you do, read on. The Setup I live in Cleveland, Ohio, and I’m a die-hard... Read More »

Why Are More People Making Money Online?

Matt at Netbusinessblog.com posted a detailed analysis today entitled ‘Making a Living Online - All the Cool Kids are Doing it‘. I’ve been noticing a lot of extra activity in the web business world over the last year. At first I thought it might just be because the few sites I visit were marketing themselves better or that the internet was just becoming more popular altogether. After a little bit of looking at recent traffic trends, I think it just boils... Read More »

New York Times: Shmuly-Tube Tearing Down The Walls

Well, well, well. Shmuly made it into the New York Times, with a lead in on Techmeme today. As Sam points out, “traditional walls between media, content and creation are crumbling all around us”. Yep, and this is further, real, proof of that. No one would mistake the Ask a Jew guy for Lonelygirl15, but these days YouTube contributor Shmuel Tennenhaus is feeling like a hot commodity. Mr. Tennenhaus, an aspiring comedy writer who gained a modest following on YouTube... Read More »

Let’s Make Some Creative Video!

Today I plan to make 10 videos here in my office. Some will be done with my webcam at my desk, but some will be done with an actual video camera (my first attempt), directly then downloaded to my pc for editing. I’m feeling VERY creative today, so watch out. To be inspired, I watched one of my favorite videos. It’s a spoof on magician David Blaine. This is NOT for kids or for loud volume in the office, the language is pretty rough. Why is this video great? Because... Read More »