Instead of going to a session yesterday morning we had a little session of our own with Dave Winer, Dan Gillmor, Robert and Patrick Scoble, and Daniel McVicar. Daniel is a new vlogger who learned about vlogging at a Meet the Vloggers in LA where Zadi showed him the way!
We all watched ZeFrank's Friday Episode of The Show. Brilliant.
Robert just posted his thoughts on the Yahhoo! Videoblogging list about joining a blog network. Great things to think about:
If I were looking to join a network I’d shop myself around. See what each network will offer you.Lots of brilliant people here. Lots of exciting things are happening!
Things I’d be asking?
1) What’s the percentages you’re offering? (If a dollar comes into the network, how much do you get to keep?)
2) What kind of advertisers have you already signed? (Tells you who they are experts at talking out of money for you, if one network has lots of food advertisers, for instance, and you’re doing a cooking show, that should bias your choice there).
3) What do they bring to the table?
4) What do they expect from you?
5) How much ownership do they take over your content? If a TV network wanted your content, for instance, could you give it to them without a legal fight?
6) What’s their reputation in the community you serve? (Ask your friends who are already part of that network, you might be amazed what you’d learn).
7) What kind of people are they signing up? Are they the kinds of people/content you want to be associated with?
8) How responsive are they to your emails and questions? Do you get the cell phone of the guy in charge, or do you get some underling?
9) Do they have lots of videoblogs/bloggers in your subject area (that is a good predictor that they might actually bring you some traffic too, or at least have a good chance of selling ads that would make sense for your content).
10) What is their “leave the network” policy? IE, how easy is it for you to leave the network and go some place else?
11) What is the deal if you bring a sale into the network? (Let’s say you meet a General Motors executive and bring a million bucks into the network, what happens then and what’s different about that than if their salespeople find that business?)
Personally, we’re still working on our affiliate model, but if I didn’t work at PodTech, I’d seriously look at John’s network:
http://www.federatedmedia.net/authors/searchblog
Yes, I’ve been asking the same kinds of questions above.
Robert Scoble