My Internet Video Secret Weapon

Yes, yes, I know by now you've heard, read and seen that video on the Internet is HUGE!

The predictions are that in the next few years Internet TV is going to start pushing out television as we know it.

Supposedly the big 3 television networks are all worked up because they are seeing diminishing levels of viewership.  There's even talk that they may fall by the wayside like huge old media dinosaurs.

Do you think that is really going to happen?  Will television end up being delivered solely via the Internet?

It is possible if you think about it.

You can already get a 50" monitor through which you can view your computer as easily as your favorite prime time shows.  As the quality and distribution of broadband continues to grow it will become easier and easier to broadcast information via the Internet that in the past would have only had the standard television option.

Now let's take this a step further…

The movie and music industries are also concerned and working hard to utilize Internet video via normal distribution channels and through viral marketing.

They're starting to see the potential in streaming media as the number of successful viral type marketing video campaigns continues to grow.

Beyond the ability to reach a huge, highly targeted audience, they also see that the costs associated with doing so are a pittance of what they would normally spend to kick off a new production.

One of my favorite ones was done for the movie "Wedding Crashers".  This one is over a year old and could probably be improved on from a tech standpoint but the bottom line is it still works.

This featured an interactive system that enabled you to insert a digital head shot of one or more people in place of the normal actors and actresses faces.  Then the trailer would play with these new heads in place, talking and moving around while the normal audio streams.

I set this up myself with a number of different combination of people.  The scariest was my two young sons in place of Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson.   I realized I am not at all ready to see those two  partying away for a good number of years yet .

(NOTE: This really is one of the funnier things I've played with in a long while.  You really should check it out.  Here's one with good old Sam Knoll in it.)

All kidding aside, Internet video is huge and becoming huger.

I've done a fair amount of work with it myself and have even produced two different concepts centered around and built upon it.

My site FlashVideoRevealed.com provides instruction on how to capture, edit, encode and stream flash video on the Internet… using all free tools.  We even provide a great single and multi-track player that you can use.

If you want to check it out simply go to FlashVideoRevealed.com.  Scroll down to the bottom and click the VIP link.  Then enter flashvip as your code and you're in for free.

The other place I've employed Internet Video is in my InternetHowToVideos.com site.

This is a membership concept providing hundreds of Internet business How To videos, free web site hosting, a huge library of marketing materials as well as a slew of products and software with a variety of resell, master resell and private label rights.

The entire thing is built upon Internet Video.

This site is actually getting expanded as I write this so that in the next two weeks it will relaunch with over 400 videos, an open affiliate program (with a 59%  commission rate) as well as a variety of other enhancements.

I also have a lot more coming in 2007.

So again, it is becoming quite obvious that Internet video is here and here to stay.

Now at the start of this I mentioned my having a secret weapon for Internet Video and I do.

This is the service that I've been using for over a year now to stream all of my video content.

It offers a wide variety of players, is easy to use and is incredibly inexpensive (shoot, it's been free and will remain so until March of 2007.  At that time it will run $50/month for streaming with no advertising or if you want it for free you'll have ads mixed in with your content.  They're even working out a rev share situation for those folks allowing the ads.

The name of this service is Brightcove.

I recommend it highly as would Reuter's News, Yahoo News and a bunch of other heavy hitters that use the service.

Once again, Internet video is huge and is only going to grow.  Now is the time for you to hop in and add it to your marketing and product portfolios.

Here's to a great 2007!

Onward & Upward!

Sam Knoll