Kiko Guys Back As Reality TV Stars

This is cool. lots of swearing though

Well.. I expected a little more from the Kiko guys

Congrats to my former Kiko coworkers on a succesful late night launch. May you be able to bring up enough EC2 servers to sustain you.

And to Justin: I look forward to putting you all in on Wednesday!

This is actually a pretty cool site. I found I was sticking around for a while.

why would anyone want to virtually hang around these dorks all day?

serious.q: good question

Justin’s been wearing his gear to all the Y Combinator events, so it’s a surprisingly good way to get an insiders look on a web startup.

i’m with #5.

the video is nothing but drunk-sounding, giggling geeks.

i’d rather watch a professional web broadcast of tech events, than these guys. not that i’d watch a web broadcast anyways to begin with.

Interesting experiment, but the video doesn’t seem work under Linux (Ubuntu, Firefox 2)

the chatbox doesn’t work in ie6 nor ff1.5

Chris — video works fine for me on Linux (Fedora core 5, FF 2)… Maybe you need to upgrade to flash 9?

Alex: I’m on FF1.5 (Can’t stand the tab implementation in 2.0) and chat works fine…. you may just be seeing the first of the TC effect. /shrug

So far it looks like they could have accomplished the same thing in ~5 minutes with a stickam account, but very interested in what they do with mobile.

Coincidentally, they’ve succeeded in creating the internet’s only Web 2.0 chatroom.

To the chronic doubters out there, Justin.tv is awesome. This is a concept that breaks through the overused web 2.0 ideas with something refreshing and bold. I am personally amazed at how much these guys have accomplished in just the past few months, from the video streaming technology to the highly developed sense of branding and planned content. There are a few technical kinks to be worked out, sure, but once they are, I expect this idea to be explosive.

‘Revolutionizing the way people think about the web’
Raises eyebrow slightly.
Really?
I can’t wait.

Upon reading this enry I was very disappointed with what they came up with, but after visiting the site it’s suprisingly entertaining and addicting.

its interesting.

What is he going to do if he gets laid? Well, I guess a guy with a camera stuck to the side of his head doesn’t have to worry about that

from big brother: we are watching you.
justin kan: rock on! bring more cameras!

the sleeping video has a Trumans Story feel to it.

Looks very interesting…

web Tv will be awesome in 2007. More niche video community sites will start making the bigger ones a bit redundant…maybe. Maybe not.

Hi, very good you blog
…

Ok…

Let me get this straight…. Various ‘talking’ heads claim that you need to be on Techcrunch if you’re a player (cough ‘guy’)… and this is what’s put forth as companies worth watching… Yeah, right…

Why doesn’t Tech crunch come up with a A, and a B ranking for the biz articles.. This would allow us to know which Techcrunch site to focus on.. .The A list could be potentially real viable business opportunities. The B, something to read while we’re bored…

This is an experiment, not a business.

peace..

I agree with #5, nothing innovative or interesting. I’d rather see something nicely edited with a decent story.

Paul Graham funded this? Mid-life crisis? It’s a long way from Lisp, that’s for sure …

serious.q: dead on. Apparently a large portion of the Web 2.0 crowd has yet to figure out what type of original content will attract a large, mainstream audience. This is not it. If Y Combinator wants to get into this business, it should fund a pretty woman.

Interesting jump of interest for Justin. I think this might actually work well if they are trying to build a platform (scaling to more users, live web cams and channels) that will allow other people who are crazy (like Justin himself) enough to put themselves to this. Allowing other users to have their own page/channel is the only way they should grow this. It will be like “MTV Real World” but broadcasted on the web. Now that will be cool.

Interesting idea.
Anyone know who is streaming the video for them?
Surely it ain’t cheap…

Problem is that people who Twitter and watch Justin TV all day have zero revenue to spend on anything…

Reminds me very much of The Truman Show!
I think it’s an interesting experiment, but I’m not sure if it’ll last as long as 30 years like the film!
Also, will the camera be going everywhere like the shower?! Guess we have to watch to find out!

seems like it could work…pretty cool site….;)

it might serve an unintended reverse result and once people realize how hard, frustrating, tedious, full of endless days, non-glamorous, negotiating services with incompetent people, etc etc no one may be inclined to be a start-up

Amazing how many of the “insightful” readers here simply can’t get it. I don’t think they are hoping to attract numerous people with the content on justin.tv, though they might.

More importantly, the platform that they are developing could prove quite compelling for many who can’t implement this on their own. If they eventually enable any myspace user to embed this functionality within their page, I think it will appeal to lots of exhibitionists. I have been talking with some friends in the construction business and in the “adventure touring” business that would be very interested in doing something exactly like this. Many companies may have interest in funding users of their equipment (eg power tools, kayaks) to provide video of their products in use.

I think this will be an interesting example of how one can monetize the events of their daily lives if they can make it usable by the non-technical.

Drama: funding a pretty woman would be a little pointless–you don’t actually SEE the camera wearer, only the people he talks to.

On April 3 they have a meeting with a VC (Allegis Capital)…let see if they broadcast that! It’s very voyeuristic, but seeing 2 guys typing away outdoors is not my idea of interesting (rather it’s a huge timesink).

I agree with bdb: i think it’s about the platform/technology they’re building rather than the content.

Boring. Don’t they get that reality tv is interesting because the boring bits are edited out? Try watching Big Brother Live on a slow day. I bet you won’t last longer than half an hour.

Y Combinator funded this?!!!

Reminds me of http://youtube.com/profile?user=ichannel

there we go!!

if we disagree.. we just don’t get it!!!! hmmm.. sounds like what mark cuban stated in one of hist posts. this is the response you get when you disagree with someone of the web2.0 crowd!

the fact is.. i do get ‘it’, but i disagree as to the business opportunity around this. it’s easy for a person to put their ‘life’ online in a video format. you have countless of differrent ways to accomplish this…

but i’m not convinced that corporate operations would ‘pay’ someone to promote their tools, and even if they would, why the need for this…

nope.. not buying it!

to be blunt.. if home depot put together a site for their users, i’m sure there would be plenty of service businesses that would easily put their small videos on the site to demonstrate how to use the various tools that home depot stocks, without the need for any of the ‘technology’ used by these guys…

i get back to my original point… when do we get back to real/viable companies.

peace.

Check out blogtv.ca for all those Canadians out there. They have live streams coming from a hummer with two broadcasters on all the time. PLUS you can broadcast yourself.

goc: at the very least an attractive woman is more likely to create interesting situations because she “attracts” more attention. The average American would rather watch a beautiful woman or studly man putzing around town than they would an “entrepreneur” going to meetings with VCs, hanging with other geeks from the Valley, typing pointless messages into his Blackberry, etc. Will this content appeal to some people? Sure. But there’s some audience for everything.

If this is a platform/technology play, it might have some potential, but I don’t necessarily think it’s something so unique that somebody would pay a significant amount for. Anybody that’s serious about producing compelling content probably doesn’t need this. As sam noted, it’s already pretty easy for a person to broadcast his or her life online.

Again, there seems to be this belief in the Web 2.0 “culture” that all content is created equal and that everybody is capable of producing compelling content. Content is not created equal and not every Joe Blow is capable of producing content that many people will find to be worth watching. Needless to say, tonight at 11 pm I’ll be watching The Daily Show and not Justin.tv.

Drama 2.0

Everyone is competing for the limelight, screaming for attention, looking for a model that has traction, and yet most of the fruit is going sour simply because there is far too much of it. The market is saturated with nearly every conceivable innovation coupled with the desperation of a starving man, so getting the cream to rise in the new marketplace is akin to pushing the cattle uphill to the pumps.

There is a subtle undertone felt by every competitor in this uphill struggle who feels the desperation of this market. All of the entrepreneurs locked into little online cages barking, crying, singing and dancing for attention and at a moments silence threatened with being discarded as scrap.

The internet is a very different market than that in which we have traditionally traded, where the separation between us has vanished, no miles to travail to find a competitor, no space to walk and hardly any effort takes you to the next guy with a pitch.

The market can sense this anxiousness and has become desensitized to the common peddlers and their Mickey mouse offerings who stare now only at the sight of spectacles which in someway they can exploit, like the gathering of dealers at auctions of the dead who look for bargains from redundant factories.

The market has become fickle and you will loose them to the next guy at the first sign of trouble, which might well be in the form of a request for registration, not having the right style, don’t even mention money, difficult navigation, or a host of other minor causes that could demand something of the user without giving him his fix first.

As a result the effort to capture an audience has reached epic proportions, with ever greater investments being made in marketing and with ever simpler systems developed for the competitors, to the point now that one can enter the market and publish his own website with as little as 3 clicks of a mouse.

Then as soon as anyone notices the vague whiff of success you will have 10 copycats most of them undercutting themselves to the point of giving whatever you was offering away free, in order to get your slice of the bacon.

We have reached the point now where the winner is actually the one who can give it away the fastest. Forget sound business models, forget making money, forget quality and focus on finding rubbish that you can tout to anyone who will take it off your hands, then auction off segments of your floor space to others who will pay you to offload their own piles of crack.

Then for a few fleeting moments you will have been the champ, the top dog on the stage which will last until your resources are depleted or your competitors have surrounded you, or the market has simply had its fill and cannot stomach a single ounce more.

Unfortunately this is where we have arrived and naturally at these tipping points when the market is selling short the inevitable collapse is just around the corner.

The survival guide is kiss, keep it simple stupid, observe but don’t follow, build organic companies from seeds, don’t try to muscle your way into markets, and don’t be fooled by venture capital from which there is no return to sanity.

The website is well made. But i am not sure if this idea will catch on.

Again like I said ealier… “looks very interesting”…

Y combinator should seek and fund small niche Tv/video sites that adds value to user’s life. Justin.tv will likely be watched by the VC and their friends and family.

Founders, ps do something useful. VCs, ps invest in something useful. I hope the web 2.0 world don’t end up writing a bad reputation with bad products and ’silly’ investments.

Hold the show sam. I couldn’t, whether I like it or not, consider myself part of the “web2.0 crowd”. Far from it, but I like to follow along. It is exactly this reason that I believe there is a market for this type of platform.

Not everyone is “serious about producing compelling content”, at least at the beginning. However, if users can easily set this up with minimal upfront costs and minimal technical capability, these users can work toward providing the compelling content eventually. Just getting “something” out there is a start.

I would think the “web2.0 crowd” would be the cynical ones because it is this crowd that probably believes “it is easy to broadcast ones daily life online”. Most programmers that I know believe they can understand the needs of market and/ or end users; many can, but most cannot. Most couldn’t understand what was compelling about youtube or myspace; I must admit that I couldn’t either…

I dont know if this will be the easy_to_use platform, or if a comparable or better solution exists, but when Joe Blow can easily and simply share their everyday activities, it will become more widespread. Eventually, the compelling content will rise to the top.

Nothing about this platform leads me to believe the content couldn’t also be edited at a later time (to remove the “boring bits” or classified info, thinking about soldiers in Iraq/ Afghanistan).

Webcams aren’t interesting. You have enable access to priority/pertinent content to visitors as much as possible. I spent 10 minutes on this site and it’s just blurry circa 1998 style video with bunch of giggling and mumbling in the background. I care about this why…?

Zefrank’s content is 3 minutes or less a day for a damn good reason. Any more than that and it’s just pointless.

I wonder how many other small businesses folded when Google decided to dip their toe in the water.

There are currently 107 viewers 12 hours after launch though who knows if it’ll last.

However, since Alaska believes it is pointless perhaps they should just close up shop. Anyone experimenting with new ideas should simply be shot…how dare they!

Definitely agree with grainy picture and poor audio comments. Hopefully that will improve.

Hi Mike..

Regarding video and the web, can you ask the new Techcrunch CEO from Fox Interactive why their http://myspace.com/fox TV programs are STILL NOT Vista ready..

I want my 24 on the web.. This is a HUGE problem for me, and surely more as time marches on.. Especially since every box out of the store today is a Vista Machine..

To see the nag screen with your own eyes on any platform go here
http://creative.myspace.com/VOD/vista.html

Wow, sounds like they ran out of ‘good’ ideas and are just trying to do anything for attention now. Sad, really.

Nothing to see her folks. This is not REALITY TV. ITS JUST A WEB CAM. LAME.

That’s a pretty cool site but there’s a new celebrity in town
at http://www.thefamousguy.com

Imagine if this was attached to every politician. The politicians would work for us again.

Although some of are you are surprised — and even disappointed by — Y Combinator’s funding of Justin.TV, the reality is that it all goes back to “who you know”. For folks like myself who’s playing in the social media space, it’s encouraging to say the least. It’s not a traditional investment for them.

Hmmm.. Will I get funding (not looking for a bunch, just enough for me to live confortably) if I take webcam shots of my dogs food bowl live?

@Ronald Lewis - I thought you were shooting game tying 3 pointers in Lexington for Ohio State?

Follow up to my post (#55):

Pure brilliance. Very exciting concept. Limitless opportunity for product and service placement, among many things. This will be huge.

@ post # 57:

Nope. I’m just a serial techhead who’s presently working to realize a living from various internet projects such as a podcast of conversations with CEOs, thought leaders, celebrities and entrepreneurs (the irony is that people think I’m making bank because of the killer appearances and downloads, but I’m still eating Ramen Noodles and using a four year old laptop — go figure!).

Seeing companies such as Y Combinator fund these types of social media projects is encouraging for what I do.

I think if we look a bit further in what the technology can do & how the actual platform can work for everyone, maybe people will see the light. They’ve currently & consistently stated that there goal is to develop the technology or more or less the actual webcams so that anyone can use it.
I actually had an instant, quick & dirty interview with the founder - Justin Kan himself. Check it out on http://tycoonsrow.com/2007/03/.....-justintv/

It was amusing for awhile but then Justin started seeming obnoxious. It’s like he’s forcing himself to say things for the cam

Justin’s obnoxious with or without camera. Eventually it’s endearing. Unless Jack Daniels is involved, in which case he’s just obnoxious.

Podcast of Justin Kan’s StartupStories is now live at http://Startupstories.com

to bdb: I’ve made my decision. Thumbs down. The world can continue now.

Stay tuned as there is a big twist at the end of this show.. after 8 weeks of broadcasting they finally break the news to Jason that they have attached a camera to his head

“Pure brilliance. Very exciting concept. Limitless opportunity for product and service placement, among many things. This will be huge.”

Ronald: First, this is not the first time something voyeuristic like this has been done. Second, you seem to forget that product placement requires an audience. How do you get an audience? Compelling content and effective marketing. The major brands of the world are very unlikely to spend time and money on product placement for a show unless it has a significant number of viewers. When a company already has big revenues, it takes a big audience to make an impact on them. Do not expect that Coca-Cola, for instance, is going to go out and spend time inking 100 individual deals with online shows that have a few thousand viewers each. Local or highly-focused businesses might see programming like this as an opportunity, but again, the amount of money that is paid is going to be tied to the audience size.

The use of words like “limitless” and “unlimited” when speaking to the potential of Web 2.0 services is quite ridiculous. I’d like to add a word: “overestimated.” When it comes to market sizes, revenue projections, etc., there is a huge level of overestimation going on. Hell, we live in a society where the average person overestimates how much money they have to spend (hence the debt problem). The discovery that YouTube only made $15 million in revenues last year is the epitomy of this tendency to overestimate because a number of intelligent, albeit enthusiastic people got caught up in the hype. In your case, Ronald, even your friends overestimate how much money you’re making because they’re taking a shallow look at the economics of what you’re doing. You seem excited about the fact that an investor has put money into a venture like this, but at the same time admit that you’re still living on a Top Ramen diet. If you’re already interviewing notable individuals, I’d be curious as to how you anticipate that outside funding would significantly increase your business to the point where you’re eating caviar instead.

When it comes to online programming, there are two strategies for creating a viable “business”:

- Build up a large enough audience and advertising/sponsorship/product placement opportunities become viable. Do note, however, that many people overestimate just how much these things can generate. Let’s say you do something like Justin.tv and build up to the ability to make $100,000/year in revenues. Factor in the costs of production, bandwidth and your time/labor, and it doesn’t look so glamorous.

- Leverage the medium to showcase your talent and hope that a talent agency or studio signs you to a deal. This has happened to a number of people.

Personally, I think getting signed is probably the best bet. Even though a lot of people in the Web 2.0 cult hate big media, the opportunity to get a crack at Hollywood will lure most people away everytime. As more and more people jump in to the online video space looking for fame and fortune, you’re going to see increased clutter and lots of subpar content, so standing out even if you’re good will continue to become more challenging. At some point people will tune out. There is also a YouTube myth that seems to imply that user generated content is stealing significant eyeballs away from professional media when the reality is a bit more blurred - a significant amount of eyeballs are watching copyrighted content on YouTube and not the homemade movies. Even Lonelygirl15 turned out to have professional involvement. Additionally, people have less time but more choices than ever and as somebody noted earlier, the “video blog” success stories like Ze Frank are probably successful because they are kept short.

I’m sure there will be people who have success with both of the strategies above, but just like American Idol, you’ll have a few winners and a whole lot of losers. We live in a society where everybody has come to believe they deserve their 15 minutes of fame and can achieve it, even if they throw their dignity and privacy out the window in the attempt. The sad fact is that in this increasingly narcissistic culture, people don’t realize that even if you have the “complete package” (looks, talent, personality/charisma) it often takes luck and/or good connections to make it in the entertainment business. You have too many people chasing too few People magazine cover stories. Not everybody’s a star, not everybody should be encouraged to try to be one and not everybody should even want to be one.

Obviously, Justin.tv appears to be more of a promotional vehicle for a product that’s being built, but I suspect that if and when more people start doing these types of shows, it will look very similar to Justin.tv. I don’t know Justin and I’m sure he’s a smart, friendly guy, but after watching for 5 minutes, he doesn’t strike me as anything but a techie with a slight ego. He’s not Dean Martin, George Clooney or Pierce Brosnan. Hell, he’s not even K-Fed. There’s nothing compelling to the average viewer about him or the activities he’s engaging in. That doesn’t mean some people won’t be fascinated by watching these types of things, but Dick and Jane are more likely to watch a crappy show like the OC than they are to watch Justin.tv (unless Justin referred to Justin Timberlake).

At the end of the day, Silicon Valley would be wise to recognize that mainstream America is still drawn in by beautiful women, handsome men, sex, violence and bling. A bunch of guys driving around in a Honda, talking on their Blackberries and playing around with VC money is not going to be a huge pull. Everybody seems to be in love with the idea that you can make boatloads of money giving other people their 15 minutes of fame, but fail to realize that Web 2.0 and user generated content is going through its own 15 minutes of fame. It’s not going to die and it will have an impact, but frankly, that impact is a bit “overestimated.”

Alaska, your cynical comments are just one of the reasons I click thru to the article Thanks!

Interesting!

Will be a little hard to keep ‘justin’ interesting ongoing - but the idea of wiring up ‘interesting’ people is good - maybe esp. if they are participating in an event (not 24/7). Maybe you could wire up Scoble while he’s attending the TechCrunch20 event.

@ # 67:

I thought I was “long winded” with my thoughts at times. You made some great and valid points, but I’ll specifically focus on one mention in particular:

/// “In your case, Ronald, even your friends overestimate how much money you’re making because they’re taking a shallow look at the economics of what you’re doing. You seem excited about the fact that an investor has put money into a venture like this, but at the same time admit that you’re still living on a Top Ramen diet. If you’re already interviewing notable individuals, I’d be curious as to how you anticipate that outside funding would significantly increase your business to the point where you’re eating caviar instead.”

Yes, I am excited about investors taking social media projects seriously. It’s a fast growing space that’s making a great impact on traditional media. Old media is going the way of the dinosaur and folks are taking the necessary steps to capitalize on it.

With regard to anticipating outside investment in my own Internet and social media projects, I’m not, really. I believe my initial success with monetizing my work will come by way of sponsorship, ad deals and some unique partnerships which will generate a healthy stream of income.

Finally, large companies ARE signing deals with individual social media producers. Volvo sponsored Autoblog.com in a six month deal. Georgia Pacific sponsored Mommycast.com. One of my podcasts attracted the interest of Cisco.

The bottom line is that the rules of business and engagement are changing. Old ideas and concepts are out, while new ones are in. Everything has changed thanks to the Internet and there is no end in sight.

Ronald: I won’t go into much depth on the concept that old media is going the way of the dinousaur (see my posts on the Viacom lawsuit if you want my thoughts on this) beyond saying that old media companies are implementing new media initiatives, many with success, and they have a significant long-term advantage because they can leverage multiple channels to cross-promote and provide more customized solutions to brands. Just take American Idol, which I think is a great example of multi-channel media. The show is obviously hugely successful and prints money, but AmericanIdol.com increasingly incorporates social media (such as blogs) and exclusive content. There is also the increasing use of mobile content. What do sponsors get? They get highly-integrated promotion across multiple channels. What do viewers get? The ability to interact with the show on multiple platforms. I believe this gives a preview of the future of media. It’s short-sighted to think that one medium is going to run the others out of business. The big money is going to be made by those that can tap into all mediums, as they can effectively cross-promote and offer a single relationship that enables brands to reach a large audience no matter what medium the audience is located in. Even Google recognizes this and is trying to break into advertising for radio and television. With that in mind, it’s much easier to build an online empire when you start with a television/cable network than it is to build a television/cable network when you start with an online empire. Don’t let anybody fool you: television exposure is still king of the hill. I doubt there’s a startup profiled on TechCrunch that wouldn’t gladly exchange their TechCrunch article for a feature on The Today Show. Any who would state otherwise are probably being dishonest.

I am familiar with Mommycast.com’s sponsorships (was not familiar with Autoblog.com’s sponsorship but am not entirely surprised since it’s part of the Weblogs network), but I think the fallacy is that brands are going to do a significant number of individual small deals and/or pay a significant amount of money for sponsorships that cover a moderate audience. Brands are experimenting and if you build up a large audience (and the definition of large obviously is dependent on the advertiser and the demographic it’s trying to reach) then opportunities will arise, as I previously noted, however the amount of money involved isn’t necessarily going to create the type of business worthy of the outside funding we’re seeing. I think a distinction needs to be made between the creation of a true media company and somebody’s own personal media venture. If somebody can make $150,000/year blogging, podcasting or doing an online video show, that’s terrific. But it doesn’t make you a media mogul. Hell, you can sell vaccum cleaners and make $150,000/year. Is “new media” making an impact on the media industry? Of course. But Viacom, for instance, had operating income of $2.86 billion last year (up 10% from the previous year) and generated several hundred million in revenues from its digital ventures. If that’s the sign of a dying dinosaur, we should all be so lucky to go back to the Jurassic period. I’ll stay there until a pure play online social media company that actually produces original content (or leverages user generated content) and doesn’t infringe copyright can put up the same numbers.

“The bottom line is that the rules of business and engagement are changing. Old ideas and concepts are out, while new ones are in. Everything has changed thanks to the Internet and there is no end in sight.”

It’s funny but we heard that in Bubble 1.0. We were in a New Economy. Eyeballs trumped revenue. Market share was more important than profits. Call me a dinosaur (even though I’m younger than Kevin Rose), but at the end of the day the economics have to work. Unless a profitable business like Google comes to save you before you run out of cash, there’s one rule in business that will never change: to create a viable, long-term company you need to make more money than you spend.

Drama 2.0:

You’ve got a lot of insight about “traditional media” and I’d like to hear more about your thoughts and views. I’d love to broaden my understanding of your industry.

Tell ya what, let’s converse off site.

I can be reached by phone, e-mail or live chat on my web site.

man I always miss the startup funding boat. I made this same thing last summer for a skateboard company. for $50 bucks an hour. ugh.

I was in a meeting all day yesterday so wasn’t able to comment sooner.

I’m not sure, but I think this guy called me a couple months ago. I was too busy to call back but if I had, I would have given him the following advice:

1. If you want to attract mainstream advertisers, keep it clean. I remember my publicist wanting to quit when I turned down an interview from Howard Stern, yet a few weeks later when I landed UPS as a sponsor, they confirmed that had I interviewed on Stern, they wouldn’t have become a sponsor.

2. Sell as much advertising in advance as possible. We sold about $1,000,000 before I entered the house. The next 12 months the “sales” team sold about $200,000. (At the time, we paid Yahoo! about $100,000/month for the streaming video so you can see the problem we had.)

3. Don’t skimp on the video. Use a video camera not a web cam.

4. Find something to build hype. For us, it was Y2K. You would have thought I was plannign to go to the moon. People were genuinely worried that the Internet would go up in flames before I entered the house at noon on 1/1/2000. But since situations like that are once in a lifetime (unless daylight savings time is changed and Microsoft doesn’t patch their OS) don’t expect too much media attention.

5. Partner with traditional media. Invite the journalists to “walk in your shoes” for a day. They have a larger viewing audience and they are too conceited to think you’ll glean any viewers from them.

6. Bands, bands, bands…. Local bands are always looking for exposure (myspace anyone?). More importantly, people always want to find a fresh sound that hasn’t been jaded by the industry which = more viewers.

7. Blog! I had a “Daily Journal” (wish we’d thought to call it blogging) built on a Lotus Domino platform I had created. Fortunately now you can blog with free software and even video blog and interact with your viewers as they blog their responses.

8. Don’t sign with CAA. I was told it would make us more money but it was one of the biggest mistakes I made. They did nothing but prevent me from breaking the actor’s strike in commercials at the time. But what more do you expect from an “interactive media” agency with a website like this: caa.com.

9. Don’t “be the guy” if it’s your idea. Anyone can be the guy but only you can run the business with the passion and integrity it needs. You can’t always trust people to run your business for you. They might not pay payroll taxes they withheld from employees, use their salary to support a drug habit, or spend all the money before you see a dime. Not that any of that happened, but I’m sure it’s possible

10. And most importantly keep it clean. (See #1) There’s enough trash online. You actually will stand out more from the noise with clean, educational, and compelling content. My favorite moments were the US premier of the Wiggles, the launch of eHarmony, and a sunrise service on Easter Sunday by Watermark.org.

PS

Justin-
I’m sorry I didn’t have time to call you back.
Mitch

What a small word this t’interweb is !

As an infrequent visitor here, I found these comments and started to read, and way down in #48 the name ZeFrank jumped out at me.

Way back in the year 2000, when I was still very wet behind the ears, I created this page as ’something for potential users’ to do !

http://auctionpix.co.uk/doodle.html

It uses ZeFranks doodle thingy, which after all these years I am still impressed with.

Mitch,

I actually didn’t call you, but thanks for the advice!

Justin

Actually, this thing got old after about 5 minutes.

So far I think it’s a good idea. I’ve been watching for a few days. Still some technical kinks to work out, but otherwise, a pretty enjoyable viewing experience. At least that don’t break for commercial every 10 mins.

Keep up the good work.

Excuse, and what you think concerning forthcoming elections?

cool blog!

cool blog!

nice photos of this blog