Scobleizer - Latest Comments in Is getting “more traffic” your real goal?

Re: Is getting “more traffic” your real goal?

Jeff — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 13:08:41 -0000

Let me play devil's advocate - there have been highly successful mass market campaigns that have done a good job at marketing mass appeal products and services.

If you have a niche product then of course you are better aligning it to your niche audience - your cost of doing business will be much lower and response rate much higher.

If you have a mass appeal consumer good or service, then using mass market publicity like these videos is certainly worth the try - and given how much it is costing - likely very profitable.

Jeff

Re: Is getting “more traffic” your real goal?

Scott Barnes — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 01:53:32 -0000

Think of traffic as a room fall of blank faces, all waiting for a moment of genius to come forward. If you don't offer it, they will reject you and after awhile they will find another to stare and wait.

Today you figured out something that most have known but rarely talk about. Fame is a shallow guage for acceptance amongst peers whom are preoccupied with their own fame to notice.

Right now, I'll be honest, I find you 70% noisey and 30% signal. The 30% signal are usually the random videos that you go into off the cuff, without some agenda.. That's what will keep me staring at your videos for 20mins+, i don't mind spending 180mins with Scoble TV provided that there is something worth viewing.

I'm a viewer, but you make it tough at times to view. Then you have moments and all is forgiven? 14yr kid has 45million views, how many are repeat visitors.. and why..is more the curious metric there..

Don't be a news anchor, be a industry street reporter :)

-
Scott Barnes
Rich Client Platform Manager
Microsoft.

Re: Is getting “more traffic” your real goal?

Karen Hurd — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 17:56:04 -0000

Bingo! Traffic was a numbers game back in 2000, although smart marketers always knew that website traffic is about getting people to your site who love what you are talking about and VISIT OFTEN.

"Wham-Bam-Thank-you-Ma'am ain't so great online either. Give me thousands of people who subsscribe or opt-in b/c they care over millions of one-hit wonders anyday.

Just my .02

Karen Miner Hurd
www.MLMmaniac.com

Re: Is getting “more traffic” your real goal?

David K. Enders, D.C. — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 22:27:51 -0000

What you want is to Attract Targeted traffic. Social Networking (Web 2.0) is a great way to do this. YouTube is just one of many social sites, such as Facebook, Digg, etc.

Re: Is getting “more traffic” your real goal?

adam jackson — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 14:55:39 -0000

I watched this guy's videos last week. I sat through two of them and my GF was asking me to mute that ridiculous noise. I don't understand it. The top YouTube channels are all a bunch of kids doing dumbass stupid videos.

So that's my rant :)

Re: Is getting “more traffic” your real goal?

Michael Sheehan — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 07:42:25 -0000

And what happens in 5 years time when Fred realises he is not going to be the next Jim Carey and turns up at Goldmans/PWC/etc looking for a "normal" job. Does this help or hinder his employment prospects!?

Re: Is getting “more traffic” your real goal?

Peter Van Dijck — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 07:30:14 -0000

"The type of people that are commenting on Fred’s youtube videos."?

They're called teenagers. And yes, you're old now.

Re: Is getting “more traffic” your real goal?

James — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 00:28:38 -0000

As mentioned above Fred is a partner with youtube as most of the top 100 most subscribed are. Youtube thus makes money of them buy showing CPM or PPC adsense ads. Now who knows if these pay the hosting bill but it's an attempt.

It seems that this is the future as they see it or at least part of the puzzle. I don't know if it will pay the whole bill but as they move their non DMCA offending video posters to promoted status they have more ability to make money if it works out who knows.

But if you are smart you have the ability to drive alot of traffic from youtube. and if can be ultra targeted. In that lies the great youtube secret.

Re: Is getting “more traffic” your real goal?

Michael — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 19:28:01 -0000

Fred...
Strange, but the first thing that comes to my mind is/was the musicgroup Milli Vanilli.
I think the same pretending-strategy created by clever marketingpeople without a real soul (:o)) that gave birth to Milli Vanilli (and maybe half of the worlds popular singers) is getting bigger everyday on the Internet.
Just like Fred! :o)

Re: Is getting “more traffic” your real goal?

Lynn Rothfuss — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 15:57:52 -0000

I do MLM and found the hard way, that traffic alone is no measure of quality leads.
For that matter buying leads is even worse!

Get your own leads for free.

Great business building information is available and for FREE!
I use it and have great success, the best part is I enjoy sharing with others
and seeing them succeed is very up lifing.

It cost nothing to give back and share!

There are many people looking for a real team to work with and learn.

LynnRothfuss
lynnrothfuss@gmail.com
lynnrothfuss.successin10ste...
www.youtube.com/lynnrothfuss

Re: Is getting “more traffic” your real goal?

gorka arce — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 05:03:56 -0000

fred´s video made me really really sad
is that supposed to be funny?

i don´t see the point, i must be too old, or to snotty, or whatever

keep on eating sh*t!
............. 45 million flies can´t all be wrong!!

let´s keep on monetizing the "bread and circus"dudes!

cheers

Re: Is getting “more traffic” your real goal?

Victor Curran — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:58:59 -0000

Novelty plays a big part in the popularity of stuff like this. The novelty is, anyone old enough to buy a computer has spent most of his/her life in a world where broadcast video was made by capital-P Professionals. If we expect professionalism, and we get some kid being a dork, the thing that makes us laugh isn't the dorkiness--it's the fact that it's being broadcast!
Thanks to YouTube, amateur-grade video is changing from a novelty to a norm. Once we get used to broadcast dorkiness, it won't make us laugh anymore. After that, anyone who wants a big audience--or a small audience from a desirable demographic--will actually have to make a good video.

Re: Is getting “more traffic” your real goal?

Doug C. — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:48:53 -0000

Huh, and to think I've been wasting all this time with site promotion and social networking when all I had to do was act like a complete moron.

Re: Is getting “more traffic” your real goal?

Christopher Coulter — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:53:56 -0000

It's not always the stupid gimmick stunts, as Limbaugh's $38 million a year, until the sun goes supernova, attests.

Re: Is getting “more traffic” your real goal?

Chris Albrecht — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:17:58 -0000

Actually, for a 14 year-old, "Fred" has made some pretty decent money.

We interviewed him over at NewTeeVee:

http://newteevee.com/2008/0...

Rather than waiting for YouTube to monetize his work, Fred got a manager and they monetized it on their own.

Fred got a five figure deal with Zipit to do three "viral" vids. There were performance benchmarks bonuses built into the deal for 1 million, 1.5 million, etc. plays. He beat all of those benchmarks in a week.

Fred's launching his own URL this month where he'll offer merchandise and further monetize the character. Plus, he's had meetings with execs at Fox and Disney.

He's not simply entertaining, the kid's got a plan, and it's working out pretty well.

Re: Is getting “more traffic” your real goal?

Jeremy — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:35:11 -0000

Nice post Scoble. I'm extra encouraged to post a comment today because I just finished reading your book Naked Conversations.

Online video will need a way to monetize viral videos that spread very fast usually without knowing the viral effect will occur. TV has it easy (or at least it used to), show the content to the advertisers, get sponsorship deals lined up in the spring and summer, air the shows in the fall, and everybody wins (except most of the advertisers of course because TV advertising isn't effective, measurable, provides a poor ROI, etc.).

New systems will need to be put in place, I do see big potential in creative overlay ads at the bottom of the video screen, but scaling advertising inventory to match content inventory is something that needs to be more closely looked at. Especially with the Web getting more connected, social, interactive, collaborative, and community driven by passionate individuals.

I'm personally obsessed with online video, and love working with new media models in the emerging Web 2.0 jungle.

Re: Is getting “more traffic” your real goal?

Dr Wright — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 11:59:08 -0000

Since most of my viewers are NOT that into You Tube, I dont worry about it. I have a few videos there but frankly, thats not where they go for most of information on Business Building.

Dr Wright
The Wright Place TV Show
www.wrightplacetv.com
www.twitter.com/drwright1

Re: Is getting “more traffic” your real goal?

edricchen — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 11:58:24 -0000

I think what Robert is trying to point out is if a company wants to be popular, it should do a Fred stunt instead of spending millions on the old media. Fame is much "cheaper" now.

However, I guess it all depends on the product. If a viral video can drive the product's growth, then you would've hit the jackpot. The real problem is relevance. Being a hard sell doesn't help at all.

45 million views... That's easily half the size of my country. In a mass market point of view ("reach"), that is tremendous. But on the web, it means nothing if it isn't sustainable, as Keith pointed out.

Re: Is getting “more traffic” your real goal?

Oliver Reichenstein — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 11:46:41 -0000

In other words: You'd rather run a tech blog than an ordinary TV-channel?

Re: Is getting “more traffic” your real goal?

Jedd — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 11:00:47 -0000

Oh, c'mon. Sour grape much. In fairness to Fred and his "traffic", I think it takes an amount of creative intelligence to whip up those hilarious videos. It's also not fair to say that the kind of audience he's got isn't focused and smart. He's got a different kind of content for a different kind audience that is fit for a different kind of product. Wait till he does a video on the misadventures of chewing "Brand" gum..

Re: Is getting “more traffic” your real goal?

bob — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 07:36:58 -0000

Ummm how did you come to the conclusion that YouTube can't monetize him? They sponsored him, he's a YouTube partner, they have ads on his videos, so I guess you'd be wrong about that.

Sure advertisers really don't care about traffic, not at all. And they also don't care about magazine circulation numbers, or TV show viewership, or click through rates. All they care about is supporting creative people doing creative things no matter how little traffic they get. Yeah. Brilliant.

Re: Is getting “more traffic” your real goal?

Tom Lee — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 04:42:26 -0000

You need to have the traffic coming back to your site, people are coming to your site only once is not much to bank in the end of the day.

Re: Is getting “more traffic” your real goal?

PR NY — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 02:55:26 -0000

YouTube will continue to evolve - it is in investment in the new revolution of communication. Eventually, it will find a way to make a profit from everything. But for now it is a new revolution that has to still evolve

Re: Is getting “more traffic” your real goal?

ashish — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 00:13:41 -0000

I couldnt agree with you more on the need for quality audience, rather than pageviews.
Infact, the reader engagement is far more important and fruitful than anything else - it enriches one.

-Ashish.
http://www.pluggd.in

Re: Is getting “more traffic” your real goal?

Susan — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 19:53:22 -0000

Getting traffic is NOT my real goal. If that was my objective, I would put 3 live webcams with Playboy playmates showing their pussies 24 hours a day. Also, I would upload this live onto YouTube. That would give me 400 million views in an hour. If you check out YouTube video average viewership, you will find that pornography, salacious entertainment and cheap stunts consistently average the most traffic.

Also, making money is NOT my real goal. If so, I would be selling crack cocaine and make more money in 1 week than even your mighty salary, your highness.

The crux is that we each of us wants to get views, traffic, money, etc. in our own tasteful manner that would give us satisfaction and self-esteem. "Parading like a clown before a webcam" personally does not appeal to me as a way of getting traffic or making money. YMMV. I don't want those 40 million views.

Please don't expound shallow philosophies on your blog, Mr. Scoble. Stick to tech and geek, and I'll keep watching.