The Ultimate Guide to Creating Online Video Content That Works, Part 1

"While we’re shooting [those episodes] the same camera people are recording extra footage exclusively for the online After Show that shows the audience a different side from what they’re seeing on TV, more of a behind-the-scenes angle, like having the cast show off their houses Cribs-style," Clayman continues. "These things do brilliantly well, millions and millions of views. The reason we think they do so well is because they’re tied to content that the audience already likes."

Taking this a step further, it’s not just content that audiences like but personalities. As online video enables a more personal, intimate viewing experience than broadcast, exploiting the cult of personality has proven effective at attracting viewers.

"We think personality is a key format," says Richard Glosser, executive director of emerging media for CondeNet. "We have some established personalities already, like the editor of Epicurious Tanya Steel who we feature on videos and who has appeared on the Today Show quite frequently. On our Style site we’re now doing a series of videos with one of the new up-and-coming super models, Coca Rocha, as we think she’s a personality that people connect with. And on Wired.com some of its podcasts are very much personality-based."

For online-only media company Revision3, finding new personalities to base shows around rather than leveraging traditional media stars has been key to its success. "It’s not important for us to have people who have traditional Hollywood or TV experience per se because it’s a different style of skill, personality, and brand that works for online video," says Revision3’s CEO, Jim Louderback. "For us what’s really important is to find people who have a proven ability to create communities around their interests."

He goes on to describe the characteristics that Revision3 has found make up a personality they can build a successful show around: "First of all, they’ve got to love what they’re talking about. They’ve got to know it really well; they’ve got to be experts. You can’t in this medium just throw up someone who’s cute and knows how to read a teleprompter. You have to have someone who’s excited, who can be authentic, be engaging, and speak to the audience on a one-on-one level. And they have to have a desire to grow an online community around what they’re doing."

All of these attributes plus a background in video production have helped Kip "Kipkay" Kedersha become the highest earner in Metacafe’s Producer Rewards program, making his name as a producer of innovative high-tech how-to innovatives. He has now found work shooting videos for MAKE magazine and Instructables.com. "I already had that video production background plus I’ve always been a tinkerer, a do-it-yourself person," says Kedersha. "My dad taught me that years ago. If you do this you won’t have to pay someone else to. Combining that spirit with technology is really the best of both worlds."

When Kedersha first starting producing videos for the internet, he followed an age-old adage: Fish where the fish already are. "A lot of my decisions had to do with what the trends were, like doing Windows tips-and-tricks videos when everybody was jumping onto that bandwagon. Then I’d do a parody video like ‘How To Turn On Your Computer.’ And in response to a bunch of other hoax videos, I made one about the potato-powered MP3 player," he says. By doing this, he was able to catch the wave of consumer interest as he established his audience and his voice, eventually leading him to earn more than $100,000 from the Metacafe Producer Rewards program.

The benefits of tracking and following trends in content consumption are echoed by John Zehr, VP in the Emerging Media group at ESPN. "It’s vital to keep an eye on what’s going on in the marketplace and how people are consuming content on YouTube. I think you do see different consumption patterns, and people are looking for different things over time, so it’s always good to be mindful of what’s going on in your space."

Listen to Your Audience
But it’s not so much what your competitors are doing as what your audience wants to watch. And because of the lean-forward nature of online video, you can now engage a viewer and garner more feedback than has ever been possible before, which can help guide successful decision-making when it comes to figuring out what video to produce or acquire for online delivery.

Here, too, the big, traditional media companies have an advantage: namely, having multiple properties to gather data from and the resources to pursue aggressive strategies to collect and analyze this data. "We’re very fortunate to have tremendous assets like ESPN.com, CricInfo.com, and Soccer.net to see what people are interesting in reading about," says Damon Phillips, VP of ESPN360.com, ESPN’s online network that specializes in live webcasts of sporting events. "We’re out there looking at trends, research, what rates well on TV, and what pages on ESPN.com get the most traffic. We have a wealth of information."