How would you get Mahalo Daily to 250k daily viewers?
We launched our daily video show, Mahalo Daily with Veronica Belmont, last week as some of you might know. We had well over 100k views in the first week... I'm wondering what ideas people might have for getting it to 100-250k views a day (quickly). Thoughts on distribution? Who might be a good partner... Yahoo, AOL, YouTube, CBS, etc??? Right now we're hosted on Blip.TV but we're open to moving.
You can find the show here: http://daily.mahalo.com
You can find some thoughts about what we're doing here:
http://www.calacanis.com/2007/11/11/congrats-to-tyler-and-veronica-on-an-amazing-first-week-for-mahalo/
Mahalo for any feedback!
jason
Answers (24)
Jason,
I think you should seriously consider Youtube as the visitors on Youtube are lot higher. That would also come at a lot lower cost. Also, the element of interest related to the show would be very important. So if meta information related to the show can be distributed via the Web crawlers diligently then the information can get to the interested parties quite quickly. So your daily.mahalo.com needs to advertise the meta data (i.e. key words smartly and related to the invididual videos or video catagories). Look at AOL video and CastVideo for meta/tag ads so that these search engines catch and show up their site as well.
But I believe will be the quickest to increase your hit rate.
Hope this helps ;-)
Best
SG
Make sure you have a proper description for the podcast on the iTunes Music Store. Right now it just says "Mahalo Daily" under "Podcast Description". This doesn't really mean much to subscribers who aren't familiar with you / Mahalo. Also, get people to review the podcast so it has some reviews listed there. Hopefully I'm not seeing something drastically different because I'm in the UK (I think podcasts are shared between all stores?).
Also, find some way to get featured on the Miro Guide. A lot of people are using Miro on OS X as their Internet TV hub, and the top channels on there are seeing several hundred subs a day.
Links:
Jason,
Several ideas - first, have translated subtitles added - reach a more global audience.
Second, Vary the content more on three days a week. Create a weekly show that focuses on one subject - and change the subject every week. Video games, online photo sharing, green appliances, whatever.
Third - film and distribute in HD. Encourage people to re-mash your video. Give a weekly prize for the best parody, etc of the show. Doesn't have to be much. A T-Shirt should do it.
Fourth - Link to pertinant episodes of the show within your "search results" (like you do with the Tesla episode).
Fifth - promise Veronica she gets the Tesla you have on order (I assume you do have an order in!?) if she breaks 500K viewers or something.
Good luck. And a good product (the site and the video!)
Rob
Buy lots of Facebook flyers.
As long as your current host can support your anticipated audience, I would focus on a more viral approach to gain viewers. One of the most effective right now is Facebook with it's huge audience. If you target a large community, such as Arizona or Ohio State, you can quickly spread nationwide if takes off. Perhaps a contest for college students who register as viewers promoted through Facebook...
Spam as many people as you can on as many networks as you can. Oh, hang on your doing that (linked in? Shameless)! ;-)
Honestly though, I have a way if you really want to do it. I am not saying its a good way, but I bet as a theoretical argument it would work. Two words: Nude up!
Oh, and have you added it to http://Scouta.com? Oh, that and do a story about Cricket and I will add you to my Cricket News site at http://cricnews.mollyzine.com. Or do a story on AFL Footy and I will put you on http://fig.aflcasts.com or http://afl.mollyzine.com. Do a story about the Australian marketing campaigns about Shane Warne (http://warnie.mollyzine.com) or the Boony Dolls a beer company used to sell beer (http://boony.mollyzine.com). Or about me (http://www.mollyzine.com).
Molly
PS. but seriously. Don't pick a network, pick many: http://www.tubemogul.com/
Do what all the other shows do. Lie.
While viral videos can top one million views, it's pretty tough for anything to do 250,000 a day when - and this is key - you actually count completed downloads or unique IPs. For example TWiT routinely shows 750,000 raw downloads per episode. But Podtrac uniques are usually around 175,000. And when I divide bandwidth consumed by the size of the show Podtrac is always right. (Ain't that a bitch.)
It's worse with video because both Microsoft's BITS and Apple's iTunes open multiple downloads per user. iTunes changed its methodology last spring and the numbers went crazy.
We really need an industry standard for measurement. Until then we'll continue to see vastly inflated numbers.
Clarification added November 11, 2007:
And expectations!
<<Rob La Gesse wrote: Create a weekly show that focuses on one subject - and change the subject every week.>>
i.e., Change your name to "The Frequency" and follow the model I posted 10 years ago for a "weekly hit web show based on user-generated content" at www.thefrequency.com
Shawn C
Co-founder of Affiliate Summit, the premier affiliate marketing conference
Why be exclusive to one site? Try uploading through Tube Mogul to all twelve video sites where they distribute. You may be surprised at which sites yield the most eyeballs for your content.
One of my sites has video reviews of consumer products, and I typically see the following as my top six places for views:
1. Metacafe
2. Revver
3. DailyMotion
4. Yahoo
5. YouTube
6. Blip
Also, consider setting up a channel on Magnify.net.
Links:
Hi Jason,
I love Dina (!) and Mike and everyone at Blip.tv, but the fact of the matter currently is that YouTube controls 60 percent of the online video distribution market, and then is followed by AOL Video at just 7 percent, Google Video, Brightcove and others.
In other words, 1) YouTube's your best partner bet, and 2) rather than switch from Blip.tv, stay there but add YouTube, AOL Video, and as many as you can with the idea of achieving 100 percent coverage.
Now the possible reality is that one may want exclusivity; in that case, I'd deal with YouTube.
Shannon C
Business designer, Web entrepreneur, Networks expert, conference organizer, speaker and writer
Best Answers in: Small Business (1)
Jason,
Many of the most popular online shows do two things:
- distribute via LOTS of partners (see any of the Revison3 shows) which are on most of the major and many of the smaller video sites
- make the show available in the formats users want - so smaller/low res formats as well as higher res HD formats (i.e. "apple TV"/iTunes etc)
- make sure you are listed on popular podcast directories - notably iTunes - with full iTunes metadata and a graphic they can use to promote your show if they choose to (and talk with them about why they should)
However all that's technical issues.
Now for the more crucial issue.
Have a VERY good answer for "why should I watch Mahalo Daily?" - a cute, smart host is just the beginning, might get me to check it out, but why should I make it a part of my daily online life (or something I catch up with on a weekly basis?)
- what will I learn that is so timely I should be up to date with the show?
- will the show be available by the same time every day? (i.e. so that whatever my routine when I sync and pull down my feeds, or when I have a break and surf over to your site/my aggregator there is always a new show for me to watch)
- what can the show do WITHIN the show to get people who are currently watching it to talk about it online and promote it? i.e. link to episodes, embed them on their websites (youtube etc might help here).
I know you so I get to hear about Mahalo Daily from you and I have met Veronica many times in the past, so I have personal reasons to at least check it out - but nothing I have seen anywhere online has yet given me a compelling reason to do so. (sure Veronica is attractive and smart but I don't have a sense of what about the daily show is compelling to me - assuming an alpha geek, early adopter, entrepreneur like myself is among your target audience.
I would concentrate on having a concise answer about why people should watch the show - and on building into the show itself reasons to promote it and to keep watching (old style cliffhangers work and there is a reason old media promotes upcoming shows/episodes).
A few suggestions:
- build into the design of the show format ways for the show's community to participate directly in the show itself. Anyone who's clip, email, photo, even just name is mentioned on air is going to link to that episode and promote it widely. Sure, this is common in new media - but that's for a very good reason - engagement works.
- in a daily show it is easy to only work on the next show, that day's news/issue/hot pages etc - but don't neglect building up to shows over time. Special episodes, appearances, coverage of events, issues etc. These build loyalty and anticipation (and in turn can generate more reasons for people to help promote the show). A simple example - sign up Veronica to a service such as Eventful and then promise that any group of say 500 people who all agree to get together and make a donation to a local tech charity will get Veronica to come and film the show live (play with the variations on this - but you get the general idea)
Good luck - and speaking with my hat as someone building an Ad Network - metrics and measurement is definitely important - but building up a loyal and known audience will in turn attract advertisers who want to reach that.
Shannon
I think there might be too much focus on the distribution aspects of this question (although you've hit on that in your question and that may be why). If the distribution is right, it will facilitate the visits you're looking for, BUT the thing that will get people to watch is the content. There should be more of an emphasis on the content. What are your doing with your content to bring 250k consistent viewers?
I think there are two methods to quick visits: (1) large content partner shuffles viewers to your show, or (2) millions of small content providers shuffle viewers to your show. You can leverage your own contacts to do the first, but you need web juice, links, and some viral magic to do the second.
Your strategy could include some incentive to get good bloggers talking about and linking to the show. Maybe that incentive could be something as simple as the suggestion from Veronica that she'll feature websites she discovers linking to her show (through technorati, etc.).
Using Youtube as a distribution partner is a blend of my (1) and (2) above. You get the potential for big exposure through Youtube, but all the viewers tend to have their own blogs, websites, or whatever, and they'll talk about or repost your show.
Mod the video to include a display of your URL on the bottom half-inch of the clip and upload one per day to YouTube for a month.
To increase your viewership quickly and sustain it you need to do 3 things.
1. Get on old media models with a new media flare... like Current TV with a primetime push, or even a regular short teaser skit on an established show.
2. Extend 'star' visibility with guests who are more recognisable to the non-geek audience - even make it a rolling co-host deal to draw new people in so some will stick when the co-host has moved on.
3. Add more shows with a slightly varying focus and cross promote.
work with aim and advertise on the instant messenger
Create a Mahalo Daily YouTube channel, don't use that generic Mahalo account. In your video description use complete URLs that link to your other distribution channels. Each episode title shouldn't use that MD00?? code, your speaking to people - so, speak "people."
I really dont think that mass distribution (ie: Wallstrip) is the best route, distribute for the right reasons (YouTube/the masses, Mahalodaily.com/quality & stronger message, Torrent/high quality). This is the strategy I've been using for the San Francisco Zoo's podcasts, with great success. Concentrate your efforts on just a few channels - then cross promote; YouTube link on MD.com, MD.com link on YouTube.
Fix your WordPress install (see within49miles.com)
Links:
Scott M
Branding Media Producer and Strategy Consultant at Scott McDougall Productions
Yes i agree to put it everywhere you can.
Advertise on TV to telling people to tune into the web show and to join Mahalo. You can also advertise on RADIO.
Use traditional media to push new media, there's a leap.
What is the big deal, it works for deodorant, toothpaste and toe fungus, surely it will work for Veronica and her large eyes.
the typical shots of her being sexy, sound bites, snappy music, and put it where kids are likely to see it.
Get some high school buzz goin', get her to interview Jessica Simpson or iJustine, etc... get the boys watching and following.
Once you get the eyeballs you are gold.
scottwitter on twitter
torture that goofy fat fu%#er J. Calawhatever his name is ... live.... i'm sure more than 250k peeps would love to see that...
Jason
Scouta can help get more viewers that are actually interested in Mahalo Daily. Scouta is a social recommenders, so if members are either rating or watching Mahalo on their iPod, or iPhone, then Scouta more likely to recommend it to others.
Also, if viewers are using iTunes to subscribe to the show, and watching on their computer, iPod, iPhone, or Apple TV, we can also generate reports based on the number of actual views, not just downloads to iTunes.
I'd love to talk about partnering as well. We can always offer stats of the amount people watch for free if you offer viewers an option to use our iTunes software, and we can also add a "Scouta This" button to your page so people can automatically add it as a favorite in their Scouta account.
Rich
Links:
Hey, Jason. I'll assume you want attention and understaning drawn to Mahalo, and not "hits" to the show and associated ads. So, as you suggested with Gillmor, go Creative Commons on these, make it plain Flash and allow anyone to run them on their sites. Also, go cross-media: publish these as video, Flash, text transcript (blog), and audio (podcast). Allow any and all media connections to these, and make that all open to anyone to post.
Upside is that all the keywords in the text across all the published versions pushes searchs on such topics (deep dry turkey at al) to Mahalo in some fashion. You use the other search engines to get to your search values by the widely disseminated content.
So the right question is not how to get 250K hits on my site ... the right questions is how do I get 250K people aware of Mahalo and its value, riding on someone else's hits perhaps.
Nether my clients nor I try and rack up hits per se, but we do get a lot of attention and SEO and hits/links back to the value via this approach. It's open source content, in effect.
Links:
1. Run competition to attract more users
2. Have a video widget on http://www.calacanis.com/ sidebar
3. Give special widgets for the bloggers to display all the video content and give out some gifts to top performers.
4. Publish on Youtube
Jason
I really like Mahalo Daily. One thing that you need to do to help you reach 250K daily viewers is to make sure that you are optimizing for Video Search.
Video Search! Just like with any other type of media on the web, you need to make sure that you're getting Mahalo Daily indexed by TRUVEO so that it can be easily found by over 50M UVs per month including over 10M on http://video.aol.com. I would encourage you to look at setting up a director account on Truveo - see http://developer.truveo.com/DirectorAccountsOverview.php.
As an extension of that, I would encourage you to have the team at Mahalo use Truveo and AOL Video as part of the work that they are doing to presents users with nothing but great links.
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Fred McIntyre | AOL Video + AOL Radio + Winamp
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Links:
Film Boot
how about creating buttons called MahaloMe like digg buttons. This would submit the article/page to Mahalo for one of the staff to look at.
would be viral and also give you more inbound links.
