I’m jazzed! Today’s mail brought an advance reading copy, not for sale, advance uncorrected proofs, please do not quote for publication without checking against the finished book, copy of THE BIG SWITCH Our New Digital Destiny by Nicholas Carr. Our four biggest customers, who account for over half of our profit over the last three years, all need to make The Big Switch to cheap, utility-supplied computing. A word to the wise is superfluous!
I spent most of today watching computer status bars float across the screen while singing to my favorite song of the week and waiting on hold for tech support. Ah, the joys of working from home!
Chris Albrecht of NewTeeVee surveys web video producers to set a benchmark for how much it costs to make a webisode:
First, let’s clarify: this isn’t about the cost of producing a daily vlog, or even most podcasts. Hiring a cute girl or a trio of geeky guys and setting them up behind a table with some fancy graphics is cheap. We’re talking about original, scripted, episodic content.
At the low end one producer says $500 out of pocket, at the high end another says $32,000 per minute. Many say about $1000 per finished minute. But this still looks cheap compared to $73,000 per minute on broadcast television.
A week ago we met with a new client about some minor revisions to his existing website. Inevitably, the matter of how to get higher listings on search engines came up. A search of his company name came up one, two, three on Google, but the third listing was for an out-of-date Yahoo Local listing. A search on Google Maps for his company name gave the correct result, but a search for his business in his category had nothing in the first fifty results. The client’s name did not show up in the first twenty pages because, unfortunately, he has the same name as a New York Times critic.
In contrast, for the terms bill olen, misty olen, design ninjas, auburn computer magic, microchunk.tv we are all page one for web, image, video, maps/local, and blog search. For business search in Google Maps, we are page one for Internet Marketing, Website Design, and Computer Networking in Auburn, CA. How did this happen?
In the past 2 and 1/2 years we have created 2 websites, 3 blogs, and 4 social networking profiles. We have posted over 1200 texts, 300 photos, and 275 videos online that have been viewed over 65,000 times. So the answer is quantity, quality, and luck. And someone once said that the harder they worked, the luckier they got.
Last July we posted about Crackle, and now we hear on Beet.TV that it has a “bucket of cash” and 15 million unique monthly visitors. That explains the pop in our viewership the last couple of days.
Over the last three years, we’ve been fortunate to visit all three coasts — Florida, Mississippi, Texas, and California. Is this a great country, or what?
I saw this deer in our neighbors yard and got to researching to figure out what I could do with the video. I was surprised to find the many different mating sounds they make. I’m not a deer hunter, but I do enjoy watching the deer run through our neighborhood. It’s a very peaceful place for them.
