Today is all about online video, and to round it out I wanted to examine a few of the content providers on the web. More specifically, I wanted to look at some of the vloggers who are trying to take old media mores and transcribe them into the digital space.

The three shows that I’ll be looking at are Wallstrip, Rocketboom, and WebbAlerts.

Rocketboom

The grand-daddy of all popular video blogs is Rocketboom. It takes a look at topics ranging from tech to the world and culture. Like most of these efforts, it makes use of a “news room” format. An anchor presents stories, gives editorial input and occasionally goes on location for interviews. Rocketboom is by far the most watchable of these three.

Even after the dust up over Amanda Cogden leaving the show, the content has remained solid. More importantly, the show provides the value that video is meant to provide — it gives personality to the news. Joanne Colan does a fantastic job of keeping everything fast paced, while not all of her attempts at comedy ring true, the efforts don’t make you feel uncomfortable. Generally, Rocketboom has managed to most closely emulate the news on a budget that is only a fraction of your typical news program.

Wallstrip

Wallstrip is to the stock market what Rocketboom is to news at large. The same format holds true: introduction, interview etc… The production values on Wallstrip are a bit higher than that of Rocketboom, which makes sense considering they were recently purchased by CBS for somewhere around $5 Million.

What I will say is that Wallstrip is harder to watch than Rocketboom. Lindsay Campbell does an excellent job of keeping the pace up, but the interviews drag along at times. What I will say is that the show provides value that text could not. For example, when Lindsay explored the Google campus recently, having video is a much better way to understand the culture than any description.

WebbAlerts

Let me start off by saying that Morgan Webb has done some great work. First, on TechTV then on G4 TV after that. That is why it surprises me how difficult WebbAlerts was to watch. The major problem that I have is that it seems to be a scan of the blogosphere that culminates in a rehash of the days news. This would not be a problem if it was just her blog, but as a video production it feels wrong.

Second, you can feel that she is uncomfortable being in front of the camera. This is likely the product of needing to get used to a new format, but it is distracting to see Morgan who usually seems so collected over inflect what sounds like a canned speech. More than anything else what is missing is voice. You could have put anyone in that seat and they would have produced a similar experience.

The show is young yet and may still be working its way through its growing pains, but I really believe that Morgan (taking into account her previous ventures) could do better.

Web 2.0 Roundup

The question that needs to be asked of any video content provider is what value are you providing that requires video to convey? There are certain forms of communication, humor for example, that often work a lot better over video. If all you want to do is rehash the news, words are often a better vehicle.

Things to recognize.

Video is a time sink. It takes a lot more time to deliver information through video than it does through text. With video you are not selling information, you are selling personality. If you aren’t creating content for this purpose, stay away from the camera.

Are you ready? Make sure you have the “presence” necessary to sell a video clip. A stilted performance and poor attempts at comedy might be forgivable in text, but for a video your audience has come to watch you perform. If you are not up to the task it will be very difficult to trick people into believing that you are.

Know your audience. I could say this about any medium where you are trying to communicate with others. If you can’t speak to the segment that you are targeting you can’t hope to be successful. People who go to watch a Will Ferrel clip on Funny or Die are often quite different than the people who watch Wallstrip. You can’t interact with them in the same way, not understanding this is a recipe for failure.

There are dozens of other tips to keep in mind ranging from high production values to making sure that you aren’t racing through the script so quickly that no one can understand you. However, without these fundamentals the rest of these tips would be meaningless.

Online video is entering a new stage of development. When content providers are able to garner the attention of serious advertising dollars and in some cases aquisition, it’s becoming easy to see that web video might be worth a little more than that last music video you saw on YouTube.