Go Alternative with your Programming
So, it's been a scary year for some of you (Halloween pun intended). Whether you work at a production company, studio, agency, or freelance, sometimes it's up to you to bring innovative money-making ideas to the table. If your current projects aren't making it to the big-time as quickly as you like, it may be time to consider your options. Have you tried adding or adjusting services to attract new clientele?
Creating alternate kinds of programming is just one way to creatively make money with content.
Here are two examples, from Steve Weiss from Zacuto:
Oh, the tangled Webisodes we weave:
I think every manufacturer is fair game for webisodes. Companies like Victoria Secret to Ford Motor Company should be creating webisodic entertainment. These webisodes could be of any nature – from a soap opera to a show like 24, or even a discussion program – but they have to be written well and actually compete with television.
These webisodes should premiere every two weeks on the company's website. If they are great, they will develop an audience. Now with all of the people coming to the Victoria Secret's website every two weeks, it's their responsibility to sell them clothes. If they can't do that, then they don't have a viable product line or are not presenting it well. Again, the show content needs to match the demographic of who the customer is.
Get Pumped for "Hyper Local":
 Steve Weiss, Director / Product Designer, ZacutoCreate local communities on the web or Facebook that are really extremely small and local. In my case it would be for my neighborhood of Old Town in Chicago, where there is about 1,000 families. The key to Hyper Local is to get everyone in the neighborhood to sign up on either Facebook or with an email address. You also need to get local businesses on a small monthly retainer fee to feature all of their news with video, photos and stories. Then, you send out daily or weekly newsletters about what is going on in your Hyper Local community, i.e. Dublin's has a salmon special today, and you show a video of people enjoying the restaurant with visual pictures of the salmon dish. Let's say I get the newsletter for today, see the salmon special today at Dublins, watch a video of Dublin's, and I might say, that sounds good, I think I'll go there tonight. Hyper Local will happen. Although it will require local photographers / videomakers, and social networking specialists to create this content, what I love about it is that it also supports local communities. You need to think of it like a local newspaper that can have words, pictures and video.
If you take Weiss's advice, please make sure to show off your new webisodes or local productions on ProductionHUB's Video Center! We'd love to see them, and so would future employers.
Also, make sure you create a profile for yourself so the 300,000 targeted users (and potential clients) can find you.
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