I think having a formula is really important as well. The popular video blogs that I'm aware of do variations on a theme. They're not random. There's something you can expect to see or learn every time you tune in. It's not the same show, but you expect to see certain actors or characters. You expect the show to focus on something specific (tech, for instance). You expect comedy or maybe news. You expect jetsetshow.com to focus on teens. You expect galacticast.com to focus on science fiction parody. Unless really interesting things happen to you randomly, you're better off with a formula that you're comfortable with producing, and like Drew mentioned… that you ENJOY producing, than going with the flow and expecting people to "tune in next time" to check out your latest random antics. :)

When I met him, he was the first person at the UCLA film program to work with interactive video, and the piece he was working on became part of the UCLA film school curriculum.

I fell in love with him because of his vision, and passion for expressing himself no matter how much money it would ever make. So I totally know where you're coming from on this.

What I learned from you is that I need to be really careful to give each of my posts context. I hope that I can discourage people from starting a video blog as a way to promote themselves in their business life, because I don't think it works for most people. But I like to think that I make my own contribution to those not-in-it-for-the-money video artistis by supporting my husband in his work.

Thanks for keeping me in line :)

Penelope

Had the title been "Thinking of video blogging _as_a_career_? You should probably forget it.", I would have agreed with you along the "don't quit your day job" lines. :) One of the most technically well-done videoblogs/shows that I've seen is Galacticast (www.galacticast.com), and Rudy still has a day job. I can only think of two situations where an independent production company created a videoblog and got picked up and funded to the point that they can call that their career. I'm sure there are probably a couple more, but I'm not aware of them.

In the context of a career, the 'problem' with videoblogging is convincing someone that their money is well spent funding YOUR collection of videos on the internet. To do that, you would have to convince them that you had X viewership, and that the ROI is there from your viewers to justify them sponsoring you. I don't think there's enough data yet for anyone to speculate on which videoblogs are going to be financially viable. It's all a gamble.

For instance, television is based on advertising. So many people own televisions. So many people subscribe to cable. So many people are known to watch X television show. Stations can use this to sell advertising space during their 30-minute or 60-minute shows to companies attempting to sell to the demographic that watches their show. That's what the advertisers pay for. They pay to get their product in front of X eyes every Tuesday night @ 9pm.

Without concrete ideas about potential ROI, there's no incentive for anyone to fund a videoblog, so the concept of videoblogging as a career is currently a longshot.

… currently :D