Gotta enjoy this from Matt Raney.

If I were walking to class and found Mario hanging out on the wall in pixel form I would probably take it as a sign. A sign to turn around. Go back to my apartment. Listen to this Dubstep remix of the Super Mario theme. Bust out my Gameboy. And squash goombas all day long.

- Ted

When web video got introduced in the late 1900s, all people cared to see was
movement. Then they began to want narrative. Then….

Do you see where I’m going with this?

While YouTube will always have it’s place as the 24/7 version of America’s
Funniest Home Videos, at some point or another (I would argue the time
has come) people will want quality over crappity.

So… get prepared to produce quality stuff.

Done ranting.

- Ted

It has mainly been motion graphics work so far, but there is some other video-related stuff that I’ve been working on for them as well. Hopefully this summer we will begin doing some really cool stuff merging Vlogs, Tutorials, and Community Building. They’re based out of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and so since I’m in Waco, Texas it’s hard to help with any of their in-house videos and live shows for now, but it’s a great company that you should definitely take a look at! Anyway, I’m happy to be able to work with them and here are two of the promotional videos I have created so far for their Builder Theme (This is the Theme I have for my site) and Flexx Theme.

Believe it or not, Youtube’s search engine is much easier to “play” than the super complex Google algorithm. Here is my ordered top five list for the most important parts of your video in optimizing for youtube search:

1) Title – Your video’s title is incredibly important. Not only does a title often score (or lose) you a view, but it also is the biggest factor in determining keywords for the youtube search engine to pick up on. Be very keyword heavy and don’t feel as if a lengthy or awkward title name is always bad. Something like “How to throw a football – The Process Step by Step” may be long, but it is dang effective in encompassing key words.

2) Inbound Links – Have you embedded your video on your personal site or blog? Have you shared it on social networks? Are others sharing it as well? This is important to the algorithm because it is a huge factor in determining if the video has good and worthwhile content.

3) Description – Your description should be thorough. Should it be line for line what was said in the video? No. But! It should be a very good keyword based summary of what happens in the video. There is no point in being misleading either.

4) Views – Yes, unfortunately for those who are just starting, not only does the number of views on the video you have uploaded matter, but also the number of views your channel and other videos you have uploaded have. This is sort of the community impact factor of the search. It helps answer Youtube’s question, “are you actively involved in the Youtube community?” This really makes a lot of sense – especially for Youtube (well Google since they own it) – including this as a factor encourages us Youtubers to frequent the site.

5) Tags – The tags are third on the list of text based Youtube SEO (ranking behind the title and description) because these are what I like to all “catch all” key words. Most often this is where I include my name, my website’s name, the city I shot it in, and/or some other random things people might search if they can’t remember what the video was called.

There are other factors and all of the above can be further explored, but this is a general list to get you started.

Never forget that if your video has good content, it will get found and viewed, but you could do yourself a huge favor if you just do a little consideration of the above!

- Ted

As people turn to bots and other services to accrue massive number of Twitter followers at a steep price, I’ve noticed a huge number of people following me only to dump me a day or two later when I haven’t “returned the favor.” Interestingly enough, most of the twitter usernames that I see come and go on my follower list have  high numbers of people following them and vice-versa. While at first I was wondering how I was so quickly offending some of these people, I realized that what I had was a fake follow and not a legitimate follow to begin with and that I did not really care in the slightest what those who fell in the fake category really thought. There is a pretty significant chance that these people will never see what I have micro-blogged on the social networking sphere to begin with anyway, so why should I care?

So as Twitter itself evolves and begins to become a more permanent thing in 2010 rather than the trending thing it was in 2009, I’ve started classifying what the different levels of Twitter users and the difference between a worthless follower and a significant follower. Here are four examples of worthless followers and four examples of significant followers:

Worthless Followers

1) Anytime you get “followed back” by a super-popular twitter user who simply follows everyone back (whether it’s a news-outlet, band, celebrity, company, etc.). Now this doesn’t mean they’re worthless to follow yourself, you can get great information/links/etc. from these sources, but as a follower on your list, they will never actually see what you have to say.

2) The guy/girl who follows 800 plus people. While it is possible that they are very organized with the lists feature that Twitter offers, it is highly unlikely and you will easily be “just another face in the crowd” (oh cliches..)

3) Anyone who follows you and then dumps you within 72 hours.

4) People who tweet incessantly. This is probably the least worthless of this group, but people who are constantly tweeting are either A) too busy tweeting to read your tweets or B) conversing with a short list of people/directing their tweets at the same short list.

Significant Followers

1) Your friends, family, and coworkers. As lame as that may sound, they are probably (especially to begin with) the most likely to read your tweets and also click on the links you place in your tweets.

2) Someone who follows less than 800 people. I use the number 800 (here and earlier) because it is where I believe the line begins to become more distinct between one who follows for the sake of following and one who follows for the information you are updating your feed with.

3) Someone you yourself consider to have good quality twitter updates. If you believe someone has quality stuff and they return the favor, a lot of times it means they believe the same about your content. Always a good thing.

4) Probably the most significant are those who are below the 800 mark but have 3000 or more people who follow them. This means they are probably seeing what you have to say, with the possibility of re-tweeting it and/or sharing it in some capacity. Plus, these people have built a certain clout around them that impresses people which means those 3000+ people who follow them are going to look to see who they consider to hold worthwhile information by checking out who they follow.

I hope you found something useful here. Feel free to comment with your agreements, disagreements, etc.

- Ted

Avatar: The Making of the Bootleg

Nativity Dance

Santa Parkour

HP computers are racist

The following are some stills from the video itself:

_

_

That being said, I have decided to install a second WordPress directory at tedvid.com/video. Why, you ask? Well I have an idea in my head of how I want it to look and work, and I figured that it would be best if it were left independent of the navigation already in place. I plan to post all of the videos I produce/edit/direct/etc. there, and hopefully that allows a clean atmosphere in which to view my videos (I guess this only applies if you find what I create entertaining in the slightest). It already exists and can be viewed by clicking this made up word: youareawesome. It is currently semi-based on a concept a friend of mine, Brad Ulrich, has implemented into a subdirectory of his site called adbrad.com/snacks which he calls a “bite-sized” version of his blog, but applied to just my created video.

I also have to say, that after tinkering a little with the Builder Theme from Ithemes, I feel as if I have a lot more control and knowledge over web design than I really do. This could be dangerous.

Alright, enough with the blog post writing.. I’m off to go write a script for a video that I can put over at tedvid.com/video.

- Ted