Tony Grey | Real Estate Video Professional & Software Consultant

We Listened When You Told Us That Time Is Money

2008-05-28T15:25:34Z

The speed of geolocating members and properties has been a source of complaints for some amount of time.

Based on feedback from our customers, we've made major speed improvements on the interface where you can geolocate your member profile or your video content at over 80 countries over at http://catalog.vidlisting.com.

The geodata that we have is extensive. Before the performance improvements, you had to wait as long as 30 seconds (which is an eternity in internet time) for our system to return town level data and latitudes/longitudes. Now, with the improvements, we are generally under one second from both our offices in the US and in South America. Of course, the network speed is a big influence on how fast your data is returned as well.

If you've been and our site before and were disappointed with the wait, go ahead and try itagain ...

What you dont see is that data point for every contry has an associated lat/long that the system can easily associate with you video or with you. This means that others looking for your content dont have to exactly match the town name or zip code in order to discover your content.

We are still working to improve both performance and quality of the data - the state of California returns over 5000 datapoints and still takes just about two seconds which is far better than before but still not good enough. Let us know if any countries or states dont meet your need for speed.

Keep giving us feedback - your functionality will keep improving at http://catalog.vidlisting.com as a result.

Tony

Why Twitter Does Not Work For Real Estate

2008-05-16T10:04:35Z

Don't get me wrong. I love Twitter and have been using it for some time. Because of my schedule, I'm mainly on in the early mornings eastern time (@vidlisting) but sometimes on throughout the day.

You may be surprised that this post isnt going to be around Twitter's downtime. If you are a regular Twitter user that may have been your first thought about what I have posted here - it's not. :)

The premise of this post is that despite all of the rightful hullabaloo about Twitter, it has some real drawbacks for business users. It's funny but also telling that very few blog reviews discuss Twitter within a business context.

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Here are some of my observations looking through the real estate business lens:

No easy or quick way for customers to find you or for you to find them: The basic assumption about discoverability on twitter is that someone already knows who you are and/or what information is contained in your very brief Twitter profile. If you are a normal person trying to using Twitter as a lead generation source, there is simply no reliable way for customers to quickly know who you are or for you to know who they are without a large time investment in the conversation required to build a large network of followers (a huge percentage of which will never be a lead).

Here is the unsaid secret of why Twitter works for A-List Bloggers that I've never read anywhere else: A-list bloggers already have built a critical mass of people that know who they are and often what they do. Think about who you initially followed when you joined: likely it was people that you actually know and then people that you virtually "know" through blogging.

Designed To Be Very Public: Let's say that you do find a prospective customer that has indicated that they are looking for a property in your area. Twitter simply isn't a great place to do pre-sale activities. If you dont have your conversations set to private, everything that you twitter with that person including their interest in services will be available to anyone looking at your or their profile. Before you say that you can direct message the person (or "DM them" in Twitter-speak), you have to actually be following each other before you can commucate via DM.

Additionally, some people (like me) take a gander at people's previous tweets prior to accepting new followers or considering whether or not to follow someone. If those tweets are 100% marketing messages then you'll be less likely to build the network of followers required to build a business network.

No direct way to pass marketing materials: Twitter has no mechanism to directly pass photos, videos, PDFs, or other marketing materials publically or privately. You'll need to rely on links or otherwise go outside of Twitter to use these.

140 characters is too limiting: It's hard to build a compelling marketing message in 140 characters beyond a simple slogan. You dont even really get 140 characters if the message is addressed to someone. While I view the conciseness required for Twitter compelling from a conversational perspective, having to use 5 messages to give someone more than a slogan is a serious drawback on the business side.

Most of the people on Twitter are not customers: There I said it. Someone needed to. :)

UPDATE: Pat Kitano has posted an excellent response to my blog post at http://transparentre.com/2008/05/16/why-twitter-is-potentially-a-mainstream-media-killer-app.aspx

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So, I love Twitter for social conversation with people that happen to be real estate professionals. However, when viewed a pure business tool, it takes a lot of time without a definable end state. That time could be more profitably spent in an activity with a much higher mix of prospective buyers.

It immediately works for those that have already built a large following elsewhere that happen to also be open to trying Twitter (think about that the next time that you read a review about tech from someone with a large base of followers)

Again, I love Twitter. What are your thoughts?

Tony (Twitter Name: @Vidlisting)

PS - Something better is coming...perhaps even this week.

How New Or Non-technical Users Can Easily Manage and Distribute Video Content Or Real Estate Shows Using New Video Help Features

2008-05-04T12:35:53Z

We've added a bunch of new features in the past week to help new users begin to use the full power of their personal media catalogs as quickly as possible after registering or logging in at http://catalog.vidlisting.com. We understand that members may not understand exactly how a personal media catalog can help them or what they need to do to use it.

What Is A Personal Media Catalog

A personal media catalog is a simple to use virtual workspace for videos or real estate shows (RES) that is available in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. In short, its a mix of social network and content network that is geared to business professionals and their customers.

The workspace gives members the ability to to do some of the following:

make video widgets
mash videos from different providers such as Youtube and RES into a single widget
send videos to friends or groups of friends with 4 mouse clicks
distribute videos to prospective buyers

There is no cost to join. We'll be adding some cross-cultural features that will make it easy for, say, CIPS professionals and other REALTORS to find international partners and buyers even if they dont speak the same language (thereby fulfilling the true global promise of the internet for business)

Video Help

Video Help is a small application within the personal media catalog that displays a tiny question mark icon next to the different types of things that you can do with personal media catalogs. They help guide users that may be unsure of what a feature is or specifically what needs to be done to use a given feature.

The icons link to short videos that explain how to use the given functionality. The icons are unobtrusive, dont block or change any functionality , and members can turn them off/on with a single click (as shown below) from within the media catalogs main workspace.

We are adding video content for the help videos as quickly as possible. We will also have a publically shared catalog where you'll be to subscribe to all of the help videos from within your own catalog. Look for "Vidlisting Support Videos" within the Browse Available Shared and Public Catalogs menu. Video help is live now and is "on" by default for new member registrations.

As of this post, we have a number of videos done (with many more to follow). Samples include the following:

Registration Help
Using The Language Features Of Catalogs
The Basics Of How To Upload Videos
How To Add and Share YouTube Videos And Real Estate Shows
How To Send Multiple Videos To Friends

We are also adding video help in Spanish and Portuguese.

Twitter Based Help

We debated having a user id on Twitter for support and information about Personal Media Catalogs as we have a socaial messaging component which will be added within the week or two and available to all members. We decided that we should do it and so now you can follow @VideoHelp on twitter to get news/updates as well as have any support or other questions answered via Twitter. Assistance in spanish is available on Twitter from @CasaComprar.

Tony

Shared Media Catalogs Allow You To Instantly Share Your Video Content And Real Estate Shows

2008-04-27T05:08:01Z

Shared Media Catalogs For Video Content

Vidlisting has just launched our shared media catalog functionality designed for content producers and sellers of good and services. Now, Youtube videos, Real Estate Shows, and videos uploaded to our system can be instantly be passed to family, friends, business contacts, prospective buyers, and others that want to view and use your video content. It is far more efficient method than using email or cutting and pasting video files.

By sharing a catalog, you'll give others direct access to selective video content that you've shared. Note that content is shared only when you make it public - you can select which items in your catalog to share and which to make private. The default is always "PRIVATE". International users and investors interested in US content will appreciate that the functionality is available in Spanish and Portuguese in addition to English.

We have a demonstration video of shared media catalogs using real estate video.

Shared media catalogs are different from normal social networking groups in that you dont have to go looking anywhere else to find content from your groups. The demonstration video also shows that members can instantly use content from shared media catalogs to which they have access as their own to include in custom widgets widgets or send to your own network of friends.

You can get your own personal media catalog at http://catalog.vidlisting.com/.

Subdirectories For Media Content

In the next few days, we'll launch another level of social functionality for the media catalog known as shareable subdirectories. This will be available for premium level members and provides the opportunity to organize and share your videos and real estate shows into shareable subdirectories that function as discrete mini-catalogs. You can organize subdirectories however you decide by theme, location, or type of content (advertising, podcasts, property tours, etc). We are just finishing up the drop and drop capability for subdirectories.

We've also made a simple video preview of the subdirectory functionality.

The functionality is still under development and testing until likely this wednesday so the all of the interfaces in the video are not yet customer ready but it gives you a clear idea of how it will work. Some of the uses for subdirectories include:

- sending personalized groups of videos to a customized group of friends using three mouse clicks. As shown in the video, subdirectories hold a flexible mix of content from different sources (Youtube, real estate shows, and our own system). Rather than sending time uploading videos, you'll be able to better spend your time marketing them.

- wrapping group metadata around related video content: We'll bring value to channel by making searchable metadata for the groups of videos. If geolocation is included as part of the metadata, this functionality will put hyperlocal syndication capability in the hands of non-technical members by using just a few mouse clicks.

- Mapping subdirectories to existing online groups: Organizations with existing portals, blogs, or social networking capabilities will be able to easily map video subdirectories to groups. The subdirectories can become virtual multimedia storage for these existing online groups and provide a flexible way to deliver specific or targeted multimedia content to group members.

Lots more coming - stay tuned.

Tony

See Also:

Vidlisting is a profitable online real estate video company dedicated to helping you get video content in front of prospective buyers and sellers of properties as well as consumers of your products, and services.

Why Trying To Manage Video Content Online Generally Sucks

2008-04-19T05:50:50Z

Huh? A real estate video guy saying this?

Managing video content online is generally available using only four methods (listed below). All of them are limiting in their own way for business users and here's shocker - none of the methods are actually geared to help you sell products and services. Read on...

Method #1 - Channels:

Almost every video site uses the YouTube-like implementation of channels. We've become so accustomed to using channels that no one ever questions their value. Here are some things to think about with respect to channels.

- Channels Include Only Videos Uploaded To That Infrastructure: When I think of channels I think of my TV...different content on different channels but all on my TV. Ever see an online video channel that includes mixes of video from different providers? Me neither. Channels online are more like mail order catalogs than TV channels since, like catalogs, you have to individually go to each one to see what is in it.

- Channels Are Geared To Content Producers Not Viewers: Channels were made for content producers to store their content not for viewers to consume it. If channels were made for viewers to actually find content then why are channels generally named for their owners and rarely (if ever) searchable by channel? Does my user name, marfie, give you any indication of what may be in that channel? No. There is almost no chance of discoverabilty for videos at the channel level without either prior knowledge of my user name or an assumption that my videos will be appropriately tagged and individually found by search videos. In either of these cases, what's the win in channels for a given user?

- Channels Don't Work So Well With Large Amounts of Video Content: Talking about managing a few videos in pretty simple. However, think about what happens when your organization begins to expand their video content to include dozens or even hundreds of videos. Sending users to a channel where they may have to wade or page through dozens of videos to find the right one doesn't seem like a scalable solution to me.

- Channels Aren't Business Oriented: You and/or your org has worked hard to gain value in your branding. Now, when your videos are watched from your channel, your customers may be distracted by related content that perhaps isnt your own.

Method #2 - Cut & Pasting Video Players Or Widgets

Cutting and pasting is the traditional method for distributing video content into webpages or blog posts. Certainly, there is soe value in cutting and pasting a player or widget, but there also are fairly strong limitations to the process.

- Potential for Viral Exceeds Realistic Chances For Business Videos: Almost all video players have some sort of "Grab This Widget" or way to re-paste embed code for a given video. This rarely if ever happens and you better off focusing on how to get your video i font of prospective buyers than trying to make a viral video that likely wont be.

- Audience: For business applications, audience shouldn't be measured in terms of just numbers but also proclivity to consume the types of products or services that your business video is offering. The value of cutting and pasting is generally limited to the value of websites that you and your friends close enough to be willing to paste the widget have. This may be great for people at the top of Google for competitive keywords for consumers of products or services like yours or A-List bloggers that have a large audience but likely isn't such a benefit for someone with a normal level of visitors to their site. Remember that the success metrics for a typical youtube video are sheer views and not the number of sales made.

- Distribution and Scale: A cut and paste approach only scales when the individuals manage the cutting and pasting themselves. Large portal websites with lots of traffic and centrally managed content wont spend the manhours necessary to manually cut and paste video content. 'Nuf said.

Method 3: Emailing links

We all love email and in many ways it is the killer app. It is included here because it is one popular method for managing and distributing video content.

- Scale: When emailing links, you have to either send individual emails or a giant email with everyone's name. This isnt very scalable.

- Fragmented Storage: You aren't in control of the organizational habits of the email recipient or the email storage rules of their organization. Finding the emails with videos sent weeks ago may prove to be a challenge for some folks.

- Reliability of Receipt: SPAM filters and the like all limit the chances that mail with attachments, too many links, or lots of addressees making it to their final destination.

Method #4 - RSS

- Level of technical ability: Ask your customers how many of them know what RSS is and it wont matter if their browser can use it or not.

At Vidlisting, we are working on ways to overcome some of these issues. For instance, in this narrated video demonstration, you can see an example of mixing content from Real Estate Shows and Youtube into a channel and then quickly sharing that mixed channel out to other users that can quickly find it by description rather than user name. No RSS needed - just some mouse clicks. Not shown is that you can also push the same content to groups of friends with just a few mouseclicks.

The platform will also be available for use in your own website or blog network with your own content and look/feel.

Hopefully, you'll start to view video channels online with a different eye. They work well for general videos. They aren't set up well for business users, are difficult to effectively manage with volume, and don't contribute to video views from prospective consumers of your products or services.

Tony

Video: Fast and Easy Video Bar Widgets That Mix YouTube, Real Estate Shows, And Vidlisting Video

2008-04-18T08:31:23Z

Ever wanted to build a widget for your blog that lets you mix and match Youtube videos, Real Estate Shows, and your own videos? Or wanted a way to get video content quickly into the hands of your customers without cutting and pasting HTML code?

Below is a very short video that demonstrates the Shared Media Catalogs in action from a free level user perspective that supplements the hands-on blog post that we wrote earlier. What you'll see is the power of social networking with multimedia content in a far more effective manner for meeting business objectives than cloning Facebook or Youtube.

The user quickly finds and selects two distinct shared media catalogs from the available list. they are both public so the content may be immediately consumed by the user. One of the shared catalogs is a mix of Youtube videos, Real Estate Shows, and Vidlisting videos. The other is the shared catalog for RAMB and their video interviews filmed at SIMA 2008 in Madrid, Spain.

Within seconds, the user is able to add two shared catalogs and build a video bar widget that includes content from both catalogs as well a mix of real estate shows, youtube, and vidlisting videos. Cool stuff (and the video is in real time by the way - it is that quick and easy)

Here is the actual video bar widget made in the video:

You can get your own personal media catalog at http://vidlisting.com/beta/opencatalog.asp

Tony

RAMB Video Interview with John Tuccillo, Former NAR Chief Economist

2008-04-15T03:51:04Z

Here is a real estate video interview that we filmed for the REALTOR Association of Greater Miami and the Beaches (RAMB) while at the world's largest real estate show, SIMA 2008. This year's event was held in Madrid, Spain from 8-12 April 2008.

This real estate video interview is with John Tuccillo, former Chief Economist of the National Association of REALTORS (NAR). Mr. Tuccillo talks in depth with RAMB abot the state of the economy and how to "read the tea leaves" for the future. He also talks about international buyers and the importance of learning how to attract foreign buyers.

Tony

We like that as a Vidlisting.com premium partner, RAMB has a custom widget that is completey branded for them and the video plays within RAMB's miamire.com website. More importantly, RAMB can also know where all of their widgets have been posted (even when someone else embeds the widget), how many times the widgets have been rendered, and how many times each widget has been clicked. All of this is accomplished with just one line of HTML code.

Why Aren’t Video Channels More Like…Well…Channels?

2008-04-05T09:46:58Z

Today, it hit me. Channels on popular video sites have always conceptually bothered me a bit but I really couldn't put my finger on exactly why. Finally, I realized that channels on any of the major video sites aren't really like channels at all.

Online Channels Are More Like Mail Order Catalogs Than TV Channels

If you've ever received a mail order catalog, you know that in order to find something in it, you actually have to go the page in the catalog to get more information. You also have to look at every page of the catalog to know whats available. Printed catalogs have no way to co-exist with each other. Isnt this jst like using video channels on Youtube and others?

The cable model of TV service brings everything that you order to the same place - your television. You can casually flip through the channels that you've chosen. You also have a guide that spans all of the available channels regardless of the content available.

Read The Rest Of This Post Over On Our Outside Blog about Online Video Platforms

Tony

The Push And Pull Of Social Networking For Business Using Video

2008-04-03T07:13:04Z

Social networking for business can be a valuable addition to any business' marketing plan. A well thought out social networking plan involves elements of both push and pull.

Push: This element of social networking involves actively sending (or "pushing") multimedia information to a specific someone that you know to be interested. In twitter, you can Most flash video players have some sort of push based sharing functionality based on email which generally involves inputting an email address. The downside of most video based social functionality is how to collect and store video content that is of interest. Generally, the only means for "storing" video content is to use a linked favorite, cut and paste the player on a web page, and leave the link in email.

Our personal media catalogs allow you to push video content such as YouTube videos, Real Estate Shows, and Vidlisting.com video to friends (read "colleagues", "partners", or "customers") which then they can preview and, upon approval, can become part of that person's media catalog. The content is aggregated in your own personal media catalog for future viewing or further sharing.

So, say for instance, I have a video of a property for sale. In my personal media catalog, I can quickly create a group of prospective buyers interested in that type of property and with a few mouse clicks send them that information. They preview the video and some accept it. Some of those that accept the video share the video with others. Version 2 of the personal media catalog will allow the original uploader of the content to see how often the video has been shared (all user names will be obscured).

Pull: This element of the social networking equation is far more passive than the push system. The pull side of the social networking equation involves users making the determination that they want to receive certain types of information or media content. Right now, the only pull type of functionality around that we are aware of involves consuming RSS or other types of multimedia oriented feeds. The issue here is that many of your customers, partners, or colleagues may not even know what a feed is (which needless to say severely limits your ability to use pull type social networking for multimedia).

To overcome the feed obstacle, we're on the verge of adding functionality that will allow users to "pull" content from media catalogs that have been shared. Owners of catalogs can make share content from a shared catalog (some can remain private as well) and users will have access to shared content in an organized fashion right from their own catalogs. More on the specifics of shared catalogs will follow in later blog posts once we release the functionality.

Say for instance that I am interested in content from a given real estate agent and that real estate agent has a shared media catalog. I can find that catalog by its unique name and add the catalog to my shared content. All real estate video content (including real estate shows and YouTube videos) that have been selectively shared from that catalog is now instantly available to be included in my own catalog with a single mouse click. I can make widgets or further share that content with my own social network using just a few additional mouse clicks.

Applications built on top of shared media catalogs are coming in the next few days as well. We'll actually be using a specific shared catalog to drive part of the special Vidlisting.com SIMA home page next week. Videos uploaded for the event using the page will also be added to the SIMA shared catalog. A simple developer API will also increase the opportunities for pull type social networking outside of the media catalogs as well.

In summary, the ability to either push and pull content is a key part of the social aspect of social networking. Unformtunately, most of social functionality around videos is either clumsy (inputting emails every time that you want to share an item) or very technical (feed based). Hopefully, we can start to make inroads in making both sides of the push/pull equation in social networking easier to use.

Tony

Vidlisting Real Estate Videos To Be Available Via FSBL Media Catalogs

How To Add Youtube Videos To Your Personal Media Catalog

New Social Network Functionality: Making Videos Social In A Way That Builds Your Business

Video Interview With Kent Payne Of Gran Pacifica, Nicaragua

2008-04-02T07:04:43Z

Here is a short video that we did some time ago with Kent Payne of Gran Pacifica. Kent is an icon within the American community in Nicaragua. He is one of those just very friendly, good guys that you come across occasionally in the world. It is hard to go anywhere in Nicaragua without meeting him or at least hearing about him.

In this short video interview, we talk with Kent about Gran Pacifica and also get his thoughts about investment in Nicaragua. Enjoy!

Sneak Preview of ForSaleByLocals Video Wordpress Plugin

2008-03-23T11:42:24Z

We'll be ready to release the ForSaleByLocals Video wordpress plugin within the next day or so. I've been explaining it to more than a few people and now we are ready to give you a sneak peek of how easy it is.

Objective

The objective of the wordpress plugin is to allow you to insert any video produced by the ForSaleByLocals conversion platform, YouTube video, and/or Real Estate Shows into a wordpress blog post just as easily as you can insert an image. Users wont have to struggle with finding the correct embed code or dealing with HTML at all.

How Does It Work?

The plugin is integrated with the ForSaleByLocals personal media catalog functionality that is already available (create your own catalog at http://vidlisting.com/beta/opencatalog.asp if you dont already have one). The media catalog stores personalized representations of Youtube videos, Real Estate Shows, and videos uploaded or shared via any of our partner video websites such as http://vidlisting.com or http://bienesraicesvideo.com. Basically, if it is showing in your catalog, it will be viewable via the plugin.

The plugin adds an extra button to your Wordpress blog interface as follows:

When you click the button, you'll see a representation of all of the videos that are in your personal media catalog. The photos and titles that show are completely configurable from within the catalog as they are taken from the catalog video icons themselves. You simply click the video that you desire to insert and the video then is included in your wordpress blog post. It really could not get much easier. The below image is clickable as a few second video of how in works in real time and taken from an actual personal media catalog.

Click To Watch A Short 30 Second Clip Of How The Video Plugin Works

Summary

We've talked at great length about discoverability of online videos and how to make them more shareable. This is one of the next big steps forward that we'll use to drive these concepts forward to expand our already viable business model. More on that in later posts. The next logical direction is to make personal media catalogs shareable with the plugin so that others can just as easily insert videos that you've chosen to make discoverable and shareable into their own blog posts without having to cut and paste at all.

We expect to have the first version of ForSaleByLocals wordpress video plugin within the next day or so as we finish the final test cases. We have lots more functionality coming that will be integrated with our personal media catalogs. Unlike others in our space, we aren't just copying what's hot today. Stay tuned...

Tony

Use Your Own Video To Attract International Buyers At Under $1 Per Video Minute

2008-03-04T06:42:21Z

- Are you wanting to attract international buyers but dont know how?

- Are you filming your own property video tours but struggling to provide professional narration?

Think for a minute of you would your favorite real estate show if it only had music. Likely not. Narration is a key part of directing attention during a prospective buyer's video viewing experience. Part of the problem is that no one notices when narration is done well but everyone notices when it is poorly done.

How can you improve the quality of the narration in a cost effective way and also use narration to attract foreign byers for your property? In our latest real estate video blog post (click to see all of the details) on our newly minted outside blog, we discuss likely the most effective way to add professional narration to property video tours. For under $1 per video minute, you'll get a year's worth of property video narration (basically enough to narrate 3-4 or more property tours per month).

Note that we've migrated our outside blog off of the wordpress.com site. We are still getting it set up but are adding content daily.

Tony

Video Views As A Measure Of Getting The Correct Content In Front Of Prospective Buyers

2008-02-23T12:40:10Z

Vidoe views can be a useful or empty metric depending on the aggregate quality of the views (who watches and how interested they are in actually buying that property). While some may assume a few dozen real estate video views per property tour to be the norm, we at Vidlisting never have thought so.

In the latest article on our outside real estate video blog, we discuss the "secrets" of how to get and interpret real estate video views. It's a pretty simple premise that seems to elude many. We touch on the important elements - context, platform technology, and focus. Enjoy!

Tony

If you've seen our blog, also feel free check out our latest real estate video site, realestatevideo.net

Sad That The Coldwell Banker Peru Blog Copies Our Content Word For Word

2008-02-20T12:16:28Z

My general manager, Alicia Yabeta, has one of the leading spanish language real estate blogs. In March 2007, she wrote a very popular blog post in Spanish:http://casacomprar.wordpress.com/2007/03/07/lecciones-desde-las-video-entrevistas-como-ser-un-buen-agente-de-bienes-raices/

which on 5 January 2008 was copied word for word at http://coldwellbankerperu.blog.com/2494578/ by one of their agents, Enrique Vilca Garcilazo

The author of the blog post refuses to pull down the content and actualy has copied several others. His provider, Blog.com, doesnt respond to email or phone calls. This obviously reflects poorly on Coldwell Banker - any ideas how to get Coldwell Banker Peru to pull the plug on the duplicate copy?

Thanks in advance

The Nexus of Luxury Property And Real Estate Video Is Passion

2008-02-17T15:30:57Z

Luxury property evokes different images in people. Though perhaps different, the fact is that just the word "luxury" iteslf evokes images. I have to say that the majority of things that I love about real estate video also generally have some connection to higher end homes - the architecture, the lifestyle, the stories.

In our latest real estate video blog post on our outside blog, we've captured some of factors that can bring luxury and quality real estate video together...feel free to join the conversation.

Tony

Find out more about real estate video at http://realestatevideo.net

Getting Instant Video Conversion and Details About Uploaded Videos

2008-02-16T08:51:40Z

Vidlisting's real estate video upload and conversion functionality is fully automated - no waiting for someone to approve your video (which we are sure in some cases actually means manual processing).

You'll have your real estate video available and viewable online within minutes. We've always done an instant automated review of your video upload to determine if the uploaded file is a valid video file and to understand some of the video details for processing. Lots of people try to upload files that are not actually video files for some reason. This 100% automated process is why Vidlisting has the flexibility to maintain 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios and have their durations available immediately after processing.

We are now ready to publish a portion of the output from our automated video review. We just added a listing of your video's details to the processing email that you receive after successfully uploading a video. It starts with the codec used in your uploaded video and the size/duration of the real estate video. If you request video services to be added to your upload such as professional video narration or transcript generation, then those services will be listed on your email. Lastly, you'll see where the video will be published (you can modify this in the user admin menu)

You'll have the following information as part of your email: (information taken from an actual upload)

Original codec video: MPEG-1 Video

Original codec audio: MPEG-1 Audio layer 2

Original height: 160 pixels

Original width: 112 pixels

Time date of Upload: 2/16/2008 9:19:50 AM

Output format(s): swf

Services requested: None

Distribution: Vidlisting family of websites

Upgrading The Real Estate Video Upload Form

2008-02-11T19:59:42Z

We've just upgraded the vidlisting video upload form.

Why? We'd been receiving scattered reports that the geolocation section was failing on occasion for a small group of users. We also closely monitored the results of video uploads on a daily basis (number of visitors that started versus where they ended if they ultimately didnt process a video). More than a few peope were ending where others had reported a problem - time to take action.

We changed the implementation around our video upload forms as a result of our investigation. You can try the new form as well as get information about our upload and conversion programs at http://vidlisting.com/upload. The new form is easier and much smoother.

If you tried uploading a video before and had an error, please consider trying it again. We've had hundreds of beta videos processed to this point - now you can also share videos without knowing ANY code or "cutting and pasting".

Tony

REALTOR(r) Association In Miami Deploys Branded Video Widgets in Multiple Languages

2008-02-04T15:05:10Z

The REALTOR Association of Greater Miami and the Beaches (RAMB) has deployed their first RAMB branded video widgets for property videos and other video content such as interviews. Best of all, the widgets support multiple languages in the same interface. They've posted the first one in their spanking new RAMB blog (which is available to RAMB members as well).Here is the link to the actual blog post: http://blog.miamire.com/video-widgets-are-here-0.

As you can see, the video plays using vidlisting technology on vidlisting servers but under the miamire domain with the same look and feel as the RAMB website. Customers might never know that your organization does not need to bother with the details of using video on your own domain

Completely branded video widgets and player pages are now available to both organizations and individuals. They normally take only a few minutes to implement and then all of your uploaded content can be instantly created with two mouseclicks using the personalized branded widget the moment that your videos are processed (no waiting). It cant get much easier.

If you or your organization isnt getting the desired performance out of your real estate videos, contact http://vidlisting.com. We'll make your brand the important brand again.

Tony

Why Writing Great Property Video Transcripts Helps To Sell Properties

2008-01-28T17:34:24Z

Ever heard bloggers discussing property video transcripts? Usually, they subscribe to one of three schools of thoughts about real estate video narratives:

School of Thought #1 - Property videos should be less than a minute and only have music. Narration is an unecessary extra.

School of Thought #2 - Property videos are most effective when telling the story of a property or its surrounding community

School of Thought #3 - Property videos should focus on the abstract "lifestyle" that a property brings rather than the specific details that can be found in the listing information

But why do millions of people watch what are essentially property videos on real estate TV programs? These real estate TV shows are narrated and often feature 2-3 properties in 30 minutes of programming which is a direct contrast to most of the schools of thought about property videos listed above.

We did a little research in the narratives for these TV shows and we discovered three approaches that you may be able to use to write better narratives for your own videos.

We discuss the following:

- How to use your narratives to create active versus passive viewers

- How to build an "expectation cycle" that keeps viewers watching

- How to involve viewers more deeply in your content with silent judgements

You can find these over on our outside blog: http://forsalebylocals.wordpress.com/2008/01/28/why-writing-great-property-video-narratives-helps-to-sell-properties/

Tony

The author has developed a series of real estate video training seminars including a seminar for brokers/agents around "The Business Value of Real Estate Video" as well as a hands-on, practical "How To Produce A Great Real Estate Video Yourself" course.

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Become A Great Low Budget Real Estate Videographer By Forgetting About The Camera

2008-01-22T05:48:20Z

The low budget real estate videographer smiles all of the way to the bank. They dont know more - they just know the right things to know. For instance, they know that cost of the equipment isnt what makes a good video. the low budget real estate videographer will just smile and nod approvingly when others speak of the hundreds if not thousands of dollars in equipment that they have spent on equipment. If the intent of the filming is not to have a business but to assist the REALTOR(r)'s business of selling properties, the low budget videographer knows that effective property videos can be produced with professional results using video equipment that has been begged, borrowed, or...ummm....purchased used on eBay.

The low budget real estate videographer knows that most of what makes a real estate video great has no cost other than a bit of time to learn and the will to apply what's been learned. The lessons below should fast track you up the learning curve. You own the desire part.

Think of the low budget videographer as the guerilla warrior of video. A warrior that knows that to wage a successful low budget campaign it isnt the cost but the results and it isnt the brands, its the planning.

The Process

The great low budget video producers know that there are really four only major factors that can take a production from effective to useless. They also know that have little to do with equipment and more to do with knowing how to control the factors involved in the production process

- Lighting: Light makes all major brand video cameras right. Almost all major brand video cameras will shoot decent to great video when there is lots of light. Little things like opening the windows and turning on all of the inside and outside lighting can make a big difference. The guerilla videographer also knows that a set of garage worklights make excellent fill lights when aimed at ceilings and walls.

- Camera Motion: The motion of the camera is 100% in the videographer's control. The camera doesn't move by itself - you control both the motion and non-motion of the camera. The low budget videographer will master camera movement since camera motion has no cost and is an essential element in making a professional production. Its all in how you hold and turn the camera. They know that even inexpensive tripods can be used to restrict motion to situation where movement is needed. The best part about property videos is that complex motion really isnt required - slow, deliberate motion is. The guerrila also knows that it may be worth a minidv tape or two to practice moving the camera and then watching the results on a television...and then doing it again until the motion looks natural.

- Audio: Great audio wll always mask poor video. However, the best camera in the world will not produce desired results if the audio is poor. Know where you can often buy excellent microphone equipment for pennies on the dollar? Pawn shops. Many have excellent microphones on sale and it will just add to your guerilla videographer mystique. Just using a voiceover will also make the overall production easier tha trying to do a guided tour. Hold off on the guided tour until you have a few productions under your belt.

- Transfer For Editing: The best guerilla video makes no difference if the quality of the transfer of video to the computer for editing isn't high quality. This is a make or break part of the the process and the "Garbage In - Garbage Out" rule certainly applies. The extra small investment in a firewire equipped minidv camera can help to make this a non-issue. You can also buy generic firewire cards for your computer in the $10-$20 range with a bit of patience. If you have a Mac or XP/Vista system, the editing software that you need should already be on your computer.

The Outcome

Dont worry about the brand or cost of the camera if your goal isnt to run your own property video company. Use what you have or what you can afford. Like anything, you'll need to practice to master your craft. The best Hollywood directors could make effective property videos that rival professionally produced ones using only a used minidv with firewire, an old scratched up tripod, and a decent microphone. The secret isnt in the equipment but in the 4 factors outlined above.

The best equipment will only provide an advantage when those 4 basic factors have been mastered.

Tony

The author has developed a series of real estate video training seminars including a seminar for brkers and agents around "The Business Value of Real Estate Video" as well as a hands-on, practical "How To Produce A Great Real Estate Video Yourself" course. The next series of seminars will be in conjunction with the REALTOR Association of Greater Miami and the Beaches (RAMB) begnning in February 2008. RAMB members get preferential pricing as well as having 100% of the fee applied to a paid Vidlisting membership. Non-RAMB members are welcome as well. If this type of training is of interest to you, please consider attending.

The training is also available for other real estate associations or groups if there is sufficient interest.

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How To Get Thousands Of Views And Generate Leads Using Your Own Real Estate Video

2008-01-19T22:25:53Z

Ever spent the time to upload a video to a video site and end up with only a few dozen views in the first months?

http://vidlisting.com/ within the past few days surpassed one million real estate videos viewed (over 80% of those views were property videos). Until today, all of the content was filmed exclusively by Vidlisting.

As Chicken Little says, "today is a new day". Vidlisting has just opened the same very effective video distribution system to agents, builders, and professional videographers that film their real estate video content (property videos, podcasts, and interviews).

It is hard to generate leads without prospective buyers watching your video. Youtube and the other video services (even those supposedly focused on real estate video) are not invested in helping you market and distribute your videos. Do dozens of views really represent investment? Now instead of dozens of views, you can receive thousands of video views from buyers and investors throughout the world that form the cornerstone of being able to generate leads.

Membership in Vidlisting's Club Real Estate Video has a number of levels based on your needs, desires, and budget. They range from free to paid...all provide a level of distribution unmatched by other video upload sites.

The full announcement is on our outside blog: http://forsalebylocals.wordpress.com/2008/01/19/now-available-for-those-that-make-real-estate-videos-and-want-them-watched (along with a special blog only offering)

Tony

Adding A Bit Of Your Own Marketing Boost To Real Estate Videos

2008-01-04T17:14:28Z

One of the big advantages of video marketing that isn't often mentioned is the use of video to maintain or boost the value of your own brand. Unlike other forms of marketing, video retains the original branding whether online or offline (downloaded video files, TV, DVDs, etc.)

There is value in your brand - you deserve to receive the benefits of that value in terms of attracting new customers. Think about the majority of video providers...whose brand is more prominent in their player...theirs or yours?

Using Animated Logos To "Embed" Your Own Branding In Your Real Estate Video

There are a number of ways to associate your brand with real estate videos for properties that you are selling. One way is to add an animated logo at the beginning and/or end of the videos. Animated logos can be edited into videos before uploading to your favorite video site. Ideally, these types of logos should be between 2-4 seconds but no more than 5 seconds.

These types of animated logos are particularly effective near the end of videos. For example, on our system, your logo can stay on the screen after the video has finished playing. Below are some samples that we put together to give you an idea of what can be done with animations.

Click any of the images to watch the animation

These logos can be easily added to existing videos with just a few minutes of extra effort and give your brand a bit of a boost with viewers even when hosted any of the large online video infrastructure providers. Feel free to contact me with any questions that you may have about how to better market your own real estate videos or email tony@vidlisting.com

Tony

2007-12-30T20:28:01Z

Here are some tips and recommendations that can help anyone make decent quality videos of properties for sale:

- Have a basic plan that makes sense: You should move through the house in a way that makes sense. What you dont want to do is "teleport" from one area to another and back. We try to show some spatial relationship to objects that are fairly easy easy to locate (front door, stairs, kitchen, pool, etc.)

- Have a reason to move the camera or use the zoom: Try to start and end each shot on something of interest. Count to 10 and then start moving or turning. That way, you'll generally move from interest area to interest area as you tour the home. You have at least three options to change the perspective for the person watching - moving the camera, turning the camera, or zooming the lens. Use zoom only to catch some detail or highlight some spatial relationship of note (i.e. how close the pool is to the living room or a beautiful texture on furniture in the house)

- Don't use the built in hand grip or eyepiece (viewfinder): Huh? You are more likely to make wild shaky movements by using the palm grip built in to most handicams. If your camera has the side viewer, open it and hold the camera at just below chest level with one hand below and one hand above the camera instead. I using have my right hand underneath the camera and supporting its weight with my left hand above it to steady it. If your camera does not have a sideviewer, you can still avoid using the palmgrip by holding the viewfinder to your eye with one hand over the camera and the other underneath.

- Open the shades and turn on the lights: A well lit property shows better than a poorly lit one. Have lights already on and shades up as you enter each room.

- Dont film everything: No one cares about the messy garage or storage room. No need to show these areas. No need to film across all white walls either (remember the three options to change perspective as noted above - sometimes moving is the best rather than panning).

- Narrate after filming if you can: Dont forget that Windows Movie Maker (and other editing packages included with operating systems these days) allow you to add narration after you have filmed. Turn down the ambient sound and narrate away until you get something that you like.

Good luck! I am available for any questions that you might have at tony@vidlisting.com.

Tony

Understanding The Value Equation In Virtual Tours And Video Tours

2007-12-29T13:55:20Z

Someone much wiser than I once told me that a successful business either has to create value or transfer value. So, sticking with that assumption, much of the argument to date about the benefits of virtual tours versus video tours has focused on the value created. To be clear, we'll use the term, "rich media" to refer to both video and virtual tours.

Virtual Tours And Video Tours Offer Essentially The Same Level Of Created Value From The Viewer's Perspective

Created value can be based on two constructs: 1) the inherent value to a viewer in terms of showing a property and 2) the tangible and residual value of the product created for the seller or agent. Let's assume that property focused rich media has an inherent value equal to the quality of display. The rich media also has a residual value equal to the cost of production before the property sells but a residual value that nears zero after the property is sold (much like the drunken sailor, what will we do a sold property video?)

Most video tour providers have arguments based on created value (GenX/GenY expects a certain type of media, video provides a more ealistic portrayal, blah, blah, blah) Let's take a unusual tack - for a video provider anyway - and let's assume for a moment that video and virtual tours create more or less the same value for the viewer of that content. I'll define "value" as meaning that the viewer can glean some idea of the property from the comfort of their connected computer in order to make some basic decisions as to their level of interest. If any type of rich media creates interest, then the value created for the viewer is the same.

If the created value for the viewer is the only factor in play and perceived to be the same by the seller, then the lack of tangible value in virtual tours is of little consequence when other factors are considered such as cost, ease of implementation, etc. In this case, virtual tours win hands down if only created value is considered since the focus an arguments are only around point (1) and do not consider the process of actually delivering your rich media content to viewers (transferred value).

Transferred Value Lies In Delivery Of Content

Let's consider transferred value for a moment. Transferred value can be fleeting but highly effective. It takes into account several factors: 1) the value associated with ability to distribute your content via different means 2) the value of your branding and 3) the value of the audience to which your rich media is distributed.

Let's take a simple example that demonstrates a case of almost 100% transferred value with no direct cost of creation: Google Pay-Per-Click Advertising. There is almost no created value for a google ad other than the 5-10 minutes that you spend creaing your campaign and actual ad. All of the value is in the delivery or transfer of the text content. That transfer value is actually limited because it cant be transferred outside of a Google property, a Google partner property, or a participating website. Users hardly consider that when there no cost of creation, there is also nothing to keep. When the user turns off their campaign, they have nothing tangible to use elsewhere. However, the branding for viewers that do not click on a given ad and the value of the reasonably targeted audience is the true transfer value for Google PPC program.

Video Rules The Transferred Value Roost

There is almost no comparison when comparing video and virtual tours around transferred value. First, video can be transferred to many different online and offline formats (TV, DVDs, web sites, iPods, etc.). Video also carries your branding no matter the format and finally video can be easily syndicated to general or niche audiences. I have not even touched on the transfer value of the language aspects of narrated videos.

Virtual tours once created tend to be limited to a single provider as virtual tours often only exist in the memory of a server as they are created. Your means of transmission consists of a single link or player that often is carrying someone else's brand. Your audience is most often limited to the strength of your own contacts as with any cut and paste approach to video distribution.

Like Google, the total costs of video advertising can be quite low on a per view basis when there is significant transferred value even when the cost of creation is factored in as a single fixed cost. This isnt even counting that video can be reused in other mediums in adition to the medium for which it was produced.

Several virtual tour providers are already converting their tours to video specifically to address this gap in transferred value. The best arguments for video over virtual tours remain in the transfer value area until we can address the issues of production costs or cost-shift as vidlisting.com has done to a pricing model based on video views. We'll get there...just as the virtual industry had many of the same issues a few years ago.

Tony

Tony Grey | Real Estate Video Professional & Software Consultant

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