MindComet

Why do we love user-generated content?

User-generated content (UGC) is at the heart of many popular social platforms. Sites like YouTube and Flickr offer users vast amounts of UGC to consume. And consume they do, 72% of US Internet users watch user-generated videos monthly. Given the immense popularity of reality television, this makes sense. The hyper-authenticity of it resonates with all of us. The fact that we can also contribute our own content, provided we have access to some very basic production tools, makes it even more appealing. We’re not just consumers anymore, we’re also the stars.

While some established UGC channels see sustained organic growth, other lesser known channels use prizing to attract users to contribute content. DiscoverBoating, an online source of boating information, is holding an online contest where you create your own “ad” that tells the world how you “discovered boating”. They are accepting two ad formats, original videos and original photos. Each category has a $5K prize attached to it.

The video sharing site Viddiction takes a different approach, instead of a winner takes all contest, this site allows users to accumulate popularity points for their submitted videos and redeem those points for cash. In other words, everyone wins. How much you wins depends on the quality of your content and your ability to self-promote.

What are your favorite UGC sites? Have you ever made money from a UGC site?

BTW, the DiscoverBoating field is relatively narrow, I would suggest submitting some content..could be an easy $10K

 

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Posted by Jeremy Hilton on Jun. 10, 2009

YouTube is not a failure

An interesting article piece of pundrity appeared recently in Time Magazine entitled "The 10 Biggest Tech Failures of the Last Decade". Included are some not so surprising "failures" and one that has sparked quite the stir in the blogosphere. Technology pundit Douglas McIntyre has decided to declare YouTube a failure.

His reason? The inability of YouTube to effectively monetize the platform. While this is true, I don't think this justifies its inclusion into his list.

Doesn't YouTube deserve some credit for being a disruptive, game changing technology? It is, and forever will be, THE seminal video sharing site that paved the way for an american video sharing culture. They gave us that "first hit" and now we're hooked. In a recent blog post by eMarketer, they report that 72% of US internet users watch video clips monthly. That makes it bigger than blogging or social networking.

Simply put, YouTube has forever altered our culture and the way we communicate.

Note: It's my opinion that Douglas McIntyre intentionally included YouTube for the purposes of sparking a debate and ultimately driving traffic to his article and site 24/7 WALL ST.

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Posted by Jeremy Hilton on May. 28, 2009