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What's with the super-popular youtube videos that are just slideshows??

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superboyac:
What's with the youtube videos that have millions of views but all they are are crappy animal slideshow?  I don't get it.  Usually, it's a stunning picture of a scene like "ZEBRA KILLS LION" (I won't post it because it's so stupid) but when you click on it, it's just a dumb slideshow.  Yet it has millions of views, and because of that, you're curious (when you see the thumbnail there on the side).  What's the story behind all of these?  There has to be something weird going on...has someone made a lot of money doing this?  It's gotta be something like that...it's way too stupid and successful for it to be an accident.

barney:
Yet it has millions of views, and because of that, you're curious ...
-superboyac (January 04, 2012, 09:10 AM)
--- End quote ---

Back when the WWW was still a babe in arms, there was some college kid who had a Web site, pretty plebeian, mostly about cars.  However, his search terms included pornographic items.  A lot of people hit that site:  "Oh, boy, nekkid pitchers!"  The more people that hit the site, the higher it got in the rankings.  The kid didn't have any porn on his site, but he had a pretty good grasp of crowd psychology - and a very high site rank  :o..

This is the same thing.  There's some putative reward for a massive number of views, so someone puts up a video - ?!? - adds a titillating title, and starts getting hits.  Then someone else - superboyac  :P? - comes along, sees the hit count, and has to look.  So the view count gets higher, and more folk have to see why it's so high - an upward spiral.

Call it crowd psychology, basic marketing, ..., whatever label you put on it, it works.  And it's all the more mysterious/frustrating when you have no idea what reward the publisher might attain.

superboyac:
It's true what you say...I get it.  But is there really money in it?  I'll do one or two if that's the case.  I know what people like... ;)

barney:
Maybe not money, directly ... that's part of the frustration ... you have no idea why I do what I do  :D.  Could be doing it for traffic - not the specific one you mentioned, perhaps, but some of the others do - to some Web site, garner valuta from the traffic.  Could be doing it to acquire a mailing list -IM rule of thumb is that you make a buck per month per person on your mailing list.  Could be doing it just to win a bet with a friend, or to get bragging rights in some group.  Or, could be personal satisfaction, something like, "Hell, I can do better than that!"

Yes, there is money in it, but it's a lot of work, as well  :tellme:.  For instance, when I had a list, middle five (5) digits strong, I was making, seemingly, beau coup coin.  But I was also working sixteen (16) and eighteen (18) hour days, seven (7) days a week.  When I finally got around to doing the math, I wasn't even averaging annual minimum wage  :'(.  And you need a pretty good plan ahead of time, a strategy on just how you'll make money.

So, yeah, the money's there.  But you need to have a plan on how you'll get it, a workable implementation.  Also, luck and timing figure into the equation.  Back in January of 2009, you could have sold a lot of Obama dolls in the US  8) - not so many now  ;D.

So, yeah, but it ain't, not, never gonna be casual money.

superboyac:
interesting barney.  so many meaningless numbers out there now.  we've really become about quantity and not quality.  47 million views for a slideshow?  Nobody likes it, nobody cares, yet there it is...an impressive number I suppose, but what does it mean?  It's like bebop jazz...sure, it's impressive to play an ionian mode over a diminished chord or something, but who gives a shit?  And it sounds like crap, to boot.  (sorry if I offended any jazz heads, I am one!)  Maybe that's my new slogan: quality of knowledge, not quantity.

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