Just two days ago, the makers of successful Web series KateModern confused everyone by cancelling the show at the height of its popularity.

It was announced that the final ever episode of the show will be broadcast on social network Bebo in June. This is despite the show achieving an average audience of 1.5 million viewers per episode.

Deal Between CBS and EQAL

However, with the announcement that the creators (Miles Beckett and Greg Goodfried) new company EQAL has done a deal with American TV network CBS, the decision becomes somewhat clearer.

Continue Reading…

Companies, both based online and off, are coming to realise the power of Web video to draw traffic in, and once it’s on the site, stay for a while exploring the content on offer.

One field which is utilising the relative ease of providing We based video to users is that of social networking sites.

Not content with providing people a place to connect and hook up, many of them are now providing content to keep people there long term.

Continue Reading…

FORA.tv is a video sharing site which describes itself as YouTube for thinkers. The San Francisco start-up company concentrates on intellectual content.

This content varies from politics, science, culture and business, but it all has a heavy bias towards intelligent, and cogent debate, rather than the more fun and frivolous content you may find at other video sharing sites such as YouTube.

New Venture Funding

The site also organizes videos from think-tanks and symposiums at universities and other highbrow organisations. And now, despite being a very young company, it has secured $4 million in venture funding.

Continue Reading…

Just two days I spoke about StartYourTube, a website which allows you to start your own video sharing service, however niche, to cater for people similar to you.

StartYourTube uses the popularity of YouTube in a number of ways, by mimicking the name, and using the sale of YouTube to Google for $1.6 billion to entice people to sign up.

It’s not the only site to use YouTube to increase its own profile, and one which has done it brilliantly successfully is GodTube, a Christian video sharing site which has just obtained funding to the tune of $30 million. We first spotted this site about a year ago.

$30 Million Investment

Rafat Ali at Paid Content reveals the news of the $30 million injection of cash from investors, on top of the $2.5 million which the site had already secured earlier in its life.

What’s amazing about this level of funding is that the site only launched last summer in Dallas, Texas, but has seen itself become one of the fastest growing websites on the Internet.

Continue Reading…

If you are like me, when you heard that Google had bought YouTube for $1.6 billion back in November 2006, you wondered “Why couldn’t that have been me?”

Well, maybe now it could be, as with the help with StartYourTube, you too can start a video sharing site to mimic YouTube.

Using YouTube

The people behind the website realise that YouTube is by far the most popular video sharing destination on the Internet, and have utilised that popularity to entice people to sign up to the site.

The site even includes the immortal line “YouTube sold for $1.6 billion. How much will you sell yours for?” feeding straight in to the egos of people who think they could be behind the next Web phenomenon.

Continue Reading…

It’s a known fact that adding a photo or photos to an eBay listing (or Craigslist, or any of the other options open to sellers) can massively increase the chance of a successful sale.

Another way to boost your chances of getting a good price is by using a photo of the actual item rather than a stock image of the product weaned from the manufacturer’s site.

Prospective buyers don’t just want to read a description, they want to see exactly what they would be spending their money on since some sellers can be very vague with their words.

Picture Managers

For this reason, several services such as Auctiva, MyEasyPics, BiggerBids, and even eBay’s own Picture Manager have become profitable in offering indispensable tools to eBay sellers.

Now, with the popularity of online video rapidly growing, vzaar is aiming to take eBay auctions to the next level by allowing sellers to include short video ads (2-3 minutes maximum) of their items within listings… YouTube-style. 

Continue Reading…

Metacafe was once the hottest video sharing site, and although it’s growth has seemed to falter over the past year, it still boasted 28 million unique visitors during March.

But that hasn’t stopped the service’s founders, Arik Czerniak and Ofer Adler, from leaving the company, and cashing in their shares to the tune of $5 million on their way out of the door.

No Longer CEO

Czerniak had already stepped down as CEO of the company in February 2007, just months after the company was reportedly offered to interested buyers for between $200 and $300 million.

Now, according to Israeli newspaper The Marker, both he and fellow founder Adler have left the company for good. Between them the pair are thought to have held only 5% of the company’s shares.

Continue Reading…