Despite all the myriad of video and podcast advertising companies in existence today, unless you’re a producer with a recognizable brand behind your name, it’s still a tough road to ho getting any dollars in your pocket.  The same is true for bloggers, despite the troughs of cash being shoveled at high traffic blogs. There are a number of factors and reasons behind this, but given the circumstances, it’s easy to see how monetization groups geared toward the less recognized personalities in the blogosphere (like Izea) still continue to prosper, despite all the bad publicity that gets consistently shoveled their direction.

That’s why when I see new video ad firms that look like they’re doing something new and interesting for independent producers of any digital media.  Mike Abundo over at Inside Online Video has had his attention captured by a new company that seems to be doing just that.  The company is Videorix, and they are somewhat akin to a PayPerPost for serialized video producers.

The system is still in very early development, and according to the creator, Nadim Elgarhy, the system is still in development, working out the kinks.  As a result, the place isn’t exactly flush with advertisers, yet, but there’s an introductory offer from Nadim to promote the system itself. It’s not a particularly lucrative offer, but it shows what could be possible if the system becomes as well used as the IZEA system as well.

The system seems to pay no regard to CPMs, going with a blanket flat-fee sponsorship model.  There doesn’t seem to be any ranking system as of yet, but with a little tweaking (and a lot more advertisers), this particular system could end up being a real decent marketplace for those breaking into the video realm to see a little return on their time investment.

---

© Mark 'Rizzn' Hopkins for Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us digg
Who's linking ? Technorati BlogPulse Google
Want more on these topics ? Browse the archive of posts filed under News, Opinion, mashable.

Spot Runner, a company which provides television ad spots for small-to medium-sized businesses with stock video footage and other custom options, has raised another mountain of cash. They’re announcing tonight that they’ve raise $51 million more.  This time the funding comes from Daily Mail and General Trust, Grupo Televisa, Legg Mason Capital and Groupe Arnault.

A little more than a month ago, we covered the story of Spot Runner’s launch of political based advertising services - a story that was rolled up with the predictions that they were raising the money that they’re now announcing to the public:

We’ve been following the adventures of Spot Runner here at Mashable through a number of recent events, such as when they were the target of acquisition, then subsequently targeted others for acquisition, quickly followed by the acquisition of several high profile executives like Joann Bradford from Microsoft. It is likely this flurry of activity which has caused the interest in investors at such a high valuation.

The investment partnerships might just be as strategic as they are about an influx of cash. Grupo Televisa is the largest media organization in the Spanish speaking world, and is an attractive target for running these advertisments. Daily Mail and General Trust is a media organization based in the UK, and while they’re not particularly heavy in the realm of television, their media holdings and growth could lend them to be an interesting partner down the line.

Groupe Arnault is another interesting strategic partner, and a leading provider luxury products (including brands like Louis Vuitton, TAG Heuer, Hennesy and others). Granted, they wouldn’t probably employ the services of spotrunner for their high end brands, but given the scope of their operations, it’s likely they came into contact with Spotrunner on a business level to begin with, and rather than giving them all their money for advertisements, they figured they’d rather get a piece of the company while they were at it.

Spot Runner’s previous investment rounds have come from Allen & Company, Battery Ventures, Capital Research and Management, CBS, Index Ventures, The Interpublic Group, Tudor Investment Corporation
and WPP.

---

© Mark 'Rizzn' Hopkins for Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us digg
Who's linking ? Technorati BlogPulse Google
Want more on these topics ? Browse the archive of posts filed under News, mashable.

---
Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:

Why SpotRunner Rocks!
AdReady Gets $10M for Custom Display Ads
Index Ventures Announces €350M Fund
10 Free Ebooks and White Papers About Venture Capital
€400 Million Growth Fund Created By Index Ventures
Union Square Ventures Sues Union Square Partners for Trademark Infringement
Spot Runner Announces Political Ads, But Not Their Valuation

What it does

Are you looking for a god book to read but you don’t know where to begin looking? There are so many book reviews, but whose can you trust? TurnPaige.com is a site that focuses on books for young readers from elementary school to young adult. You can browse through the site and search through books and book reviews by choosing a genre or age category. You can look through the most recent reviews top the top ten books. All of the reviews are brief and have a rating from A+ to F-. Besides the rating and the review there are longer more detailed reviews and questions which can help readers make sure they understand the key points of the book. You can even look at elementary book authors. TurnPaige.com is a great site for young readers, teachers and parents. There are many book reviews to read and you will most definitely be able to find some books that will interest you. Find great books by reading reviews you can trust at TurnPaige.com.

In their own words

"This website is a place for young readers to come, for discussion, for recommendations, to make recommendations, and generally share their love of reading. All the book reviews here are books for young readers, and readers that are young at heart.

If you’re a reluctant reader – don’t worry – this is the place for you too. Why waste time finding good books when others can find them for you? Use my easy-to-follow rating system (A+ to F-. Sound familiar?) to find a book that will appeal to you."

Why it might be a killer

TurnPaige.com is a place where you can find concise reviews on books geared towards a young audience. It is helpful that TurnPaige.com has many categories so users can focus their search and find a book that will interest them. Besides having lists of the books there is a list of popular elementary authors and this is also very useful. TurnPaige.com is a great resource for teachers and parents.

Some questions

TurnPaige.com could have a more sophisticated web design. TurnPaige.com could add some Web 2.0 features such as user profiles and forums to discuss books and authors.

Updates


 » original news

A bunch of the worst kept secrets in the wireless broadband world have finally come together. No one ever really believed that Sprint and Clearwire would fully break off their WiMax agreement. It simply made too much sense for them to get back together. At the same time, everyone also knew that Comcast and Time Warner were talking to Sprint to help fund WiMax in order to get a wireless pipe with which to compete with the telcos. And... oh yeah, given how much money Intel had pumped into WiMax to make everyone think it just had to be the next generation wireless system, there was no way it was going to let Sprint and Clearwire's WiMax plans collapse. Finally, toss in the fact that Google was known to be interested in Sprint's WiMax plans, and it's not hard to figure out what is actually happening...

Yes, indeed, Intel, Google, Comcast and Time Warner are teaming up to pump $3.2 billion into a joint venture that would merge Sprint and Clearwire's WiMax operations under the Clearwire brand name. This is certainly no surprise given all the earlier stories, but given how many problems have surrounded WiMax as well as earlier attempts for the cable companies to offer wireless services, don't expect this new venture to go smoothly right from the beginning. That doesn't mean it's not the right thing to do. Most of the companies involved didn't really have much of a choice but to do this. Of course, in all this mess, Sprint and Clearwire squandered a portion of the lead they held over AT&T and Verizon. While it will still take a while for AT&T and Verizon to get LTE plans into motion, all this futzing by Sprint and Clearwire took away some of the huge lead it should have had.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

Salesforce.com has announced that they will be launching Visualforce, which it describes as “User-Interface-as-a-Service,” as part of the company’s “Summer ‘08” release. I spoke with Ariel Kelman, senior director of platform product marketing at Salesforce earlier today to get the skinny on this buzzword laden news, and while business software may not be our MO here at Mashable, Visualforce is something to pay attention to, as it’s potentially a technology that could be emulated by platforms far and wide.

User Interface as a Service

“User Interface as a Service” (UIaaS) is essentially what the title implies: versus building a UI from scratch, Visualforce allows developers to utilize pre-built components to create their UI within Salesforce applications. In case you’re not familiar with Salesforce, their platform, AppExchange, is like the Facebook Platform for business software, but with more users, and with some serious money involved.

For a simple example of UIaaS in action, if you wanted to include in your company’s implementation of Salesforce a Google Map showing where your customers are located, that would be a pre-built component that could be added to your account by simply adding a single tag. For a more complex example, Kelman demonstrated a completely customized version of Salesforce where Dolby (the sound company) is using Salesforce to track which sound platform various theatres around the country are using, with a graphical UI totally different from the standard Salesforce.com. According to Salesforce, UIaaS Components can consist of:

* Pages – this capability enables the design definition of an application’s user interface.
* Components – this provides the ability to create new applications that automatically match the look and feel of Salesforce applications or easily customize and extend the Salesforce user interface to specific customer and user requirements.
* Apex Controllers - The controller enables customers to build any user interface behavior.
* Static Resources - Provides the capability to easily create, reference, and manage the assets used to create UIs—including images, style sheets, JavaScript libraries, and other browser components.
* Inline Page and Controller Editing - In Visualforce development mode, customers can edit Visualforce pages and Apex controllers directly from the runtime view of any page.

Component Developer Ecosystem

Meanwhile, there’s already a bit of an ecosystem behind Visualforce; developers can build components and either sell them to other users or offer them as open source through Salesforce’s popular AppExchange. So far, Salesforce claims more than 4,000 developers and 11,000 customer interfaces in the preview program for Visualforce.

LinkedIn Platform Preview

The Visualforce demo also gave Kelman an opportunity to show me what Salesforce is up to with LinkedIn and its upcoming developer platform, which is currently only available to select partners. The implementation I saw allows Salesforce users to look at a specific customer (for example, FedEx) and see how many degrees away they are from them a certain contact within that organization. Hence, if I’m looking to get in touch with a VP of Business Development at FedEx, perhaps I can see that an Account Manager I’m in contact with is only two degrees away from that key contact. That’s some pretty powerful stuff when you think about the huge user cross-over that likely exists between Salesforce and LinkedIn users - it essentially turns Salesforce into a CRM app coupled with a FoaF-style social network.

Salesforce Is Setting The Standard For “Serious” Web Platforms

Is it just me, or do the announcements we hear from Salesforce seem to just make a lot more sense than a lot of the tie-ups we hear about on the consumer side of the Web? Last month, the company announced a deal with Google to launch Salesforce for Google Apps, and from what I’ve seen in my brief tour of Visualforce, we’re about to see a lot of really useful applications being cranked out by developers in the Salesforce community. It certainly adds more credence to the theory that Facebook apps are just for fun.

---

© Adam Ostrow for Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us digg
Who's linking ? Technorati BlogPulse Google
Want more on these topics ? Browse the archive of posts filed under News, mashable.

---
Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:

Google and Salesforce Poised for Deal
Salesforce to Launch Community Platform for Clients
Salesforce Integrates with Skype
Salesforce.com Application for Facebook
Murmurs Of Salesforce Buyout Talks With Oracle
Salesforce Lures Customers, Developers with Changes to Force.com
Google Takes Aim at the Enterprise: Announces Salesforce for Google Apps

The first rule of Startup Club is take the money when you can. Spot Runner CEO Nick Grouf understands that, which is why he just raised $51 million in a C round from a group of strategic investors that include the Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT), Grupo Televisa, Legg Mason Capital Management, and Groupe Arnault/LVMH. And that’s on top of the $60 million in venture capital he raised in 2006 from a laundry list of A-list investors (Battery, Index, Allen & Co., Capital Research and Management, CBS, and Lachlan Murdoch), some of whom ponied up again this time. Surely, he didn’t burn through his cash already? Grouf says:

No, we were not running out of cash. This was an opportunity for us to build out a bit of a war chest that we will look to use in investments to expand our platform beyond just television and online but into other media, as well as expansion overseas, and acquisitions.

Basically, the money was there, so he took it. Grouf wouldn’t specify Spot Runner’s valuation, but when I asked him if it was higher or lower than the $250 million guesstimate that Silicon Alley Insider <a href="“>recently put out, he laughed and confirmed that it was higher. I’d hope so, with $110 million invested.

If Grouf wants to expand to markets overseas, this group of investors should be able to help. The Daily Mail and General trust is one of the largest media companies in Britain, with papers, Websites, and radio stations. Grupo Televisa is one of the largest media companies in Spanish-speaking countries, with TV channels, cable and satellite services, magazines, and radio stations. And Arnault/LVMH owns one of the biggest collections of luxury brands in the world (Moët & Chandon, Hennessy, Louis Vuitton, Givenchy, Donna Karan, Sephora and TAG Heuer).

Spot Runner automates and the buying of regular TV ads for bothe local and national businesses. Both the creation and placement of the ads is all managed online. Grouf wants t expand beyond TV advertising. Last March, he bought Weblistic, which helps small, local businesses run online ad campaigns. Grouf is already dabbling in radio ads, but wants to ratchet that up, and move into print ads as well.

He’d better move fast because Google has some of the exact same plans—although Google admittedly doesn’t yet have much to show for its TV, print, and radio efforts. Grouf wants to scale up before Google gets serious.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Filed under: Storage

We've been wondering where Samsung's 9.5mm 500GB SpinPoint M6 laptop drive has been hiding, and it turns out that it's just been vacationing in France. No word on when these might make it Stateside, but if you're desperate (or French), your lappy can unbuckle that belt another notch or two for just €197 ($306).

[Thanks, onceuponamac]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

When I was a kid, I made dumb videos that a total of 5 people actually watched -- me and the 4 other kids I made them with. But today, a kid with a funny video can be seen by millions of people, whether he is swinging a golf ball retriever or lip syncing to a German pop song. There is an Internet shooting star falling to earth every day. Someone creates a video that goes viral and generates millions of views, and for some this flashes and fades, but others are parlaying these flashes into commercial success.

This is a guest post by Darius Monsef, the Creator & Executive Editor of COLOURlovers.com. He is a creative consultant, entrepreneur and Internet Astronaut.

Derrick Comedy

A small sketch comedy group from NYU, has generated almost 40 million views on YouTube alone. YouTube success turned into a gig producing exclusive videos for CollegeHumor.com as they continued to do live performances. They have recently taken a break from their online shorts to produce a feature length film.

Self Defense

Amanda Congdon

The orginal host of popular online video blog Rocketboom, Congdon turned her success as a video blog host into a gig at ABC and appearances on TV shows like Good Morning America. She is reportedly currently working on a TV show for HBO and appears in a series of American Express commercials.

Ask a Ninja

Ask a Ninja was originally supposed to be an animated show about two Ninjas living in Orange County, but improv comedians Kent Nichols and Douglas Sarine evolved the questions & answer format into a hit video series. In January of 2007, the comedy team signed a deal with ad network Federated Media that was reported to be worth at least $300k/year if Ask a Ninja maintained its traffic levels.

Ask A Ninja: Question 9 "Ninja Love"

Jessica Rose

Lonelygirl15 was YouTube's first big star. Revealed to be New Zealand actress Jessica Rose after months of speculation, she was able to parlay her YouTube fame into representation by the United Talent Agency and has now appeared in a feature film, has a recurring role in the ABC Family TV series "Greek," and won a 2007 Webby Award.

WineLibrary.tv

Gary Vaynerchuk's WineLibrary.tv draws 40,000 viewers each day to his energetic shows that bring wine knowledge to the average guy and gal. While Gary may not need to stress about monetizing his videos (he turned his father's New Jersey liquor store in a very successful business), has has used his online exposure to help generate huge buzz around his personal brand and online business. You might have seen him on Late Night With Conan O'Brien, or the Ellen Degeneres show eating dirt and tasting sweaty socks.

Does The Color of a Wine Have a Huge Impact on Quality or Age?

(I chose this video because Gary rips up one of my posts in it - thanks for being delicate, Gary.)

Andy Samberg

A member of "The Lonely Island," a group of LA-based independent filmmakers who made comedic short for the Internet, Samberg used the success of the group's "The O.C." parody (called "The 'Bu") to land himself a featured player role on Saturday Night Live. Samberg's "Digital Shorts" for the show often become Internet phenomena and his "Dick in a Box" short won an Emmy for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics.

Video Sites that Pay

You might not have the time to create a regular series of videos, but if you can find the time to generate even a few great videos, here are some video sharing sites that give a little back to the creators of the videos.

• YouTube.com - YouTube has a partner program that is based on cost-per-impression advertising, so the more your videos are viewed the more money you make. It may not be the most lucrative site to post videos on, but it is the most popular. Good for people who produce regular content or for sporadic video submitters.
• Revver.com - A lot like YouTube, Revver shares income from advertising revenue with content creators. TechCrunch had Revver close to entering their deadpool, but a recent acquisition by LiveUniverse seems to have breathed life into the site. Revver has paid out more than $1 million to users, beating YouTube to that milestone by a few months.
• Break.com - Break has a very simple model: If they choose to feature your video on the homepage you make a few hundred bucks, with the potential to earn up to $2,000. That video showing your roommate drop a hot iron on his crotch would probably do best with the Break audience.
• Blip.tv - Blip works similar to other ad revenue sharing sites, but they also allow you to work on selling your own sponsorships on your videos. Blip is best for video series that draw their own traffic and have the potential to find their own sponsors.
• AtomFilms.com - Not the easiest place to get your video picked up, but it may have the most traditional media reach. AtomFilms selectively licenses original short movies from amateur and indie creators, and pays them royalties from their ad revenues. If your film is original, entertaining, and legally distributable, you can make real money with AtomFilms.
• Metacafe.com - Probably the most transparent of any of the video sites that pay for your content. Metacafe breaks it down to "$5 per 1,000 views." Another good option for that iron on the crotch video of your roommate.

User Contributed Video Contests

You can play your cards in the game of finding traction on video sites like YouTube, but more and more opportunities are popping up for creative people to leap-frog from uploading content from their living rooms to watching their work on the living room TV. There have been a few user generated video contests lately and I'm sure more are coming in the future.

Doritos - Crash the Super Bowl

The ad world is heading towards some very uncharted waters. When prosumers are able to create work on par with some of the world's top ad agencies, why not tap the creative talent of the masses? Doritos did exactly that for their Super Bowl ads last year. They had consumers create and send in their own ads, and then selected the 5 best commercials to air during Super Bowl XLI. A huge amount of exposure for the winners, and the $10,000, plus a trip to Miami for a private Super Bowl party wasn't to shabby.

MTV

MTV is running a User Generated Video Contest right now for the 2008 MTV Movie Awards. While you probably won't be receiving any awards at this year's show, you could be in the audience with your creative work being shown to the celebrity laced gathering as well as on national television.

Current.tv

Current has taken the user created ad model to the next level by developing a platform and marketplace for the creation of user created adverts. New ad assignments pop up on the site and users create ads for that company. If Current airs your ad, you make $2,500. If the company decides to air it elsewhere you could earn up to $60k.

May 9th is the UCLA Anderson Entrepreneurs Conference to be held on the UCLA Anderson campus.

Now in its 23rd year, the Entrepreneurs Conference is UCLA Anderson’s largest and highest-profile student organized event. The Conference serves to showcase UCLA Anderson’s leadership position in the area of
entrepreneurship, and to further goals of:
• Promoting entrepreneurship and fostering innovation.
• Providing a rich learning experience for entrepreneurs, students and business professionals.
• Sharing valuable insight on topics in entrepreneurship, critical business skills and emerging opportunities.
• Offering a networking venue for entrepreneurs, students and business professionals.
• Continuing, promoting and enhancing UCLA Anderson’s role as the leading voice on entrepreneurship.

Using the concept of ideas and innovation, attendees will experience the relationship between entrepreneurship and innovation in the keynote presentations, panels, workshops, fast-pitch competition and networking opportunities. The event unites students, alumni, business executives, and entrepreneurs for a full day packed with valuable business insights.

The conference is this Friday, May 9th, so sign up today using code MASHEAC for $20 off.

---

© Tamar Weinberg for Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us digg
Who's linking ? Technorati BlogPulse Google
Want more on these topics ? Browse the archive of posts filed under Events.

---
Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:

Facebook Gives Away $37,500
FOWA Conference: 10% off for Mashable Readers Plus Two FREE Passes
Webby Award Creators Announce New Conference
StartupWear: Because There Are 5x More Entrepreneurs Than VCs
Politics Online Conference 2008: Mashable Readers Save $50
Web 2.0 Conference & Expo: Exclusive Discount for Mashable Readers
Save the Date (and Save) on the SanFran MusicTech Summit

Fresh off of their funding by Jeff Bezos last week, popular flash-based gaming site, Kongregate has decided to add a Facebook application to their arsenal.

Thus far the app only allows you to do things such as feature your high score on your profile, but down the road they are expecting to add the ability to play their games directly on the social network .  They will also be adding high score leader boards according to GigaOm that will allow you to compare your scores and results with all of your friends.

The app is live now, so get in now and start showing off your mad Flash-based game skills to all of your friends!

---

© Sean P. Aune for Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us digg
Who's linking ? Technorati BlogPulse Google
Want more on these topics ? Browse the archive of posts filed under News, facebook.

---
Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:

How To: Block Project Beacon
Clearspring Adds Facebook to Widget Distribution Options
Mochi Ads Gets $4 Million, Because Games Are Fun
Kongregate Announces Funding, Launches
Digg Launches a Facebook Application
ReverbNation Launches A Second Facebook App
Where I’ve Been Moves On–From Facebook to MySpace