Opening Night New Media Film Festival: Susan Johnston,Brett Stimely, Sally Kirkland, John Savage, Blanco Blanco, Tamara Henry
Mingle Media TV and Red Carpet Report host, JJ Snyder, were invited to come out and cover the 3rd Annual New Media Film Festival held at the Landmark Theatre in Los Angeles. This year the festival gave Ray Bradbury a Legend Award at the opening night ceremony.
The festival also screened 80 new media films from 14 countries and had a full day of panels with a roster that read like a who’s-who in new media, gaming and Hollywood and include multi-genre actors, writers, directors, producers from Web, TV, Movies, and Games. Follow the New Media Film Festival on Facebook at www.facebook.com/NewMediaFilmFestival or at their website at www.NewMediaFilmFestival.com.
For more of Mingle Media TV’s Red Carpet coverage visit our website and follow us on Twitter and Facebook here:
CEO and Executive Producer, Stephanie Piche, from Mingle Media TV moderated the 9:30 AM panel entitled “Web Series Superstars” and featured: • Jane Espenson: Hugo Award winner, Emmy-nominated Writer/Producer, Co-Creator Husbands Web Series • Gregory Storm: Writer’s Guild Nominated Screenwriter, Producer and director, Madison Avery Web Series • Steve Silverman: Award winning Writer, Director/Producer of the hit web series Pretty • Yuri Lowenthal: Executive Producer Shelf Life Web Series, Author
Online media and live web TV network company, Mingle Media TV, have announced that CEO, Stephanie Piche, will be moderating a panel on Wednesday June 13th at the 3rd Annual New Media Film Festival, which officially kicks off on Tuesday, June 12, 2012. This year’s festival will take place at the Landmark Theatre in Westwood, California. Mingle Media TV’s Red Carpet Report will also be covering the opening night Red Carpet LIVE streaming on Stickam.com.
The festival will be screening 80 New Media Films from 14 countries and have a full day of panels starting at 9:00 AM on Wednesday, June 13, 2012 that read like a who’s-who in new media, gaming and Hollywood and include multi-genre actors, writers, directors, producers from Web, TV, Movies, and Games.
CEO and Executive Producer, Stephanie Piche, from Mingle Media TV will be moderating the 9:30 AM panel entitled “Web Series Superstars” and will feature:
• Jane Espenson: Hugo Award winner, Emmy-nominated Writer/Producer, Co-Creator Husbands Web Series
• Gregory Storm: Writer’s Guild Nominated Screenwriter, Producer and director, Madison Avery Web Series
• Steve Silverman: Award winning Writer, Director/Producer of the hit web series Pretty
• Yuri Lowenthal: Executive Producer Shelf Life Web Series, Author
“Interactive and New Media categories are now being recognized by traditional media as the new frontier and we are the pioneers helping passionate filmmakers have a voice,” said Stephanie Piche, CEO, Mingle Media TV.
Web Series Superstar Panel Bios
Stephanie Piche, MMTVN founder, is serial entrepreneur, marketing strategist and new media producer of Mingle Media TV Network, an online media and digital web TV network company producing and curating live and produced web series from in lifestyle and celebrity genres to science fiction and dramatic entertainment programming. Stephanie Piche has over 20 years experience in new media, producing, publishing and technology marketing as well as a deep experience in social media for content creators and publishers. Over the past four years Stephanie has been working very closely with indie digital filmmakers and live talk show hosts who create web series and streaming video content executive producing over 6,000 hours of long form content. She is the founder of Mingle Media TV, an online web TV network, is the co-host of the weekly chat on Twitter #WebSeriesChat, sponsor of the Audience Choice Awards for the New Media Film Festival, she’s also an advocate for indie TV and speaker at industry conferences like Digital Hollywood, LAWebFest, Web Series Network, and the WebTV Workshop’s web series “pro” panel.
Jane Espenson has worked on situation comedies, serial dramas and science fiction shows. She had a five-year stint as a writer and producer on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and shared a Hugo Award for her writing on the episode “Conversations with Dead People”. Between 2009-2010 she served on Caprica, as co-executive and executive producer for the television series. In 2010 she wrote an episode of HBO’s Game of Thrones, and joined the writing staff for season four of the television program Torchwood, which aired on Starz across Summer 2011 in the US. She co-wrote and executive produced the Emmy-nominated Battlestar webisodes and co-created SyFy’s Warehouse 13 and is a consulting producer and writer on ABC’s series Once Upon a Time. Jane has co-written and produced her first independent original web series with co-creator Brad Bell, entitled Husbands, which premiered at HusbandsTheSeries.com on Sept. 13, 2011.
Gregory Storm is a Writers Guild Award nominated screenwriter whose credits include writing for ABC, The CW, and creating original scripted series for the web. Gregory got his start in the entertainment business as an actor where he made his living guest starring on shows like NYPD BLUE, ER, numerous TV pilots, and feature films like COACH CARTER. His love of the creative process lead him to write and direct a few short films and a feature film that got the attention of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s PROJECT GREENLIGHT, where Gregory rose to become one of the Top 10 Directors. Gregory is currently developing a strong slate of television and brand-friendly web projects for his company, Storm Factory Entertainment. www.StormFactory.com
Steve Silverman is the critically-acclaimed, award-winning, Writer/Director/Producer of the hit web series, “Pretty,” the first – and only – web series to be invited by NATAS to have its own Emmy Panel Discussion at the Television Academy. “Pretty” has been honored with “Best Comedy Series” at the Indie Soap Awards, Groovy Awards, Indie Intertube Awards and by Chicago Now. Named “Best Comedy Writer” at this year’s Indie Intertube Awards, Steve is one of the “15 Most Fascinating People” on the web, according to WeLoveSoaps TV.
Yuri Lowenthal is an award-winning author, actor and producer, Lowenthal is also an international theatre performer and no stranger to the on-camera world: TV: with recurring roles on Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and The Gilmore Girls as well as appearances on Alias, Criminal Minds and Close To Home; Film: Van Von Hunter, In the Blink of an Eye, Death’s Door, andTumbling After – which he starred-in, wrote and produced with his partner-in-crime Tara Platt and their production company Monkey Kingdom Productions, and is available on iTunes/DVD. Keep an eye out for their second feature film, the mockumentary Con Artists, out later this year, and their irreverent web-series comedy Shelf Life, which is now heading into in its third season. For more information, please visitwww.YuriLowenthal.com, http://www.MonkeyKingdomProductions.com orhttp://www.ShelfLifeSeries.com. For fun, follow him on twitter (@yurilowenthal).
3rd Annual New Media
LIVE Streamed Opening Night Red Carpet
Watch the LIVE streamed Red Carpet from The Landmark Theatre starting at 7:00 PM PT on the Mingle Media TV Network Tuesday night at http://www.minglemediatv.com/specialevents.html. To watch the live stream on your computer – go to http://www.MingleMediaTV.com/SpecialEvents.html where the stream will be shown – you can log in with your twitter, facebook or other social network to chat in the chat room.You can also watch the LIVE stream from your iPad/Tablet or Smartphone by getting the FREE “STICKAM” APP and at the time we go live search for “MMTVN” to find the live stream.
Online media and live web TV network company, Mingle Media TV, have announced the winners of the “Audience Choice” online voting category in the 3rd Annual New Media Film Festival, which officially kicks off on Tuesday, June 12, 2012. This year’s festival will take place at the Landmark Theatre in Westwood, California. Mingle Media TV’s Red Carpet Report will also be covering the opening night Red Carpet LIVE streaming on Stickam.com and Mingle Media TV’s site and their CEO will be moderating a panel on Wednesday.The winners of the Audience Choice Awards, where viewers online vote for their favorite web series for this year are:
1st Place: Almost a Turkish Soap Opera
2nd Place: Men e Men TV
3rd Place: Up Up Down Down, The Series
Winner of the Audience Choice Awards: Almost a Turkish Soap Opera
The festival will be screening 80 New Media Films from 14 countries and have a full day of panels starting at 9:00 AM on Wednesday, June 13, 2012 that read like a who’s-who in new media, gaming and Hollywood and include multi-genre actors, writers, directors, producers from Web, TV, Movies, and Games.
LIVE Streamed Opening Night Red Carpet
Watch the LIVE streamed Red Carpet from The Landmark Theatre starting at 7:00 PM PT on the Mingle Media TV Network Tuesday night at http://www.minglemediatv.com/specialevents.html. To watch the live stream on your computer – go to http://www.MingleMediaTV.com/SpecialEvents.html where the stream will be shown – you can log in with your twitter, facebook or other social network to chat in the chat room.You can also watch the LIVE stream from your iPad/Tablet or Smartphone by getting the FREE “STICKAM” APP and at the time we go live search for “MMTVN” to find the live stream.
MMTVN expands Audience Choice category sponsorship in the New Media Film Festival 2012, for web series, live stream, and trailers. Online voting by fans will create additional buzz to support new media filmmakers and independent content creators.
Online media and live web TV network company; Mingle Media.TV announced today that they will be expanding the categories that they sponsor for the “Audience Choice” category in the New Media Film Festival. The new categories “trailers” and “live stream web shows” will join the “web series” category and will benefit from online promotion, visibility to distributors, prizes totally over $5,000 as well as the opportunity to have their project selected to screen at the 2012 New Media Film Festival.
The New Media Film Festival brings together Industry Professionals and Content Creators across Film, TV, Games, Publishing, Mobile, Web, and Tech. The two-day event features the Best of New Media and includes Short Films, Mobile, Games, Web, iApps, Animation, Music Videos, Digital Comics, Web Series, Live Stream, Technology Platforms, and New Film Technologies. Screenings include Sundance, Cannes, and World Premieres as well as the best talent working in new media.
“We’re excited to support the New Media Film Festival by sponsoring the “Audience Choice” category for these three areas of growth.” Said Stephanie Piche, Executive Producer, Mingle Media TV. “With more and more independent digital film makers creating projects, we wanted to showcase their work through the online voting to help them gain exposure and find new fans.”
Call for Entries: New Media Film Festival
The New Media Film Festival is now accepting entries for the June 2012 Festival including the Mingle Media TV “Audience Choice” sponsorship.
The “Audience Choice” categories invite web series and LIVE stream video creators who have three or more episodes, less than 60 minutes in length to submit their project in the following unscripted and scripted genres: Action/Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Documentary, Drama, Horror, Music/Performing Arts, Mystery, Romance, Sci-Fi, Special Interest, Sport/Fitness, and War. Filmmakers can also submit a pilot or trailer that is under 3 minutes in length to the competition. The audience gets to vote online for their favorite submissions in two rounds of voting before the winners are selected. The Grand Prize winners will be announced at the New Media Film Festival in Los Angeles, 2012. For more details, please visit: http://www.minglemediatv.com/NMFFAudienceChoice.html.
Mingle Media TV currently broadcasts over 100 live and episodic web TV interactive programs each week. MMTVN has produced over 6,000 hours of live stream interactive talk shows where audience members can interact with hosts and viewers online or via mobile devices. Show sponsors and advertisers benefit from an integrated ad approach, where the hosts talk about products, which later become meta-tagged content on the Internet within social networks as part of their sponsorship.
About New Media Film Festival
The New Media Film Festival brings together Industry Professionals and Content Creators across Film, TV, Games, Publishing, Mobile, Web and Tech. Founded by Independent Filmmaker, Susan Johnston and launching in Los Angeles, June 2010, the three-day event features the Best of New Media and includes Short Film, Mobile, Games, Web, iApps, Animation, Technology Platforms, and New Film Technologies. New Media Film Festival-SF Bay Area is produced in partnership with Producers Guild of America, NATPE, IAWTV, and San Francisco Writers Conference. New Media Film Festival (San Francisco and Los Angeles) are currently accepting submissions athttp://www.NewMediaFilmFestival.com. For more information about the Festival and/or sponsorships, please contact Susan Johnston, the Founder, and Director of the New Media Film Festival, at 310-288-1100 or info@NewMediaFilmFestival.com
About Mingle Media TV Network
MMTVN is an online media and interactive web TV network that executive produces, curates, and broadcasts 100 weekly web series shows along with entertainment industry event coverage. Our video coverage, web series and live broadcasts are promoted via Twitter, blog posts, Facebook and other popular social networks; in addition to airing live on the iPhone, Blackberry, and Android platforms and syndicated through Blip.TV and over 15 syndication sites including AOL Video, YouTube, Samsung, Vizio, MeeFeedia, Blinkx, Daily Motion, Boxee, Roku and as an iTunes podcast. Our audience reach online is over 250,000 weekly views of our video coverage, web series and live broadcasts and are currently in the top 20,000 websites in the US. MMTVN’s live web TV shows feature lifestyle subject matter experts and social media content providers from celebrities, authors to bloggers including executive producing two shows with Emmy award winners. MMTVN has expanded its curation of web series with a growing number of independently produced shows from science fiction to drama, action to teen soaps now playing on the network. In addition to curating produced webseries, MMTVN is promoting and securing sponsors for INDIE creators. MMTVN also covers Hollywood celebrity and charity events from the red carpet and behind the scenes. MMTVN has covered the Oscars on the Red Carpet along with Golden Globes, IPTVFest, HollyShorts, LA Shorts Fest, AOF Fest, Daytime Emmys, Saturn Awards, Streamy Awards, People’s Choice, NAACP, SAG , plus numerous Web Series Premieres and A-list Celebrity Fundraisers. Mingle Media TV is also sponsoring the Audience Choice Category in the New Media Film Festival for Web Series Creators. For more information, please visithttp://www.minglemediatvnetwork.com.
Mingle Media TV Network and MMTVN Productions are proud to announce the LIVE streaming schedule for the 2nd Annual New Media Film Festival at the Los Angeles Film School.
LIVE Streaming Schedule for the New Media Film Festival
In 3D: Linkin Park, Hubble Telescope, Edwin Abbot’s Flatland-Martin Sheen & Kristen Bell, Harold Lloyd’s Safety Last screen at 2nd Annual New Media Film Festival 2011
New Media Film Festival honors stories worth telling this weekend with an array of screenings in New Media platforms which include Oscar, Grammy, Golden Globe, Sundance Winners and Noms.
This year’s program includes film starring actors Jason Alexander, Sally Kirkland and Sid Ganis in the 35mm Los Angeles Premiere of NOT YOUR TIME (Jay Kamen Productions), along with Martin Sheen, Kristen Bell, and Will Wallace starring in the preview of FLATLAND: SEARCH FOR THE THIRD DIMENSION in 3D, the World Premiere of STAYCATION U.S.A. 3D (directed by Ned Wiseman), THE PHYSICS OF SURFING 3D (Passmore Labs), and absolutely stunning images
from the Hubble Telescope and Casini Mission in COSMIC JOURNEY 3D.
Watch content from Webseries Superstar Creators Dane Boe, John Frank Rosenblum, Freddie Wong moderated by Frank Chindamo. Listen and learn from an exclusive discussion with the experts on Distribution, Social Media, and Incremental Monetization with CEO Logan Mulvey from GoDigital, Paul Wagner 8-time Emmy Winner re: Fred Silvermans’ Gabcast.tv, Stephanie Piche CEO of Mingle Media TV Network re: Live Stream & The Biz of Webseries, Mike Rubsamen Director of Digital Distribution moderated by Susan Johnston CEO of award winning Select Services Films.
The 2nd Annual New Media Film Festival is being held at Los Angeles Film School, (6363 Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood, CA 90028) May 20-21, 2011, and will award over $12,000 in prizes this Sat. May 21st 2011
Judges from Pixar, UTA & Industrial Light & Magic, moderators Charlotte Huggins (Journey To The Center Of The Earth), Alison Savitch (Bangkok Dangerous), and Jeanette DePatie along with Interviewer Joshua J. Stecker (Script Magazine) join programming of films from around the world and will include World, North American, and Los Angeles Premieres.
New Media FIlm Festival shows content in categories include 3D, Apps, Animation, Digital Comics, Shot on RED, Docs, SRC-Socially Responsible Content, LGBT, Webseries, Mobile, Features, Shorts & Music Videos.
We are excited that this year’s online competition is winding down and at midnight tonight the voting ends… which means that there is about 5.5 hours left to watch and vote for your favorite series. You only get to vote ONE time per series… and you can even discover some treasures here in this competition that you’ll want to share with your friends and family too. I know we have – it’s been a great pleasure to support the web series community with this competition as part of the New Media Film Festival! Winners will be announced LIVE on 5/20 from the Red Carpet at the Festival!
With that said – here are the finalists that need your votes NOW:
There are many things that helped the finalists get their fans to vote for them… the following list are a few things that everyone who creates content for the web should be doing – not just for competitions but for views / audience and community building:
Twitter:
Follow people back (you don’t have to follow MLM, #TeamFollowBack or other “self-proclaimed Social Media Experts but definitely industry people)
Thank people for following you, introduce yourself, start a convo
ReTWEET people who promote you (there’s nothing worse than having someone tweet your promo to vote for you and you don’t thank them or RETWEET the message in honor of them)
Support your fellow creator – RETWEET their series announcements
Links matter – tweet YOUR series link in your tweets – use a shortener to get it all in 140 characters
Facebook:
Post your episodes, community activities (other creators) and info related to the industry on your page – it’s not all about you, sharing is caring
Link to your content on other sites
Embed videos so people can watch while on Facebook
LIKE other creator’s pages – help them get the word out and they will respond in kind
Blog Posts:
Start a blog and write a post a week telling your fan base what you’re doing
Embed an episode and tell the back story about the episode or interesting fact
Ask your fans what they liked or didn’t like about it
YouTube
Use META TAGS, keywords to keep your content together on the page
YouTube will bring up other similar content from other people if you don’t
Keep your titles uniform and add a description with links back to your site, twitter, facebook so people can find you
Use annotations and create hotspots with links as a call to action
If you are creating for the Interwebs and are NOT building fans or community, ask yourself why not…. are you doing the above? If you are and still not getting anywhere… it’s time to ask a professional how to change things up for you.
Who
2nd Annual New Media Film Festival featuring the best creative content crossing screens from silver to mobile. The New Media Film Festival is an IMDb qualifier festival helping filmmakers with distribution, monetization and exposure to a wider audience while being judged by top industry leaders.
What
The 2nd Annual New Media Film Festival has over $12,000 in prizes and a wide variety of categories for filmmakers to submit to, the Festival highlights the winners in a “Best of” tour while curating their content for future reference and other opportunities. Industry support for the festival include entertainment and technology professionals from Industrial Light & Magic, Pixar, Summit Entertainment, and United Talent Agency to name a few.
Opening night of the festival on Friday will include a Red Carpet LIVE streamed on STICKAM.com produced and hosted by Mingle Media TV Network along with 3D Opening Night Screenings Presented by PGA New Media Council & International 3D Society. Saturday’s festival events will include industry panels and screenings from Apps, Digital Comics, Animation, Web Series, Documentaries, Shorts, LGBT, Shot on Red, Music Videos, Socially Responsible Content and closing night events and screenings.
Where
Los Angeles Film School | 6363 Sunset Boulevard | Hollywood, CA 90028 www.lafilm.edu (877) 952-3456
When
Friday, May 20th 2011
6:00 PM Red Carpet Starts
7:00 PM 3D Opening Night Screenings
Saturday, May 21st 2011
9:30 AM Opening
8:45 PM Closing Feature Film
10:30 PM Awards Ceremony
One thing we want to share as you review the finalists is the date they entered the competition for votes – it didn’t matter if it was 2 days before voting ended or six months, they got their fan-base to support them. We did end up with 21 finalists as there was a tie for 20th place.
Congrats to all finalists and to everyone who entered the competition – please be sure to grab your laurels for your site to promote your involvement in this festival.
Click here to VOTE for the 21 Finalists in the #AudienceChoice Awards
Webseries Entry
Votes
Voting Started
Travel Companions
4289
08-Feb-2011
The Unemployment of Danny London
629
24-Sep-2010
Crossing Blood Lines
396
29-Jan-2011
Lien on Me
343
24-Sep-2010
Masculathon
298
27-Mar-2011
Oblivion
239
24-Sep-2010
Illegal
228
24-Sep-2010
Looking at You
224
20-Feb-2011
Secret Millionaires
189
24-Sep-2010
CYPHERS
177
24-Sep-2010
The R.I.P. Files
172
12-Feb-2011
Shes Just Not That Into You
168
12-Mar-2011
Inappropriate Fairy Tales
141
24-Sep-2010
World of Holly Woodlands
136
28-Apr-2011
Miss Behave
133
08-Feb-2011
Asylum Web Series
132
28-Jan-2011
Sweet Tarts Take Away
129
09-Apr-2011
Naomi: The Show
115
28-Jan-2011
McCracken LIVE!
115
04-Jan-2011
The Puzzle Makers Son
113
24-Sep-2010
Cupid and Eros
113
28-Apr-2011
Tips for Final Voting Success:
There are many things that helped the finalists get their fans to vote for them… the following list are a few things that everyone who creates content for the web should be doing – not just for competitions but for views / audience and community building:
Twitter:
Follow people back (you don’t have to follow MLM, #TeamFollowBack or other “self-proclaimed Social Media Experts but definitely industry people)
Thank people for following you, introduce yourself, start a convo
ReTWEET people who promote you (there’s nothing worse than having someone tweet your promo to vote for you and you don’t thank them or RETWEET the message in honor of them)
Support your fellow creator – RETWEET their series announcements
Links matter – tweet YOUR series link in your tweets – use a shortener to get it all in 140 characters
Facebook:
Post your episodes, community activities (other creators) and info related to the industry on your page – it’s not all about you, sharing is caring
Link to your content on other sites
Embed videos so people can watch while on Facebook
LIKE other creator’s pages – help them get the word out and they will respond in kind
Blog Posts:
Start a blog and write a post a week telling your fan base what you’re doing
Embed an episode and tell the back story about the episode or interesting fact
Ask your fans what they liked or didn’t like about it
YouTube
Use META TAGS, keywords to keep your content together on the page
YouTube will bring up other similar content from other people if you don’t
Keep your titles uniform and add a description with links back to your site, twitter, facebook so people can find you
Use annotations and create hotspots with links as a call to action
If you are creating for the Interwebs and are NOT building fans or community, ask yourself why not…. are you doing the above? If you are and still not getting anywhere… it’s time to ask a professional how to change things up for you.
Mingle Media TV Network is a member of the online web series community. We support web series, produced, live and have our entertainment reporting division where we cover festivals, red carpets, premiere’s and so on. We have grown our community online to support creators and we co-host weekly #WebSeriesChat with @Slebisodes and we participate in seminars and events held by WebSeriesNetwork.
We have LIVE web talk shows that are in their second year of production with a huge online audience and national sponsors. We are working with and will be rolling out a new program for web series producers to help them build and fund their series later this spring.
What we don’t do is TAKE your content off the web and promote it to bring traffic to our site. We ask you if we can host your series (curate it) we add you to our site, roster, and tweet your series out on a regular basis while exposing you to the daily traffic that come to our live, lifestyle talk shows and red carpet report. We create a branded page for YOUR series, we have links back to your blog, website, twitter and Facebook accounts and we even have Clicker.com check-in so people watching can share your show online. We do NOT put advertising on the content we feed to your show page and you do get those views in your YouTube channel from our site. Win-Win. As we expand our network and roll out our new program for web series creators this will be even more exciting as we want to help build visibility for your work and help you on the business side of the equation.
Mingle Media TV Network also sponsors the Audience Choice Awards for the New Media Film Festival… helping get more visibility for your series during the season leading up to the Festival event held in May in Los Angeles and their sister event in San Francisco in November. The festival also has monetization programs based on your content and the opportunities available.
Why am I writing this?
Today, I saw a tweet that followed the announcement of a partnership between Tubefilter and Sidereel.com. You can read about the community feedback regarding this topic on WebSeriesNetwork by clicking here. I’m not going to rehash that conversation here, what I am going to offer up is the BUSINESS side – reality of what is going on as I have heard many of you not understanding the impact to the community i.e. those out there like Mingle Media TV (using the example from today).
Side Reel Tweet - Tubefilter Partner - LINK BAIT
I saw this Tweet a few hours ago… we had 7 LIVE web shows during the past 5 hours so I was a little distracted and now am writing this post and what it means to me.
Mingle Media TV is a BRAND – it is one that we work very hard on developing… we do not endorse SideReel.com nor were we asked to offer our curated content to their site. Why would we? We curate, create, produce and promote content on our site we work long hours and support a community and now SideReel.com is taking our BRAND name and lending it to LINK BAIT (a method to grow traffic to your site using topics that “catch people’s attention”).
Who gets paid? Not Mingle Media TV Network – and not the content creator.
Did that wake you up? Yes, SideReel.com’s Tweet above using MY BRAND to get you to click on their link to their website landing page where TUBEFILTER’s brand was posted in a widget scrolling their feed but no where did you find MY BRAND or MyDamnChannel’s brand. What you did see if you scrolled down further on the page were the thumbnails to the shows that Tubefilter recommends from content on Mingle Media TV and MyDamnChannel. So who did the work to originally contact the CREATOR and get their permission to be on MMTVN? We did.
What’s on the page you linked to from the TWEET? Several display ads. Nothing to watch but then you click on the thumbnail and go to another page with several display ads and the web series. Of course, they have to pay for their site and the “SideReelAdam” Twitter person who link baits you to the site. But are they paying the creator? What deal do they have? Is this how SideReel.com and Tubefilter are supporting webseries? Linkbaits and content farms?
Here’s more of the business side of why this has irritated me and why YOU should also be concerned:
Last week, Google made a massive change to its index, known as the Farmer Update, which affected more than 12% of US search queries. Startup and small business that depend on search engine traffic to thrive and grow might notice some key changes as a result of the Google change:
Your rankings may have dropped
You may notice decreasing traffic from shorter phrases
You may notice your marketing efforts yielding diminishing returns
Who is Google Targeting?
Content Farm Examples: Demand Media, eHow, Huffington Post, Mahalo
Scraper Website Examples: Websites which scrape or steal content from other sites and then repost it — HMM, SideReel.com?
What does this mean? I’m putting on my propeller hat for this next section.
Search engines want to serve up quality, relevant search results. If you are competing with sites that use YOUR content without links back to YOU they are NOT building your brand, but using it to build theirs. Unless they are revenue sharing with you and you agree to it – you are getting ripped off. Google is taking steps to block or push back these sites so YOUR relevant content shows up on searches. For every site that has YOUR content and no reference back to help YOU build your audience and fan base, you are not #Winning (thanks Charlie Sheen for inspiring the right #word here). There are work arounds to everything and believe me – content farms and scraper sites are not your friends and they will keep changing things around. They have LOTS of ads and link bait people into clicking on an average of six (6) pages for every — ChaChing. Your page, not so much. No links back to your website, facebook, blog, twitter and no revenue share.
What should you do? Well, it doesn’t hurt that your content is being watched but you are not building an audience by linking to them and talking to them using Facebook, Twitter, your blog are you? Were you contacted and asked permission to have your content posted on their site? Are they displaying advertising on the pages to get to your content and NOT sharing that revenue with you? It’s up to you. Are you in this to partner with sites that promote you and do so without making money on your content without a revenue sharing model in place?
One more thing to think about, a Facebook fan is worth $136 on average. If people watch your content on scraper sites and LIKE them, and never know how to “like you” you are losing valuable fans and commerce for sponsorships. As I mentioned above, we will be rolling out a new, exciting program for web series creators who want to make this a business and are members of the MMTVN community. Conversely, banner ads serve up about $3-$10 per thousand views so these content farms and scraper sites need to have people click on 5-6 pages to get to the content they seek so they can serve up 5-6 ads per page x 6 pages (36 ads on average per visit – doesn’t make it hard to have millions of ads served up and paid to them when they link bait and have thousands of key-worded pages for people to click around on – and before you know it no one will see your content there because there is so much on that site it gets buried – so what is the value to you?).
MMTVN is not making money off of content creators on our site by doing this practice, it is not our business model, our focus is to help you build your brand and business… the business of entertainment. Feel free to comment or email me directly with any further questions.
– Stephanie, Executive Producer / CEO, Mingle Media TV Network
With more and more children joining us online, it’s important for parents to be mindful of where their children go to view and interact with content. That’s why we were excited to host the webseries, Ruby Skye P.I. on our growing network of online content.
Ruby Skye P.I. was designed to be a safe and fun web series for today’s digital tween. Think Nancy Drew meets the Internet bringing mystery and adventure into the story with Ruby and her friends. The episodes are not as long as on TV but each one has a different “theme” and is smartly done by master story-tellers Julie Strassman-Cohn and Jill Gollick.
For those parents of tweens and teens out there, we’re sure you (and your kids) can relate to Ruby, curious and determined to solve mysteries. For this series the clues are hilarious and intriguing, missing birthday brownies, underfed fake pets and so on. Each episode ends with a cliffhanger, spurring imagination to take hold with the audience. Of course, if your tween wants to get creative and solve mysteries around your house after watching this fun series, be sure to give them a video camera and have them create their own story. We think this series will inspire those budding actors and directors out there to create their own magic. Be sure to stay tuned to more updates on Ruby Skye P.I. as we’ll be hosting some live shows with the creators so your kids can meet and talk to the team behind this web TV series.
Take a minute to meet Ruby Skye P.I. in this behind the scenes look at this series:
Now that you’ve met Ruby, we’d like to share this mother-approved web series playing here on Mingle Media TV (click to go to the show page). We hope you’ll be a fan of Ruby Skye P.I. and share it with your friends too.
Ruby Skye P.I. – a digital detective series for tweens – is a production of Story2.OH and is produced with the participation of The Independent Production Fund, and the generous support of our sponsors in corporate Canada, local small businesses, organizations and the creative contributions of many, many independent film, video & digital artists. These include: Berman & Co. The Dragon Academy, Eastern Script Inc., Steven Golick at Osler, Polaroid, Post City Sound, PS Production Services, Rocket Science VFX, TEACH Magazine, Fat Cat Wine Bar, The Big Chill, Believerville Productions, Choroid Films, Inkling Entertainment Inc., Montefiore Films, Brendan Meadows Photography Inc., Richard Maslove Music, Film & Event Solutions, Total Two-Way – Motorola, Trew Audio, Office Coffee Solutions.
Mingle Media TV Network 