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I had a conversation a few days ago with a friend who asked me what I thought about blogging / podcasting / creating video content, specifically as it pertains to viewership and even more specifically as it pertains to NUMBERS of viewers for content we post to the internet.

There’s a lot of talk amongst the social media set about numbers and views and influence and what makes content “worth” creating.

Unfortunately, all that talk about numbers assumes that people are equals, when we most clearly are not. o_O

Authorities & Audiences

Let’s say, for instance, that you have 100 Facebook Friends and they’re all people that you’ve grown up with or met IRL (in real life) that share no particular concentration in any industry. Let’s also say that *I* have 2,434 Facebook Friends and you and I happen not to share very many mutual friends… Logically, if I post something, it’s more likely to receive responses, hits, views, whatever, because my listening audience is immensely larger than yours.

Let’s take that same scenario and change how you created and cultivated your audience of 100 FB Friends… Let’s say that you were an expert in a particular field and the people you reached out to and also accepted FB friend invites from were all involved in or interested in your chosen profession. Let’s say you had conversations with this specialized audience and they recognized you as an authority.. Someone who was known to have interesting, important & relevant things to say and similarly useful links to share.

NOW.. If you and I post about the same information at the same time, except it happens to be along the lines that you and your friends normally kick it about, my larger population is trumped by your way smaller one because your readers are PASSIONATE about your content and mine are not.

On top of that.. All this numbers-talk only takes into account first-tier connections. If my Twitter fanbase is 10 people, except one of those 10 people following me has 60,000 followers, I might not directly have a large audience, but someone following me might. Similarly.. If I have 10 and one of my ten followers has 10 and one of her ten followers has 10 and one of his ten followers has 1,000,000… You get the picture, so there’s no actual telling who’s going to receive wider distribution when they output content.

So.. Unless your ability to pay rent depends on how many readers/viewers you have, don’t worry about it. The number is entirely irrelevant unless you can make money by serving ads to those people. You might ask yourself what the point is of creating content if there aren’t going to be very many people watching…

Content For Whom?

First of all, you want to create content FOR YOURSELF.

Back in the day, when I was trying to decide what I wanted to blog about, my friend Penelope Trunk told me (paraphrasing) “You should blog about what you’re passionate about… or else you’re going to stop doing it”. That had to be THE most important thing I’ve ever heard about blogging and it’s absolutely true. I’m writing this post right this very second because I FEEL LIKE IT, and for no other reason. I’m enjoying thinking about it. I’m enjoying writing it. I’m going to enjoy posting it and receiving feedback about it. :D

Second, you want to create content for your Passionate Viewers.

Again, back in the day… I was discussing the creation and production of web shows with my friend Drew Olanoff and he told me his opinions about views vs viewERs. Basically, my experience up until that point had been with the technical side of creating videos and I had had little-to-no interaction with end-users, viewers that weren’t my personal friends, and certainly not entire communities of people who interact with each other based on a common love of or respect for a show.

Paraphrasing Drew’s point.. He felt that it was better to focus on your small amount of Passionate Viewers than to attempt to cater to a potentially way larger number of people that might drop by your show, watch an episode or two and bounce.

At the time, I didn’t understand why that would be, but I was willing to consider the theory. I eventually agreed entirely when my own shows & blogs gained an expanded audience and I got to experience the differences between the groups firsthand.

My stats have pretty consistently looked like this for the past few years.

93% Passers-By and 7% Regulars… Except the Regulars make up 17% of my visits.

I would certainly rather keep my current percentage of Regulars than increase my numbers of Passers-By at the expense of some of my Passionate Readers/Viewers.

While it would be nice to keep the current Regulars and convert some of the Passers-By into still more Regulars, I like to think about blogging relative to real life instead of relative to other, immensely more popular blogs.

Subscribers, Commenters, Lurkers & Passers-By

I currently have 118 people who subscribe to BillCammack.com by email. If you think about that… When was the last time that you gathered 118 people somewhere so they could listen to something you said? o_O … Probably “Never”, because I know that’s the answer for me.

So, each one of y’all 118 people, I appreciate you for tuning in. :) Thank You, and I try to keep things interesting around here. ;)

My actual subscriber number currently reads 244, because they add in people who subscribe via RSS and receive my blog articles in their feed readers. I’m sure a number of those are “bots” (robots, automated computer processes), but for those of y’all that are real people, Thanks for subscribing! :D

Even amongst subscribers, you have Lurkers, who read the articles but don’t comment directly on my blog. That doesn’t mean they aren’t sharing my posts with other people and discussing my ideas on other social networking sites & forums. I’m happy about that as well, because I don’t blog so people can come to my site. I blog because I feel like it and if someone else gets something out of it, that’s icing on the cake. If someone finds what I write to be entertaining, educational or useful, even better! :D

Then, You have the behind-the-scenes commenters.. The people that strike up conversations with me about my content when we run into each other at parties. The people that email or DM me to let me know what’s going on with them or that they enjoyed a particular post. It’s always gratifying to hear that someone got something out of an article I didn’t even have to write. It’s like when I happen to walk down a street or get into a particular subway car and tourists ask me for directions. I just happened to be there to point them in the right direction, and that’s always a good feeling.

The top level is the online commenters! :D .. I shouted out many of them 10 months ago in my last post of 2009: billcammack.com/2009/12/31/world-in-my-eyes-happy-new-year.

It’s the commenters that make my blog a community instead of a bunch of speeches by Bill Cammack. Lots of times, readers get more out of what the commenters share than what I initially posted!… I learn stuff from them also and I’m open to changing directions if someone has a convincing argument that things are actually different than I currently believe them to be.

So.. Thanks again, commenters! :D .. We almost have another full year together under our belts! :D

How Many Do You Need?

The way I see it, from my personal experience with online communities between 2006 and 2010, the only people you should be concerned with if you’re thinking about starting a blog or podcast or web series are 1) YOURSELF, and 2) the people who are genuinely interested in what you’re talking about and are willing to read, listen, watch and maybe even join in the conversation.

If that’s 100,000 people?… Fine… However, it’s ALSO fine if it’s 10 people.. five of whom are related to you. :)

If you feel like you NEED a bunch of people to consistently watch your show and click on your advertisements or else you’re not going to be able to MAKE your show, you have the wrong business model. Do it cheaper. Use fewer graphics. Spend fewer hours creating it. Edit it less. Use a webcam instead of a video camera. Output once a week instead of once a day. Output once a month instead of once a week. If you have something you want to express, just figure out how to do it within your budget & time constraints and make it happen!

In fact.. Sometimes, I’ll write an entire blog post or make a video just so ONE PERSON can see it (or maybe a specific, small set of people). In those cases, if 1,000 people watch the video and the person/people I made it for didn’t, I wasn’t successful in communicating my expression to them.

OTOH.. If 10 people watch a video and I know that the three people I made it for saw it?… Mission Accomplished! :D

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If you’re going to make television shows, or at this point, shows for the web… SOMEBODY on your team needs to KNOW. HOW. TO. MAKE. TELEVISION. SHOWS!!! :/

If you cut this corner, your productions will look like trash, and deservedly so. Now you can’t say no one ever told you.

I was minding my business one day and got a call from some so-called television production company to come in and interview with them to create a pilot for this show they were trying to sell. They had received my name from someone I had worked with before, so I decided (against my better judgement, haha) to go see what they wanted.

This was back in the day, so I show up to this so-called television production company with tapes. Beta tapes & 3/4″, just in case they were so primitive as to still be using 3/4″. Of course, it turns out that they had NEITHER. No Beta Decks in-house and No 3/4″ decks. So, that was that for my demo materials. Of course, at this point in time, my demo reel is right here on my site ===> (see sidebar), and companies are encouraged to check it out before wasting my time.

So then, this guy, who, by the way had ZERO air about him of knowing ANYTHING about television production… I’m guessing he was actually a secretary or assistant producer or something and that the people that actually know what they’re talking about weren’t there… This guy asks me if I’ve ever edited a reality show before.

Suppressing the instinct to ask “HAVE *YOU*???”, I eventually said “No, but I’ve seen a bunch of them and I know the formula”. I then proceeded to recite the formula to him. During the process, I happened to mention “confessionals”, made popular by MTV’s “Real World” series. When I said that word… “confessionals”… the guy choked up. Like he looked like he stopped breathing, like someone had suddenly grabbed his throat. So I go “You DID shoot confessionals… right?”… Then the guy looks all embarrassed and admits that they didn’t.

This is where I got REALLY suspicious, because television production is “garbage in, garbage out”. You can’t make up for footage people never shot, especially when you only had access to the people in your “reality” show for a small amount of time and they’re GONE NOW.

So anyway, I chatted with the guy for a while longer, then he said something to the effect of “I’ll let you know”, but he wasn’t even good at playing THAT off. Suppressing the instinct to say “Dude. Why don’t you just stop lying. You don’t want me to work on your so-called show”, I acted like I was going to expect his call, smiled, shook his hand and left.

Obviously, what was going on there was that these people had NO IDEA what they were doing and were looking to hire an editor to save the day and make something out of their NOTHING footage. That’s all well and good, and I’m sure they found someone. The problem with that secretary-dude’s line of questioning was that it’s not MY JOB to create the show. It’s MY JOB to do what the PRODUCER tells me to do. It’s the producer’s job to do what the EXECUTIVE PRODUCER tells him or her to do.

In general, the EP is the person who signs off on the final product. The EP knows what the standards are and whether what you’ve created is good enough to go on the air. The producer knows how the company likes their shows done, so it’s up to THE PRODUCER to determine how the show flows by going through the raw footage, selecting sound bites and video and putting them in an order that a) makes sense and b) is interesting to the viewer.

While it’s possible for the EP and the producer to be the same person, SOMEONE has to be in charge of both stations. Someone has to be the last word when it comes to quality control and someone has to be the person to determine the flow of the show. If it’s not the same person, the producer needs to have a very good idea of how the EP likes things or every time your video goes up for review, there are going to be changes. This is a waste of your time as well as your money if you’re hiring a freelance editor. If you’re working with a salaried staffer, feel free to waste time.

If you don’t have these bases covered, you end up with the blind leading the blind. You have people who have NO IDEA what elements create a good television show signing off on work that people who have NO IDEA how to make a good show created. This becomes obvious when it’s time for the average joe to sit down in front of the television (or at this point, their computer) and watch your product. Here are some of the problems you will experience:

Nothing of interest happening in your show

It’s the EP’s job to tell you that nothing’s happening in your show, that it’s boring and it needs to be fixed in order for it to be successful on television. The producer needs to pick up on this information and make it part of their mental database so they stop making the same mistakes in the future. The EP can’t afford to let a boring show go out the door, because if people don’t care what happened this week, they won’t be back next week. When people don’t come back, your ratings drop. When your ratings drop, you get cancelled. When you get cancelled, people get fired.

No story arc

The story arc is the reason people stay tuned (other than character development). There has to be a reason.. Something people are looking forward to seeing, or something that they are hoping the characters are going to avoid. Without a story arc, there’s no tension. Without tension, you can’t hold a viewer’s interest. It just doesn’t matter whether they see the rest of your show or the next episode because they’re not emotionally invested in the outcome of your show.

No good cliffhangers leading to the commercial breaks

The only thing that’s going to keep people from changing the channel during commercials is that you’ve set up something that they don’t want to miss. This is basically the same as story arc, but much more short-term. There might be 4 or 5 segments to a show. You don’t want to end your segments on a flat note, because that’s how many opportunities people will have to YAWN, change the channel and get involved with some other show that captures their attention.

No interesting character development

If you have someone that’s interesting, make them one of the main focal points of the show. If you have people that are NOT interesting, play them off to the side or preferably to the BACK, if not out of the show ENTIRELY! If you have interesting people doing uninteresting things, cut those parts out of your show.

If you don’t develop your characters, nobody will be emotionally invested in what happens to them, which means they won’t care about your cliffhangers, story arc or anything else. This is something that’s normally dealt with in the pilot stage, and lack of interesting characters plus potential for their development via interesting scenarios usually results in a “Pass”, meaning “Thanks, but No Thanks” and you get sent back the drawing board to dust yourself off and try again.

No passionate viewers / fanbase developed

If your show is wack, no community is going to develop around it. This means that you won’t have people DYING for next week to come around so they can see the next episode of Miami Vice (not the garbage movie… the really good television series). It’s your passionate viewers that will stop whatever they’re doing to go home and watch your show or make sure the bar turns it on. It’s your passionate viewers that make sure to DVR your show so they don’t miss out on the water-cooler talk the next day at work. It’s your passionate viewers that keep your ratings high so your advertisers feel like they’re getting their money’s worth…

No viral dissemination of information about your show

If your show is boring, there won’t be any buzz. There won’t be any Facebook groups made about it. It won’t be a trending topic on Twitter. Your website won’t have any comments on the posts. Nobody’s going to be telling anyone else about you, because everyone’s looking for something interesting. Nobody’s going to be blogging about your show on their sites. At this point in time, even a locally-based internet show can have fans all over the world. When your show is already garbage, it’s too late to convince people that it’s not. Make sure you hire someone that can tell you that this show isn’t good enough and can tell you how to make it acceptable if not EXCELLENT.

No advertiser, investor or sponsor interest

Without passionate viewers, community, viral dissemination or the appearance that you have any clue whatsoever about how to make a good televison/web show, you will either have ZERO advertiser/investor/sponsor interest from the giddyap, or if you had it when you started, you’ll lose it when it comes time for those people to renew their deals with you. This could be avoided, or at the very least, the chances of this minimized by hiring an EP with a reputation for quality programming. The EP is the General. People think that just because they have the money and paid to create the company that they should automatically have final say on what goes out the door. That’s called “hubris”. Get over yourself and do yourself the favor of hiring people that actually know what they’re doing when it comes to television. If you want to be successful, everyone needs to play their position. Your position might be getting money. Let someone else have the final say on whether your program’s “ready for prime time” or not.

These issues are normally dealt with at the pilot stage. If your pilot doesn’t convince people that you know how to make an interesting and well-received show, you normally don’t get a deal and get sent back to the drawing board. It’s similar to being a rapper. If you don’t have a good demo tape, nobody’s going to take the chance on you and pay for you to record “for real” in a studio.

This is why you want to hire an EP to let you know whether what you’ve produced is worth shopping or not. Believe me, it’s worth it to spend the money up front and save yourself the anguish and embarrassment of producing a show that everybody says sucks while you spend a small fortune producing something that never should have received a greenlight in the first place and simultaneously trash your so-called television production company’s reputation for quality and excellence in programming.

~ Bill Cammack
twitter.com/BillCammack
facebook.com/BillCammack

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Street Game Production Notes

I just completed a 5-part audio project entitled “Street Game”. The episodes are embedded here, in chronological order. Playing Episode 01 will play all five in order:

Frank, one of my top commenters on my DatingGenius dating blog was the inspiration for this particular project. I rarely find comments amusing, funny or progressive compared to what I personally know about “the game” (getting girls, whatever), but I found myself consistently laughing, learning and THINKING after I would read Frank’s comments on my blog posts. I was reminded of back in the day when my friends and I would spend hour upon hour kickin’ it about what we learned in the trenches with chicks, coming up with new techniques and throwing out techniques that TOTALLY didn’t produce for us! :D I wanted to bring the flavor of that to the net, and I got way more than I expected.

Part of the point of DatingGenius is to let women in on things that guys MIGHT be thinking about them so they have a better idea of what might have just happened to them in their relationships. I already know all this stuff, so there’s no benefit to *me* in telling YOU about it. If I just wanted to have fun conversations like I used to back in the day, I wouldn’t have bothered suggesting doing a podcast to Frank. I would have just talked, and none of youse would have ever heard any of this stuff. We’ve BARELY scratched the surface of topics to discuss, yet we’ve produced 68 minutes of content if you listen to Episodes 01 – 05 back to back.

I’m *VERY* happy with this project so far, and I never cease to get laughs from listening to the episodes, even though a) I was involved in the actual conversation and b) I was the one who had to edit them, so I’ve heard this material at least five times each. One of the things about editing is that the more you listen to something, the more you become immune to the events & punchlines. For some reason, that didn’t happen to me with this project. :D

Technical Issues

“Street Game” was recorded using Skype and a cell phone. I was on skype, using a microphone and Frank was on his phone. Being on the phone instead of sitting in front of a microphone caused two problems (which was my fault, because I was in such a rush to do this project that I selected this format).

#1, Recording this way meant that we had to rely upon the reception of the phone to provide a clear signal. Many times, a clear signal wasn’t present, and some of Frank’s comments were inaudible and I couldn’t retrieve them through editing.

#2, Not sitting in front of a mic meant that Frank’s volume levels were inconsistent, even if the signal itself was good. That was easily dealt with by normalizing the audio, but it’s not the optimum condition under which to record a podcast.

I would still record podcasts using this technique, however I’m aware now of the extra time that it adds between recording and posting the audio to the net. I’d rather avoid that extra time, but it’s completely manageable, and I’m 98% satisfied with the quality of the audio from Frank’s side.

From my side, I should have run my mic through my noise gate before recording it, but I didn’t have time to patch the gate in before recording. This was a project that I had discussed with Frank ahead of time, but the urge to make it happen appeared, I contacted him and ~ an hour later, we were starting the recording. That’s why I say I “didn’t” have time.

Since I didn’t use the noise gate, I had to use a software gate after the fact and also monitor the stream for areas where the gate didn’t catch random sounds/breaths/etc. Had I gated it properly from the giddyap, I could have skipped the noise reduction process as well as the normalization process. The gate would have handled the noise reduction and the compressor/limiter would have handled the volume peaks (making sure there wasn’t so much difference between the loudest and softest audio on my track).

Content

Content-wise, I didn’t take very much out of this conversation. Most of my edits were taking out extraneous noises and shortening distances between where one of us would finish a point and the other realized the point was made. The goal of this project was to give the listener a fly-on-the-wall perspective on a conversation between a couple of guys that felt they both had something to bring to the table as far as the dating scene.

The reason I felt this was unique was that most people don’t know what the hell they’re talking about and have ZERO real-life experience to back up their ideas. My experiences and Frank’s are in the same arena but from slightly different perspectives. I consider myself to be from the trenches, but I could tell from his comments on my blog that Frank was way further in the trenches towards the enemy lines… if not BEHIND ENEMY LINES, IN *THEIR* TRENCHES!!! hahaha :D I felt like I could learn things from listening to what he had to say, myself, and not only wasn’t I disappointed, as you can tell from the “tapes”, I had a mind-expanding experience, listening to what Frank was telling me.

This was not a “show”. This is why I didn’t bother to make intros or outtros or talk about websites or subscriptions or sponsors. I wanted to get the material out there for discussion/feedback and then decide which direction I wanted to go with audio. Also, the “Art” of the project includes what I chose to leave in the production, which is mostly everything. I took out some sections where I was trying to figure out what I was trying to say and going “um, well, you see, it’s like, well, what I mean is…”, but other than that, the conversation is mainly completely intact.

If you have feedback, positive or negative, please leave it in the comments below, as it will help me figure out what I want to do going forward in this medium. If you have specific comments about individual episodes, each one has its own entry @ billcammack.com/category/datinggenius/streetgame/, so feel free to click on the link and leave a comment there so we can have relevant discussions to each particular section.

Miscellaneous

One of the things I found about recording audio vs typing text is that without being able to see what you wrote, you can’t be sure of how much of your point you’ve expressed. This entire conversation was freestyle. Frank and I went from topic to topic, and for the most part, we were on exactly the same page. I realized, while editing “Episode 05: Who Should Pay For The Date?” that I made an error in expressing a point and Frank and I actually discussed two different topics simultaneously. :)

At 12:23, I talk about putting a gal in cab home after an evening together. What I failed to say was that I was talking about sending her home AFTER having a good time with her AFTER going to dinner. Since I didn’t say that, Frank rightfully felt like I was talking about the gal leaving directly from dinner. Interestingly enough, the same principles apply in both situations, but there’s an entirely different dynamic with a gal that’s interested in you and is at least emotionally intimate with you and at most physically intimate with you, and a gal that just showed up to get a free dinner and get tipsy off your dime.

I didn’t really understand some of his statements until my third or fourth time through the episode, where I realized he was talking about her leaving right after dinner. I left the conversation in, because it still works and it’s still relevant along the lines of that overall situation.

Also, any of y’all ladies that would like me to take you out to Wendy’s, let me know, so I can practice my menu lines! ;)

~Bill

Twitter: BillCammack
Facebook: Bill Cammack
DatingGenius Category: billcammack.com/category/datinggenius
Subscribe to DG!: feeds.feedburner.com/BillCammackDatingGenius
 

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One of the things that makes me who I am as a video editor is that I can visualize aspects of the project that haven’t occurred yet. When I see a scene or a picture, I know how it will work (if at all) with other footage I’ve seen. When I hear something, I know what I can use it for. Basically, I create the video while I’m reviewing the footage and then I basically trace what I already saw instead of building a video from scratch and wondering whether it’s going to work or not.

There are a lot of elements that go into making a video that don’t become important until the final output, yet if you don’t pay attention to those elements ahead of time (known as pre-production), you may end up needing to re-do all the work you just did. Elements include frame dimensions (16×9 vs 4×3), frame size (in pixels), data rate, codec, font, font size, lower 3rds, drop shadows, transitions… For just one example, if your video is going to be seen @ 320×180 (width and height, in pixels), you’re going to want to deal with your font sizes differently than if you were going to present in 1280×720 HD (high definition). If you act as if you’re going to output in HD, you might have to change all your titles when the client sees them in 320×180, because they can’t be read.

The reason I bring this up is that this ability increases my efficiency. I know the questions to ask ahead of time so I don’t waste time. Also, I can see my way clear through to the end of the project. I can basically “see” the finished video as if I fast-forwarded time to when I was finished. This is because everything goes onto a “checklist”. If I know what the video dimensions are, I can visualize the size that the final output will be. If I know the font, I can imagine what the text will look like…

OTOH… If I *DON’T* know what the background color is… That becomes apparent to me in my visualization and I ask the client if they want to use a background image or they have a specific color in mind. Same thing for font color or music selection. I have a good basic idea of what’s missing and what I need to figure out ASAP in order to efficiently get the job done.

What does it look like when I don’t know an aspect of a project? It looks…. blank. It looks like nothing. I can’t really explain it. It’s just a lack of data. It’s like in the movies when they’re trying to solve a mystery and you flip to the page you need and it’s torn out of the book. You can’t visualize what’s on the page, because it’s not there, other than perhaps a torn border on the inside.

What do I do when I have zero information? If I’m working on something for a client, I’ll ask them, and the project can resume when they figure it out. If it’s something I’m supposed to be in charge of, then I have to go through the process of research and selection, similar to Time, Part 04: “Spend Your Money”.

The reason that post is called “Spend Your Money” is that there are some things that it’s not worth your time to do. In the time you wasted reinventing the wheel, you could have cleared your desk of other projects and invoiced clients for your time. In that particular case, I searched all over creation for a better solution than was presented to me by a professional and then ended up buying that exact same application anyway, AFTER wasting a bunch of time.

The way I felt when I was trying to find a better solution was the same way I feel when I have no information about an aspect of a project. It’s basically that you’re in the dark and have no clue at this point in time how you’re going to get from point A to point B. IMO, That’s the time that you want to subcontract:

Main Entry:
2sub·con·tract Listen to the pronunciation of 2subcontract
Pronunciation:
\ˌsəb-ˈkän-ˌtrakt, ˌsəb-kən-ˈ\
Function:
verb
Date:
1842

intransitive verb
: to let out or undertake work under a subcontract transitive verb 1 : to engage a third party to perform under a subcontract all or part of (work included in an original contract) —sometimes used with out 2 : to undertake (work) under a subcontract

The goal of subcontracting is increasing your efficiency on a project and most likely your ROI as well. For instance, I don’t do 3D Modeling. If a client wants a 3D model as a part of their video, there’s NO WAY I’m going to waste MY TIME figuring out how to do it and slooooooowly creating what the client wants with my lack of skill. Nope. I’m going to query people that I know that do that type of thing, check their availability, their interest, the date on which they feel they can deliver the video and how much money they would need to do that. If the client gave me a definite budget for that section, that will be one of the first things I mention so that if the number’s too low, whomever I contacted won’t waste any of their time thinking about a project they’re not going to do anyway.

If there isn’t really a budget for an addition to a project and there’s not going to be enough money for me to bring someone in that knows what they’re doing, that aspect of the project gets VETOED. Period. It’s not happening. “Your budget doesn’t allow for this”.

The reason you want to veto these things (and sometimes the entire project, if the client can’t understand budget constraints) is that in the time you wasted making that model, you could have finished the entire project using skills that are actually in your repertoire. Actually, there’s another option. Bounce it back to the client. “If you want this part done, have it done yourself and get it to me in 1280×720, Apple Intermediate Codec (or whatever) and I’ll cut it into the video.

On top of that, when you work more slowly and you’re not getting paid by the hour, the time you’re spending is becoming “worth” less and less to you and you’re decreasing your own rate. At the same time, if you ARE getting paid by the hour, I think you STILL want to subcontract, because a lot of customers return not only because of your pricing and attention to detail, but also because of your speed of delivery. I think it’s better to spend some of your project’s budget to get a better product than you would have delivered and get it way faster from someone who knows what they’re doing. Also, it’s good business. When you look out for people and pass them work, they’ll look out for you through passing YOU work they find out about that isn’t in their realm of expertise and also by going above and beyond to provide you with excellent work, completed on or before your proposed deadline.

All of this stuff needs to be worked out during pre-production, and you need to put down in writing what you intend to deliver to your client and approximately when. This comes in handy when, down the line, they go “Oh… Can you make it like this?” or “Oh.. Can you change that?”, because they get to see very clearly what you agreed to in the beginning, and you can explain to them how much extra it’s going to cost them to make these changes or bring in subcontractors to replace that photo montage wth a 3D model.

Of course, there are lots of other aspects to deal with. Website creation. CSS Coding. Video Compression for web, television, DVD, etc. Publicity. Community Growth & Management… All these areas and more can bring your production to a grinding halt, so you might want to consider making professional alliances and subcontracting. If you can make a video but you’re not good at making websites, hire someone else to do it. If you can make the site but not tweak it, hire someone to code. If you can get a video to look good in its native format but you’re no good at compressing video for the web or DVD, hire someone else to do it. If you spend all your time creating your show and you have no time to have a presence on your social site and interact with your community, hire a community manager and have them create a list of things for you to do or respond to so you can efficiently maintain a presence and make people feel like they’re actually communicating with YOU and not just on some fansite.

So take a long, hard look at your projects to see if there are areas where the time you’re spending isn’t worth the money you’re getting for that time. Get in tune with your actual strengths and weaknesses in your chosen field. Search for areas where you’re just not that good, and you should really hand the ball off to someone else who can do the job better than you can. Seek out opportunities to turn those empty spaces in your business plan into something that makes sense as far as your ability to complete the project on deadline and within your budget constraints.

~ Bill Cammack

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