Book Review - YouTube: An Insider's Guide to Climbing the Charts by Alan Lastufka and Michael W. Dean
Category Book Review Alan Lastufka Michael W. Dean YouTube: An Insider's Guide to Climbing the Charts
If you're into YouTube from the perspective of creating videos for public consumption, this is the one book you really should have available to you... YouTube: An Insider's Guide to Climbing the Charts by Alan Lastufka and Michael W. Dean. It goes into everything you need to know on how to create compelling stories, quality video, and YouTube marketing. On top of that, it's entertaining to read.
Contents: What Is This YouTube of Which You Speak?; Storytelling and Directing; 99-Cent Film School - Shooting, Editing, and Rendering; Creating Your Very Own Channel; Broadcasting Yourself - User-Generated Content; Rebroadcasting - Commercial Content; Building Your Audience; The Community - Where Do You Fit In?; Hacking the System - How to Cheat (and Why You Shouldn't); Reaching the World; Money, Money, Money!; Beyond the 'Tube; Becoming a Success Story; Closing Arguments; Interviews with Other YouTube Rock Stars; Index
Unlike most books that cover specific online sites like Facebook or Google, this goes far beyond just the nuts and bolts mechanics of how to work with the site. Yes, there's the prerequisite information on how to upload videos, how to link to your videos, how to create channels, etc. But where this book excels is in teaching you what happens *before* you even fire up your browser. If you're interested in nothing more than posting that funny pet video you happened to capture last Christmas, then you probably don't care about most of the "before" stuff. But there are people who consistently and professionally produce video content and use YouTube as their distribution channel. This is the audience to which Lastufka and Dean speak. Videos are stories, and you will learn what makes up a good story (and more importantly, how to tell that story in 10 minutes). Once you have your story, you have to film and edit it in such a way that the production quality doesn't detract from your overall message. That's covered here as well. And then after you get two or three videos online and someone other than your mother is viewing them, you may need to think about how you market yourself in this venue. Lastufka and Dean make sure you have all the information you need to make solid choices up front before you accidentally get popular and end up stuck with some brand you never intended to portray.
Bottom line, this is an excellent book. The material is solid and comprehensive, and they back up everything they say with actual URL examples from YouTube. Again, if you are going to post on a semi-regular basis on YouTube, this is a must-read.
If you're into YouTube from the perspective of creating videos for public consumption, this is the one book you really should have available to you... YouTube: An Insider's Guide to Climbing the Charts by Alan Lastufka and Michael W. Dean. It goes into everything you need to know on how to create compelling stories, quality video, and YouTube marketing. On top of that, it's entertaining to read.
Contents: What Is This YouTube of Which You Speak?; Storytelling and Directing; 99-Cent Film School - Shooting, Editing, and Rendering; Creating Your Very Own Channel; Broadcasting Yourself - User-Generated Content; Rebroadcasting - Commercial Content; Building Your Audience; The Community - Where Do You Fit In?; Hacking the System - How to Cheat (and Why You Shouldn't); Reaching the World; Money, Money, Money!; Beyond the 'Tube; Becoming a Success Story; Closing Arguments; Interviews with Other YouTube Rock Stars; Index
Unlike most books that cover specific online sites like Facebook or Google, this goes far beyond just the nuts and bolts mechanics of how to work with the site. Yes, there's the prerequisite information on how to upload videos, how to link to your videos, how to create channels, etc. But where this book excels is in teaching you what happens *before* you even fire up your browser. If you're interested in nothing more than posting that funny pet video you happened to capture last Christmas, then you probably don't care about most of the "before" stuff. But there are people who consistently and professionally produce video content and use YouTube as their distribution channel. This is the audience to which Lastufka and Dean speak. Videos are stories, and you will learn what makes up a good story (and more importantly, how to tell that story in 10 minutes). Once you have your story, you have to film and edit it in such a way that the production quality doesn't detract from your overall message. That's covered here as well. And then after you get two or three videos online and someone other than your mother is viewing them, you may need to think about how you market yourself in this venue. Lastufka and Dean make sure you have all the information you need to make solid choices up front before you accidentally get popular and end up stuck with some brand you never intended to portray.
Bottom line, this is an excellent book. The material is solid and comprehensive, and they back up everything they say with actual URL examples from YouTube. Again, if you are going to post on a semi-regular basis on YouTube, this is a must-read.



Comments
Posted by Gregg Eldred At 15:34:32 On 28/02/2009 | - Website - |
Posted by Duffbert At 16:46:30 On 28/02/2009 | - Website - |