Found My Muse

[JFrenzel]

So I have decided what I am going to do. I have long been trying to find my muse and have decided on something that combines all the things I want to do. I want to create an internet TV show. I wanted to get feedback from everyone. I want this show to be something where I interview different people and capture my various travel experiences. I am just not sure what type of niche market I should be targeting. Does anybody have any suggestions? I am 26, workout, travel, and love people. I think that is still a real broad range. Any ideas would be truly appreciated.



Also, any suggestions on good video editing sites/software? Any ideas are welcome as I am going to be trying to build an audience.


Cheers

Jose-Dallas

[jizo]

Dude it's simple. What your trying to do is create a social networking site that allows people to log in add friends/ share their travel blogs / videos and recommend places to go/see/do. Think of it like a mashup of YouTube and Travelocity.

people come in add all their friends, or you know import from facebook or something, then start sharring their stuff. You cash in with advertising, selling cheap tickets, travel books whatever man.... sounds like a winner to me!!!

[froldt]

I came up with an idea while ago about interviewing random people. Every day (or get about 8 in one day) go sit somewhere (ie: coffee shop, mall, bookstore, library, mechanic shop, etc) and ask random people if I could ask them a few questions. It would be an impromptu interview. Then I could either type it up and post it with a picture of them, with their permission, or videotape it.
The part I liked the best was that I could travel around and then highlight people from the places that I travelled to.

I wasn't entirely sure how to monetize such a thing, besides just putting google ads on there, and I decided that I didn't want to get stuck having to come up with an interview on a regular schedule. Even if I did three a week, it would end up becoming something that I would have to do, and thus resent.
I have some more details, if you can think of a way for this to work for you.

Edit: Here is a step-by-step of how a video blog is created using open source software. (http://www.linux.com/feature/130163) Since the authors are using linux, I'm not sure if the exact programs will work in Windows (or whatever you're using). However, there are similar programs on most operating systems, so it shouldn't be too hard to find something.

[nghs22]

i like the idea mate. People showing videos of their travel experiences with recommendations, reviews, etc. Now you have the idea....congrats!! The hard part is setting it all up. But keep at it.

[mctiller]

I'm new to this forum, but two things about this idea.

My understanding of what a "muse" is, is a business that can run and generate income with as little involvement from you as possible.

Creating an internet show although a cool idea and great if it can generate income for you, BUT this model requires a lot of involvment on your part. I do event video production so I know a little about video producing, this just sounds hard to test and requires a lot of time from you.

Now if you can generate a healthy income from this, awesome! BUT I'm just trying to differentiate between a "muse" as is defined in the book and a well paying but cool job. Your idea seems more like a cool job to me and not a muse. But that is only my opinion.

[jizo]

I think to automate it you need to get your users to create their own content. Hence the youTube / social networking idea.

Like mcTiller says interviewing people and creating the TV show would be a lot of work and lessen the automation, but it is basically like a "Travel Writter Job" which miliions of people dream of having. :)

You can however combine both aspects together, have the base be a social networking (user created content site) and then augment the site with your own TV show / interviews / whatever.

As it happens I'm a software developer so I could put this all together. It's not a simple four - five week projects. It's several months but there is a lot of open source software that can be borrowed to "get the ball rolling."

Now I can't do this by myself, it's much to big for one person, so who wants to team up and take a stab at this?

Send me a pm or just reply here directly.


Jeremy

[Marcie]

Hey sounds good to me :) If it is something you enjoy doing, you won't mind the "work" and you will gain a lot of experience for outsourcing later...you're on a Mac right? You have an advantage with video editing right there. Sign up for some free classes at the Apple store and find out from the experts the best way to do it. Follow your own interests and the niche will become apparent - even documenting your goals with exercising etc. can be good stuff -- good luck!

[badhank]

bandwidth is expensive, see if you can host your videos on youtube (altho the quality will suffer) they are other free video hosting sites, some even give u a share of the $$$ your visitors generate. Good luck and keep us posted, without knowing anything about ur business model we cant comment on how feasible this is.

[JFrenzel]

Great ideas..... I had thought of possibly doing on beer or coffee. I just don't want to be seen as someone who took the idea of winelibrary.tv


Your thoughts?


Jose

[jizo]

I wouldn't worry about being seen as copying somebody else. Most everything these days is in someway "coppied" or "borrowed" from somebody else. If you really interested in Beer or Coffee, (I like both). Then by all means go for it!

Let me know if I can help at all.

Cheers,
Jeremy

[Doreen]

Weird - I just met a guy a month ago who was a retired training video maker looking at the same thing.

He'd been picking themes - like a drive across Route 66, because his favorite way to spend time was just driving around meeting interesting people and talking to them. Making sure your releases are in order before you start is the big thing - since it was a hobby he hadn't put that in place and was having trouble selling them when requested by a documentary maker.

The idea we kicked around for making it pay as a retirement hobby was getting involved in some of the family history business, and travelling around to do interviews and create commissioned family histories. Putting them on a private webserver for families or selling produced DVDs was an obvious way to monetize it.

[ephigy]

Sounds like an interesting project. One I'd like to follow. If you can show me video of a city I'd like to visit with all the interested spots to hang out and hotels to stay at, restaurants to try out, etc. it would be a good ressource.

It's true that as you formulated it, this isn't a muse and will require a lot of work. But if built as a website where world travelers come to share their video experiences, you could avoid the upkeep and pull in revenue with ads, plane tickets & al I suppose.

Also if youtube's quality is too low for your taste, try vimeo.

[shanerbock]

It was hinted a few times in this thread
that maybe this idea is not a "muse"
because it was not all automated...

and advertising seemed to come up alot
as the way to monetize it....

You can do a lot more with this actually...
advertising is OK... but not likely to stuff your
wallet that quickly. I would still sell it
if you can... and maybe put up adsense...

BUT, I'd take all that content and build
Reports about each location... use the
information gained in each interview, plus
your research of the city(location) and
put it into a report for each one...

Sell the reports for like 10 bucks... You
could sell 10 dollar reports all day long
of this type... with so much good content
and the social quality of it too... maybe
in the reports you could link to the
interviews so they can see the people
actually saying the things you write
in the report.

You might also sign up for an affiliate acct
with some travel store of some sort...
and like to special packages.. taking
commission from each buyer who decides
to buy off your link....

There are also things called CPA, which
stands for Cost Per Action... Look up
Travel CPA and see if you can find that...
this basically means that if you can get
someone to put in their name and be contacted
by an agent or something like that...
you'll get paid. sometimes very well.


Anyway, I like the idea... just start with
one small part of it... this thing has potential.

You just need to get started though... so,
one step at a time!

Best of luck!

Make it a great day!
shane

[JFrenzel]

I am still pondering on this idea. I don't want it to be a cheesy site where it looks like I am just trying to make money. I wonder if I could create a buzz with some captivating idea...?


Late nite thoughts, off to bed

Jose

PS perhaps a site catching different artists in the subways across America?

[jcpeden]

I know the creator of Have You Got The Nerve (http://thenerve.tv/) and one of the members of the startup Revision 3 (http://revision3.com/). I could direct you to them if you are interested?

[ThreeDot]

If you haven't already, go check out Revision3.com - Those folks are amazing and it may give you some ideas for a "flavor" for your show....

[dvdwlsh]

Check out www.mogulus.com for an interesting video tool... not sure if it suits your need but worth a look.