What is the .tv strategy?

The “.tv strategy” basically boils down to this:

1. You use video (and maybe live video) in your business.
2. Because you are using video this is like having an online TV station.
3. If you have an online TV station people will find you easier if you use a URL ending in .tv
4. So, go purchase a domain name with the .tv ending and start putting your video on that site.
5. All sorts of good things will start to happen.

There are a number of issues that pop up for me with the “.tv strategy”:

You don’t live in Tuvalu

What is Tuvalu? Tuvalu is a “Polynesian island nation located in the Pacific Ocean, midway between Hawaii and Australia” (thank you Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuvalu )

Tuvalu is also the place that has “.tv” as its country URL and leases this URL out to people who want to use it because they think it stands for “TV”. So, your “.tv” site means something completely different than most people think.

All right, so this isn’t the greatest reason to have reservations about the “.tv strategy”, but I find it really funny.

Keep reading for the bigger issues I see with this strategy.

You are going it alone with .tv

Your new .tv website does not mean instant traffic and celebrity status. You are still going to have to do all of the many, many marketing things you already do with your current site to promote your new .tv site:

• Opt-in pages
• Emailing information to your list
• Promoting in social media
• Finding joint venture partners
• SEO optimization
• Etc.
• Etc.

One of the reasons actual TV stations work is because there are multiple shows on a single channel, and each show benefits from the overall promotion of the TV channel and the traffic from people staying on the channel after watching other shows.

Having your own .tv is just like having your own website with all of the pros and cons that come with it.

YOU are the content provider

Your new .tv website needs content, and enough content, on a regular basis to keep people coming back to watch and consume that content.

If you already have an email newsletter you send out you have a good idea if you enjoy this regular content creation process, or if you dread it. If you dread it, you need to ask yourself if you have enough energy for your .tv site.

Not to mention the content you create for your blog, articles, programs……

.tv does not provide extra SEO love, and might hurt your SEO

I am no expert on SEO, but when thinking about .tv websites I could think of no reason why they would be helpful with SEO. So, I sent an email off to my “in family” SEO specialist Rachna Jain (www.ProfitablePopularity.com/blog ) asking her about SEO and .tv domains.

Rachna agreed with my thoughts and mentioned that all of her research shows that domains with .com, .net, or .org are easier to rank than any of the other domain extensions. Your .tv URL may be working against you when it comes to SEO.

More on SEO and .tv

Having important keywords in your domain name is an important part of your SEO strategy, so to me, it seems more important to have “TV” in your domain name than in the extension. I guess you could do both but “yewbtv.tv” seems a bit odd to me as opposed to “yewbtv.com”.

Rachna comes to the rescue again and wrote back that her preference in this case would be “yewbtv.com”.

Or do we want a separate TV site at all?

The problem with the “yewbtv.com strategy” is that you are still going to have to have a separate website to promote, which can be a whole lot of work, and then link that site back to all the other content on your original website. So, my new line of thinking is:

Would it be better to just create your TV channel as a subdomain of your main site? (ie. www.youreventwithoutborders.com/yewbtv)

I will see if I can get Rachna to weigh in on this and give us an answer.

Is there a solution to the “.tv strategy”?

Only time will tell how people move forward with creating their own WebTV presence, but I am working on a solution that I think solves a number of these challenges. The solution is still in the early stages, but I will be keeping people updated on this solution via the “Coming Soon” newsletter and here on this blog.

So, if a WebTV channel is on your business radar you can sign up for the “Coming Soon” newsletter in the top right corner of this page, or keep checking back here for information on the blog.

I would love to continue this conversation in the comments section below so let me know:

Do you currently have an online TV presence with your business? How is this strategy working for you? If you don’t have an online TV presence, is it part of your future plans?

Yes, you should make sure that the platform you are using actually works, and does what you want it too (more on that in follow up posts), but no matter what system you end up using, something is eventually going to go wrong, and you want to have the best possible support when that happens.

The many flavors of customer service

If you visit the websites of different live video streaming platforms you will see a number of different ways to receive support around the product:
• User Guides
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Video Tours and Tutorials
• Online Community Forums
• Email Support
• Live Phone Support

Depending on your level of comfort with technology (but don’t stop being nervous about technology) you want to pick a platform that is going to provide you with the level of support that makes you confident enough to have fun with your online broadcasts.

A quick look at customer service options

User Guides: the quality of these varies greatly so take the time to read through the user guide and see if it makes sense to you. If you can actually use the user guide to try things out on your free trial or free account even better.

Frequently Asked Questions: there are so many questions that pop up when using live video streaming platforms that I mostly find the FAQs to be more frustrating than helpful. They make me feel like the answer is being dangled in front of me like a carrot, but always out of reach.

Video Tours and Tutorials: like user guides the quality of these varies greatly so take some time to watch a few of the offered videos and see if they make sense to you.

Online Community Forums: if you are patient these can be very helpful in solving your problems, but it can take a long time to find your answers. The online support forums are usually populated by people who just want to complain because they can’t get things to work.
Email Support: if your problem isn’t immediate then email support can be very helpful. However, solutions to live video streaming problems are usually multi-step and can get complicated so it will take numerous emails back and forth to get your answer, and in some cases after a few emails you stop hearing back.

Live Phone Support: this is the holy grail (is Holy Grail capitalized?) of live video streaming support. A problem pops up (and they usually pop up a few minutes before you go live, or while you are live), you dial a number, wait on hold for a bit, then a real-life human comes to the rescue. The quality of phone support can really depend on who you get, but you can hopefully find someone on the support team to help you out.

Recommended level of customer service for live video streaming

If you are using a company’s free platform then your support will most likely top out at the email support level or lower. If you know you are going to be sticking with the free option for awhile then take some extra time to make sure the online resources make sense and are helpful to you.

If you are going to use a paid live video streaming platform then my recommendation is: they must offer you live phone support at times when you can actually use that support. Ideally the live support hours will match up with your live broadcast hours, but if that isn’t possible (most likely due to time zones) at least make sure they are open often enough that you can get help as quickly as possible.

Paying for your live video streaming platform can be expensive (though new and interesting options are popping up all the time) but once you experience the feeling of having live support and quick answers to questions, your level of comfort with the platform and confidence with your live broadcasts will jump to the next level.

If you don’t want to read a promotion stop right here! No complaints, I warned you!

If you are using either the free or premium version of Livestream (www.livestream.com) as your live video streaming platform you can check out some of the YEWB support options here.

This may not seem like the most profound piece of advice (I will save the profound stuff for later posts) but it really is the key to being successful with your live internet streaming plans.

There are a whole bunch of different choices out there (Livestream, Ustream, Vokle, DaCast, iMedialibrary) and the number of options is only growing. It can be really easy to get stuck in the bright-shiny-object-trap and endlessly change your mind on which streaming platform you will use.

This leads to a huge block that will stop you from ever being successful with live internet streaming: never getting started.

Pick a platform, learn how to use it (or get help learning how to use it), then use it. Use it lots. Keep on using it.

The more you broadcast the more people will start to show up and listen, and the more your community will grow. That is the purpose of the tool right? To grow community. Not to have the latest and greatest, all bells and whistles, newest product.

Why did you choose Livestream?

I get asked this question quite a bit, and there are a number of reasons why I chose to move forward with Livestream and not another platform (these reasons will be coming in future posts) but the biggest reason I use Livestream is:

After doing some initial research, I had to make a decision. I chose Livestream and then I stuck with it. No super secret decision making process: eventually, to move forward, a choice had to be made.

Choose a platform and stick with it, until you don’t

All right now it would appear I am starting to contradict myself, but stick with me.

The next most asked question I get asked is “why do you still use Livestream and not something else?”

The answer: Livestream works, does everything I need it too, and nothing else has come along that is “better enough” to make the switch.

I am always looking at other platforms and testing, and if another product comes along that is significantly better than Livestream I will switch and recommend to others to switch. It would have to be significantly better though, as there will be challenges and disruptions when switching platforms so the switch better be worth it.

I would recommend the same to you:

1. Use your current streaming platform to its fullest potential.
2. Have FUN using your current technology to its fullest potential.
3. Keep an eye on other options and, if you have time, test them out.
4. If you find another platform that is so different, and so good that you think it is worth switching, then switch.
5. Use the new platform to its fullest potential.
6. Rinse and repeat.

The key is not to switch too often

The old saying goes “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” and that is the piece of advice I will leave you with.

If you haven’t picked a platform yet, or are looking for something better, keep an eye on this website, or sign up for the “Coming Soon” email newsletter (top right corner of this post) as I am going to be sharing lots of information about the different options out there. Maybe my research and testing can save you a bit of time.

If you are streaming already I would love it if you posted which platform you are using in the comments section below and give any pros and cons you have discovered while using that platform.

I was recently talking with a client, later at night, and during the conversation the client commented that I sounded nervous about the upcoming production.

I tried to hide the fact that I was feeling nervous, which didn’t work, and the client started to get nervous, and worried. Fair enough, they were spending a great deal of money for their upcoming production, and having their main tech guy feeling nervous wasn’t what they were looking for.

Not my greatest customer care moment.

The thing is I am ALWAYS nervous

It doesn’t matter if I am doing my own broadcast, helping with a virtual event remotely, or running a full live event simulcast: I am ALWAYS nervous about the technology I use.

Normally, I keep the nerves to myself, and my team, and the client never even knows:

• Night before the live event and the computer isn’t working? Smile and let everyone know everything is just fine.
• Just lost internet and the stream is down? Furrowed brows are hidden as we quietly fix things in the back.
• Absolutely no idea how to do something? Relax, me and the team will research it, find a solution, and everything will be perfectly all right.

My goal is to keep all the technology quietly in the background and let people do what they do best on stage. I am good at what I do, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have mini-heart attacks every now and again.

Being nervous makes me better

(This part of the post will possibly agitate some of you who are more Zen than I am)

The thing is, after sitting and reflecting on that call after, I realized that I was defending my nerves to the client, when what I really should have been doing is embracing my nerves and explaining it as an added benefit.

Being nervous makes me better at what I do. When I am nervous about the technology I pay more attention, I think faster about possible solutions, I act faster when something goes wrong. In many cases, my nerves help me solve the problems before they even happen because I am waiting for them to happen.

When I get calm and complacent is usually when something goes wrong.

This is not to say I am super stressed the entire time a production is taking place. I have a ton of fun doing what I do, and for the most part things go perfectly. I am just better at what I do if I have a little case of the nerves throughout.

Being nervous makes YOU better

Enough about me. What does this mean for you?

If you are feeling nervous about stepping up in your business with technology and trying something new, good! You should be nervous. There are all sorts of things that can go wrong.

But don’t look at your nerves as a bad thing. Look at them as a gift.

Your nerves make you:

• ask questions about the technology.
• test, test, and test again.
• build redundancy into your plans.
• prepare for when things go wrong
• attentive while you are using the technology
• prepared for customer service
• test, test, and test again

If you are super stressed about using new technology, then you might want to get some help, you don’t want to be in a panic, that is something different.

But, if you are just feeling nervous about doing something new, then you are right where you need to be. I will say it again:

When working with technology, being nervous is good.

Wow, I didn’t even think it was that long ago, but February 22 2011 was the last time I blogged for me and my business. Over two years without writing anything for me, my business, and most importantly, my audience.

If there is anything I have learned in this loooong writing downtime it is that when I don’t write I become less creative and I take fewer risks. I have started speaking more, and doing video broadcasts which helps, but there is something about writing that, for me, brings out my creativity and thinking abilities. (Reading comics and playing video games helps too, more on that another time perhaps!)

(Interesting note: since writing that paragraph I have checked my email, facebook, twitter, and gone to the bathroom. I am writing this about 15 minutes later, talk about being blocked!)

The creativity blocking culprit

Success.

Yep, after a lot of thinking, meditating (I am not great at this yet), walking the dog, and generally trying to figure out why I had stopped writing it dawned on me the other day that the culprit is success.

When I used to blog consistently I was a nobody: some guy living in the mountains of British Columbia with his wife and son, teaching high school, skiing and biking, and just living life. If people read my blog that was great, but it didn’t feel like it was important, or had any big impact. I wrote because I wanted too, and if people read it that was cool.

Then my coaching business started to grow, and that turned into my current business “Your Event Without Borders” and all of a sudden people were calling me, asking me important questions, asking for my opinion, and hiring me to help them with their business and their message.

People were starting to look at me as an expert. Ack! Now when I wrote or said something people were listening and using what I said to make really important decisions that would have an impact on their business and their lives.

I panicked and got really cautious about what I wrote about, to the point where I just stopped writing. I didn’t want to write something that didn’t work, or got someone in trouble.

Which makes no sense, considering I still talked about big ideas and “dangerous” things with my clients. For some reason I just couldn’t “put them down on paper”

Getting back on course

At the height of this creativity block I have actually stopped writing anything for my business: no blog posts, no articles, no optin pages, no offers. Every time I try to write anything I worry whether it is “expert enough” or going to hurt my business, so I self-edit it into oblivion, or just don’t start writing it to begin with.

Today that is changing with this very blog post. I am not going to edit this post (sorry to the grammer police!) or it will probably never see the light of day. I need to develop a new belief around my writing and my new status as a “successful expert” (I prefer the term “Explorer” to “Expert”).

I will have to see what that new belief turns out to be, but for now, at least I have created!

Jeremie