Andrew Baron, Amanda Congdon, Ruud Elmendorp, Steve Garfield, and Chuck Olsen of Rocketboom showed up at today's Vloggercon to share the history of how Rocketboom got to where it is today: 300,000 downloads/day across all formats. They also shared a PR teaser: Rocketboom is working with Boing Boing to launch a new video blog.
The team started off by sharing some of the unique elements they brought to the program:
- A different interview style. Correspondents do interviews differently than a traditional reporter would; they try to elicit the speaker's thoughts on the fly rather than collect support for a particular point of view.
- The introduction of contrary political commentary. Bits such as "Why is George Bush so Awesome?" are among Congdon's favorites.
- Remixing mainstream material. Working up new content, such as a version of the infamous Chevy Tahoe commercial, in collaboration with the Rocketboom audience.
- Format independence. Rather than designing the show for any specific platform, they create the show and simply let people view it where they will. They did start out using .mov files, but ended up publishing in many formats, and making sure that subscribers could use either RSS or iTunes in order to receive programming.
- Daily content. They knew from the start that once-per-week program would take longer to get traction. With a daily show, you can more easily become part of your audience's routine.
- Applying creativity within a familiar environment. The more you know about a subject, the more interesting and informative you can be when you add creativity. Elmendorp believes that the biggest mistake people make is to work within a space they are not familiar, and so they end up missing the good story.
These elements all came up opportunistically, but the team is trying to be thoughtful about strategy as new ideas come up on their radar screen. Creating episodes is an organic process, and the team collaborates on programming. It generally takes the production staff a full day (someone is working 24 hours per day) to produce a single daily show.
Moving on to monetization, which is what most vloggers really need: Rocketboom has been selling its advertising spots on eBay, and they are prepping to launch a subscription model. The audience will be able to spend $4/month for an ad-free version of the content. It sounds like they also make a tidy income selling the t-shirts that Congdon wears.
One staffer noted that while some bloggers have a personal, diarist style, others create the produced quality of a show. That being said, show blogs can still be personal. For example, Rocketboom correspondents can step up from anywhere, so long as that person's work is a good fit. In addition, 25% of stories come from their audience, so it's unlikely that the team will become a new gatekeeper on information. As one Rocketboom vlog states: Why should this new medium follow the pattern of the "mainstream orthodoxy" instead of embracing its potential to become a fluid network?
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