1. What does it mean when The Los Angeles Times axes their real estate section?

2. Google has been trying to find a way to earn a return on the $1.65 billion it spent on YouTube with a variety of ad formats. Saul Hansell’s New York Times article, “Google Goes Gawdy With YouTube Ads” covers one of Google’s recent efforts to balance advertising with consumer/pro generated content.

3. Inman News offers an insiders view of Real Estate Connect, San Francisco.

4. Mike Boland, star analyst from the Kelsey Group takes a deep look at WellcomeMat.

5. Will user generated content ever make money for YouTube and others? Stefanie Olsen writes, “Between a rock and YouTube, video execs see promise”.

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HD is a term that’s tossed around the web like crazy, but is the web ready? The hood came alive around this very subject, and those that are interested in the subject should check it our here: HD video = marketing scam?.

Popularity: 34% [?]

We’ve discussed streaming LIVE video open houses before however, a recent attempt by Real Estate Agent Pam Buda kicked off a healthy debate over the concept. Nashville, TN Real Estate Agent Brian Copeland and Nashua, NH Video Producer Fred Light have something to say about Trulia’s live streaming virtual open house experiment. What do you think? Was it a boom or a bust?

Popularity: 34% [?]

Some might call it video vanity, but personally I like it when my videos are looking their best. This week’s tip requires no botox, no exercise of any kind, and certainly no diet! Nope instead we’re going to get your videos in shape the easy way, a couple clicks of the finger. Ready for your extreme makeover? Let’s get started!

Video Vanity: Adding a Background Image to your WellcomeMat Videos

Popularity: 37% [?]

Say Goodbye to YellowPages – Hello to Online Video
Borrell and Associates released a new report about the future on Print Yellow Pages titled, “Say Goodbye to Yellow Pages.” with some interesting predictions regarding where revenue will migrate. According to the report, they estimates that the yellow pages industry will loose almost 40% of their annual revenue over the course of the next 5 years. Guess where the revenue will go?

Christian Sterner, CEO of Wellcome Mat
Our ego maniac of a CEO Get’s His Head Inflated By TV Week, nuff said.

Has Mobile Local Search Finally Arrived?
Michael Boland at the Kelsey group has Local dialed in. In fact, the man’s probably got the word ‘Local’ tattooed somewhere. This week, he talks about the drive to get mobile search out of the ‘early-adopter’ stage and into the mass market. Got an iPhone? Then you might have already seen this trend coming. Then again, you read the B.Roll. We knew there was something special about you.

Free Custom Professional Videos for Local SMBs?
Woh! Citysearch is offering new customers the option to receive a free, custom, professionally shot and edited 60-90 second video vignette of their business. The video will be featured on their Citysearch profile page and customers will have the ability to embed their video in their own website, a quantum shift in old-media-empire thinking. Bravo to CitySearch for a heavy investment into local video!

Inman News Announces Innovator Awards Winners
The Inman Innovator Awards honor forward-thinking technologies, Web services, business models and innovators in online real estate, brokerage and media companies. Congrats to all the winners and nominees! Did you know that WellcomeMat was an Innovator nominee in 2007 for Most Innovative Web Service? We’ll be back!

Popularity: 32% [?]

When we talk about video, one of the hottest topics these days seems to be that of distribution. How do I get my content online and everywhere? What are the best tactics for distributing/syndicating content online? Before we address the ‘how’, we should first talk openly about the practices of many of the most popular video sites online. For a good while now, online video has been like the wild west. Shoot a video and post it to any and every site that will accept your content, a complete free for all! Things are changing, fast! We’ve talked about this before (see “The Egg Cracks“) but this story is bound to continue.

If you are focused on real estate and local video, you need this list!

Stopped Accepting Real Estate Video
- Vimeo
- Bliptv
- Crackle
- Pickle

Stopped Accepting User-Gen Content Altogether
- Brightcove
- Video Egg
- Mania TV

Publicly Stated Disinterest in Real Estate Video (Terms of Service, etc.)
- YouTube
- Viddler
- Yahoo Video

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An oldie but goody… Christian gives a fairly good overview on what WellcomeMat is all about. Not so sure I like the green striped t-shirt but we’ll cut him some slack, he’s from Boulder.

Christian Sterner on WellcomeMat Video Adoption

Popularity: 26% [?]

In the case of WellcomeMat, change is usually good. This week we have changed our site navigation, making all of your old haunts even more accessible then they were before. If you’re feeling slightly out of place next time you log into WellcomeMat, don’t! Hover over the “My Dashboard” tab, and you’ll find all the pages you’re looking for.

Check out my video below for more info on how to navigate this new mothership!

Tip of the Week: How to Navigate the Mothership

Popularity: 42% [?]

Swedesboro, NJ Video Producer Nick Cheedle sparked off an interesting debate in the Neighborhood last week on “How to Get an Agent to Use Video”. He’s asking for tips on how to make the real estate pros realize the power of video?

Don’t get left out of the conversation. Learn what Agents and Video Pros have to say and add your opinion today!

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The Neighborhood is the place for community discussion about local video marketing and production. Highlight real estate, small businesses, neighborhoods, and other places with video.

Popularity: 33% [?]

Local Online Video Advertising To Reach $1.5 Billion by 2012
Local video is more than a way to showcase your business and property—it is becoming a hyper specialized arena for advertising. Read up on the future of advertising in internet video. Viewers are tired of slick marketing campaigns, and local video is complicating advertisers’ traditional responses.

Exploring the local scene in Portland, Oregon
Even MTV is delving into the local video space. The network, paying homage to its roots, just released a montage of footage, exploring what makes Portland so unique. Portland thrives because its focus is local. MTV is beginning to get it—you should, too!

BBC to expand its local video output
Amid recent announcement from the BBC of its plans to increase local video coverage online, others in the online media sphere, specifically in radio, are less than pleased. The web is ready for more localized content; being resistant to change will only hold you back.

Next Online Gold Rush? It’s All Local, Baby
TV Week’s columnist Daisy Whitney writes what we’ve known for quite sometime: the future of online video will be shaped by localized content. It’s inevitable. Read her column for her take, and then jump in the game—the future is now!

Technology on the horizon – The Future of Video Search
During Research@Intel Day, journalists were privy to a demonstration of the future of video search—the ability to search internet videos, frame by frame. Outlandish claim or the future or video search? Read the article and decide for yourself.

Popularity: 33% [?]