This is one of those things I’m surprised no one has done this yet (or maybe they have and I just haven’t seen it.)
Here’s the premise:
By far, the biggest expense involved in producing video for the web is producing the video. No matter how you slice it, the time and money involved are significant
Currently – and who knows how long this will last – there is a lot of online video on a wide variety of topics being made available absolutely free. Just cut and paste some code and presto! You’ve got fully produced video for your web site. It’s that easy…
Google Video offers this, so does YouTube, as does one of my favorite video sites TurnHere.com
Right now I see lots of “everything but the kitchen sink” video sites. And that’s fine as long as video on the Internet is a novelty.
Eventually though people are going to want to “tune in” to web sites that address their specific interests.
The beauty of Internet TV, as I see it, is we can now have TV channels on virtually any topic under the sun.
For fun, I picked food, one of my favorite subjects.
Whenever I travel, I love to try out new restaurants and visit local food markets. The demand for this kind of content is big enough that it supports one full blown cable channel: The Food Network.
Could there be a business in building and operating an Internet TV food network?
Maybe.
I don’t need a new business, but rather than wait for someone else to do it, I decided to start an Internet TV food network myself as a demonstration of what’s possible.
Here are my costs so far:
1. Video zero (provided free by TurnHere.com)
2. Video Hosting zero (provided free by TurnHere.com)
3. Site hosting less than $1 per month (I’ve already got the servers)
4. Labor $20 per channel for coding and web work (7 channels) – $140.00
My monetization strategy…
None at the moment, but I could easily add an article to each channel and generate some AdSense revenue. I’d probably also add an opt-in process and start a mailing list. I’ve put price tags on the domain names (You never know.)
But like I said, I’m not looking for a new business. I just wanted to go where no man has gone before, a hobby of mine 🙂
Note to people who get their knickers in a knot about monetizing every breath they take…
Sometimes you just do things just for the sake of doing them.
In fact, many of the people I know who now have eight, nine, and yes, even ten figure net worths, spent a lot of time hacking around before they came up with their big idea. (Google is just one of the most recent examples.)
You see my out of pocket costs. My total time: about one hour. At this rate, I can afford the occasional experiment – and so can you.
Introducing: FoodFinds TV.com
What do YOU think?
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– Ken McCarthy
P.S. For over 25 years I’ve been sharing the simple but powerful things that matter in business with my clients.
If you’d like direction for your business that will work today, tomorrow and twenty years from now, visit us at the System Club.
