"He writes about online media and technology for the New York Daily News, the Online Journalism Review, and several other publications. He also writes the blog Google Watch," explains his biography over at his newest project--Reel Pop, a web video site for Hollywood Reporter.
This week Steve stopped by to impart a bit of web video and tech journalism advice to my readers. Welcome to the third installment of my interview with Steve Bryant, part of my deceptively simple feature: Five Easy Questions.
In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a serialized set of weekly interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web publishing.
Jason Boog:
What makes a good video website? What are the biggest mistakes video websites make? How can I use video to spice up my website?
Steve Bryant:
First, let me say I'm no expert. I just know what I like and happen to be chatty. But really I think good video sites are common sense.
Design for a minimum number of essential features, understand what your audience wants, and be flexible. If you're looking to attract huge amounts of people, you have to make it easy for them to watch and share.
That's why Flash is so popular. (Plus its small file size and its installed ubiquity in browsers.)
The trend seems to be to mix professional and amateur content, like Yahoo with CurrentTV and Guba with Sony. I'm really starting to get interested in the distributed services, like VideoEgg.
Note: If the serialized nature of this interview drives you nuts, you can find the whole interview collected in one place here.
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