I have to say one of the main reasons my blogging is suffering is the fact that we are now producing what we consider to be very close to TV quality footage on the LookandTaste Show twice a week. I am trying to blog as much as I can but time really is starting to become an issue and this is one of the main reasons. On a more positive note the show, although hard work, can be fun and allows us to meet cool foodies all over the place. Always looking for critical feedback so let me know if there is anything that you would like to see in there even if you aren’t a foodie at all.

As if life wasn’t busy enough with all the different stuff I am up to and trying to get fit and all I have now gone and had a stupid idea about doing a Triathlon (40k cycle, 1.5k swim, 10k run). This notion only came upon me on Thursday when in Liverpool and as soon as I got back I bought a bike fit for the job and by Saturday I was in training.

Now the big problem is that I am not very fit at all and after a quick scour of the Internet I see that it takes 22 weeks to train for one properly and the bad news for me is that the Dublin Triathlon that I am going to take part in is on the 30th August which is only 2 months away Still I reckon those training people don’t know what they are talking about and I’ll easily be in top shape within 8 weeks!
The training site said to tell as many people as you can so as you don’t want to let them down and thus train all the harder so I thought it would be a good start to tell a few hundred people here! Seeing as I do the whole video thing and all I’ll probably record some sort of video diary during the training on here and I’ll also probably try and raise some money for a charity and all but I am still trying to get my head around the training at the moment and my arse is in bits from sitting on a saddle for 2 hours today up a fucking mountain, wish me luck

I haven’t done one of these in ages as have been so busy but after a long run was in the bath and thought it was about time to do a video diary….

Getting a video out to a wide audience is a hard thing to do and I just thought I would share some of the ways that I am promoting the latest show that we have just launched over on Lookandtaste. It is by no means an exact science but here are some of the techniques I am using and these might give you some sort of an idea of the time involved in promoting videos…..

Ning

I embed the videos into all the foodie social networks on Ning like here. These foodie sites have 1000s of passionate foodies hanging around who start seeing the show and coming to the blog.

Competitions
I am running competitions through the show like giving away 100 Euros in cash or simple cookbooks although people look at the comments and see only 50 comments for a 100 Euro prize you have to look at the bigger picture of people becoming engaged with your content. Although starting small we have already secured a couple of prizes for next couple of shows for in excess of 600 Euros in value, watch the comments fly then!

T-Shirts
We are currently getting a batch of 200 T-Shirts printed off that will be both trendy and cool but will also feature the shows logo. These will be given out to passionate viewers of the show on a weekly basis and thrown in as competition prizes. People walking around with our show on their T-Shirt, yes please!

Twitter
I announce the new show on Twitter through both my own account and the @lookandtaste account and this will bring in good traffic. This is a great way to get a show off the ground by leveraging your initial following.

Ads
We were able to bring sponsorship in to the show pretty early and ever single penny of this is going in to running ad campaigns to drive traffic to the show. These ads are targeting foodie sites all over the world and exposing the show to a new audience all the time who are signing up and subscribing all the time.

Facebook

I am engaging with fans of the show and have built the Facebook Fan page to over 700 fans within 2 weeks of starting it. Luckily we have good useful content that people come to view and we also allow users to suggest recipes etc. Our fans constantly like our stuff and push it in to the feeds of others who then come to the show

Tubemogul
This allows me to publish the show to over 15 video sharing sites. Although I don’t have time to promote on each site individually it does get the content out there and as it is branded people will see it on other sites and eventually get back to our site.

iTunes Podcasts

It was a surprise to me (probably because I don’t travel daily so don’t get many podcasts) but the largest chunk of our viewers come through subscribing to Itunes. The beauty here is that once subscribed people usually stay subbed. Get our podcast here

YouTube

Subscriber numbers are growing there already and that is where most people hang out and watch their video content so more often than not people will just stumble on your show.

Syndication
The content is pretty good and professionally produced which is what loads of media portals are looking for online so we have managed to get it in to Ireland.com (homepage) and are talking with a major social network and a huge American network about deals to go live soon. Syndication is crucial in bringing eyeballs to the show.

Social Media
I am pretty active on lots of food blogging sites, forums, chat sites etc. Spreading the word about the video while having a conversation with people is a skill in itself and although the results are harder to measure this is one of the most effective methods of promotion in my opinion.

Posts like this
I am not shy about talking about our new video but people get bored of you constantly banging the same drum. Something like this post gives people a great insight to how to promote videos online and can act as a reference for people in the future providing my video turns out to be a success. The links within this post to iTunes, YouTube and Facebook (see what I did there) will stand for as long as the internet is here and when people type “market video online case study” into google the chances are they will get here and see the links

This is only the very start of the promotion of the video and is all I can really talk about at the moment without giving away tons of secrets but as you can see it is super hard work. People think that you just whack a video on to YouTube and it becomes a success overnight but let me tell you it takes hours and hours of really mind numbing hard work.

An of course in keeping with this post here is the latest episode……

Since we have started Lookandtaste we have had some decent highs and a lot of lows that have really felt like kicks in the teeth. Starting a business from scrath is hard, bloody hard and it is for that reason that when something exciting or some sort of success comes along you should make sure to enjoy it to the maximum. I am not talking about going out and drinking champagne or flashing the cash or buying nice stuff but simply pat yourself on the back and take a bit of time to reflect on all the hard work that it has taken to get you to where you are. God knows we spend enough time pondering things when they are going bad and stressing out about the mistakes that we have made that we should be able to take stock when the good times come and just remember how far we have come.

Leave a comment on the original post to be in with a chance of winning 100 Euros Cash

Gorgeous weather this weekend so was out and about at Phoenix park doing a bit of filming and meeting some foodies. The show is going great with cool sponsors but it is very labor intensive I must say but I think people are starting to enjoy their bi-weekly slice of food entertainment. Big additions coming in the next couple of weeks especially in the competition section with a couple of massive prizes! Watch this space…….

This week we head down to the Bloom festival in Phoenix park and chec out some of the great organic producers down there as well as lapping up some of the gorgeous sunshine. We now have the show as a video podcast that you can download to your iPhone or iPod and watch on the go this bank holiday weekend as you travel!

I have been crazy busy for the last week and haven’t seen any TV, read blogs/newspapers or been able to update this blog. I had heard in passing about the report into abuses of the Catholic church and if I am brutally honest I didn’t even stop to think about it for more than a minute as the silly little things that I am working on seemed far more important in my head. To be honest when I hear people talking about wars or horrible tragedies that have happened before I was born I tend to switch off as I just can’t relate to it. I was reading Head Rambles today when I came across the video below which is literally the most powerful bit of television I have ever seen and it made me understand in an instant why people are so angry. It made me think about how lucky I am living the life I do and realize how insignificant my little problems actually are. I had to stop watching after about 3 minutes as I literally had a tear in my eye and couldn’t bear to think about what this poor man (and 1000s others) had been through. I know this is not really breaking news and most people will have seen it but I admire this man’s courage so much that the very least he deserves is to have his story heard in as many places as possible and hopefully shame the fuckers who were responsible for what went on in those dark days…..

In the latest episode of the Look and Taste show we are on the hunt for the perfect burger, show you some cool tips with ziplock bags and have some food themed business cards. You have to check out the cool new YouTube Channel that allows you to have a mini TV station and brand all your own content and the fact that the show is in HD (make sure to click HD on YouTube if your connection allows). Let me know what you are thinking of the show so far and if there is anything you would like to see added in the future?

Am loving making the new show but I do have to say that it is taking up more and more of my time. The good news as you will see is that this week we have got a couple of sponsors and appetite for the show is massive with it appearing in Ireland.com already and deals in the pipeline to go live with Bebo and Revision3 very soon. Super exciting times for the new show!