Acknowledgements

Thank you to Liron Steinfeld for all your help, Sandy Doell for your

wonderful editorial eye and to Michael W. Dean, Matt Lawniczak and

James Brooks for your suggestions and time.

My blogTV show:

http://blogtv.com/people/fallofautumndistro

“I’m Live, Right Now! The Basics of blogTV”

Published by Blue Tape Media (bluetapemedia.com)

for ViralVideoWannabe.com

Author: Alan Lastufka

Editor: Sandy Doell

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-

Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of

this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300,

San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.

Contact Information

To contact the author, email alan@fallofautumn.com

or mail PO Box 254, Manhattan, IL, 60442, USA.

To contact the publisher, email contact@bluetapemedia.com

Introduction

What is blogTV?

blogTV is a website that allows anyone with a webcam, an internet

connection, and a free account registered to broadcast live to a global

audience. With very few restrictions (discussed in the Rules section of

this article), any user can broadcast any type of show, from backyard

concerts to interviews, vlogs, and beyond.

blogTV not only provides the technology, but also provides promotion

of your show to a large pre-existing community and audience. I’ve

found the blogTV staff to be eager in wanting to work with me to pro-

vide the best exposure and support they can for my show.

Already utilized by dozens of hugely successful YouTubers, commer-

cial musicians, presidential candidates, filmmakers, and others,

blogTV is one of the best new, live platforms for reaching your audi-

ence.

So how do you get started?

This eBook is, first and foremost, a guide for beginner broadcasters

who want to understand the numerous features of blogTV. It is written

simply, by a daily user of the site, so you won’t find any technical

mumbo jumbo here. I am not employed by blogTV, and blogTV did not

have any editorial control over the content here. These observations

are drawn from my own experiences as I found my way around the

site.

2

This eBook will also help some experienced broadcasters who may be

searching for additional show ideas, or promotional help. After I ex-

plain how to use some of the technical features of the site, I will share

with you the techniques I and other popular broadcasters used to get

the word out about our shows.

I’ve included as many screenshots and examples as necessary to help

you along with each feature, but you may still have questions. My con-

tact information is listed at the front and back of this eBook, and you

are free to contact me with any questions that may arise while you are

getting started.

You may be a little nervous the first time you click that Start Broadcast-

ing button. I know I was, but being armed with all of the information

contained within these pages from both me and other broadcasters,

you’ll do a much better job with your early shows than any of us did.

Good luck, and happy broadcasting.

Registering

If you’ve visited blogTV before, you’ll know that you can watch shows

as a guest without giving up your email address or taking the time to

register an account. However, registered users have many benefits

that guests don’t have. Most importantly, guests can’t broadcast their

own shows. Also, registered users are given preferential treatment in

every area of blogTV over guests, including main rooms, operating

privileges, and more. (You’ll learn more about all these features in later

sections of this article.)

Luckily, registering is easy and takes less than a minute.

To register an account, navigate to the top of any page on blogTV and

click on the Sign Up button.

The Sign Up button will take you to the registration form. Enter your

desired screen name, an email address that you check regularly, and

the other requested information.

Make sure you agree to blogTV’s Terms of Use before you click Go for

It. Your registration information will be sent to the email address you

specified and then you’ll be ready to sign in for the first time.

3

Now that you have an account, you can start adding friends, subscrib-

ing to your favorite shows, leaving comments on other users’ chan-

nels, and much more. Each of the above will be covered in future

sections, but for now, let’s jump right in and start broadcasting.

Broadcasting

While some users are only spectators, bouncing from room to room,

watching others, and joining in on the text conversation, most join

blogTV to broadcast. Live shows can take on many different forms,

from concerts, to vlogging, to interviews using blogTV’s co-hosting fea-

ture. You don’t need to decide now what your particular show will be

about before you begin broadcasting.

Let’s start by walking through how to go live and set up your camera

and microphone options. Once you are signed in, you should navigate

to your channel page; this will be at the following address:

http://blogtv.com/People/YOURSCREENNAME

Replace YOURSCREENNAME with the screen name you selected

while registering. This will be the link you send to other people when

you want them to watch your broadcast.

Now that you’re on your channel page, the large video window will say

“Click here to start broadcasting NOW.” Click anywhere within that

video window.

Clicking on the window will bring up

your camera and microphone op-

tions. This dialog box will usually se-

lect the appropriate settings for you,

but can be changed at any time.

Click Close, and you’re ready to start broadcasting. You can simply

click the video window again to begin broadcasting, or click the Start

Broadcasting button under the video window.

4

Screen names will make or break you online. A short, easy to re-member screen name containing no numbers, dashes, or under-scores is best. Use proper spellings to make it even easier onpeople. You want an audience, so don’t make it difficult for them tofind you by selecting an unpronounceable or difficult screen name.

Congratulations! You are now broadcasting live. Send your channel

link to a few friends via IM, Twitter, and MySpace, and as your room

grows, you may even land on the front page of blogTV, where you will

pick up many additional viewers.

While your audience may be limitless, you can only interact with the

first 150 registered users who make it to your room. This chat room is

located to the right of your video window (as shown above), and is

called the Main Room.

Main Room

The text chat you see to the right of your video window is called the

Main Room. The main room can hold about 150 registered users be-

fore a waiting room is created. Main rooms only hold 150 users so that

you, as the broadcaster, can attempt to read the text chat and interact

with your audience. Any more than 150 users and the chat can be-

come very hard to keep up with and even unreadable. Once you reach

the 150 max for the main room, viewers will be put into a waiting room

(more on that in the next section).

Main chat rooms make it possible for you to title the chat. You can use

this area (found directly above the chat) to post a link you’d like view-

ers to visit throughout the show, or announce any special upcoming

events, etc.

Main rooms also allow for some moderation in the form of Operators,

which we will discuss in an upcoming section. The ability to read and

reply to viewers in the main room and your ability to choose operators,

are the two most important ways in which the main room differs from

waiting rooms.

Waiting Room

Waiting rooms are created automatically by blogTV once your viewers

total over 150, as mentioned earlier. Each waiting room is allowed 150

registered users and guests before a second, third, forth, and so on is

created. While an average blogTV show usually only has about 40

viewers, some more popular shows have been known to have up-

wards of 2,000 or 3,000 viewers.

Guests are moved to waiting rooms as more registered users visit your

show, the waiting rooms are typically filled with spam, hate comments,

and other undesirable posts because there are no operators to kick

out the bad eggs. These guests and users would typically be dealt with

by the operators you appoint, but, at this

time, you cannot appoint ops in the waiting

room.

Ops

Ops is short for Operators; these are the

users you personally select in your main

room to “police” the chat. Ops have the

power to remove people who are spam-

ming or otherwise being inappropriate via

5

Streaming video requires a lot of bandwidth. I recommend youclose all other internet applications (email, IM, etc.) so that yourbroadcast is as smooth and uninterrupted as possible.

the Kick function. Ops can also grant Operator Privileges to other

users. To grant someone Operator Privileges, simply click on their

name in the chat list, and choose “Add Operator.”

I recommend you only give ops to users who you personally know and

trust, as these users have the power to kick others from the room.

Some broadcasters limit their number of operators, while others

choose to have none at all.

Turning Guest Chat On/Off

If your Ops become overwhelmed, or you’d just rather not deal with

unregistered users, you can set your chat room to not allow guests to

chat. Guests will still be able to view your show and read what regis-

tered users type, but they won’t be able

to type. Not all guests are bad, but the

majority of spam and hate you see will

come from unregistered, guest ac-

counts.

To turn the Guest Chat feature on or off,

click on the pencil icon below the list of

users in the chat room, as pictured.

Here you could also choose to only allow your Ops to chat, or only

people you’ve added as a friend (we’ll cover adding friends in a later

section).

Co-Hosting

Most blogTV broadcasts consist

of a single broadcaster. Musi-

cians, vloggers, artists, and oth-

ers looking to interact with an

audience. However, if you’d like

to interview, debate, or just audi-

bly chat with another user, blogTV

has a co-hosting function. The co-

hosting function will allow you to

add one additional broadcaster to

the main video window that everyone watching the show will be able to

see and hear.

To invite someone to co-host with you, click on their name in the right-

hand chat pane, and choose Invite Co-Host.

I recommend using headphones while co-hosting to cut down on the

chance of runaway feedback and lag echo problems.

You can use the co-host option to debate a topic with another user, to

interview someone, or to allow someone to entertain your audience

while you pause for a bathroom break, dinner, or any other reason.

I recommend you only co-host other users you know personally.

6

If you find yourself in a waiting room with a ton of spam or hateposts, Flag the broadcast by clicking the Flag option under thevideo window. This will typically bring in a blogTV staff memberwho will, most times, op a few individuals in the waiting room tohelp keep things in order.

Show Activities

The co-hosting for interviews and debates mentioned in the previous

section are just some examples of ideas for activities within your

shows. While some broadcasters go on without a plan, shows tend to

run much more smoothly and be more entertaining, if you have an

idea of what it is you might do while on screen.

I asked the viewers in my room one day what they enjoyed most about

the shows they watch on the site. Here were some of the activities and

events they most loved watching, and participating in:

• Q&A – If you don’t go live often, or if you have a number of

interesting projects going on at once, you could devote a portion

of your show to answering viewers’ questions.

• Songs – Numerous broadcasters also happen to be pretty

entertaining with an acoustic guitar. If you write your own songs,

or enjoy playing covers, take requests from your audience.

• Prank Calls – Some broadcasters have a knack for prank calling

random stores or other broadcasters. Ask your viewers for

suggestions on whom to prank, or for topics for the call.

• Pictionary – Various software programs will interact with your

webcam, allowing you to draw directly on the video stream you’re

broadcasting. You can use programs like ManyCam and CamTwist

to play Pictionary with your viewers.

• Cooking / Hobbies – Have a signature dish? Why not prepare it

live for your audience. Provide details of the recipe so others can

cook with you if they want. Short, tasty treats work the best. You

could also teach songs on your guitar, knit a scarf, or demonstrate

one of any other talents you may have.

• Painters Tape – Okay, this one might leave you scratching your

head, but in some of my live shows I’ve created artwork on my

bedroom wall using painters tape.

It’s fun, people enjoy watching

and suggesting subjects for the art,

and it’s easily removed when the

show’s over.

There is virtually no limit to the things

you can do during your show, espe-

cially if you have a wireless signal and

can broadcast from outdoors. Be cre-

ative and try to come up with ideas that are fun and entertaining for

everyone watching.

While you can get away with broadcasting all kinds of content, there

are a few rules blogTV has put in place to protect both themselves and

their viewers.

Rules

blogTV has a full page explaining their Terms of Use, which you

agreed to when you registered. But basically, while broadcasting, there

are three rules.

• No nudity, sex, or copyrighted content. Keep your clothes on and

keep TV shows out of your video window, and you’ll be ok.

7

• Must be 16 or older to broadcast. Most sites only require their

members to be 13 and up, but blogTV has chosen 16. Please

respect this rule. I’ve personally seen users kicked off solely

because they lied about their age.

• Harassment of any kind is forbidden. Don’t drink the Haterade!

If you follow these three simple rules, you’ll keep your account and

have a very good chance at building a decent sized audience. If you

don’t, it’s likely your broadcast will be flagged.

Flagging

The flagging function is primarily used to report broadcasts that break

one or more of the above stated rules. blogTV staff personally check

out each flagged broadcast, so don’t abuse the function.

To flag a show, simply click on the

Flag link located beneath the video

window as pictured to the left.

You can also flag a broadcast from the waiting room to bring in blogTV

staff who should then op someone in the waiting room.

Recording Shows

blogTV offers a wonderful built-in recording feature that allows you to

easily capture, not only your live broadcast, but also the main room

chat! The main room chat is played as a lower-third overlay on

recorded videos and may be hidden by the viewer at the push of a

single button.

Once you hit a certain level of viewers, blogTV will begin recording

your shows automatically. You can also, at any time, choose to start

and stop recording on your own.

To begin recording, click on Start

Recording; the button is located

right under the large video window.

Recorded videos are limited to 10 minutes each. In the earlier days,

blogTV allowed recordings up to one hour so you may, occasionally,

come across longer recordings.

You can restart the recording process as many times as you’d like

while broadcasting though, to capture your whole broadcast, even if

you are on for more than 10 minutes.

Most broadcasts last between one and two hours and are scheduled

beforehand.

Scheduling Shows

Random shows can be fun, but they are rarely as well-attended as

scheduled shows. Scheduling your shows allows your audience to fit

8

Your shows need structure and some planning. Record these spe-cific moments and events. Don’t simply record your room whileyou’re walking around getting set-up, or while you’re on the phoneand asking your audience to just hang-out and wait. If someone inthe room asks a particularly interesting question, hit record beforeyou answer, and then stop recording as soon as you’ve finished an-swering; don’t just let it run while you ramble.

your show into their busy lives.

If I know one of my friends has a

live show every Thursday at 7pm,

then I know not to make plans for

that time if I want to attend the show. If that same friend decided to

hop on whenever she felt like it, I would miss a lot of what she broad-

casts because my time would simply already be spoken for.

In addition to helping your view count, scheduling shows also helps

blogTV promote you.

Believe it not, blogTV loves to promote your shows. Most sites pick

only special broadcasters or users to spotlight, but blogTV does every-

thing it can to help you get the word out about your show no matter

who you are. One thing you can do to help blogTV know about your

show is to schedule it using their scheduling service.

To schedule a show, navigate to the front page, where you’ll see a

large “Broadcast Now or Schedule a Live Show” button. Clicking this

button will take you to the scheduling page.

From here, you can schedule additional shows or edit the details of the

shows you’ve already scheduled. I like keeping a weekly schedule,

same day and time each week. Something different might work for you

and your audience though.

One last benefit of scheduling your shows rather than just broadcast-

ing whenever the mood strikes is that subscribers to your channel will

be sent an optional reminder email 15 minutes before your show be-

gins. This will greatly increase your viewership. And subscribing is

easy, so you should encourage viewers to subscribe at the end of

each and every show, so they don’t miss any of your exciting broad-

casts.

Subscribing

If you run across a new show on blogTV that you enjoy, you should

subscribe to that show by clicking on the Subscribe link, found right

below the large video window. When you subscribe, you will be given

the option to receive email re-

minders about that specific

show. If you choose to receive

these email reminders, blogTV

will send you an email about 15 minutes before any scheduled shows

happen. This is a great way not to miss any of your favorite broadcast-

ers.

Subscribing on blogTV is not the same as subscribing on YouTube.

For instance, blogTV doesn’t keep any Most Subscribed lists, like

YouTube does, so there is no incentive for broadcasters to ask you to

subscribe aside from not wanting you to miss any scheduled shows.

As a subscriber, you’ll also get notices when unscheduled or surprise

9

shows happen. Any time a broadcaster goes live without first schedul-

ing it, you’ll receive an email about ten minutes into the broadcast,

while others who have not subscribed receive no notice at all.

If at any time you wish to unsubscribe from a show, you also have that

option.

Friends

Your friends are given preferential treatment over other users when

moving from the waiting rooms to the main room.

Also, if you’re friends with another user, you can chat in a private tab

with them, even if you both aren’t watching the same show. This is

convenient for chatting with friends while waiting for a particular show

to start.

You can add friends by clicking the Add to Friends link found next to

the Subscribe button on each broadcaster’s channel page.

Lighting/Camera Angles

I am not a professional videographer, but I know it’s annoying to watch

a poorly lit or badly framed show. If it’s dark in your bedroom, turn on a

lamp or three. If you have a tripod, use it. If your camera is built in to

your laptop, put your laptop on a steady surface rather than have it

bobbing around on your lap.

Steady shots with a good amount of light will make your broadcast

much easier to watch.

Making a Banner

blogTV allows you to brand your show with a fairly large banner across

the top of your channel page. If you’ve never made a banner before,

don’t worry; they’re not difficult to make.

I use an older program called Macromedia Fireworks to create my

banners. I also create banners for other blogTV broadcasters such as

LisaNova and BuckHollywood using Macromedia Fireworks. For a

small fee, I can create your banner, or you can create one yourself.

Even a free program like MS Paint will suffice.

Important items to include on your banner are a picture of yourself, the

topic of your show, and your schedule in more than one time zone if

possible. I have a fairly large audience in the United Kingdom, so in

addition to my local time zone I include my schedule in GMT, the

United Kingdom’s local time zone. If you notice that the majority of

your fans are from California, or Australia, or wherever, try to include

their local time in your banner schedule.

10

blogTV will use whichever video source you tell it to, if you have aminiDV camera, I highly recommend you connect it via USB orFirewire and broadcast using your miniDV cam as opposed to a we-bcam. The quality of your broadcast will be much higher.

I designed the above banner for LisaNova and it illustrates a pretty

good utilization of banner space. The banner includes her image, her

schedule, and her username. It could be improved by including a sec-

ond time zone, but the majority of her viewers are in her timezone so

this makes sense for her.

Finally, you should include your show name and tagline in the banner.

Not your name, but the name of your show. I interview others on my

blogTV channel, so my show is called YouTalk. It allows others to ref-

erence your show with something short and catchy, rather than trying

to remember or pronounce your screen name. (although if you fol-

lowed my pro tip in the first section, you should have a kickass screen

name)

The Playground

In addition to branding your show in your banner, blogTV also offers a

space on your channel page known as the Playground. The Play-

ground will accept most html code you insert. This allows you to

embed one of your YouTube videos, or photos of you and your friends,

or statcounter images, mp3 players, etc.

I STRONGLY recommend you do not put anything on autoplay in the

Playground. Viewers to your show will be highly irritated having to

scroll down and turn off any video or music that begins playing every

time they visit your channel, and eventually, they will just stop visiting

altogether.

To edit the contents of your Playground, scroll to just below your chat

window and find the section labeled The Playground. On the right

hand side will be a link to Edit the Playground. Make sure the images

you enter aren’t so wide that they break the page layout, and again,

please do not include anything that autoplays any video or audio. Be-

cause you can link the images you put in the Playground, this would

be a great place to insert a few linked buttons to your other projects in-

cluding YouTube, Twitter, or your personal site. Not only is blogTV a

great way to drive traffic to your other projects, but your other projects

are a great way to drive viewers to your blogTV broadcast.

Promoting Your Show

While the occasional small live show can be fun and more intimate

than a well attended show, the goal of most broadcasters is to reach

the largest audience possible. To that end, you will need to promote

your show. Keeping a schedule helps more than anything else, but

here are some other obvious places to start:

YouTube. Your subscribers on YouTube signed on because they enjoy

watching you and your videos. Those same subscribers should also

enjoy your live shows. Some broadcasters post a video on YouTube

every time they go live on blogTV. This is a great way to drive viewers

to your live broadcast. Some only make videos for special live broad-

casts, or when they plan to be on longer than usual. That approach

works as well.

Twitter. If you have any number of followers on Twitter, let them know

about your live show. Twitter updates get sent to cell phones, email in-

boxes, desktop widgets and all sorts of other places where your follow-

ers will see them immediately. Take advantage of that mass IMing tool,

and tweet about your shows when you go live.

11

Facebook. I don’t use this approach as often, but when I have a spe-

cial event (perhaps once a month) on my live broadcast, I will set up a

Facebook event and invite my Facebook friends to attend the live

broadcast.

MySpace, Friendster, etc. all have similar features to the Facebook

events I mentioned above, with similar invitation functions.

You could also start an email list on your personal website. This ap-

proach has worked well for LisaNova, who sends an email out to her

list about three hours before her live shows each week, as a friendly

reminder.

Schedule your shows and then stick to that schedule; this will increase

your viewership. If someone comes by and expects to see your show,

you should be there. This is also true if you wish to continue receiving

promotion from blogTV, which Twitters about shows and places large

graphic banners on their front page to advertise upcoming shows. If

you fail to show up for one too many scheduled shows, blogTV will

stop promoting you.

Interaction

Now that you have an audience, don’t neglect them! You may have

pre-planned topics or activities for your broadcast, but if the audience

has questions, or politely asks you to perform, say, one of your more

popular songs or comedy routines, or whatever, you should probably

oblige them. While they might be there to see you, you wouldn’t be

having any fun broadcasting to an empty room, so don’t ignore or neg-

lect your audience.

The following section has some recommendations of live shows. This

is by no means a definitive list; it is simply a list of shows that I have

personally attended and enjoyed. The following shows will demon-

strate how to properly interact with an audience while remaining enter-

taining and watchable. If you have any additional shows you’d like to

suggest to me, my contact info is located at the front and back of this

eBook.

Appendix: Recommended Shows

YouTalk: Interviewing Viral Video creators:

http://blogtv.com/people/fallofautumndistro

What The Buck Show!

http://blogtv.com/people/buckhollywood

Charlieissocoollike

http://blogtv.com/people/charlieissocoollike

Nerimon

http://blogtv.com/people/nerimon

LisaNova Live!

http://blogtv.com/people/lisnovalive

ShayCarl

http://blogtv.com/people/shaycarl

Lorax1515

http://blogtv.com/people/lorax1515

12

Also by Alan “fallofautumndistro” Lastufka:

ORDER NOW:http://tinyurl.com/youtubebook

Want to make a splash on YouTube? Even go viral? You've come to the right

place. This book is written by two veteran 'Tubers who live their art and know

what they're talking about -- especially Alan Lastufka, a.k.a. "fallofautumndis-

tro," whose videos get millions of views. He and co-author Michael W. Dean

show you how to make a quality video, and how to optimize, encode, upload,

and promote it.

YouTube: An Insider’s Guide to Climbing the Charts is published by O’Reilly

Media, Inc.

Visit the blog:

http://viralvideowannabe.com

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-

Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of

this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300,

San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.

13