Recently in by vzaar Category

Since we opened up the vzaar video player to allow embedding on multiple website platforms we have seen a really interesting variety of video types emerge from our user base. I thought it might be worth highlighting a five examples that may inspire future video production or shifts in how you utilise video to drive sales, awareness and customer interaction.

1. The Product Demonstration Video
The classic video type that is starting to usurp normal jpeg pictures. Given our eBay roots, we’ve seen lots of businesses shoot videos that focus on describing the item for sale in detail. A seller describing the item’s size, specifications, colour and possible blemishes and the item in working condition (think cars, bikes and industrial equipment!) are obviously the norm but thanks to video the type of product shot on video has now evolved. Whereas before selling a house or rental space might have taken anything between 10-20 pictures, with video its possible to demonstrate every angle, every nook and cranny with a hand held video.

2. The Cross Sell Video
So you’re selling a golf club. Its a lovely Ping and you’re expecting the buyer to shell out £200 for the item. You know he’s going to play golf, you know its only a matter of days before he’s out there on the fairway so why not pitch (pardon the pun!) to him the types of items that every golfer requires? Matching Ping umbrella or glove perhaps? A bag load of tees? Some merchants have therefore run a video for a product then cut in at the end the sheer range of items that they also sell so that the buyer is left tempted by other additional items in or around the point of checkout.

3. The Talking Head Video
The type of video that we are seeing a lot more of recently as people become more and more comfortable with the art of talking to the camera and selling and marketing their service. We’ve had preachers upload their Sunday sermons, lawyers do a piece to camera about their service and upload that to their website and Life Coaches. If you are comfortable with talking to your customers and explaining aspects of your service in detail then this might be the type for you?

4. The Business Profile Video
So you want to impress upon your customer that you are a reputable, trusted seller to do business with. How can you do that without resorting to phoning up each potential customer? Why not take the route that some of our users have and produce your own Business Profile video. Put your team in front of the camera - there is nothing like seeing the person you are buying from for driving trust - or show how professional your premises are so that the buyer is left confident in your ability to deliver the item as described. Some vzaar videos have seen the MD or CEO appear to add that extra air of credibility.

5. The Customer Support Video
Why expect a potential buyer to go through reams of text concerning terms of trade and returns when you can do this in a simple video? We’ve had customers actively seek to reduce the number of questions they get into the customer support queues by tackling with video frequently asked questions such as “How do you pack and ship parcels?” or “How do I return items to you?” It also helps to defuse what could be an awkward customer-seller moment if your customer support representative appear in person in a video to add a friendly disposition to the transaction.

Alternatively, if you are selling an online service try using screencasts to demo your product as this user does.

To eBay has long been a verb. I’ll eBay that later tonight I’ll tell my wife when we are uncluttering the house. The company, to all intents, own the online auctioning moniker and they sweep up quite nicely in most categories from automotive to collectables to antiques and more recently residential property. That’s not to say that dominate in all ecommerce verticals as there is one that is bubbling away quite nicely that I have been using for a year or so now.

Parkatmyhouse.com is the eBay of parking spaces if you get my drift. The site allows users to effectively market their car parking space, garage, forecourt to a market of would be buyers/drivers.

Imagine you are going to see Andy Murray at Wimbledon this summer. The weather is set fair and the strawberries are looking good but you want to drive to SW19. On street parking is a no no and the various car parks in the area will be doing a mean trade at very high prices. So instead you visit Parkatmyhouse to see that there are currently 147 spaces currently available for rent, ranging from daily rates (usually between £5 and £10) to weekly and monthly rates for the longer term visitor or commuter. In theory, if you get in early enough its possible to bag yourself a secure, off street space for your car and enjoy the tennis without worrying about traffic wardens, parking meters or timing restrictions.

Although we are deeply in love with video here at vzaar we’ve had a number of requests of late for audio to be added to our list of compatible file types. Well over the weekend, we made the necessary change, which now means you can now stream sound files in mp3 format.

Perfect if you have

• an audio file you want to share (perhaps you are a musician and you want to show off your talents!)
• a podcast you want to share with your listeners
• a company jingle, advert or PR you want your buyers to listen to

Once uploaded, vzaar return the file in the following player. The size of player defaults to 334x86 pixels at present.

Since we launched we've had a number of requests asking for details on our Affiliate Programme. I suspect that most publishers, especially in the eBay sphere, expect all applications to offer such an incentive programme. Up until now we didn't.

So with the minimum of fanfare we'd like to tell you about our vzaar Affiliate Programme that we will be trialing from today. We are looking for a handful of publishers to invite into the programme which will initially last 90 days at which point the scheme will be reviewed.

For the launch we intend to keep things quite simple. Here are some of the main points:

• Publisher fees available from $3 to $200 per user depending on package signed up to
• Payments to be made via PayPal
• Buttons to be made available to publisher on acceptance into the programme

If the chance to earn some extra revenues appeals and you regularly attract the type of business or eBay seller we're looking for then please email me with your name and vzaar user name and I'll be in touch with further details.

Wow.

vzaar’s been live for a year. Well actually it’s been live for a year and and week. Our real birthday was on the 4th. But we didn’t celebrate it, because we’ve all been hard at work. Like crazy hard.

If you’ve seen the home page, you’ll know we’re doing a big server move and upgrade on Monday. This should make uploading quicker and faster and the whole platform much more robust. It should also make it quicker and easier for us to deploy more changes and bring some really exciting functionality to you.

A lot has changed in a year:

• Last year our team was just 2.
• This year it’s 7.

• Last year we had 50 eBay listings with video embedded in them.
• Last week we had 10,000.

• Last year we had had 259 videos watched.
• Now we have had over 1 million.

It’s been an exciting year. I’ve learnt loads. We’ve discovered a lot about what video is doing online and how to help sellers use it best.

We’ve also picked up some great sellers. We all have a soft spot for different sellers in the office. We’ve noticed some products being really popular which we never would have guessed. Diamonds and jewellery have been a great hit. So have antique clocks. and even disco lasers. (that’s something old, something new, something we can’t borrow and nothing blue)

I’d just like to say it’s been a fantastic year, and I can’t wait to see what more we can do with vzaar. I’d also like to thank the great team we have here for making this all happen, and stopping me from my more crazy ideas.

Emma, our Online Herald, for managing PR and Marketing with creativity and zest and ingenuity. Never before has someone done so much with so little (budget). Also for putting up with my house music when it was just the two of us.

Dan, our Social Wizard, for helping to nurture our small community, writing some great articles and sounding fantastic on the radio. Also for bringing a bit of higher studies to the office and making sure we never missed a Dr Who episode.

Mauricio, our Digital Artiste, for bringing the new flavour of vzaar to life, beating IE6 into submission and saving Emma from writing HTML. Also for our constant supply of Brazilian delicacies and giving us a bit of Latin flair.

Jonathan, our Tech Guru, for being the smartest person on the planet, but humble all the same, and building the vzaar platform that is by far the most brilliant thing this side of the galaxy. Also for not making us drink your Romulean Ale and keeping amused with your constant patter and humour. Also for not killing me for my ‘special’ take on REST api’s.

Jamie, our Business Man, for being everything I am not in so many ways. Mate you saved my sanity and I think everyone is exceedingly pleased you are handling so much of the operations and not me. You’re fantastic, and have managed to let everyone focus on what they do best, without I’m sure we would have struggled by several orders of magnitude. Also for being afraid of ketchup, which is the weirdest phobia ever, and keeps me amused on every team night out.

Ian, our Video Guy, for being fantastic with customers and being responsible for the incredible growth in embeds with your careful nurturing of new clients. Also for your Jamaican accent that turns on when you call home and introducing us to the best Jerk Chicken in London.

Ken Moss, our Big Boss, for keeping us all employed and making sure the wheels keep on rolling. Also for your choices in shirts, that shall we call, bold, not loud.

Thanks all, and may the next year be even better.

Adrian, vzaar’s Chief Geek.

Jamie mentioned that a movie would be coming soon on his post about the office move.

You'll find it below in all it's glory. You'll notice how half the office*cough*emmajonathanmauricio*cough found excuses to not be there whilst three of us did all the heavy lifting. Only joking. Jonathan and Mauricio had too much important work to do (some great changes to vzaar coming over the next few months), whilst Emma had a summer festival to attend.

You'll notice the video jumps in places where magically stuff happens very quickly. This isn't because we have an office magic unicorn that packs things up, but rather that Jamie and Ian were more concerned with "getting stuff done" rather than my integrity as a stop motion film maker. I'm sure you're equally appalled at how my creative spirit was trampled on. Alas, my pleas have fallen on deaf ears.

Anyway, we all love a bit of video at vzaar so we hope you enjoy our move to new digs.

Yes, it's that time of year again. It's Children in Need time and at vzaar we're doing our bit. Check out our eBay for Charity auctions with videos here.

If you want to know more about selling for charity with vzaar, this video Emma and I made will help.

Don't forget: vzaar is free and it's a great way of raising some money for a good cause.