State of the Sift 2010
The state of the Sift is strong. Mostly. Well - we're doing pretty good. I can’t believe we’re going to hit 5 years in February.
I’m in one of those ruminative moods where I’m thinking about this venture to which we've given so much of our time and effort. I thought I would share a little bit about how we are doing as a community.
VideoSift is no longer a young upstart website. When we started in February of 2006 we were almost the only video aggregator out there. Digg wasn't doing video - Facebook was a college campus tool and the term "embedded video" hadn't yet entered mainstream parlance.
As a community, VideoSift hit its growth phase in 2007. From 2008, growth slowed somewhat and now we're pretty level and consistent at around a million visitors a month. In a larger webosphere, we're a smallish community - and that's OK. VideoSift provides a unique service in surfacing videos that you will not find elsewhere - but this is secondary to the community. For many people, myself included, VideoSift is a home on the web. Beyond a collection of unique videos- we are a collection of quirky people with something to say, or fight about. You could use this description for many forums on the web- but I like to think that we have a culture and history that makes us unique in all of the web. It could be a conceit - but I've never found any place quite like VideoSift - perhaps MetaFilter- it's my second favourite community.
I think though, that we may be at a turning point. Websites, like people and stellar objects - have a lifespan. Great websites die, or fade out into lonely places all the time.
Well I'm the Aubrey De Gray of web admins. I don't plan on letting VideoSift become stagnant - or go gentle into that good night. Instead, I'm planning to rage against inertia. VideoSift will never give you that lonely feeling (you know that lonely website feeling?) Stay tuned on that front.
On the financial front, VideoSift has always caused me to wring my hands. @lucky760 and I - and others - have devoted large chunks of our lives to building and maintaining this community. Historically, we've made enough dosh to pay all the bills and provide a small stipend (not a living wage) to the people who work on the site. We're by no means a money spinner- though I suppose we're more financially successful than big community sites like Digg or Reddit - when looked at in a certain way - (that way being that we're not haemorrhaging money).
The most recent incident to cause furious financial hand-wringing came as an email from the Google Adsense team, just last week:
If you've noticed more Public Service Announcements in place of banner ads - It's because we've been banned from Adsense. No fighting videos for Google sponsors - thank you. I'm sure we'll get through this financial hurdle - we're already working on trying to plug the gap in revenue that Google Adsense provided - if you know anyone who works for a reputable online ad agency- have them get in touch.
At this point - I'd like to open things up for a discussion. I'll respond to any ideas for the future or questions you might have about general Sift stuff in the comments section.
I’m in one of those ruminative moods where I’m thinking about this venture to which we've given so much of our time and effort. I thought I would share a little bit about how we are doing as a community.
VideoSift is no longer a young upstart website. When we started in February of 2006 we were almost the only video aggregator out there. Digg wasn't doing video - Facebook was a college campus tool and the term "embedded video" hadn't yet entered mainstream parlance.
As a community, VideoSift hit its growth phase in 2007. From 2008, growth slowed somewhat and now we're pretty level and consistent at around a million visitors a month. In a larger webosphere, we're a smallish community - and that's OK. VideoSift provides a unique service in surfacing videos that you will not find elsewhere - but this is secondary to the community. For many people, myself included, VideoSift is a home on the web. Beyond a collection of unique videos- we are a collection of quirky people with something to say, or fight about. You could use this description for many forums on the web- but I like to think that we have a culture and history that makes us unique in all of the web. It could be a conceit - but I've never found any place quite like VideoSift - perhaps MetaFilter- it's my second favourite community.
I think though, that we may be at a turning point. Websites, like people and stellar objects - have a lifespan. Great websites die, or fade out into lonely places all the time.
Well I'm the Aubrey De Gray of web admins. I don't plan on letting VideoSift become stagnant - or go gentle into that good night. Instead, I'm planning to rage against inertia. VideoSift will never give you that lonely feeling (you know that lonely website feeling?) Stay tuned on that front.
On the financial front, VideoSift has always caused me to wring my hands. @lucky760 and I - and others - have devoted large chunks of our lives to building and maintaining this community. Historically, we've made enough dosh to pay all the bills and provide a small stipend (not a living wage) to the people who work on the site. We're by no means a money spinner- though I suppose we're more financially successful than big community sites like Digg or Reddit - when looked at in a certain way - (that way being that we're not haemorrhaging money).
The most recent incident to cause furious financial hand-wringing came as an email from the Google Adsense team, just last week:
Hello,
While reviewing your account, we noticed that you are currently displaying
Google ads in a manner that is not compliant with our policies. For
instance, we found violations of AdSense policies on pages such as
http://videosift.com/video/The-Best-of-Felony-Fights-compilation. Please
note that this URL is an example and that the same violations may exist on
other pages of your website.
As stated in our program policies, AdSense publishers are not permitted to
place Google ads on pages with violent content, including videos or images
of fights.
Please make any necessary changes to your webpages in the next 72 hours.
We also suggest that you take the time to review our program policies
(https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/answer.py?answer=48182&stc=aspe-1pp-en)
to ensure that all of your other pages are in compliance.
Once you update your site, we will automatically detect the changes and ad
serving will not be affected. If you choose not to make the changes to
your account within the next three days, your account will remain active
but you will no longer be able to display ads on the site. Please note,
however, that we may disable your account if further violations are found
in the future.
Thank you for your cooperation.
Sincerely,
The Google AdSense Team
If you've noticed more Public Service Announcements in place of banner ads - It's because we've been banned from Adsense. No fighting videos for Google sponsors - thank you. I'm sure we'll get through this financial hurdle - we're already working on trying to plug the gap in revenue that Google Adsense provided - if you know anyone who works for a reputable online ad agency- have them get in touch.
At this point - I'd like to open things up for a discussion. I'll respond to any ideas for the future or questions you might have about general Sift stuff in the comments section.
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