The Next Sift-Off, and a rant about Veoh.

So, maybe you're wondering why we haven't had another of our user-submitted video contests, The VideoSift SiftOff. The last one was a hit, with the second place winner- our own Daphne, getting over 100,000 views on her video, and a 3-picture deal with Dreamworks. (OK, the last bit – not so much). We said we would start it up in July, but it didn't happen. Why not?



Well, in the middle of June we were contacted by the Marketing Manager of Veoh. We spoke on the phone and he told me how much he loved VideoSift, what a great community, rising star, highest video site on Technorati, etc. etc. Basically blowing some first-class marketing wind up my ass. (Where does that phrase come from?)



Anyway, the short of it was, that Veoh wanted to sponsor the next Sift-Off and provide us with a bevy of great prizes. (iPods, PSPs etc.) The only catch being that all submitted videos would need to be from Veoh, and we would add Veoh as a host for VideoSift.



Sounds great, James and I are thinking – we were considering adding Veoh anyway, as they had recently removed all porn content (due to a law-suit http://xbiz.com/news_piece.php?id=15805 >I think). Without the Vitamin P factor, Veoh would be a good host for VideoSift.



We're all fired up, getting the site ready, itching to make a big announcement but things just seemed to drag on, Mr. Veoh Marketing Manager needed to get approval, a week drags on, then 2 weeks, 3 weeks and … nothing.



So Veoh is officially on our shit list. Please don't ask us to add them as a host. We delayed our Sift-Off for nothing and they just blew us off, after they contacted us. I can only think they don't see a lot of value in grass-roots communities and feel free to use or discard at their whim. Well, I'm hoping that our 1.3 million page views a month can get the message out – communities should not be ignored or toyed with. Oh and I think they are already taking a pretty big hit after removing the http://www.alexaholic.com/ifilm.com+youtube.com+grouper.com+veoh.com>porn.



The good news is that the Sift-Off will now be starting on August 1st. We don't have any prizes to offer except front-page publicity and a nice spring-board to get your project noticed and out there. If you are one of our fabulous hosts and you are reading this (we know you're out there) and would like to sponsor the Sift Off, drop us a line.
daphne says...

Oh that SUCKS! And I was just getting into Veoh. They seemed really responsive to it's members right after the whole "getting sued" thing went down.

(Oh, and I have to thank you for mentioning YF again...it still surprises me that other people think it's as funny as I do. And the 3-picture deal fell through, but my poetry got accepted at Poetry.com! I just have to buy their book for $49.95! hee hee hee....)

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