I’ve been spending what little free time I have working on a Mystery Thriller enhanced eBook titled “VIDS” for the iPad using iBook Author. (If it goes well I’ll create it for other devices like Android, Nook and Kindle later.) It contains photos, videos, links, graphics and is a story of a young woman who after being jilted posts a website of revenge to get back at her married Washington lobbyist lover.

While I’ve been working on my new Mystery Thriller eBook I’ve been checking out other iBooks and how they are marketed and one of the things that I’ve noticed is that while a lot of fiction eBooks have cover art they don’t really have an electronic equivalent of a back cover or a jacket. With that in mind I’ve set out to create an eJacket for my enhanced eBook. Thanks to iBook Author the layout will look much better than this blog posting but you’ll get the idea. I’m also working on a video trailer for VIDS that will go in the preview of the eBook as well. Here’s the copy and photos I have so far for the eJacket:

Washington D.C. November, 2001 – Jilted, a distressed young woman, Hartley posts stolen private sex videos along with surveillance and hidden camera photos on the Internet and threatens to expose all of her former married lover Bill’s, secrets to his wife if he doesn’t make things right.

The Nation’s Capital has just seen the biggest sex scandal in the history of the United States and things “Inside the Beltway” as the Washington insiders call it, are a buzz with the disappearance of a California Congressman’s Intern. To top if off September 11th made for the worst Autumn Washington has ever seen.

In the midst of it all this sexy, young, alluring, woman who will stop at nothing to get revenge on her wealthy, handsome, lobbyist, ex-lover goes missing.

Take an interactive voyeuristic journey into the life of a cheating, corrupt Washington Lobbyist as he discovers hidden camera footage of his secret life posted on the Internet for the world to see and tries everything in his power to stop the woman behind it.

Watch private videos, see surveillance photos and read excerpts of Hartley’s personal journal to uncover the truth and discover what really happened to this young intelligent woman who’s been missing for over ten years.

If you would like to be notified when my mystery thriller eBook, “VIDS” is available join the Facebook Page or sign up for my mailing list and I will let you know when you can download it.

At the recent iPad / iPhone App conference AppNation I got a chance to speak with Mike McCue the CEO and Founder of my current favorite iPad App Flipboard.

Rhett & Link are a North Carolina-based comedy duo consisting of life-long best friends, Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal. They support themselves by creating and distributing their branded entertainment as web videos and songs. They have created over 200 videos with integrated advertising for brands like McDonalds and Coke, Dentyne Gum, Taco Bell, Alka-Seltzer, Food Network, Microbilt, Sanyo, Kotulas, TV Guide, Baby Ruth, Starburst, Hummer, and Cadillac, as well as integrating smaller brands such as Smule, AJJ Cornhole, and iRESQ. There videos have received over 60 million views and gathered an audience of over 400,000 Youtube subscribers.

I had never met Rhett and Link before and they had no clue about me. I had to do a little negotiating with them for this interview at the Blip.TV party but it all worked out with a simple little trade. They gave me an interview after I introduced them to Felicia Day. I love how Felicia is always opening doors for me.

Anyway, in this video they tell me how they first went about getting sponsors and how brands looking to do product placement and integrated marketing now contact them.

Before the 2010 Streamy Awards at a Blip.TV party I had the chance to catch up with journalist and NewTeeVee reporter, Liz Shannon Miller. Among other things Liz told me that if you want to get her or any other reporter to write about your web video series you need to do a few things first.

What do you need to do to get a reporter to write about your web series?

Watch the video and find out?

Jesse Warren and Mark Gantt the Executive Producers of the hot, new, hip, Hit Web series / Feature Film The Bannen Way talk about product placement, brand integration and how to sell a web series to a Hollywood studio. They also share some great advice for Independent Filmmakers.

At the NewTeeVee Live 09 event I ran into Brian Walsh CEO and Founder Castfire and ask him about his audio and video publishing and syndication platform and what it can do for web video series producers to help them with their video advertising.

One of the coolest things about Castfire is that it allows content producers to deliver dynamic ad insertion into Video RSS (Video Podcasts) as well as serve cross promos and branding in Quicktime. And it works on all other flavors of online video including Flash, Windows Media Player and ever other video file format.

From interactive agencies to sports teams like the Red Skins to PBS’s KCRW to individual online video content creators Castfire has a great service for episodic branded content.

At the All Things Digital conference Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher interview Mark Cuban about web video and how Google (GOOG) has messed if up for you by subsidizing bandwidth and not monetizing YouTube.

Cuban says that Hulu may very well set the standard for online video monetization.

What do you think?

Is Google the reason you are not making money with your online video business or is it something else?

If you are making money and YouTube were to start charging for bandwidth would you be out of business?

I had lunch with Cathy Brooks the other day.

Cathy has spent more than two decades working in and around media and communications. It began in 1982 with a job ripping wire copy (yes they actually still had wire copy machines) at the largest all news radio station in Philadelphia, PA. All these years later, Cathy’s experience as a Journalist encompasses reporting, writing, editing, broadcast management, and most recently media training and strategy development.

Currently Cathy helps small to mid-sized Web 2.0/social media companies that need guidance (and access) to the big brands that can use their technologies, she helps with everything from getting them ready for those meetings, to helping make those connections happen. She also encompasses helping these companies identify the places/events at which they need to be seen, figuring out what, precisely that participation should be and then facilitating that participation for them.

For the larger players who are trying to figure out which (if any) new tools in this tech category fit for their needs, she serves as a native guide.

And then there’s the event production side of her toolkit, which spans from helping develop programs to booking speakers, and then helping facilitate the proceedings.

I first met Cathy when she was the MC of AlwayOn OnHollywod and let me tell you she was a fantastic host!

Cathy is also a great podcast host and if you are interested she recently did an interview with me.

http://1timstreet.com

When I attend different online video and digital events I’m always on the prowl looking for new ways that independent producers can make money with video on the web. While I was at Digital Hollywood I ran into Dave Toole from MEDIAmobz.

MEDIAmobz brings together buyers and producers in a one-of-a-kind marketplace to get videos made at an affordable price.

With the explosive proliferation of user-created content converging with the increasing growth of local search advertising video proves to be a compelling vehicle for communicating a business’s message or story and MediaMobz is uniquely positioned to deliver on that need.

Providing a full suite of online services MEDIAmobz facilitates bidding on media production jobs, project tracking and management, as well as a private collaborative process to get high-quality videos produced.

Business owners and/or advertisers (called buyers on MediaMobz) can get the word out about their services and products with the help of short video ads that can be created by video producers in an affordable way.

Producers on MediaMobz can get paid for their creative talents as MediaMobz brings together video producers with a wide range of skills and backgrounds, from television professionals to amateur videobloggers there is opportunity to connect with buyers.

Once a connection with a buyer and producer is made and money exchanged MediaMobz get paid a commission.

Sounds pretty fair to me.

http://1timstreet.com

Now I’ve never been one to update my web series content on a regular basis but it’s something I’m always wanting to do. I just haven’t found a cost effective way of doing it yet. But now that I’ve found a new Rev Share outlet I’m more motivated than ever to come up with a weekly version of French Maid TV so that I can reap all the benefits of fresh content.

I ran into Michael Berkley Co-Founder and CEO of SplashCast and he gave me the scoop on Rev Share for Online Video in widgets for Social Media sites.

SplashCast is distributing content and sharing revenue for Sony BMG, Warner Bros., Universal and MTV as well as bloggers, video bloggers and anyone who already has compelling content with distribution. There is one caveat: SpalshCast needs to be able to sell advertising against your content. If they can find a brand that is willing to buy your video advertising inventory then it’s a go. If the sales peeps at SplashCast don’t think they can sell your video content to an advertiser they won’t take it on.

Keep in mind you could come to SplashCast with an advertiser yourself and they might help you distribute.

If you do strike a deal with SplashCast you could get a standard 50% / 50% Rev share deal or as high as 70% / 30% if you are selling the advertising.

SplashCast is looking for video content that is episodic in nature and already has a meaningful audience with 100,000s of views that they can help turn into viral videos.

THE BIG TIP: The shelf life for video content inside a widget on social networks is very short unless the content is refreshed on a regular consistent basis. Unless you create and post new content on a regular basis people will drop your widget from their site.

There are other rev share deals for video out there and if you have one that you would like to chat with me about please let me know.