http://apps.facebook.com/uvizz_app/AdView.aspx?...

http://apps.facebook.com/uvizz_app/AdView.aspx?...

I’m like you. All of the application stuff that I get wears me out.

With uVizz, people send out personalized video referrals that appear arrive in their friends’ notifications area of Facebook and other social networks (they also see the referral inside uVizz).

Here’s what we do to limit the SPAM:

— You can only send 1 referral to a person per video. We won’t allow you to send it to the same person again. If they don’t want to watch it, sending it again won’t help.

— If you have a friend who keeps sending you videos that you don’t want to watch, you can block in uVizz them without them knowing. They’ll think they are sending you videos, but you’ll never get them. That’s our way of helping you deal with an uncomfortable situation.

– We’ll be monitoring the referrals being sent. If we see people sending out a lot of them (more than the average user), it could be that they are spamming folks in order to make some money. If that’s the case, we’ll kick them out.

– We’ll never post anything on your wall about what you’ve done in uVizz without your permission. If you want to tell your friends that you just referred a video to your buddy and by having it posted on your wall, you have to manually go in check the box in your “My uVizz” area to do so. We have it turned off when you join. If you’re someone who refers a lot of videos, you’ll want to leave that off. Otherwise, you’re going to be annoying your friends with constant updates.

– You’ll never be required to refer a video. We’ll never tell you that in order to watch more videos you’ll need to refer a video to 6 of your friends. Lots of applications make people promote something in order to keep using it. We don’t. You can watch videos all day long on uVizz (just like YouTube). You won’t make any money, but you’re welcome to watch to your heart’s content.

As you can see, we’re trying to do things differently than some of the other applications. For us, user privacy and control is the most important part of uVizz. They are in complete control of the advertising process. They choose the videos they create, refer or view. If users feel that we are exploiting them, they won’t participate. And that will be bad for us lol

Seeing uVizz in action makes all of the difference. We have some webinars coming up. You should register for one so that you can see uVizz in action. In fact, we have one tomorrow. Here’s the webinar schedule:

http://www.uvizz.com/uvizz/webinars.aspx

We also have a recorded demo/webinar. You can watch it now by going here:

http://www.uvizz.com/uvizz/view_demo.aspx

If you’d prefer to have a private demo, tweet me and we’ll get it scheduled @matt_uvizz

Aaaah, that sounds cool then. From my perspective, having an embedded video player will be huge for ya’ll.

What I meant by the spamming thing on facebook is that I often get requests from “silly” applications, like Zombie wars or random what kind of kitchen appliance are you quiz and end up just ignoring the whole lot of them. In other words, any facebook application now has a built in “what kind of silly game/quiz etc. am I being sent now” hurdle to overcome.

In either case, it certainly sounds interesting but I think seeing it in action will help me better understand it. The potential here is huge, as we all know people love sharing funny videos and now with uVizz adding monetary motivation to the mix it could be a massive success.

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In the previous discussions, we were talking about the video being uploaded to different websites. That’s bad for the video creator. They won’t get paid when the videos are viewed.

Remember, uVizz tracks every video view. We do this so that we know when to charge advertisers and who to compensate for video creation and delivery. Right now, we have a “badge” that video creators can use (it’s html) to promote their video on other websites. When people click to view the video, it will take them to uVizz.

In the future, we’ll have a player that can be embedded on any website. When a person wants to watch a video, they’ll be able to click on Facebook Connect, MySpace ID etc. That will give us the ability to see if they’ve installed uVizz, check to see if they’ve viewed the video before, and see if their demographic data makes it a targeted view where the advertiser pays/the video creator makes money.

If you’re being spammed with uVizz videos, you’ll probably want to get new friends ;-). After all, the only people that can send you videos are people with whom you have established relationships (followers on Twitter & social network friends). The videos you should receive will be from friends who are sending them to you because they know you and think you’ll be interested in the content. On Twitter, if someone is just sending out video Tweets to the masses, I would consider it spam and stop following them.

Don’t think of this as a “walled garden”. We’re talking about funny or interesting videos that somehow promote a product and hopefully increase sales for the advertiser. All we’re doing is tracking the viral spread of these videos so that everyone involved (the video creators and those who refer the videos) are compensated for helping the advertisers. To do that, we need to know who the people are so we can pay them. As Rachel stated in her post, 70% of an advertiser’s uVizz budget is paid to the users. That’s serious money.

Hope this answers your questions. If not, let me know.

Sorry for the delay in responding. I’ve been in a meeting.

Let’s say that I’ve created a video for the advertiser. It’s really funny (people love it) and it promotes the advertisers product. If I upload it to other websites, I will be providing product promotion for the advertiser, but I won’t be paid anything when it’s viewed. As the content creator, and as someone who likes to make money, I want that video to only be shown through uVizz because that’s the only place where I’ll be compensated when it’s viewed. Basically, my video is my product. If I put it on other websites, I’m giving it away for free. The advertiser benefits from it (they get FREE product promotion), but I don’t.

It’s kind of like asking a movie studio to release a summer blockbuster on YouTube and in the movie theaters. What’s the incentive for a person to go to the movies and pay for it after they’ve watched it on YouTube? The studio is only going to release a movie (the product that want to be paid for) in areas where they can make money. Sure, they have trailers and teasers everywhere to advertise the movie, but those aren’t the product. The movie is the product….and it’s only shown where they can make money.

We do give the video creator a badge (html code) that they can put on any website to promote their video. When someone clicks it to watch the video, they are taken to uVizz. Think of it as the trailer for the video.

For those who want to create videos, promote products, increase someone’s sales, and not make money for doing it, they should stick with the other video websites and stay far away from uVizz. ;-)

Hope that addresses the issue. We just want people to be paid for their creativity and for creating buzz about products. They deserve it.

The question becomes, will uVizz have an embedding option, and if not why not?

It seems if you could embed videos on blogs and other sites, it would allow the video to become viral while still being able to track views and get everyone paid (except the viewer).

It just seems to me that having this type of content within a walled garden will cause people to simply not install uVizz.

Personally, I know now that if someone sends me an invite to uVizz on facebook or a link to a uVizz video I’ll be skeptical since I know they’re making money off it and might just be spamming the heck out of me with videos they made.

If videos could be embedded, we’d likely not even notice it’s a uVizz video and watch and share it more freely and frequently. I just really don’t think the walled garden approach fits these types of videos.

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Or, it’s like Rachel’s blog here, where she’s asking her readers to tweet it, digg it, etc.

If I put my video on uVizz, I’m giving up those distribution rights. I grasp the UVizz benefit for exclusivity but I don’t see how or why a client would agree. Maybe you can provide an analogy to a system I already understand?

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Before a video creator submits a video, they must agree to our terms and conditions. Our terms and conditions explain that they can’t put the video on any other website beside uVizz. They own the content, but we hold the distribution rights. Again, like I wrote in my previous response, we hold the distribution rights to protect the video creator and the advertiser. Additionally, if I’m a video creator, I won’t want to upload it to other websites. Why? Because I won’t be compensated when the video is viewed on those websites. If people want to watch my video, I want them to do it on uVizz — because that’s where I’ll make money when my video is viewed.

If the advertiser wants to show my video on other websites, they’ll have to purchase the distribution rights and content from me. uVizz only holds the distribution rights. As the video creator, I can sell them for any amount of money.

There are some instances where advertisers will be able to show the videos outside of uVizz without paying the video creator. When this happens, the video creator will know upfront (before they submit the video) that there’s been a deviation from the standard distribution/ownership model. Also, in those instances, there will be compensating factors. For instance, one of our first campaigns is for a UK cereal company called Mornflake ( http://www.mornflake.com ). They will have video competition website where they’ll be showing the most popular videos from the campaign on uVizz. When the campaign ends, they will be awarding about $25,000 to the video they like best. This prize is being given on top of the compensation that the video creators and fans already received within uVizz. Again, in this scenario, the video creators will know from the beginning that our standard distribution/ownership model is different for that campaign.