My friends at Project Pedal wrote a post mildly lamenting the fact that they don’t have a million people watching their (amazing) video podcasts about the process of editing their (sure to be amazing) feature documentary film. Amanda writes:

the first thing i’ve been wondering about is viewers. or how do we get them? and how do we get more of them? it seems to me that most people who take the time (yes, i know, they are LONG) to watch our videos generally seem to like them. so a big question mark for mike and i has always been… why don’t we have more viewers? why are our numbers so low? how come we still only have 122 subscribers???

I’ve been thinking about this a lot myself, not least of the reason being that I’m in the middle of reading Clay Shirkey’s incredible “Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations“. In this age of mass amateurization and instant world wide publication, it’s hard to remember what’s important in the quest to building an audience as an independent artist.

So to Amanda: I think you might want to consider re-adjusting your questions. Why? Because at the moment, you’re not selling advertising against your media. Since you’re not looking to make money off them in that way, it doesn’t matter how many people watch your videos, but rather, the quality of the folks who watch. I think a lot about that when I see ‘famous’ YouTubers and the kind of garbage stuff that they generate purely for the sake of an audience. You guys are aiming higher.

I think it’s important to establish and recognize your true goals in that light. Are you trying to become ‘internet famous’? Probably not. Project Pedal is probably too sincere and heartfelt to go ‘viral’. But is your goal to become a financially viable filmmaking team who gets hired to develop and direct projects for people or organizations with money? Well, dang, you guys are getting close! I think you should set your eyes on a higher prize – like maybe getting this puppy into an awesome film festival or two, and figuring out a way to distribute (independently or via a film distro company), and then getting someone to put up the money for you to make the next film or web series.

Also, do keep in mind that the way you guys are running your project is super cutting edge. In fact, I often point to your project as one of the thought leaders in this space, and even hope to emulate you with our own project. That in and of itself is valuable – again, to the right audience. I firmly believe that in the future, everyone is going to want to know how to do this stuff. How to leverage these web tools. You’ll be able to teach this stuff at a university, if you can’t find a program already. We’re not moving backwards. The world isn’t going to ever become less digitized or less interconnected or less mobile. Those of us who know how to make stuff happen now – we’re ahead of the game.

Don’t be discouraged. You’re on the right track.

To anyone else who’s interested in this kind of nerdy stuff… and you’d like to read more on the subject (I sure seem to meet a lot of you lately), I also highly recommend reading Ask a Ninja creator Kent Nicols’ blog where he’s always posting sage insights into the changing world of media and The Workbook Project, which is a great resource for content creators of all kinds.

Browse Timeline

• « Great Gift: Tom’s Shoes
• » Cousin’s Documentary