Bencredible

A little while back I wrote about the woes and troubles I was having trying to find a membership plugin for Wordpress that did everything I need. Here is the list of items I was looking for:

On-site credit card processing. If a potential customer has to go out, create a PayPal or other account, enter all their info, authorize the purchase and generally jump through hoops to get your product you may have lost them already. The credit card processing should be on site (secure of course), easy to use and International.

Affiliate program. My greatest evangelists are the users who already have the product and think it is awesome! Why not allow them to help sell the product and give them a kick back of each sale they make?

E-Mail marketing. Getting the customer is one step, retaining them is another. It is important to be able to communicate with everyone as to why their membership is valuable and what they are getting out of it. It is also important to allow the members to opt-out of said e-mails if they want to. The initial sale is just part of the process, keeping them is the other part.

Coupons. If I want to have a sale on the product, or give out coupons to sites that can offer a discount if they use code ‘PROMO1′ for example, I should be able to do that too! It is a great tool for cross-promotion of my content and their content.

Detailed reporting. I need to be able to see what is working and what isn’t working. What do the sales look like. Where are they coming from? How much am I making and how much has to go back out to affiliates?

Support. Pre-sales, installation and maintenance are all important. Getting the plugin to do exactly what you want will probably require a few hoops you’ll need to jump through, so you’ll probably find yourself leaning on the support team a lot more than expected.

So what did we do in the end? When it was all said and done I actually purchased three plugins to get just the right ones to fit our needs: Suma Plugin, Wishlist Member and Digital Access Pass. The final plugin we went with was Digital Access Pass. Why? Because it does nearly everything on my features list and no other plugin comes even close!

When I originally wrote the article Digital Access Pass or DAP didn’t have a key feature which was on-site credit card processing. They now support on-site processing through Authorize.net or PayPay Payments Pro. We use Authorize.net and this is nice because I have full control over the merchant and what will be done. On the customers credit/debit card statement they won’t see ‘PayPal’ but rather ‘Spacevidcast.com’. It looks like a complete and total solution. Wishlist Member still to this day doesn’t support this feature, although their support department originally told me they did. Lame.

In addition DAP already had almost all of the other features I needed. The products and drip content are quite powerful. Far more powerful than Wishlist Member.  Suma doesn’t even have the ability to do drip products or one-off sales. E-mail marketing was already built in. Affiliates are built in and scary powerful. Issues I wouldn’t have even thought of were in place allowing the sales to be properly matched to a user no matter the scenario (check it out on their site, it is quite powerful). I have detailed reporting on what is happening with my account as soon as I log in to the admin dashboard. It was almost everything I needed.

One thing DAP is missing are coupons. I believe they are working on that though as I have seen rumblings of that on the blog.

It is worth pointing out that I tried all three. Suma was a close second. It had on-site credit card processing, support was simply amazing and the product worked well. The big problem with Suma was that it was only a recurring subscription product. It doesn’t do drip products or marketing, it doesn’t do e-mail campaigns, it doesn’t do affiliate programs and while you can hack in coupons it really doesn’t do them like you would expect.

The big plugin in the industry is Wishlist Member and going in to this project I thought it would be the product I would end up with. Boy was I wrong. Other people rant and rave about their support, but in my experience I found them to be the slowest in responding, when they did respond the answer was wrong and even after I asked for a refund I don’t think I ever got it. The product does drip products / marketing very, very poorly. Worst of all you have to go off-site, create an account with a third party and hope you don’t lose your customer in the process. No on-site credit card processing (no matter what their support team says). Wishlist does a great job of marketing themselves, but maybe if they spent a little less time making videos and a little more time adding features to keep up with DAP we would have gone down that road for Spacevidcast instead.

After a week long trial with each the clear winner was DAP. It is an evolving product and even after we launched there were new updates and great new revisions to the code. I know Suma is working on a v3 beta as well. I don’t think Wishlist Member has anything in the pipe, maybe a new video they are working on? If you’re looking for a new Wordpress membership plugin check out Digital Access Pass. Don’t get sucked in by flashy marketing, really look at the products. I think you’ll come to the same conclusion I did that DAP is hands down the best Wordpress Membership plugin on the Internet today.

If you want to see how we used this plugin in production hit up http://www.spacevidcast.com/epic and while you’re there… Maybe buy an epic subscription!

Wow, with the number of posts I have made recently you would assume that I made a New Years resolution to blog more. Believe it or not, I didn’t! We just have a ton of stuff going on in getting ready for Spacevidcast 3.01 which is only 5 days away from this posting! I can tell right now that we won’t be done in time. Here are a few thoughts I had while we were driving around town trying to get our act together:

I also have some shots of the gear. This is the old ProjectMix I/O and the new Fast Track Ultra next to each other:

As always comments are welcome below. I like to start each year with a bang! All new graphics, all new set, all new everything! The show itself will be the same Spacevidcast you love, just better. This year we didn’t have the long break between seasons that we had last year, so I’m just not sure how much we can get done. Of course actually being on-air is more important than graphics, so we won’t miss this next week, but it is always nice to make a well produced show.

Thoughts?

I’ve never been happy with the live set for Spacevidcast. We could go with a virtual set, but until I can do a 4:4:4 chroma key allowing even the fibers of my hair to look natural (hint: very hard and expensive) I’ll probably stick to a traditional set.

One of the things that I *hate* with the current set is that it looks so news like. We’re behind a table talking at you, not with you. Completely wrong format for this show. The community is just as much a part of the show as we are. I want it to be more informal, more fun, less news like.

My thought was that we would get a couch and a chair. I would sit in the chair and Cariann would sit in the couch. In front of us maybe a coffee table where we would put our computers and possibly a drink (I’ll take a Hendrick’s and tonic with a cucumber, thank you). To do this right I would need 3 HD cameras (problem) and would probably stop putting the guest on the plasma monitor and only have them full screen and in the double box. Cariann and I went shopping and after searching for a while determined we may want to just do two chairs and two side tables. Here’s an interesting option from Ikea:

And the side tables would be so we have something to put our computers on. Something like one of these:

OK, well the red is a bit out there and we would not do that if we got orange chairs. These also come in white.

I still have a HUGE issue with the background. Cafn8ed came up with a nifty idea of some white foam and the possibility to cover it with a graphic of sorts. I go back and forth on that one. Could do some cool things with lights, but as I think about it more and more I fear it will just end up being bland without any kick. Maybe that’s OK. Like I said, back and forth. I could also take the current HDTV and put it back behind us with a Spacevidcast animation of sorts. No idea what to do back there that won’t look cheap and cheesy while at the same time not spending a lot of money. The white sheet really doesn’t work well, just looks like a giant white bedsheet. We could go back to black and then shine something on that to give it some color. Orange chairs and orange lights on the background may look sorta cool.

Of course I fell in love with something we can’t afford. I really like these chairs, but they are $3,500 each. At that price I would get two new HD cameras rather than chairs! But they sure would look cool!

What do you guys think? Stick with the news like desk? Make it more informal and conversational? I like the general idea of what Ashton did in the video below. Nice chair, nice couch, table and interesting background (although the background needs some love still). What do you think?

Ok Spacevidcasters, I need your help and fast!

I’m trying to give the Spacevidcast site a badly needed revision. The site itself is getting very cluttered in the main navigation and I could use some more room in the video window. Rather than make you click on a video from the homepage to start viewing I wanted to allow you to watch the video right from there. So fewer clicks, cleaner code, better navigation and more room were a few of my goals. I do have a beta available which you can see by going to http://beta.spacevidcast.com (note that not all pages work, right now I’m only focused on the homepage). Generally speaking most users don’t seem to like the really large format video. I would like to know if you like it or not and if not, would you prefer that I stick with a theme much closer to the current site design?

Remember that this is a beta site. Nearly all the features are there they just don’t all work correctly. In your opinion is this site easier or harder than the old site? Also note that the site is fluid, so you’ll see changes in real-time on the beta site as I work on it. Your constructive feedback (and details as to why you think what you’re thinking) would be greatly appreciated.

I would also like to know… What do you think Spacevidcast is? Who are we, what do we do and why are we here? Just checking to see how scattered that answer will be.

Thanks everyone for your time and comments in advance!

Oh the pains of living in Minnesota. Of course much of the US is blanketed in snow right now, but this is nothing unusual for us. Check out the video of our 8′ C-Band dish, which is what provides everyone with Spacevidcast HD, covered in snow.

Since we installed the dish in spring we had never needed to deal with snow before. With the dish as you see it in the video I had 51% signal, which I thought was pretty good for having the dish covered that much. Alas, 51% is not enough for an image and I ended up with 0% image quality. I spend around 15 minutes shoveling off the dish (and 45 minutes trying to get dry again) to get the signal back up to 95% with 100% image quality. w00t! Of course now NASA is switching satellites on January 16th, which means I’ll need to figure out how to rotate that dish with all the snow. I’ll probably need to give our great friend PSB Satellite a call to help and make sure that who area is clear of as much snow as possible before hand. That won’t be fun because that is super-compacted, super-wet snow.

A lot of people hate it when I shake things up over at Spacevidcast. Why mess with a good thing? Well I believe that we must change and improve all the time else we become complacent and eventually die. Change is not always good (see Spacevidcast 2.01 for example) but it can lead to some pretty cool stuff (see STS-129 launch coverage from Spacevidcast). Besides, change can be fun!

Since 2010 is right around the corner I was looking at where we’re at and where I think we should be. I love that Spacevidcast is HD, that we’re live and interactive and that we’re pretty consistent. I do think a few things should be reviewed and possibly modified to help the show continue to grow. Spacevidcast is a social community in which I like to solicit the feedback of our members to see what you guys want.  So, in no particular order is my list of stuff I’m thinking of:

• Change the day and time of the show. Remember that we are a worldwide show with 60% of our audience coming from the US. 8:00pm PST would be 11:00pm EST so I need to pick a day and time that will work for as many people as possible. What about Sundays at 21:00 UTC? That would be 1:00pm PST, 3:00pm CST or 4:00pm EST. I am open to thoughts and options here. I’m thinking of changing the day/time as we seem to keep butting up against other programs on at the same time and competing. This was not the case in 2005 when we started Technology Evangelist podcasts, but it is now.
• Change the format of the show a bit. Keep the live audience and guest, but rather than just interview the guest bring them in as a guest host for the whole show! Think of a TWiT but for space. We would be more like a radio show that also does video, so maybe that’s not quite the right fit. Space generates a lot of stunning pictures and video, would be a shame to lose that to a radio format. Besides, even TWiT is moving to video… Worth noodling it at least. Maybe keep the live show as is and add a podcast format that also has video… So a TWiTesq version once a week and the regular show once a week. Hmmm, where to find the time?
• Change the opening video (keep the music for now) as well as the graphic overlays. I have yet to find graphics that I’m really satisfied with, other than the STS-129 launch graphics which I don’t think lend themselves to the live show very well.
• Add more Twitter and Facebook integration. How?
• Should I keep the chat room burned on the screen the whole time? Why even put the chat room up anymore? Does anyone like that graphic up there?
• Make the whole show as casual as the post show is now. Everyone seems to like the post show best anyhow.
• Change the set a lot. I know, I know, y’all hate it when I do this, but work with me here. Check out this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIOgvmy0DZQ. Now imagine us sitting in a formation much like that (with me in a cool chair like what Ashton has), Cariann on the couch (co-hosting) and a HDTV set on the couch next to her (guest). Cheesy? Should be cheap and easy to do. We still get our computers, we’re still sitting but I think it is more of a casual conversation, more true to the show.
• No virtual sets.
• I’m thinking that instead of streaming NASA TV when we’re not on we would have our own TV channel. Stream past SVC shows, show some snippets of epic content, add in some commercials/PSAs, put in the calendar of events that week, etc., etc. Still offer live streaming of launches, but no more freaking children programming!
• Should I bring back the ‘Coming Up’ portion at the beginning of the show? Did anyone care? It is a huge PITA to create those.

Then here is my list of things that I would like to improve but we don’t have the cash for today:

• I would like to get an AJA Ki Pro so that we can record a nice HQ version of the show and quickly/easily export it to every version we need to web and device distribution. $4,000 for this recorder (but it is uber cool and does exactly what we need).
• I would like to make sure our iTunes and RSS feeds have all of our videos available to them. To this end we either need more time, more encoders or that AJA Ki Pro.
• I want my ToDoCast Satellite system. A cool $40k for the dish alone.
• I want TWO new audio boards. One to replace the dead M-Audio ProjectMix I/O that we used for Podcasts (notice we no longer do Podcasts?) Another for the studio (replace the working DFX-12) so we can have more Aux outputs allowing for more live guests! I really like the PreSonus StudioLive 16.4.2 which has everything we need built in. Alas they are $2,000 each. I would get one and move it from location to location but they are decievingly heavy and large. I’m pretty sure I would break it and then we would be *really* SOL!
• I would like four new Podcasting mics (I really want to bring back our Podcasts, I miss doing them). I’m stuck between the Heil PR40 and the ElectroVoice RE27N/D. Either model is around $400.00 each. Both are fantastic!
• I need to buy a bunch of headsets for guests in bulk and just mail them out to each person. No idea what to get, but we have to fix the guest audio once and for all!
• I would like Spacevidcast to buy its own MacPro. Right now we’re using the CRCC MacPro and every time we need to do a show I have to utilize Cafn8ed’s equipment. If he was editing a project (which he makes money at) I have to stop whatever he is doing. I hate doing that. In addition it would allow us to stream higher quality 24×7 NASA coverage (although I think I want to stop that). While you’re over there clicking on links, go buy some Blastoff Blend!
• 3 new HD cameras for the show. Something that can do 720p really, really well.  I’m thinking of using the Canon EOS 5D Mark II but I don’t think it can do live video as well as a traditional camera (it can record great looking video though). Maybe an HPX170 or an HMC150.
• 1 new HD camera for the dailies. Since this doesn’t need to be live I think a Canon EOS 5D Mark II would work perfect here!
• A XD300 would be kinda nice.
• A 3Play would be kinda nice if we’re going to do remote shoots for things like NGLLC and other space contests. Of course we would need that satellite truck first.
• A LiveStream Pro subscription so we can stream ad free! I believe that came out to something like $1,600 a month for our viewership.
• Fiber Optic bandwidth to the CRCC studio. We need more upstream bandwidth so we can provide you with more live channels! Around $1,500 a month for anything substantial (10Mbps up and down).
• I want a team of 3d animatiors and a team of music composers who can create stunning elements for use in shows. Imagine a Meteorwatch quality trailer for absolutely everything we do, every week. Basically a staff of 4 people, 2 on each side, to create amazing media the likes of which the world has never seen. Probably around $250,000 or more a year to bring on staff like that.

Not that we’ll be able to buy ANY of that in the near future, but the bigger success epic becomes, the more funds we will have to do some cooler things. I hope epic turns in to something great. If not that’s OK it won’t be the end of Spacevidcast, but it sure will delay my plans for world domination!

Wow!

I mean WOW!

The response to the last Spacevidcast daily was phenomenal and we’re only part way through the day! It is pretty clear that the community prefers the more creative, humor filled space news. By far our two most talked about daily clips are these:

There are some interesting data points when it comes to these two videos:

1. We have had more subscriptions in the last week to our YouTube channel than the last 2 months combined.
2. Most of the new YouTube subscriptions have come in within the last 8 hours (from the writing of this post)
3. In addition to higher subscriptions we also have higher views. An average daily gets around 350 views a week whereas the Space Elevator has just under 1,000 views and the MRO video is on slate to get around 500 views by tomorrow.

Then there are some lessons learned as well as some lessons that are simply reenforced by looking at these stats:

1. Content always trumps quality. We have been working so hard to improve the quality of our dailies that I forgot that we have to script everything better. To this end I ripped everything off the set and am starting from scratch. You’ll note there was no HDTV in the MRO video and the quality was poor (by design of course).
2. People like humor. You can get space news in about a kabillion great places on the Internet. The same space news rehashed in video form is, well, boring and a waste of time. Adding our own unique spin to it is what makes it entertaining and engaging which is what we’re after.
3. It takes a long time to produce good content. These videos took twice as long to produce as their straight news counterparts did.

We have already pre-shot most of the rest of the dailies for this week, so we may not have as much fun with those, but going forward we sure will. I think somewhere in 2009 I lost my way and started making Spacevidcast too much like a serious news show. That’s not true to who we are, it is not what people want and it isn’t where we should go. I got rattled by the very vocal minority that told us how horrible we were and how terrible it was that we gave everyone a voice and should take space travel more seriously. We were not good enough to play with the big kids was the general impression. Well screw that. The big kids are old and decrepit and can go mumble to themselves in a corner. We’re the new blood in space, we’re having fun with this stuff and we’re not going away. OH, and just because we’re going to have some fun with this stuff doesn’t mean we won’t get awesome interviews with astronauts. I have a feeling some of them like to have some fun too!

I have been doing a terrible job of keeping this blog up. I do have some interesting ideas I thought I would throw out to the Interwebs and allow you all to see what I’m thinking for Spacevidcast 3.00. For those who don’t know we number each season with the season number then episode, so the very first episode was 1.01 and the latest we just did was 2.33. Next year in 2010 we begin 3.xx shows so the season is called 3.00.  Now on to the ideas.

1 – I’m thinking we will release Spacevidcast Pro as an attempt to monetize the show. Making money is very important here as I can’t fund the show out of pocket forever. We have some great donators but that’s not enough to keep the lights on. By adding a pro option that will allow us to have monthly subscribers and hopefully bring in enough income to allow us to do live coverage of additional events across the country. One of the reasons we could not cover the *awesome* 2009 Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge was that we simply didn’t have enough money to travel to the many different sites. Dailies and live shows will remain free, Pro will be options on top of that. Basically, a freemium model. My big concern is that space is a niche industry with not a lot of money for new media shows like ours. Not sure how many people would be willing to pay for Pro. To do my full vision of what I want, I would need 2,500 subscribers at $10.00 a month. That is a lot. To break even with our current setup I just need 100 subscribers at $10.00/mo. Well, that’s a starting point at least.

2 – I’m not sure we will be able to do this for 3.00 but I want to create a mobile production truck. The NewTek StreamOrDie.com site is quite inspiring. For not a lot of money (relative of course) we can create a mobile HD satellite production truck that I can drive just about anywhere in North America to do live streams. The truck would use something like a ToDoCast.tv mobile satellite solution. I’m also thinking that mobile events like that would be pay-per-view for users that are not Spacevidcast Pro members. Why not free? Well, 24 hours of satellite time is $2,200 so we have to recover those costs somehow. If the event itself is willing to pay for the satellite time, then we would offer it for free with pop-up ads or without pop-up ads for Pro members. That’s the idea at least. I believe the initial cost would be around $150k for the car and all production equipment. Not too bad when compared to other HD satellite production trucks but still more than I have today. Anyone want to sponsor our 3.00 series?

3 – I would like to bring in a NewTek Tricaster XD300 combined with an LC11 and 3Play. Expensive solution although it would still be HD and it would allow us to record 3 HD cameras in slow motion for live playback. Imagine watching Xoie’s engine close up in slow motion after the successful landing. Would be epic! I’m not sure it would work, but if the Canon EOS 5D Mark II can output 720p clean via component HD that would be a pretty powerful solution. This would probably all still link to CamTwist since there is a lot of stuff in there that even a Tricaster simply can not do today.

4 – And finally, I’m looking in to moving the studio. I don’t have a lot of detail here but I want to bring in a live audience each and every week. Crow River Coffee Company is awesome but we can’t fit an audience in to the back room. Currently I’m looking at theatre space that would allow for a full production. Might be able to just drive the Spacevidcast truck up to the location and stream from there. See how that all comes together? To add to the awesomeness, I may know just the theatre to use…

What does the community think? Ambitious plans for and ambitious industry. Feedback?

One of my guilty pleasures is watching WWE in fast forward. Yes I know it is fake, but the theatrics are *amazing* and they do a great job of drawing an audience.

@Cariann has learned the valuable lesson that if you don’t want to know what I see on TV, don’t ask! I have completely ruined a bunch of television for her by pointing out things that many just don’t see or hear. WWE is no exception and now I’m to point out a very, very minor item to you.

One fun thing to look for on WWE are the slow moving superstars.  There are only a couple. Most superstars run to the stage, or at least move with a bit of speed. Randy Orton is the exception and is one of the slowest moving people we have seen. I actually timed it once, it took 2.5 minutes for him to get to the stage/ring and be ready (music ended) from the moment the music started. It took over a minute just to get to the stage/ring itself! He moved so slow that the people behind him had to take half steps to try and not run him over. It was very, very funny to watch. Of course this was during a match with the Undertaker who is also a slow moving superstar who took a bit over 2 minutes to get to the ring and music end. He doesn’t need to run, he just saunters down to the stage/ring on his own time.

If you add that up it is over 4 minutes of just walking to the ring with no fighting, and yet they STILL make the entire experience amazingly entertaining. If you’re a WWE fan start watching for the fast vs slow moving superstars, it is a bit fun!

Oh, and if you want to know other things like the evil clown laugh in HHH’s theme music, why we hate reversed arenas, or how to predict who will win the match, just e-mail me and I’ll let you know. Be warned, after I show you some of this stuff you’ll never be able to watch TV the same way again.

Cariann and I were at the Mall of America earlier today looking for birthday presents for my twin brothers. While there we noticed a huge dance presentation in the main rotunda. That reminded me a bit about an old business plan I had of bringing community access television to shopping malls. The plan was called ‘Focus Net’ and it would allow communities to have their own news program and shows local to them. Long and short of it is I was never able to make it go, but I have always thought that putting a TV studio in large shopping malls was a good idea.

I was thinking that maybe Spacevidcast should open a studio space in the Mall of America. Encased in glass and shifting the time of the show to a premium time that users would be in the mall, we could create a local and worldwide buzz by really, really engaging people in person. Allow for a live audience, or allow people to watch the control room, or whatever they want. When a shuttle mission (or Constellation, or whatever) is happening durning mall hours we could move to the main rotunda and do a live show from there with a huge HD projection behind us showing the live launch coverage. Big lights, loud noises, and people in-person, on-stage asking their questions.

There is a HUGE Lego ISS model hanging in one area of the mall (oddly enough over the Lego store) and it might be cool to have them make us another HUGE Lego ISS model that we can use as part of our set. When a new module is added to the ISS we could have a ceremony of sticking the new module on to the ISS Lego model. When we want to explain something we can walk around the Lego model, take that unit off and show it around. Thought that may be fun and interesting to look at.

The core idea here is that people like what they can get involved with. People also like bright shiny objects, loud noises, and cool effects. I think we can do all of that by taking over the old Planet Hollywood space on the 4th floor of the Mall of America. Why MOA?  There are over 40 million visitors annually that visit the Mall of America. How many people is that? Well to put that in perspective the Mall of America attracts more visitors than Disney World, Graceland and the Grand Canyon combined, or 7x the population of the entire state of Minnesota. That is a LOT of people, and a lot of potential eyeballs that could get passionate about space again.

As always money is holding me back. I think a large vision like this may attract someone like a Boeing, Lockheed, NASA or other large space firm who really wants to get their name out that and stands to benefit from the upcoming boom of space travel. Imagine us broadcasting from the multi-million dollar Boeing Studios at the Mall of America. Great branding for them, great show potential for us and our ability to win over new space geeks helps everyone involved.

I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas on this one. Do you think is is a good idea, bad idea or needs some work? I can get some numbers on what it would cost to actually take over the Planet Hollywood space, or a different more highly trafficked space as well. This can’t be done on my day job budget, so I need a HUGE sponsor. Anyone have any ideas/contacts there?  We can make a nifty video showing it off and give out the bigger vision to anyone interested.

I’m excited.  I think this is a good foundation for an idea and could really take Spacevidcast places.  Thoughts?