Christian Sterner

George is at it again! Lots of great info on this thread.

Lighting:

If you are using a good video camera, one that operates well at low light (which should be a major portion of your decision when buying a video camera for tours), you will not have lighting issues and you'll be well on your way to producing good tours.

Video Formats:

Always make sure you are presenting videos in Flash. It is by far the most penetrated format on the web (over 97% of internet users are flash-ready). Even windows media won't cut it. Plan to see flash(s) dominance grow even more.

Number of views per video:

Be careful with this game. Number of video views is important, but only within a context that makes sense . The land mine to dodge here is that a video view within a generalist video portal is worth far less than a view within the context of a real estate search. I'd take 100 video views from Craigslist over 100 video views on YouTube any day!

That said...being the source of local information, as it relates to your turf (your market area) is a huge factor in why people will hire an agent. In this case, I'd say get your content into any place that someone might search for this type of info!

The number one most important thing to understand is that video cannot simply be placed next to a virtual tour and compared from a pricing standpoint. The number one MOST common piece of feedback that we get from agents using video well (ie. hiring a pro to produce their content or mastering the art of video production themselves) is "I DO NOT lose listings over competing agents that don't use video."

Enjoy the quantum shift that is video. We are smack dab in the middle of a time not unlike when television hit the planet. Web video is changing this space forever. - Fri May 9 2008, 09:43