Twenty days have passed by with Dirty Old Boots being in the public domain. And it has been a good twenty days. We are adding about a thousand views every day on average which to my mind is pretty decent going. And we are getting 300 views or thereabouts to almost each video we launch in just a few hours. And then ... kaput. It freezes. The views that is. YouTube seems to have some kind of policy against increasing the number of views beyond 300 or thereabouts mark. Probably for new kids on the block like Dirty Old Boots. They might think that we are somehow manipulating the views. How can a video become so popular is so short a time, particularly if it does not have some crazy, zany, kinky, wierd stuff? And there are a lot of kinky things going on on YouTube. Take a look at some of the popular videos and channels. Millions and millions of views, thousands of subscribers, for what to my illiterate mind seems to be utter rubbish.
We were watching a video made by a guy which has got a zillion views. The video is about this guy being a snake. He hisses, he makes strange noises, even stranger faces, has a hat on that no right thinking person would be caught dead in. There is absolutely nothing in the video that is worth watching. Yet, a zillion or so people have watched it alrfeady and we in the office milled around the screen and watched it too. We laughed, we kicked ourselves, questioned why we were wasting our time, yet there it was, playing itself out.
I get the feeling that videos need to be zany, utterly without a plot, strange ramblings of people, uttering stuff which no one should be interested in. But yet, the proof the the pudding as they say. Huge amounts of traction.
Maybe we are going wrong somewhere. Maybe we need to put in some zany stuff. We were talking in the office in the afternoon. We call ourselves Dirty Old Boots. Let us make a video of a bunch of people throwing dirty boots at each other. Better still ... every one smelling dirty boots and shoes and socks. Maybe a candid camera of people wearing dirty boots. Heaven knows what, but we need to be knocking on those doors to figure out what we need to do to make videos go viral.
But then we also need to figure out how to make YouTube decided that we are not manipulating the numbers, and give us the actual viewership data. We are at 12,000 views as of now. My feeling is it should be at least thrice as high.
The other thing that I have not been able to figure out is the YouTube rankings. One day one video or a channel is at the number one spot, the next day it disappears right off the charts. A look at the numbers shows up a highly viewed video at a lower ranking than a video which has been seen by far lesser number of people.
I think I have not yet figured out how YouTube works. They seem to have a system in the madness, and I need to figure out what that madness is.
One thing is for sure. Even though our videos are well produced and with a lot of information, what is lacking is the glam quotient. I don't think people are interested in watching my gob in video after video, or listen to me droning on and on. What we need is another anchor, a female anchor. With personality, poise and appeal. The hunt is on.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
Just rambling...
As the title states, I am just rambling. The last week has been nice. The Lathmar Holi video on Dirty Old Boots has been received quite well. In fact I was just checking its status on Metacafe. Our video had 69 views while NDTV's had 6. Felt nice. Must be doing something right. On DailyMotion ours waas the only video on Lathmar Holi. Does that mean it is not worth uploading or does it mean that others have somehow missed the trick on a unique festival. I would rather be biased to my way of thinking. Dirty Old Boots is alive and well and the first few tentative steps that began about three weeks ago are becoming a lot more surer. A long long way ahead. We have not even begun to project the kind of things that we want Dirty Old Boots to become. A definite travel resource. Today it is little more than a drop box of sundry videos. To a casual visitor to the site, focus is something they will feel is lacking on the site. But we know where we want to go from here on in. And we will get there. Slowly and surely.
The other day I was speaking to a friend of mine and he suggested something that I have been grappling with for some time. How does Dirty Old Boots generate revenues for itself without waiting for advertisers to come in. I know advertisers will com ein, but that is still some distance away into the future. We need a threshold level of traffic to the site to generate advertising revenue. Till then ... what?
Well, on ething that I have been doing and now will intergrate into Dirty Old Boots is tours. I go to Ladakh every year. I love going back to Bhutan at every opportunity. Sikkim is a favourite. My plans of rafting down the Zanskar this August and the Brahmaputra this December is final. Why don't I start packaging all these trips, plug them with the videos that we produce and generate revenues from that? Sounds like a plan. In fact that is something that has kept me busy for the better part of today. Added five trips that we plan to promote this year - Ladakh, Zanskar rafting, Bhutan, a road trip to the base camp of Mt Everest and a trip to Kailash and Mansarovar. The last two I have been wanting to do for ages, maybe 2011 is my lucky year.
One route I would like to add to the offering is Mongolia. It is a mystical country, relatively unknown and exotic. A horse trek across the Mongolian steppes, through the Gobi desert, witnessing the Nadaam Festival, maybe even spending a week out with Kazhak eagle hunters. Mongolia is a place I will need to recce soon. Maybe spend a month there figuring out details, then packaging shorter trips.
The other thing I have kind of figured out is the difference between budget packages and high end packages. I would rather work on the second kind of guests. But this year may be too early for that, I am not yet geared to cater to the high end clientele. 2012 for sure.
Well, enough ramblings for now. I was kinda hoping that during the course of my ramblings Dirty Old Boots would have crossed another milestone. It is at 9,858 hits, and I was hoping it would cross the 10,000 mark. No sweat, probably sometime during the night. Just the beginning. Need a million hits a month for Dirty old Boots to do what it is gearing up to do. Godpseed.
The other day I was speaking to a friend of mine and he suggested something that I have been grappling with for some time. How does Dirty Old Boots generate revenues for itself without waiting for advertisers to come in. I know advertisers will com ein, but that is still some distance away into the future. We need a threshold level of traffic to the site to generate advertising revenue. Till then ... what?
Well, on ething that I have been doing and now will intergrate into Dirty Old Boots is tours. I go to Ladakh every year. I love going back to Bhutan at every opportunity. Sikkim is a favourite. My plans of rafting down the Zanskar this August and the Brahmaputra this December is final. Why don't I start packaging all these trips, plug them with the videos that we produce and generate revenues from that? Sounds like a plan. In fact that is something that has kept me busy for the better part of today. Added five trips that we plan to promote this year - Ladakh, Zanskar rafting, Bhutan, a road trip to the base camp of Mt Everest and a trip to Kailash and Mansarovar. The last two I have been wanting to do for ages, maybe 2011 is my lucky year.
One route I would like to add to the offering is Mongolia. It is a mystical country, relatively unknown and exotic. A horse trek across the Mongolian steppes, through the Gobi desert, witnessing the Nadaam Festival, maybe even spending a week out with Kazhak eagle hunters. Mongolia is a place I will need to recce soon. Maybe spend a month there figuring out details, then packaging shorter trips.
The other thing I have kind of figured out is the difference between budget packages and high end packages. I would rather work on the second kind of guests. But this year may be too early for that, I am not yet geared to cater to the high end clientele. 2012 for sure.
Well, enough ramblings for now. I was kinda hoping that during the course of my ramblings Dirty Old Boots would have crossed another milestone. It is at 9,858 hits, and I was hoping it would cross the 10,000 mark. No sweat, probably sometime during the night. Just the beginning. Need a million hits a month for Dirty old Boots to do what it is gearing up to do. Godpseed.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Lathmar Holi at Barsana
A lot many of us have played Holi in our lives. Some have not for various reasons. And most have us have played Holi living in the cities, played with friends and family. Holi is all about celebrations and camaraderie. A festival of colours where each grain of colour mixes with the others symbolising harmony among people. But Holi over the years, particularly in the cities, has degenerated into something else altogether. There is shameless harassment of women, the colours have become synthetic and for a large part, become a festival to be scared of because of all the hooliganism associated with it. Hooliganism that has nothing to do with the festival, but with those who use the canvas of the festival to indulge in absoluet nonsense.
A trip to Barsana and participating in the celebration of Holi there will take you back to the time when Holi was played as intended. The whole community participates and there is no hooliganism. Complete strangers smother each other with colour, hugs are exchanged and praises are raised to Lord Krishna and his favourite consort Radha. Actually Barsana is where Radha used to live and Krishna used to live in Nandgaon, less than ten kilometers away. The practice of Holi in Barsana dates back to those times and the traditions of Lathmar Holi continues from days of myth and legend, right up to this present day.
The small town of Barsana with a population of around 10,000 transforms in itself at this time of the year when literally lakhs of people from all over the country, and indeed the world, come here to witness a celebration of Holi that is unique for this village. Holi in Barsana is unique for the story that plays out every year.
Legend has it that Krishna stole the clothes of the gopis as they were bathing in the pond. Radha and her friends decided to teach Krishna a lesson and beat him up with sticks, or lathis. The occasion of Holi re enacts this story when men from Nandgaon impersonating Krishna come to Barsana to play Holi with Radha and the women of Barsana impersonating Radha beat Krishna up. The men are not supposed to retaliate while the women rain blows on them, quite aggressively and with all their vengeance I might add. In fact I saw a couple of bamboo sticks actually split wide open in the process. The men parry the blows with leather shields as they sit on the ground, with heavily padded turbans on their heads, waiting for the blows to stop.
It is interesting to note that only the wives of Barsana participate in the "lathi charge", the sisters and daughters do not.
The day following the Lathmar Holi at Barsana, the entire scene is repeated when the men from Barsana go to Nandgaon to get beaten up by the women (Radhas) of Nandgaon. All in good humour, but entirely aggressive and violent, the Barsana Holi is an experience one cannot afford to miss.
For a small town with narrow alleys and an infrastructure built to cater to a small population, it is immensely well-geared to handle the hundreds of thousands of people that converge on the village. The Police bandobast is top rate and intervention is immediate at any sign of impropriety.
On the road towards Agra from Delhi and about 20 kilometers short of the turn towards Vrindavan there is a road to the right that leads to Barsana 17 kilometers away. Reach early and revel in the gaiety throughout the day, ending with the spectacular Lathmar Holi of Barsana.
Happy Holi. Radhey Radhey. Banke Bihari Ki Jai.
A trip to Barsana and participating in the celebration of Holi there will take you back to the time when Holi was played as intended. The whole community participates and there is no hooliganism. Complete strangers smother each other with colour, hugs are exchanged and praises are raised to Lord Krishna and his favourite consort Radha. Actually Barsana is where Radha used to live and Krishna used to live in Nandgaon, less than ten kilometers away. The practice of Holi in Barsana dates back to those times and the traditions of Lathmar Holi continues from days of myth and legend, right up to this present day.
The small town of Barsana with a population of around 10,000 transforms in itself at this time of the year when literally lakhs of people from all over the country, and indeed the world, come here to witness a celebration of Holi that is unique for this village. Holi in Barsana is unique for the story that plays out every year.
Legend has it that Krishna stole the clothes of the gopis as they were bathing in the pond. Radha and her friends decided to teach Krishna a lesson and beat him up with sticks, or lathis. The occasion of Holi re enacts this story when men from Nandgaon impersonating Krishna come to Barsana to play Holi with Radha and the women of Barsana impersonating Radha beat Krishna up. The men are not supposed to retaliate while the women rain blows on them, quite aggressively and with all their vengeance I might add. In fact I saw a couple of bamboo sticks actually split wide open in the process. The men parry the blows with leather shields as they sit on the ground, with heavily padded turbans on their heads, waiting for the blows to stop.
It is interesting to note that only the wives of Barsana participate in the "lathi charge", the sisters and daughters do not.
The day following the Lathmar Holi at Barsana, the entire scene is repeated when the men from Barsana go to Nandgaon to get beaten up by the women (Radhas) of Nandgaon. All in good humour, but entirely aggressive and violent, the Barsana Holi is an experience one cannot afford to miss.
For a small town with narrow alleys and an infrastructure built to cater to a small population, it is immensely well-geared to handle the hundreds of thousands of people that converge on the village. The Police bandobast is top rate and intervention is immediate at any sign of impropriety.
On the road towards Agra from Delhi and about 20 kilometers short of the turn towards Vrindavan there is a road to the right that leads to Barsana 17 kilometers away. Reach early and revel in the gaiety throughout the day, ending with the spectacular Lathmar Holi of Barsana.
Happy Holi. Radhey Radhey. Banke Bihari Ki Jai.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Welcome to Dirty Old Boots
After having travelled for over a decade and exploring the vast expanse of this wonderful subcontinent, I decided to structure the experiences, remove the pitfalls and answer some queries that I have had over the years. That was the germ of an idea some three or four years ago and today it has culminated in the launch of Dirty Old Boots. It is a travel resource for travellers, by travellers, with information that travellers want. Largely I have found that information about places, destinations, things to see, routes, maps, etc are very inadequate. Information that is available is guarded as State secrets. Dirty Old Boots is trying to address that situation.
I love travelling and I love photography. And Dirty Old Boots is a resources that is entirely on video. Take a look at the website and you will get a glimpse of things to come. It is still in its early infancy and over the next few months we hope to create something unique, something relevant, something different and something very new. The target is to have at least 50,000 videos in the next two years. And when I say infancy, the proof of that is in the fact that Dirty Old Boots has all of 31 videos today. It is not just work in progress but the raw materials are being gathered. We have put the information out in the public space because we are way too excited. Four of us - Plaban Bagchi, Prerna Siddharth, Akhilesh Mishra and me - are trying our best to put a structure to what we all have in our heads. Just wait for the next few months.
Life has been exciting these last couple of months. we enjoy our work, we have fun and seeing each new video in the public space gives us immense joy and satisfaction. I still remember the time when we cross 100 video views. It was elation. And then we crossed 1,000. Today we are just over the 7,000 video view mark, inching towards the magical 10,000 mark. Someday we hope a whole lot more zeros will be in that number.
In the last month we have travelled to Manali, we have rafted down the Ganges in Rishikesh, we have prayed with the faithful at Har Ki Pauri, we zip up and down the streets of Delhi every day, capturing all that we can. In a couple of hours we are off to Mathura - Barsana actually - to capture on film the unique festival of Lathmar Holi.
For the moment take a look at the video we produced on rafting down the Ganges. The film on Holi should be up in a week or so.
It is great to be back on the blog. I hope to update it as often as I can. Do visit the site, click on the LIKE button and share it with your network on Facebook. You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel ... http://www.youtube.com/user/mydirtyoldboots. And you can do all this from any page on the website - http://DirtyOldBoots.com
I'll see you when I see you. Have fun
I love travelling and I love photography. And Dirty Old Boots is a resources that is entirely on video. Take a look at the website and you will get a glimpse of things to come. It is still in its early infancy and over the next few months we hope to create something unique, something relevant, something different and something very new. The target is to have at least 50,000 videos in the next two years. And when I say infancy, the proof of that is in the fact that Dirty Old Boots has all of 31 videos today. It is not just work in progress but the raw materials are being gathered. We have put the information out in the public space because we are way too excited. Four of us - Plaban Bagchi, Prerna Siddharth, Akhilesh Mishra and me - are trying our best to put a structure to what we all have in our heads. Just wait for the next few months.
Life has been exciting these last couple of months. we enjoy our work, we have fun and seeing each new video in the public space gives us immense joy and satisfaction. I still remember the time when we cross 100 video views. It was elation. And then we crossed 1,000. Today we are just over the 7,000 video view mark, inching towards the magical 10,000 mark. Someday we hope a whole lot more zeros will be in that number.
In the last month we have travelled to Manali, we have rafted down the Ganges in Rishikesh, we have prayed with the faithful at Har Ki Pauri, we zip up and down the streets of Delhi every day, capturing all that we can. In a couple of hours we are off to Mathura - Barsana actually - to capture on film the unique festival of Lathmar Holi.
For the moment take a look at the video we produced on rafting down the Ganges. The film on Holi should be up in a week or so.
It is great to be back on the blog. I hope to update it as often as I can. Do visit the site, click on the LIKE button and share it with your network on Facebook. You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel ... http://www.youtube.com/user/mydirtyoldboots. And you can do all this from any page on the website - http://DirtyOldBoots.com
I'll see you when I see you. Have fun
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)