Desperate Freelancer

Yes people, I am still on Youtube these days. I like Youtube so much, I can't keep exploring and blogging about what's new and interesting on it.

My last discovery : interactive videos.

They are videos where you decide what's going to happen next. The choice you make (generally binary : go left or right, say yes or no) leads you to another video and another choice. It's kind of a game. In the end, your choices determine your progression through the game and your success or failure to reach a good ending.

You don't get it ?

Just play this one then :

You understand now ? Revolutionary isn't ?

It's a new phenomenon, that has been spreading quite fast and you can now some nice good stuffs in many different directions.

Let me give some examples of what can be done with that new principle.

You can play streetfighter :

For those who like racing cars :

You can even flirt with a girl :

Well, it's still the beginning as you can see, and it remains quite basic in the end, but it's already quite a good way to lose one's time.

I am sure in a few months, you will find thousands of this kind of videos on the net. And, as well as companies are all making their "lipdub" nowadays, they will all release an interactive video to do some viral marketing.

Another great asset for Youtube monetization strategy I guess. Yerk.

As you know, I am a great fan of Youtube services. I spend hours to watch videos on the web. The more stupid, silly, insane or crazy they are, the more happy I feel to lose my time this way. I also keep forwarding my favorites discoveries of the moment to a list of friends, that now hate me for killing their productivity at work.

I recently discovered on Youtube official Blog, that you can now download videos on your PC. Yep.

I have been thinking to this new feature all the week end and I just couldn't see what is the real benefit of it.

What the point in having downloaded youtube video on your PC ? I have a few suggestions but none of them seem very convincing to me :

- you can watch videos during your holidays when you have no easy access to Internet. It's so great to rewatch the human tetris for the hundredth time while drinking a mojito on some beach of Mexico.

- you may want to watch videos in your office, where the guy in charge of computers has a set a damned proxy blocking the access to Youtube. You would have of course downloaded videos at home before.

- you can download videos you like to store them for the future. When Youtube will sunk because of his ever-growing charges and still insignificant profits. A kind of "In case of.." strategy.

Moreover, for some videos available for download, you will have to pay. Some publishers will in fact be allowed to post videos for sale.

I guess it's a try towards a new monetization strategy that Youtube is setting up these days. An open door to pay per view of videos, or movies in streaming or something in the same approach.

Once again I don't see the point.

Will you really pay for ...

- home made videos, yet fun and all, but of generally poor interest in the long run ?

- low quality videos, some with a sound so bad that you could hardly hear ?

- videos you can already download for free, using hacks or softwares that anybody can find on the net ?

I am afraid very little people will.

Unless Youtube quickly improve their content, it will be hard for them to fight against major platforms of pay-per-view.

I don't think that User Generated Content could really create a credible revenue stream for Youtube. Maybe a few stars will help make a few bucks. But not enough to equilibrate the cost of all the remaining stuffs.

Youtube will have to deal with Majors of Movie and Music Industry to get valuable content. It also means that they would have to implement DRM on contents. Well, if they go this way, they could as well, rename their service Youtune ou Itube and everything will be alright in the perfect world of web 2.0.

Everyone is really understanding now why Chad and Steve were so hilarious on this video, where they announced their selling of Youtube to Google.

The big crisis is now here. I keep reading figures all around in the newspapers about how far all this is going. Some says it could be worse than in 1929, Obama's relaunch plan or not.

I was not here in 1929, and I was still a kid the years of reconstruction, after the war ended. But I had faced a lot of economic and financial troubles in my personal life and I know a bit about how to stand up while everything around is crumbling like houses of cards.

Most of you who are reading this blog are freelancers or something like that. So, I would like to especially focus on the solutions for freelancers to cope with crisis. All the more so the crisis should be harder for freelancers, as it's well known that the more flexible staff get ejected first.

Here are my 2 cents of advice :

1. Jump on every opportunity

In these troubled times, you can't afford to miss any new business. So get up early, brush your smile so white nobody can't refuse you anything and try no to be picky. Even the worst clients could be a relief if you can't get enough income with your standard clients.

You should also try to transform every contact, every question into a business proposal. Your usual babysitter needs more parents to have their children taken care of ? Suggest her to get a website, you will design of course.. Your accountant is thinking to get freelance to grab some more revenue ? Offer him some coaching to help him get started.

2. Lick your clients' foot

When clients get rarer, you should literally worship the ones you have. Don't save up efforts on flattery about your clients' projects. They are so great and it's so terrific to participate in such great innovations that would change the world.

3. Don't cut off your fees

With the crisis will be intensifying, you would be tempted to reduce your prices in order to sound more attractive to more demanding clients. That would be an error to me, because you would contribute to destroy the market even more. The pressure on prices will lead to no more business for you in the end, (because all your competitors will do just the same and cut prices as well as you do). You will just get less money for the work you do.

If you want to emerge, you'd rather try to give more, offer a best service for the same price. This is something your competitors won't and can't always do, and you would get noticed and recommended by your former clients.

4. Reduce your expenses

I know it could be hard when you are a freelancer to reduce expenses. Freelancers generally have few expenses. But you still can find something.

Fire your accountant and do your books alone. Don't delegate small tasks as you used to do in the euphoric period. Stop buying new gadgets for geeks, just to show off with girls when you are at a party.

5. Learn a new trade

Happy guy, the one who have different trades, know-hows or jobs. He could diversify his revenue streams. That's the kind of solution you need during a crisis period : not to be stuck to only one skill.

Having different skills will help you land clients. It will enable you to get bigger contracts that otherwise your clients would have divided into 2 or more freelancers.

6. Enlarge your network

Another thing you could to to enable your business to cope with the crisis, is to join a network of freelancers. You would share contacts and opportunities with each others, and as a team, you would feel stronger while everyone else is collapsing all around, suffering from the lack of business.

7. Buy your clients ' stocks

While theirs stocks are reaching the basement, it's time to shop and make good deals. Once you become a shareholder you would show your concern and support to your clients (helping them not to sink by defending their stocks). This way, you would be able to have more grip on them, influencing them to keep you on the list of good freelancers to work with.

When things are going slowly, it's sometimes difficult to see how far they are going.

Since a few years, I am suffering from losses of memory. It took me time to realize it and even more time to get the full perspective of how it could change my everyday life.

For a glimpse of this disaster, I could give you a few examples during my last week :

Monday :

I forgot where I parked my car. I search for it for half an hour with no success. I was forced to go to my little office on foot.

As I also forgot the way to go, I get lost. It took me the afternoon to go back home. Result : I didn't go to work at all and I entirely spoiled my left shoe.

Tuesday :

I forgot that I forgot my car. So I had no surprise to find it just in front my house. It means I surely forgot not where my car was on monday, but what my car looks like. Even worse, I'm afraid.

So I had my car. But I forgot where were my keys..

So I decided to forget to go to work.

Wednesday :

I had my keys. My car didn't move during the night. I had the way to the office in mind. The sun was shiny and the day was full of promises.

I just forgot to get dressed. And I worked all the day wearing pyjamas. Nobody made any comment in the office.

I implies it could not be the first time I come in my sleeping clothes.

Thursday :

In the morning, everything seemed ok : car, keys, proper clothes, good way to the office. I forgot my password to connect to my computer, but I managed to remember that I had a post-it in my drawer with that password written on it.

I remembered well all what I planned to do during the day. And I even reminded all the tasks I had to postpone the previous days. Everything was scheduled during my workday, and in the end, was done.

At 10 PM, I realized that I forgot to go back home. I get clamped down by the security guard, in charge of watching the building, that thought I was a thief or something similar.

As I forgot my security code for this kind of case, I had to deal with the police officers the security guard called.

Fortunately, I had my ID somewhere in my car. And I was quite confident, until I realized that I forgot where I parked my car..

again.

Friday :

I decided to write a list of everything I should not forget during the day.

I was doing great to compensate my handicap.

But at some moment, I forgot I had that list in my pocket.

Saturday :

I forgot I was on week-end. So I went to work.

A kind of compensation for the the beginning of the week, I guess.

Sunday :

I found myself calling people to have some company for this day, with the idea of having some lunch with friends.

So I picked up my agenda, and start making phone calls. Unfortunately, speaking with most of them, after a few minutes I couldn't remember what kind of relationship I had with all these dudes. They were almost all strangers to me.

I finally manage to organize a small informal lunch with a few pals, I could have a hint who they were. It was supposed to take place in a chinese restaurant next to my flat.

And I forgot to go.

Brilliant isn't it ?

As you see, life can be treacherous with elder persons like me.

It sounds to me, as if with my aging my system was not operating as well as it used to be. My hard disk seems full of obsolete data I can't clean, my memory chip looks overloaded, my operating system is running slower and slower every year.

I fear there is no way I could get recycled.