Video Blogging: A generation of full time...Vloggers

If you were the first person on the block to get a VCR, still refer to your TV's remote control as a "clicker," remember the smell of freshly "ditto-ed" copies handed out in class or recall being tethered to a cord when on the telephone, then you just might not be aware of the online video trend that has become a career for quite a few mid-twenties digital entrepreneurs:  Video blogging...better known as "vlogging."

While this might date me (and my fellow comrades), who consistently swear when someone says "vlog," they are simply mispronouncing (or we are mis-hearing) "blog," it's a fact that the younger set, born post 1985 is far more prolific in their online endeavors than the rest of us.

Shane Dawson, Phillip DeFranco and Justine Ezarik are just of the few vloggers that have hit YouTube icon status with millions of video views well into the double digits.

And even when they try to leave (several of the top contributors in the vlogosphere have announced "this will be my last YouTube vid" on more than one occasion, but YouTube has a vested interest in keeping the posts a-coming and keeps them hanging on by dangling the golden carrot:  ad revenue profit sharing. 

According to David Burch, Marketing Director at online research and analytics firm TubeMogul, despite the fact that YouTube will not disclose the details on any of these financial agreements, he estimates the video site makes it well worth it for these twenty-somethings to keep vlogging full time.

But what is the draw?  What keeps millions of viewers tuning in to watch these often random video ramblings?  Perhaps its simply that the format is so uniquely in tune with our Internet behaviors.  Think about your own internet use:  daily (hourly?  per minute?) email checks, tweets, facebook comments, ichat convos.  Our most regular web activities are tied to applications that provide regular updates of new content.  And that's precisely what these vloggers offer.  

Unlike webseries (the only other dominant current online video offerings...not including one-off viral videos), vlogs don't typically break for a hiatus while the writer takes time off for a more lucrative, mainstream project.  These, I dare say "kids," on online - ever day.

Grace Helbig, the vlogging "face" of webseries studio and platform My Damn Channel, agrees that regular posts are an essential element in the formula for success. 

Each day, Helbig shoots, edits and posts her vlogs (it's her only job).  She’s the constant among My Damn Channel's site varied video offerings, and her own experience as a viewer makes her well aware of the value her daily presence brings.  “People feel like they’ve been let into this world that these people are presenting online,” says Helbig.  “When they don’t do a video it’s a letdown.  It’s like not being able to hang out with your friend when they had already agreed to hang out with you that day.”

Overhead is low, and with some basic editing skills and computer know-how, it seems like the payoff is not much to scoff at.