The reason? Video sells better than anything else. A potential customer is much more likely to feel comfortable about a purchase if they have seen the product in full detail on video.

Video also allows your customer to get to know YOU better, and relationship marketing is always the most effective.

A new site called Real People Real Stuff is specifically designed to provide a platform for anyone who wants to broadcast their own internet video commercial. All you have to do is sign up for a free account and then upload a video.

Your video commercial can be about your business or service, or about a specific product. The content is entirely up to you.

Real People Real Stuff has been described as the offspring of a YouTube and Craig’s List marriage. Anything legal for sale can be found on Real People Real Stuff.

Real People Real Stuff is for video ads ONLY. They do not accept simple text with still photos. That doesn’t mean your video has to be complicated. If still pictures are all you have, then you can easily make a video out of those still and add some music and narration.

http://www.realpeoplerealstuff.com/

To increase your sales and conversions, consider making and starring in your own internet video commercial. It’s not as difficult as it might seem. You can find all the video production information you need right here, for free!

Just over a year ago, a question woke up Alan Jacobson early in the morning. Truth be told, what actually roused him was how to answer a question posed the night before by his business partner Janet DeGeorge — “Why can’t classified ads be more like YouTube?”

The question was fair, since the amateur video sharing site has certainly exploded in popularity. Simultaneously, newspaper classified ad providers continue to look for new ways to stand out from the crowd, reach more eyeballs and better connect sellers and buyers.

So Jacobson, president and CEO of Brass Tacks Design, a national newspaper design consulting group, thought about what it would take to merge video and print ads, followed by the larger question, would people use the result?

“You have no idea how complicated it could be to set this up, but it still needed to be as simple as possible for users,” he said. “But it’s something new and different.”

Right away, he invited DeGeorge, a nationally known classified advertising consultant, to help in tackling those questions.

Eventually, the pair came up with “Real People Real Stuff,” an innovative new advertising service that allows people to record and upload their own video classified ads – essentially turn themselves into the producers and stars of their own commercials.

Then they began contacting newspapers nationwide to see which ones might be interested in this approach.

DeGeorge describes Real People Real Stuff as if ‘YouTube and Craigslist had a baby.”

“In creating this, we wanted to put together a product that incorporated two of the most popular sites out there, and at the same time, create a searchable category list that fit into the world of newspaper advertising,” she said.

Dozens of papers have already signed up for the service, and each can customize many of the features for their respective markets and customers.

The Spokesman-Review has been one of the first papers in the Northwest to join in.

Like YouTube, the uploading process is simple – users have up to 10 minutes to record their own messages, which can include video, audio, background music and special effects. And, unlike YouTube, their submissions can also include plenty of supplemental text giving extra details or links to a personal or business Web site.

Users with something to sell can film their own videos with their Webcams, phone cams or traditional camcorders. Then, it’s easy to upload.

Local ads already submitted include Spokane Dance, which demonstrate many cool moves; Merlyn’s Comics, showing many of the store’s products; and the staff at Luigi’s, who thank customers for their support and describe the good times and good food awaiting them.

“You don’t need to be real high-tech anymore,” Jacobson said. “Phones all come with cameras now, the computer editing software is free most places and easy to use, and most of us have access to broadband Internet at home or work.”

Potential buyers can search by topic or city. Recently uploaded videos are placed at the top of the site, so Jacobson said these traditionally are the most popular.

Rates for the service are $50 for most posters or $100 for Realtors. The real estate industry can especially benefit from Real People Real Stuff – imagine the power of a 10-minute walk-through of a listed home.

“You can get unlimited views of your ad from anywhere in the world,” Jacobson said. “People can look at your ad 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

DeGeorge said it’s a perfect time for newspapers to offer something like this, and easy for customers to respond to.

“Online video responds to the customer desire of ‘I want what I want and I want it now,’” she said. “It’s on demand 24/7, and free to view for the consumer when they want it or need it, in a most visually creative manner.”

Jacobson and DeGeorge have only been marketing Real People Real Stuff for the last year, and interest is growing.

“People think of the Internet as something that goes fast, but some new things take a long time to catch on,” he said. “Even YouTube took about eight months for people to start visiting it.”

DeGeorge said Web visitors want more and more online, especially where video is concerned.

“The YouTube debates on CNN brought a lot of credibility to the video world, and if newspapers can embrace this change, they can offer customers exactly what they need to get another level of customer, the ‘YouTube generation’ buying their products, and selling themselves to the customer in a way that only a expensive TV commercial could have,” she said. “So for the all the businesses that wanted a TV commercial but couldn’t afford it, now they can have the very same thing, online, and the newspaper is doing it for them.”

Both of them are excited about some of the exposure the project has received.

He’s been mentioned in two Wall Street Journal stories about the future of advertising, and been interviewed on NPR’s “Marketplace” program. Springwide.com, which tracks start-up companies world-wide, picked Real People Real Stuff as one of the year’s top entrepreneurial ideas.

“We’re seeing a lot of interest,” he said. “It was just a matter of time before all the technology came together for this.”

NORFOLK, Va. – (Feb. 11, 2008) – VideoJobShop.com gives employers and jobseekers a new, low-cost way to connect, using the fastest growing segment of the Internet — video. Employers may select from a library of pre-recorded videos in English and Spanish, or they can post their own custom video.

The site is a spin-off of RealPeopleRealStuff.com, a video ad site that topped the list of 2007’s most popular sites by users of startup-tracking Springwise.com

VideoJobShop brings many firsts to the Internet:

A first for jobseekers: With the VideoJobShop-Facebook widget, users can integrate their video resumés on VideoJobShop with Facebook to get feedback from their Facebook friends.

A first for employers: With the VideoJobShop library, employers can create a recruitment ad without the need to produce their own video. And unlike other video services and employment sites, posting at VideoJobShop starts at a remarkably low $25 in some cities, and it’s free elsewhere.

For advertisers: Videojobshop sets a new standard for online advertising with superLeaderboards™ (910×250) that are three times the size of standard leaderboards (728×90). These supersized ads dominate each page and guarantee that advertisers’ messages will be seen. With superLeaderboards™, advertisers finally get what they’ve never had online, but always had in print: the impact of a full-page ad.

Alan Jacobson, a managing partner at VideoJobShop and the designer of the site, called for this bold approach to improve the effectiveness of online advertising in this story at brasstacksdesign.com/ads.htm

According to Jacobson, Google Adsense will generate revenue for the site until the superLeaderboards™ catch on. And like everything else at the site, even the use of Adsense is unique — with three 300×250 ganged together for maximum impact.

With its video library, Facebook widget and superLeaderboards™, VideoJobShop will change not only how people search for jobs and qualified candidates, but also how advertisers them.

Last month we wrote about www.realpeoplerealstuff.com in Inside Classified. This month I want to share observations I have made while perusing the ad messages (videos) posted by some of the real people selling their real stuff on the site. I encourage you to check out this site.

Also, go to marketplace.publicradio.org for the story by Pat Loeb for National Public Radio.

In the story, Alan Jacobson of realpeoplerealstuff.com points out the sociological underpinnings fueling the phenomenal growth of self-made video clips that are created for the purpose of publishing to the Web. And in the case of realpeoplerealstuff.com, self-made videos created and published with the purpose of selling something to someone.

“It seems as if the public has an insatiable desire for personal celebrity. It’s kind of like what Andy Warhol said a generation ago. He said, ‘In the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.’ Well the future is here now, and everyone may not be famous yet but it sure seems like most of them want to be,” Jacobson said.

If he is right, one reason realpeoplerealstuff will succeed is because it exploits vanity. The site urges users to be the star of their own commercial.

There are other more compelling reasons the site will stir the imagination of millions.
First is the ingenious URL. To me this resonates even before the content is populated. I could be wrong, but I think branding will be a cinch

www.realpeoplerealstuff.com is trying to bring classified listings to life by allowing users to create and post short online videos showing off everything from handbags to homes.

While it has far fewer listings than regular classified sites, and some clips are downright silly, for items like real estate and cars, it can be quite useful by giving you a panoramic view of the product.

The site, which is organized by city, doesn’t charge regular consumers to post their videos although it plans to charge for businesses who want to use the services.

It has more than 200 video classifieds featuring a woman playing a $150 flute and a stand-up comedian seeking bookings at corporate events and is easy to browse.

First we had Craigslist and eBay, and their imitators of course. Now Buy.com and Facebook are teaming up to host online Garage Sales. And a new site where amateur video stars hawk used merchandise may have found a way to make Web video pay. Pat Loeb explains.

SCOTT JAGOW: Online hangouts like MySpace and Facebook have become so popular, e-commerce types are salivating at the chance to integrate with them. Today, Buy.com launches a new service on Facebook. It’s called Garage Sale. It allows people to sell things from their profile pages on Facebook. Buy.com will handle the transaction and take a flat 5 percent commission. Buy.com is hoping Garage Sale will steal a little business away from eBay. There’s another new website in the same ballpark. It’s a cross between Craigslist and YouTube. So, people make their own video classified ads. Don’t worry, we have examples. Here’s Pat Loeb:

Matt Bennett: Hi I am Matt Bennett and I’m going to be your next IT manager: I am all over the Internet. . .

If there was an American idol for computer technicians, Matt Bennett’s offbeat approach might win him some votes. But IT rival Gary Owens would give him a run for his money.

Gary Owens: Also, as a sideline, I write poetry. I’m in the poetry guild . . .

Bennett and Owens are two “stars” of the new website realpeoplerealstuff — all one word. Alan Jacobson is the founder….

ALAN JACOBSON: What we’re seeing is the steady migration of classified advertising from print to online at the same time we’re seeing online migrating to video so with Real People Real Stuff, we just connected the dots and created a site where classified advertising moves from print to online video

Jacobson calls the Web “the new TV.” But sites are having a hard time figuring out how to make money off of video. Jacobson’s site allows small sellers to post their homemade videos for free but certain advertisers, such as realtors and employers, have to pay.

JACOBSON: Classified advertising franchise is a $20 billion a year business. If you can get even one percent of that that’s $200 million.

Jacobson believes video works better as a sales tools than plain text and still pictures, but the site is clearly appealing to something besides business sense.

Owens: Let me read this poem, it’s called “Lighthouse on the Shore”: When I’m reaching out to . . .

It exploits vanity. Jacobson’s site urges users to be the star of their own commercial.

JACOBSON: It seems as if the public has an insatiable desire for personal celebrity. It’s kind of like what Andy Warhol said a generation ago. He said, in the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes. Well the future is here now and everyone may not be famous yet, but it sure seems like most of them want to be.

The business model is similar to Craigslist, the groundbreaking online classified site. Craig Newmark founded it 8 years ago. He doesn’t think video has much over his site’s simpler approach.

CRAIG NEWMARK: Video is more difficult than it sounds, especially doing it well, sometimes one picture does speak a thousand words.

Even though it’s all on the Internet, it sounds similar to the battle between old and new media. But Newmark says he welcomes the competition.

I’m Pat Loeb for Marketplace.

Classified ads in newspapers have been passe for years, thanks to the Internet. Now static classifieds could be on their way out on the Web.

The next big thing? Video classifieds — consumer-produced commercials that range from embarrassingly low-budget to masterful, with humiliating, somewhat amusing and compelling in between.

It’s a no-brainer. Nearly 50% of the U.S. population — 155.2 million people — will watch videos online for one reason or another in 2008, research firm EMarketer has predicted, so there’s obviously money to be made.

And there are benefits for consumers. With videos, sometimes buyers can see who’s trying to sell them something, and whether what’s for sale lives up to the billing.

“Video enables the seller to create credibility,” said Randy Selman, chief executive of Onstream Media Corp., a Florida-based company that partnered with EBay to help users post video ads there.

But what’s really behind the trend? Also a no-brainer.

“We’re trading on the insatiable demand for personal celebrity,” said Alan Jacobson, president of Realpeoplerealstuff.com. “Everybody wants to star in your own commercial.”

Video classifieds are new, and the basics — cars, washing machines, adorable kittens — are still pushed mostly through old-fashioned methods on the Web. The Internet has yet to develop “critical mass of buyers and sellers” via video, said Barry Parr, an analyst at Jupiter Research.

Right now on Realpeoplerealstuff, there are videos featuring an “attractive YouTube star” (name and fame unknown) selling a novel; ; and an Australian python named Lucifer (selling Lucifer? It’s not clear).

For all that, video classifieds might find a savior in an unlikely place: newspapers.

Many newspaper websites have started to allow users to post video ads for cars, houses and jobs, the most lucrative classified categories, said Peter M. Zollman, founding principal of Classified Intelligence, an industry consulting firm.

Video ads work well for newspapers because humans are naturally drawn to movement, he said. And print classifieds, which charge per word and often contain abbreviations and grainy photos, are limited by space in a way that video ads aren’t.

Realpeoplerealstuff’s Jacobson said the site was teaming up with a major newspaper company — he wouldn’t reveal which one — in a revenue-sharing video ad program. People who buy classifieds in any of the company’s newspapers will be offered the opportunity to post video ads on Realpeoplerealstuff.com, for no more money.

The site’s technology will make it easier for users to post video ads, he said, marking one way for papers to hold on to the $20 billion spent on advertising in the daily newspaper classified marketplace.

“Newspapers that really offer effective classifieds, including video, will still be in the classified business for a number of years to come,” Zollman said.

There’s a new Web site called Real People Real Stuff where anyone can post a classified video. As expected, there are plenty of bad-quality clips and boring infomercial-type stuff, selling real estate, cars and even Shih Tzu puppies. But there are also some hidden gems.

For instance, some guy in Alexandria, Va., wrote a song about his company’s “Dog Guard” invisible pet fence. “We keep your hound aroundddd. We keep your hound aroundddd,” he croons as he strums his guitar.

In another charming and informative video, a Canadian woman illustrates the “lack of integrity” of the street parking meters in Montreal. Basically, anyone can override the system by sticking as little as 5 cents (Canadian obviously) into the meter after someone has already paid for an hour, thus cheating the driver out of the full time and ensuring he or she gets a ticket. Once the minutes allowed for with the 5 cents are up an alarm goes out to the parking cops and they come and ticket the car, without knowing that the driver initially paid more, says the woman. (Listen for her to say “about” like “a-boot.” Very cute.) The parking meters provide an easy and confidential way to get revenge on people, she notes.

In another video, a man says he is selling a stuffed animal–a one-eyed beaver eating wood that he calls a “family heirloom”–because his girlfriend hates it. Not nearly as freakish as the stuffed frogs playing instruments my stepdad has collected, though.