Content Archives - TODAY INDIA

Create Blog Posts to Your Heart’s Content

Blog posts can be an incredible traffic vehicle for those who understand how to write them effectively. Among the many benefits that lucrative bloggers enjoy include being asked to contribute to other blogs in their niche, great interaction each day with your readers, and the chance to send visitors to other web properties that you promote as an affiliate. Simply put, bloggers can make wads of cash in many different ways.

If you have ever wondered what makes a blog different than a static website, there are some very sharp contrasts between the two sites. Firstly, a blog contains plenty of new content. These words can be posted daily, weekly, or even more than once each day. One of the reasons that blog posts are so successful is because they give your readers an opportunity to interact with you on a routine basis. You can actually see what these visitors are thinking because their very thoughts are displayed in the words that they are writing in the comments which are left. Readers love to feel important and have their opinion valued. A good blog is the perfect location to make both of these needs a reality.

Additionally, you do not have to be a computer geek to master the fine art of blogging. We live during a time where setting up your own blog can be as easy as baking a cake. You just follow a short recipe and your message can be broadcast to the masses in rapid fashion. Once your blogs are installed, you can maintain it with little effort.

Below are 3 tips to help you to be a successful blogger.

1. Select a blogging platform with which you feel comfortable.

When you are ready to begin your blog posts, the first decision that you must make is which platform to use. You can go with Blogger or WordPress. I think that WordPress is fast becoming the choice for most blogging pros because it can be made to look like an actual website, is easy to install, and has a vast array of plug-ins that make it very powerful. I feel that the main reason one should use this blogging platform is because Google finds it very attractive in terms of SEO.

2. Write new content each day of your online life.

Do not fail to post new content to your blog of choice each day. This can be easily accomplished by staying up to date with what is going on with your particular niche. If you are focusing on a certain niche, you can write a short blog post giving your opinion about any events that relate to your target area. Planning ahead will help you to have your content written in advance. Once your content is written, you can set it to post at a later date.

3. Turn your blog into a money machine.

Making money with your blog property is not difficult if you know what you are doing. In fact, using AdSense on your site is an easy method which will allow you to monetize your blog very quickly. I am sure that there is no shortage of website owners who would love to have their ads displayed on your blog for the entire world to view.

In the end, while blog posts should be made daily, it is also smart to plan ahead by writing your posts in advance. You can set up your WordPress site to store your posts and this will also give you a true auto-pilot business that others would love to imitate. Adding AdSense to your blog is another method by which to create money out of thin air. After you have mastered blogging in one niche, add other blogs to your mighty army one by one.

The Four Cardinal Points of Any Good Writing: Expression, Content, Organization & Technical Accuracy

Every piece of writing that is judged to be good must have these four cardinal factors; otherwise the writing will fall flat regardless of its intended purpose. Remember the intent of your writing should be to inform, instruct, entertain, solve a problem or show how to achieve a goal or objective. Always write for your target audience and not the internet or the search engines. When you connect to your audience, the rewards come back to you. The four factors are: Expression, Content, Organization and Mechanical Accuracy.

Expression: This is how you project your writing for the world to see, read and evaluate. Good writing is a craft. That’s why writers are called wordsmiths. A picture may be more than a thousand words but it also takes words to create pictures in your reader’s mind. This is the first factor that attracts audience to your writing just as bees are attracted to nectar. You may have heard that you must write to express and not to impress. Don’t write for ego; write for your audience with clarity and simplicity–so that everybody can understand your perspective and subject matter. People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Expression is an art form. You must use your words to connect and create vivid images in your reader’s mind. People only apply what they understand. It all boils down to your choice of words, style, personality and overall thinking process. You must use powerful words and emotional triggers. Eliminate boring adverbs and dangling modifiers as much as you can. Use active verbs instead of helping verbs or adjectives. Active verbs make your writing to be more alive and dynamic. Realize that movement generates pleasure. Use active voice rather than passive voice. Thus expression is not just what you say but how you say it. However, what you say is also important.

Content: This is the factor that separates the mediocre from the masters. “Either you write something worth reading or you do something worth writing,” said Benjamin Franklin. Content is the substance and the essence of your writing. In short, content is the heart-beat of any great writing. It is the value you brought to the marketplace. People are value and quality shoppers. They want the best for the least amount of money. You have heard it said that in the internet, content is king. The story is the same everywhere. Content is the quality of the material you put out. This has to do with the key benefits the readers will extract from your writing to solve their problems or achieve their goals. As a writer, you must always ask yourself: “how can my writing solve problems or change lives?” A good writing that sells itself is writing with great content. Search engines love content. Therefore, put out good content that people love and seek. Then the search engines will locate you naturally and people will seek your offers. Let your content be fresh and original instead of recycled materials that flood the internet. Content is what search (and research) is all about. Having said that, you must also know how to arrange and organize your content so that the information is readable and digestible.

Organization: One of the most difficult things about writing is how to organize and arrange your thoughts. “Most writings are a few good thoughts drifting about in a sea of words,” said Jamie Buckingham. Organization is a product of coherence and consistency. How does your thoughts flow logically as in a flower? One idea must lead and link to the next. To be consistent, you need style manual as a guide. Therefore, try to plan your writing. Outline the key points or bare bone essentials you may want to develop before you put the flesh as you go. Let each paragraph contain a theme or one main idea. The flesh can be the description, examples or anecdotes to buttress your points. Organization is a process. It comes with practice, experience and writing intuition. You get better as you keep on writing. Formatting is a very important part of your organization. Arrange information in chunks.

That’s how the human brain process information. That’s why it’s called bites and bytes. Formatting is about headings, paragraphing, bullets, lists, typography, lines and spacing to create visual appeal for your readers. You don’t need to be a graphic artist to develop a good sense of organization. Did you notice that majority of HTML tags are formatting tags? Any good content and expression can fall flat without good formatting–it is a key part of your organization. The best way to learn this art is to glean from other good writings. After trial and success, it comes together with practice. Either you keep writing or you become a write-off. My watch word is: “Persistent practice prevents poor performance.” The more you write the better you grow as a writer. Practice does not make perfect; practice makes improvements and improvements make perfect.

Mechanical (Technical) Accuracy: This is fancy way of saying that your writings should be free of errors. Mechanical Accuracy is the Achilles tendon of most writers. They worry too much about the difference between colon and semi colon–causing paralysis analysis. This is the key reason why many people dread writing. Mechanical accuracy has to do with your typographical errors, spelling, punctuation and syntax. This is why you must have your writing tools: spell checkers, dictionary, encyclopedia and other reference materials. Remember that no writing is readable until it is free of errors. It is also a smart idea to give your writing to someone else to proofread and edit because of human factors. Overall most good writers are made in rewriting. The key lies in the principle of the 3Rs: revise, review and rewrite.

Your writing process is like preparing a good meal. All four ingredients must be present in your recipe before you create a balanced food for thought.

The New Eldorado: Video Streaming and Streaming Video Content Production

This newish technology, which provides a continuous stream of data, is awesome for many reasons. From the consumer’s perspective, it implies saving time since one does not have to download a file first, and then consume it. Also, members of the public do not have to manage vast quantities of data and space on their computer’s hard drive or external disks anymore, since there is no data to download and save as such. From the content producers’ perspective, streaming also offers great opportunities: with internet videos and webcasts of live events, there is no file to download, therefore it is hard for most users to save content and distribute it illegally.

Streaming is a relatively recent development, because broadband connection had to run fast enough to show the data in real time. If there is an interruption due to congestion on the internet, for example, the audio or video will drop out or the screen will go blank. To minimise the problem, computers store a “buffer” of data that has already been received. If there is a drop-out, the buffer goes down for a while but the video is not interrupted. Streaming has become very common thanks to the popularity of internet radio stations and various audio and video on-demand services, including Spotify, Soundcloud, Last.fm, YouTube and the BBC’s iPlayer. While streaming initially made its mark in the music sector, with music streaming revenues generating $3.3 billion at the end of 2014[1], streaming is currently making phenomenal headway in the video distribution and consumption space.

The video streaming market today: beyond distribution and into content creation

Video streaming: the technical bit

Video streaming technology has come a long way: the most influential group, of course, are the streaming technology providers themselves, who choose which technologies and services to integrate into their platforms. These include Apple, which provides QuickTime as well as the HTML5-based technology to reach iOS devices; Adobe with Flash; and Microsoft with Windows Media and Silverlight. In the early days of streaming, the most relevant playback platforms were Windows and Macintosh computers.

While Apple and Microsoft still hold tremendous leverage, computer platforms tend to be more open than mobile devices, while the latter comprise the fastest growing segment of streaming media viewers. Because Apple owns both a very popular platform (iDevices) and operating system (iOS), it retains absolute power to control standards adopted by Apple devices. Other mobile influencers tend to be split between hardware vendors – like LG, Samsung, Motorola, Nokia and HTC – and mobile operating system providers like Google (Android) and Microsoft (Windows Phone).

Streaming media delivery providers such as online video platforms (“OVPs”) (which are productized-services that enable users to upload, convert, store and play back video content on the internet, often via a structured, scalable solution that can be monetized) and such as user-generated-content sites (“UGC sites”), also influence streaming technology adoption. For example, though Microsoft introduced Silverlight in 2007, it wasn’t supported by any OVP until 2010, stunting its adoption. In contrast, OVPs like Brightcove and Kaltura, and UGC sites such as YouTube and Vimeo were among the first to support the iPad and HTML5, accelerating their adoption.

While there are dozens of providers in both markets, the key OVPs include Brightcove, Kaltura, Ooyala, Sorenson Media, Powerstream and ClickstreamTV, while the most notable UGC sites are YouTube, Vimeo, DailyMotion, Viddler and Metacafe. On the video live-streaming front as well, technology has made significant strides. Specialised OVPs such as Ustream and Livestream offer instant broadcasting of user-generated live videos with a live chat window running alongside the video player, giving users an opportunity to not only watch events as they unfold but comment on them, too[2].

YouTube made a video live streaming service available to its users too. And now, the icing on the cake: video streaming distributors and providers. The description of this whole ecosystem of video streaming would, indeed, not be complete without mentioning the providers of on-demand internet streaming media also called streaming video on-demand services (“SVoD services”). From 2011, the press began blogging about the most popular streaming media services that would bring high-quality commercial content streamed to the TV sets, smartphones and computers of the masses[3].

Netflix, Amazon Video on Demand (now rebranded Amazon Instant Video and Amazon Prime), Hulu Plus and Vudu came out on top (“SVoD providers”).

Replicating the successful business model of music streaming in the video streaming sphere: it’s all about scale, baby

SVoD providers have it so good: not only can they benefit from the great strides made by streaming media technology since the mid-noughties, but they can also educate themselves faster thanks to, and avoid the pitfalls which threatened, their predecessors, i.e. streaming music on demand providers such as Spotify, Deezer, Pandora, Rdio, Grooveshark and Beats (the “SMoD providers”).

While SMoD providers typically charge USD4.99 per month for an access plan to their services, and up to USDD9.99 per month for a premium plan, SVoD providers start their monthly subscription plans at USD7.99 with a maximum price of USD11.99 per month for SVoD services on up to 4 screens per household. Fearless Netflix even got a lot of flak, in April 2014, for hiking up its new subscriber fees globally by USD1 to USD2 a month[4]. If we quickly do the maths, we can forecast that there is more money to be made in SVoD services, than in SMoD services, provided that these services are scaled up.

And scaled up they are: on 23 April 2014, Amazon announced a licensing agreement that gives Amazon Prime members exclusive access to highly-sought after HBO’s library of original content, hence undoubtedly increasing the appeal of becoming an Amazon Prime’s subscriber. On 24 April 2014, competitor Netflix announced that it had contracted with three small cable companies to provide subscribers access to its content via TiVo DVRs, while on 28 April 2014 it announced a deal with Verizon to provide Netflix subscribers high-speed online access to streaming content, the second such deal Netflix has made with an Internet service provider (“ISP”).

As the technology industry – and to a degree the entertainment sector – function very much on a “winner take all” economic model, streaming content is an evolving battlefield teeming with opportunities and risks, in which companies assert their dominance and grow their market share. There are some clear winners, in the SVoD services’ sector, such as Netflix which, in the first quarter of 2014, added 2.25 million streaming subscribers in the US and a total of 4 million worldwide. It now has 35.7 million US subscribers and more than 48 million globally, in line with its long-term goal of 60 to 90 million domestic subscribers. It all makes sense from the consumer’s standpoint too: streaming is converting the most valuable downloaders (of music and video content) into subscribers and in doing so is reducing their monthly spending from USD20 or USD30 to USD9.99 on average.

By the end of 2014, music streaming revenues accounted for USD 3.3 billion, up 37% from 2013. In comparison, online and TV-based video streaming services combined to pull in a revenue of USD 7.34 billion in 2013, a figure that PriceWaterhouseCoopers (“PwC”) says will rise to USD 11.47 billion in 2016, before reaching USD 17.03 billion in 2018. That rise will be driven primarily by subscription video services such as Netflix and Hulu, PwC says, rather than by through-TV subscriptions.

The leap into content creation and production

What is interesting is that SVoD providers are going beyond what SMoD providers have ever done: they are entering the content production sphere, in order to enrich their catalogues and offerings; to expand their networks of, and reach to, high-powered executives, producers and movie-stars as well as to assert their newly-acquired status and clout. Online streaming video services such as Netflix and Hulu will make more money per year than the US movie box office by 2017, according to a new report release by PwC.

The report projects that streaming services will be the biggest contributor to the American filmed entertainment industry in four years, as the revenue generated by TV and subscription video on-demand providers reaches almost $14 billion, $1.6 billion more than the amount earned from the traditional cinema box office. Therefore, SVoD providers have, and will keep on having, a lot of disposable cash to invest.

How to better invest this available income than in producing high-quality video content, to enrich one’s catalogue and products offering? The main area streaming services will have an impact on the traditional box office, the PwC report says, is in release dates. At the moment, most movies are given months in theaters before they slowly make their way to streaming services. PwC says the strength of companies such as Netflix is expected to put pressure on the industry to make this transition faster, offering filmed entertainment to consumers earlier.

More importantly, SVoD providers keep on expanding their content inventories. Netflix already has USD 7.1 billion in existing obligations for original and licensed content, and it recently contracted for an original Spanish-language series; a new series from Mitch Hurwitz (the creator of much-loved Arrested Development); a third season of House of Cards and a final season of AMC’s The Killing. Indeed, the economic returns of House of Cards, the test case, were as successful as the critical reviews. Netflix’s new strategy fortified its existing revenue model-acquiring and retaining subscribers-and even opened up new revenue streams such as content licensing or even a branded channel with traditional distributors. Netflix spent roughly USD 100 million to produce the first season of House of Cards plus additional marketing investments, including advertising buys for primetime TV spots and high-profile billboards. If House of Cards brought in half a million new Netflix subscribers, with the same average life span as current subscribers (an estimated 25 months), the show would have just about broken even in two years. The real test was the lifetime value of these new customers.

What if many or most turned out to be opportunistic viewers who ended up canceling their subscriptions a few months after watching House of Cards? Then the breakeven opportunity looked vastly different. For example, if the average customer life span was closer to four months, then Netflix would have needed more than three million new subscribers for the project to breakeven-essentially, a 43 percent increase over its current average acquisition rate. Needless to say, this debate is now closed and, in addition to its string of series, very successful Netflix has brokered many recent theatrical deals – it plans to release the sequel to Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon day-and-date online and in Inmax theatres, and has struck an exclusive four-picture deal with Adam Sandler – which have supposedly enraged many in the business.

Speaking at a keynote in Cannes’s MIPCOM in November 2014, Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos insisted that the company was only looking to modernize a theatrical distribution model that “is pretty antiquated for the on-demand audiences we are looking to serve”. Netflix, he said, is not looking to kill windowing but rather to “restore choice and options” for viewers by moving to day-and-date releases. Not only that, but Sarandos said Netflix would be expanding into more niche genres, including the financing of documentaries and art-house films. Hence, the marketing stunt with teaming up with mega movie star Leonardo di Caprio on the release of documentary Virunga focusing on the fight against poaching endangered gorillas in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The documentary was released simultaneously on Netflix and in theaters in New York and Los Angeles on 7 November 2014. Amazon Prime’s tally in content creation and production is also impressive, most notably thanks to its decision to engage Woody Allen to write and direct a series for its SVoD services in January 2015 and its competitive force in TV by landing two Golden Globe trophies for best comedy for its critically praised Transparent and actor for series star Jeffrey Tambor also in January 2015.

So the future is more than bright, for SVoD providers, but what are the threats to their growing supremacy and market share?

A sorry state of affair for SVoD providers and traditional video distributors: counterfeiting in the video streaming market

A tentative expansion to international territories? A false alarm

Initially, the major threat to the rise and scaling up of SVoD services worldwide came from the reluctance, by several European countries to accommodate and “psychologically adapt” to the business model offered by the likes of Netflix.

The French, in particular, were a headache: In the own words of then French Minister of Culture Aurelie Filipetti, “(the French) are absolutely not going to close the door to (Netflix), but they need to get used to the differences with the French market and how they can participate constructively.” France has some of the world’s toughest rules for protecting its home-grown film and music industries, and none of these will make it easy for a foreign service like Netflix to make a serious dent in the market. The company, which eventually started offering SVoD services in France around November 2014, faces higher taxes than it is used to, including 20 percent VAT, as well as obligatory investment quotas from its profits. Indeed, SVoD services based in France with annual earnings of more than 10 million euros are required to hand over 15 percent of their revenues to the European film industry and 12 percent to French filmmakers.

Meanwhile, France insists that 40 percent of mainstream broadcasters’ content must be in French, while existing SVoD providers – including Canal Plus’ “Infinity” and Wild Bunch’s “Filmo TV” – are currently forced to wait 36 months after a film’s cinema release before they can stream that content online. These rules – the so-called “Cultural Exception” – mean that France retains a healthy film and music industry despite fierce competition from the Anglo-Saxon world. And while some commentators have said this model is outdated as ever-increasing numbers of people get their audiovisual entertainment online rather than from more traditional TV and radio media, France is nevertheless continuing to do all it can to protect its homegrown industries.

As mentioned above, despite these hurdles, Netflix eventually started offering SVoD services in France, the toughest foreign market to enter as of yet, during the fourth quarter of 2014. At MIPCOM 2014, Netflix chief content officer Sarandos went on record for saying that viewer behaviour, in Germany and France, was “on par with our successful launches elsewhere in the world” and that Netflix prison dramedy ‘Orange is the new black’ was the most watched show on the SVoD service in all of the six new European territories. Sarandos added that the viewing mix in Europe – about 70 percent television series and 30 percent feature films – was also similar to that on Netflix services around the world. Therefore, the major threat to SVoD providers, and their more traditional video distributors, lies elsewhere.

The culprits: illegal video streaming programs and providers

While the illegal downloading of music has decreased compared to previous measurements (about a quarter of people who use music streaming services still download music illegally, compared to 32 percent in September 2014), 35 percent of people who use SVoD services are still downloading movies and TV series illegally. This is according to the study Trends in Digital Entertainment, from January 2015, which is conducted by GfK and appears once per quarter. Some illegal SVoD providers are alive and kicking such as Time4popcorn. They offer SVoD services to members of the public, on the internet, without having paid proper and agreed licensing royalties to the owners of the rights in the video content which is being streamed on their channels.

One of these illegal SVoD providers was Aereo.com, which filed for Chapter 11 reorganization proceedings in November 2014. In June 2014, the US Federal Supreme Court handed down a decision in ABC v Aereo. Aereo, a TV-over-the-internet service, had introduced a disruptive business model, using thousands of very small antennas stored in a warehouse, to live stream broadcast signals which they had encoded into packets, directly into the home of users. It was sued by the broadcasters (originally including 21st Century Fox, CBS, NBC and ABC) for infringement of their copyright in public performance. Aereo defended its actions claiming that all it did was to provide a device to watch a programme that was already available. The Supreme Court decided in favor of the broadcasters, ruling that Aereo and its cloud-based technology was too similar to a traditional cable company to say that its service did not infringe. The failed watch-TV-on-the-Internet startup Aereo.com may come back though, since TiVo bought its trademarks, domain names and customer list at auction, for the bargain price of USD1 million in March 2015. TiVo could be looking into offering an Aereo-like service but one that is licensed by TV networks[5].

During the AIPPI Congress in September 2014, Elizabeth Valentina, Vice President Content Protection for Fox Entertainment Group, (speaking on her own behalf as Fox was still litigating the case), pointed out that Aereo’s business model involved the streaming of broadcast content obtained without permission, authorisation or license, and for which service Aereo were charging their subscribers. This business model was harming that of the broadcasters and content owners, by devaluing their content, interfering with exclusive deals for content to be delivered over the internet and to mobile devices, as well as diverting eyeballs from TV advertising revenue. It was a harm clearly recognised by Judge Nathan at first instance, in the broadcasters’ motion for a preliminary injunction. During the same congress, Sanna Wolk (Associate Professor at University of Uppsala, Sweden and co-chair of AIPPI’s copyright committee) compared the US position with that adopted in the EU where the CJEU in March 2013 ruled that online near-live streaming by the UK Company, TV Catchup, was an unauthorised “communication to the public” within the meaning of Article 3(1) of Directive 2001/29 (InfoSoc Directive) and therefore an actionable infringement of copyright. The CJEU concluded that as TV Catchup was making the works in the original “terrestrial” TV broadcast available over the internet, and hence using different technical means to retransmit the broadcast, this retransmission was a “communication” within the meaning of the Article 3(1). Furthermore in the circumstances the court did not have to consider whether communication was to a “new public”, as the new transmission required an individual and separate authorisation from the copyright owners. While full-blown litigation seems the obvious and mostly-used response to copyright infringement and counterfeiting in video streaming services, it is debatable as to whether an ardent battle against streaming video piracy is worth it. Indeed, drawing on the experience from the inconclusive fight, led by the music industry, against illegal downloads of music tracks offered by peer-to-peer websites in the early noughties, it may be worth biting the bullet and exploring non-legal avenues to this endemic and crippling infringement.

For example, Popcorn Time, dubbed the “Netflix for pirates” was recently on the run. Time4Popcorn.eu, one of the most popular iterations of the illegal movie site, has had its URL suspended by European regulators in October 2014, effectively turning off the lights for a site that had attracted millions of users in just a few months.

The European ID Registry knocked Time4Popcorn.eu offline due to suspicion that the page was registered with inaccurate administrator contact details. The site’s developers, rather than provide accurate contact information, simply relocated to Time4Popcorn.com. With more and more court decisions forcing ISPs to block access to certain websites in the territories that they cover, the best legal approach seems to request an injunction, in key territories, for ISPs to block end users access to the websites of illegal SVoD providers.

What’s in the stars for video streaming players and traditional feature film and sitcom producers?

In the short term, I think that traditional players in the TV and film industries, including Hollywood major studios, are going to start feeling the pain, as revenues are derailed by the economic and creative successes of legal and illegal SVoD providers alike. As a result, traditional feature film and TV series producers will have to up their game, focusing their financial and creative efforts on solely “block-buster” material projects. It is going to become even more difficult for independent and young directors and producers to finance their content creation processes, in the future.

In the long term, there will be a leap towards more high-quality content being produced (with stronger plots, bankable stars and exceedingly talented writers, directors and actors included in the content creation mix) by both traditional and SVoD content providers: Darwinism will be in the works, with the survival of only the fittest. Major film studios and distributors will have to adapt or die because video streaming is here to stay and will eventually scale up even more due to easier accessibility and affordability on major consumers’ territories, better wifi connections (in particular, due to the generalisation of optical fibre), a wider spectrum of devices on which to watch and stream videos (smartphones, tablets, PCs, TV screens, etc.) and changing habits towards culture consumption (such as, the reluctance to pay to watch movies, an inability to stay in front of a movie screen for around 2 hours for younger generations of consumers and the growth of cocooning).

All in all, the advent of SVoD services and the choice in various SVoD providers is a boon for consumers, as they are spoiled for choice in order to consume only high-quality content; will be able to avoid watching tiring and mandatory advertisements which are crippling TV shows, especially on US TV channels; and will be more in control over the devices on which they wish to consume TV series and feature film content.

The law and its actors (i.e. lawyers, judges, legislators) should accompany this change in consumption habits and video market offering, by being flexible and pragmatic, while protecting, enforcing and defending the rights of content owners and creators to stimulate the creation and production of the highest quality content in a competitive environment.

[1] “What the numbers tell us about streaming in 2014” by Mark Mulligan, Music Industry Blog, 16 October 2014.

[2] “Occupy video showcases live streaming” by Jennifer Preston, The New York Times, 11 December 2011.

[3] “5 of the Best Streaming Media Services Compared”, Christina Warren, Mashable, 14 February 2011.

[4] “What the Netflix price increase means in the current streaming content market”, Tom Caporaso, Money for Lunch, 30 April 2014.

[5] “TiVo buys Aereo Assets at Auction. Is a legal Aereo coming?”, Forbes, 1 March 2015.

Learning Management System (LMS) Vs Learning Content Management System (LCMS)

E-learning brought to an organization learning options that are not only less expensive, but are more flexible than classroom training. Although e-learning would never replace “a human touch” that face-to-face training is privileged to, it is de facto that current technologies allow creating e-courses that are relevant, engaging, participatory, and with “a fun element”.

As a growing number of organizations utilize e-learning or “blended learning” (a combination of e-learning and classroom instruction), more organizations face questions of choosing the systems that are best fit to their environment. Larger organizations are on look for the systems that not only deliver and track e-courses, but also allow integration of performance reviews and development plans. The needs of smaller organizations may be more succinct and limited to training delivery. So, what do we consider when choosing the best e-learning program? Let’s look at the differences of the two main e-learning systems – Learning Management System (LMS) and Learning Management Content System (LMCS).

LMS is a software application that is most often web-based and is designed for the administration, documentation, tracking, and reporting of e-learning programs and training content. LMSs, such as WestNet, Halogen, Flextraining or Mindflash require importing a content that is built externally using Microsoft programs, or e-learning development software such as Adobe Captivate or Articulate. Many LMSs offer monthly subscription for a fee based on the number of active users (training participants). Some LMSs offer one-time licensing, and charge annual fees for software upgrade and technical support, which can from 10% up to 25% of the licensing fee.

We have knowledge of at least 210 different LMSs with a range of features offered: from simple content delivery and reporting to sophisticated integration of learning management and social media platforms. Similarly, the difference of subscription and hosting fees is vast, ranging from $3,000 to over $23,000 annually for a thousand users.

In comparison, a Learning Content Management System (LCMS) is content-centric software for creating and managing of e-learning content (Xyleme, Exact Learning Solutions, Kenexa). Instructional designers and trainers can re-use e-learning content. As a result, it requires less of resources and saves time needed for course development. Rather than re-creating entire courses, LCMS provides the ability for courses to be modified and published for various audiences maintaining past versions. E-training elements that developers can manipulate include media files, assessment items, simulations, text or graphics. LCMS technology can also be used to deliver and track courses (as LMS), or as a standalone application for learning initiatives that require rapid development of learning content.

Thus, the main difference is that LMS does not allow creating and manipulating courses; it cannot reuse the content of one course to build another. The LCMS, however, can create, manage and deliver not only training modules but also manage and edit all the individual pieces that make up training modules. The subscription or license of LMCS is usually pricier that of LMS.

So, what does an organization need to consider when choosing the best fit e-learning system?

– An amount of training content to be developed and delivered. If an organization develops and delivers a great amount of training – either because of internal or external requirements – then LMCS may be a better choice. LMCS will be able to save instructional designers’ time by reusing training content that’s already had been created.

– Long term training and development needs. When an organization plans to grow and expand, it means that training and development needs will be growing as well. Thus, even when an LMS might seem a better fit today, considering long terms an LMCS may be the best fit. That way, an organization will avoid additional resources and confusion of switching from one system to another.

– Training audience. Larger organizations that employ workers nationally or internationally would experience a greater need for training modules being updated – because of local regulations and cultural preferences. Thus, LMCS might be of a benefit in this case.

– The plans to integrate e-learning into organizational social platforms. A few LMS and LMCS allow integrating organizational social platforms such as Intranets or wiki’s. Though these systems are usually pricier, this emphasis on learning encourages workers to participate in more training, and increases their engagement.

– The needs to utilize e-learning systems for performance management. Selected LMSs and LCMSs may perform performance management function by allowing managers to track employee performance (incorporating learning application results of completed courses), and by providing employees with an opportunity to create development plans based on performance reviews.

E-learning is a powerful learning platform. When an organization chooses “the right” system, such system can be not only a cost saver, but it can also enhance learner engagement and learning retention.

7 Vital Aspects of Developing Website Content for a Charismatic Small Business Website

Content is the indispensable ingredient of any site. It is the content that makes the website look attractive and appealing to the prospective buyers. The revenue generated by any website depends directly on the effectiveness of the content. Any small business if aiming at optimizing efficiency of the website needs to resort to website content development. A successful website results in featuring top in the search engine lists, converts visitors into buyers and assures constant revenue generation.

Which are the 7 vital aspects of website content development that can optimize website efficiency?

Unique Selling Proposition (USP): The USP should be clear at conveying the message and targeting the specific market segment. The content should be such that the visitor comes to know quickly, what the website is about.

Customized Content: The copy-paste command does not work for the making of effective small business website content. The content will not be impressive and he visitor will sooner or later come to know about it being copied and this could be detrimental for the website.

Physical Identity: A visitor on visiting the website should feel that there is person responsible to fulfill the commitments made by the website and its products / services. It is usually better to mention the physical address of the business identity to reinforce the trust and convince about customer service and after sales service. Sometimes the visitor, on not finding any physical identity to count on, can put off the sale in the last stage.

Keyword length: It is better to have a small number of visitors who buy the products/services than have a large number of visitors who do not buy anything. The purpose of lengthy keywords is targeting specific types of visitors who are clear about what they want. Keyword phrases with 3-4 keywords are usually known as long tail keywords. These long tail keywords have a targeted audience and this helps the website to list higher (on website engines) for those set of keywords.

Multipurpose Multimedia: The visuals are more effective than text. It is better to have the videos and podcast recordings embedded in the website. If you do not want to add weight to the website and want its downloading speed to be affected the least, it is better to store those multimedia files on a site that allows the content to be easily shared and accessed.

E-mail: An auto responder in the website can help to remind the visitor about his/her visiting the website. This is one of the best ways to keep in touch with the visitor. This help to keep the communication lines open and increase the business generated through the website.

Feedback connected to search engines: Latest technical advancements are such that the feedback provided by the visitors can be considered by the search engines as part of the content and consider it for listing on the search engine list. This is how the visitors and satisfied buyers can be made to make the small business website develop a effective content.

This is the way to an effective website content development.