Why You Shouldn't Host Your Videos On Amazon S3

Why You Shouldn't Host Your Videos On Amazon S3
Andy Stetzinger
2-18-08


An aspect of putting videos online that is often overlooked is "where the video will be hosted."

In our newsletter, I covered concurrent connections and how much bandwidth a business site needs. We, as a company, have held firm to our position that your video needs to be hosted on a server specifically designed to handle the amount of traffic and load videos can put on a website.

While Amazon's S3 service has been around for a while, it recently came to the
attention of many online marketers. People flocked to them to host their content, pictures, videos, and all sorts of files. Recently, when High Touch and I were at a conference, we found ourselves defending our position of why we don't use the Amazon S3 Service.

1. It's Expensive
I am convinced that people don't understand the S3 model. It only works in the consumers favor if S3 is only used as a temporary, high traffic time, load balancing solution. Otherwise, bandwidth, processes, and server time end up costing over 300% of normal costs.

2. It's Untested
I refuse to push any business to edge of untested technology. Who knows what users will do to the system that engineers didn't expect? What effects will it have?

3. It's Unreliable.
A system like S3 will not be able to handle consumer demands at a reasonable rate. It's technically impossible to add, remove, or re purpose space, capacity, or bandwidth at a prudent rate for the number of users they claim to have.

4. It's Untouchable.
I like having physical acess of some kind to my servers. If there's an issue that requires me to physically be in front of the machine, I want to be able to do so. Not so with S3: your machine doesn't even exist! (it's virtual)

5. It's Unreasonable.
Read their terms and agreements. They state that while they'll try to keep access to your stuff open, if they can't, "sorry" is the best you'll get. If they happen to lose your virtual server with all of your stuff, best hope you have a backup!


Today, as a marketer, a business owner, and a geek, I feel vindicated. S3 collapsed over the weekend leaving thousands of businesses in the dark. Some startups have even claimed that they were effectively put out of business because of the S3 outage this weekend.

Understand that I am not happy or gleeful about this outage, and that my heart does go out to all of those people effected by it.

It seems that some users used the S3 service in ways that Amazon didn't expect, and Amazon could not react quickly enough to prevent a cascading failure of the S3 system.

The unexpected usage? Authentication routines. People "logging in" to some kind of a members area. It produced too much information for S3 to handle, and as a result, S3 failed. As a result of S3 failing, some people's businesses were destroyed.

Amazon's sorry for the inconvenience.

Really... They are... and that's all they have to be... it's in their Terms and Agreements.

However, the position we have held as a company is now more solid than ever before. Our media servers have withstood the onslaught of a highly effective marketing campaign while the customers credit card processing server, and their own web server suffered under the traffic.

Now the next time someone tries to make us defend our position on hosting, bandwidth, and media servers, I can simply point to the weekend of February 17th, 2008.

To learn more about KeyThing Marketing Technologies or any of our Marketing Products, please visit our website: KeyThing.com

Online Video Uses - Let me count the ways... Part 3

Online Video Uses - Let me count the ways... Part 3
Scott Dennison
2-11-08


I'm sure you have noticed... its something so pervasive, we cannot escape or hide from it. As a result, my DVR is getting extra work over the next few months. What am I talking about? Election season...

Now the reason I mention it here is because very few business owners are using online video as effectively at the politicians do. Today I want to continue with the series of ways you can (and should) be planning to use video on your website. If you watch closely you will see your most favorite (probably even your least favorite) candidate using video on their site in one of these ways.


11) "On location" updates, or updates from the road. With all of the traveling to the different states where the primaries are being held, there are many opportunities to capture some footage, talk about issues that are of interest to local voters and post it to their site.

If you travel in your business, you can do something similar. A few months ago we provided technology for one of the cars in the "FireBall Run" that went from Orlando to LA. The drivers regularly stopped, and shot video which was then posted to their "update" page. Viewership was huge on those pages as people checked in daily to keep up to date on the race.

12) Viral Videos. I'm sure you are familiar with this concept, right? Develop a video that spreads and spreads around the world until millions see it. (Think Mentos and Diet Coke video or LonelyGirl 15) Most of the candidates do this with policy proposals. you know,"here is what I'll do for you if you elect me..." These take a bit of planning to develop something that people will find amusing and are willing to pass it along to their friends, but it can be done. I encourage you to try, and if necessary try again. The guys at BlendTec sure pulled it off. So can you!

13) Highlights of a political rally (or a seminar). If there is a political rally today, by tonight the highlights of the speech will be posted for everyone to see or hear. So if a part of your business involves the seminars, where you put on events, then you should absolutely be using clips of that event to either sell the DVD/CD package of the event or to sell the next event.

14) Insiders (staff) guide. Everyone loves the "inside" information, right? The secret stuff that is discussed behind the scenes. Do you think there some things that are going on in the inner workings of a campaign that people would love to know about? When it comes to business applications, obviously Coca Cola is not going to go on camera and tell us their secret formula, but if you set your mind to the task you can come up with something that sounds exclusive and shoot a quick video to share with the world.

15) Family introductions. When we consider electing someone to high office, we want to know as much about them as possible. So a carefully staged interview of the candidates spouse or children make great videos to post on their site.

When it comes to applying this to your business always remember that people do business with people that they like and trust. When you show your "other" side, such as your values or philosophies, and that part which is involved in family and home, you can gain major trust with potential customers.

So don't let the candidates be the only ones using video in smart ways. Its clear we can't beat em, so me might as well join them.

~Scott
KeyThing Marketing Technologies

Online Video Uses - Let me count the ways... Part 2

Online Video Uses - Let me count the ways... Part 2
Scott Dennison
2-04-08


As I ponder the ending of an amazing Super Bowl, I want to continue with the theme of sharing with you the many, many ways you can (and should) be using video on your websites. In fact if you watched the game you probably saw a few of these uses, so let's review...

6) "On the street" interviews - do you think that if someone interviewed Giants or Patriots fans last night after the game you would have captured some interesting comments? Now widen the lens and look at how that applies to your business. If you are promoting what you do ask people on the street for a comment about it. Some will have nothing of value to share, but others just might. And the best ones should go on your website. If you are just starting to develop a new product, go ask people to tell you what would make them want to buy a similar product. What you learn will help you, I promise you that.

7) Once you have actual customers using your product, get a testimonial from them. Let them tell future customers what they like best about you, your product and your company. This is called social proof. Prospects and potential customers will believe what your current customers say more than what you say. So put their excitement and enthusiasm on display for the whole world to SEE.

8) "A Day in the Life of" video featuring perhaps one of your customers. Following with the Super Bowl idea, there were lots of great stories to capture of players. I don't think I saw even story of a "Super Fan" for either team. But what if you developed your own video by following a customer of yours through his/her day as they use and enjoy your product.

9) Behind the scenes at an event is another compelling story line you can develop for visitors to your site. Several of my associates host an annual "customer appreciation party" to honor and thank their customers (and court new ones). In fact if you want to see one, go here. But its the back room, behind the scenes stuff that most attendees never see that can be so compelling, enough so that the word spreads without you doing anything other than posting the videos for everyone to see.

10) Highlights of a special event. Not much different than the previous idea, but this one develops "stickiness" by getting your visitors to stick around for a few extra minutes to watch the highlights of something you have done. In watching the big game last night I could not help but notice the number of times that the announcers on Fox reminded us that we could "see our favorite commercials again" by going to MySpace.com. Considering that MySpace is owned by News Corp, who also happens to own Fox Network, that should not have surprised anyone. But it was good cross promotion of their corporate assets nonetheless.

I hope that you are starting to get the picture. Your site is being judged by your viewers based on how interesting it is. The interest is scored by the amount of time that one spends there. (stickiness) Also, the search engines are rating the amount of time one spends on your site as one of the top criteria in ranking your place in the search engines. Video will keep them there, keep them interested and make you more relevant. We'll cover even more ways to use video next week.

~Scott
KeyThing Marketing Technologies