Interview: Kevin Nalts of WillVideoforFood

Kevin Nalts: A couple years ago, I was making short comedic videos and showing them to friends and family. Of course, they ended up boring them to tears. So I thought, “Here is a new outlet – online video.” I can put them up there and share them with distant relatives, friends, and even strangers. 

I started getting excited about the notion of revenue sharing. There were some sites like Revver that allowed you to profit from a per-view basis. That was my initial means for a creative outlet and potentially a side income.

 

After a year or so, I started to develop an audience on YouTube. To some degree, that’s changed the kind of content that I am producing. Initially it was short bits. Now it’s blogging, comedy sketches, trip[s] to the dentist, whatever. 

 

I try to do a video a day. I think most people like that predictability. They like to wake up and find videos from creators they are tracking to see what new content they have.

CCI: Is that really feasible – one video per day?  How much time does that take?

 

KN:  There are times where I’ll go dry for a few days.  There are times when I’ll churn out a few in a weekend.  For the most part, it’s a few hours per video.  I find it really satisfying.  It’s got instant gratification because you can get instant feedback.  They are usually short videos; they’re no where near the complexity of most productions.  It’s time-consuming, but it has also led me into a side income.  It’s been nice helping marketers and advertisers to enter into the online video arena. 

 

CCI:  You deal with short form entertainment.  Do you try to stick to a certain amount of minutes?

 

KN:  The appetite for online video tends to be, literally, a 30-second to 3-minute range.  I try to keep it within a minute or two, and under three.  From the data that I’ve seen, the vast majority will drop off after 30 seconds.  It needs to be a tight, quick story.  The big viral hits like my “Farting in Public” are just a couple minutes long and immediately get to the point and end on a big finish.