Facebook’s Next Business Should Be Video

Posted on May 3, 2013 by YesVideo

Today’s post is brought by YesVideo’s CEO, Michael Chang – Providing his digital video expertise to support his insight on why the social media giant, Facebook, should make its towards video technology. This article was also featured on Wired.com’s Innovation Insights.

We joke that we’re not friends unless we’re Facebook friends – but there’s some truth to it, isn’t there? Facebook has firmly entrenched itself into the lives of the majority of Americans – in fact, more than 163 million Americans –52 percent of us – currently have accounts.

We’ve grown accustomed to “liking” our friends’ statuses; we send out birthday greetings; we follow the pages of companies and personalities we like; and of course we share our own updates, photos and links, a surprising number of which are related to cats. On average, Americans use Facebook for at least 13 minutes a day, every day of the year. Certainly, Facebook has answered the call to most of our digital needs – and via Facebook ads, the social network appears to have found the answer to their revenue needs.

And yet there is one area in which Facebook could provide a stronger user experience, and make money at the same time: video. I believe there could be a real revenue opportunity for Zuckerburg and Co if they move now to make a real play in the space and show YouTube that they have competition. Facebook hasn’t shied away from battling Google over the years. This is apparent with Graph Search, literally aiming to best Google at its cash cow core. But going after video could potentially cut into another rapidly rising Google asset.

While it’s true that we all can upload videos right now to Facebook, the process isn’t as quick and easy as it could be. And while we can link to videos hosted by streaming sites such as YouTube and Vimeo, creating and editing video on Facebook itself is not really an option. Facebook falls short in their assumption that we will always post something that’s already been created elsewhere.

In so doing, Facebook essentially steps back and defers to YouTube, making the tacit assumption that YouTube “owns” videos. But users of Facebook and YouTube currently spend about the same length of time on both sites each day, so there’s no clear superiority between them. We use Facebook to connect with our friends, and we watch videos on YouTube for entertainment; but these separate categories of “social” and “video” are becoming increasingly blurry.

YouTube has been making strong attempts to become more like a social network, enabling its users to set up personalized homepages where they can browse channels and set up personalized subscriptions. It tells us which videos our friends have recently shared on their Google+, Twitter and Facebook accounts. We can even post private videos on YouTube that only our friends, not the public, can see.

But Facebook is still chugging along as though nothing has changed, despite the changes in the environment. Its video capability remains so wobbly that it actually has a video instruction page entitled “Bugs & Known Issues.”
But there are some ways that Facebook can beef up its video strategy, and monetize the offerings as well.

Here’s how:

1. Video birthday cards

Facebook already reminds users about their friends’ birthdays. They have a fine system in place that sends out reminders and encourages us to quickly post birthday greetings on the walls of birthday celebrants.

In addition to these simple greetings, Facebook should consider allowing users to send video cards – Vcards – to friends also. Simply surround an embedded video with a decorative golden frame that bears a birthday greeting, and make it postable. Imagine Grandma’s delight and surprise when she receives a framed Vcard showing her twin grandkids jumping up and down on the bed, shrieking “Happy birthday, Nana!” Or if your best pal happens to be an aspiring musician, post a framed Vcard on his wall showing his favorite rockstar in mid-shred. The possibilities are endless; all Facebook needs to do is provide a small assortment of custom frames with a line for a customized greeting.

As for revenue, perhaps each user could send one Vcard free per month or year, and after that, a small cost is associated to it.

2. Provide rudimentary video editing tools

People truly want a quick on-and-off user experience, and it’s not particularly swift or easy to edit a video. But Facebook could make it easier than it is by offering novice users a suite of user-friendly, step-by-step, instructions for “Editing 101”. The results might not win Sundance awards, but they would be superior to uploads of untweaked smartphone videos. If the instructions could be made simple enough to be mastered by a fifty-something grandmother, or a 13-year-old, it would be a huge act of technical empowerment that would result in countless happy users.

Vimeo, for instance, welcomes novices and gives them fun, hands-on lessons in elementary editing on its “Vimeo Video School” pages. Vimeo would be another great acquisition target for The Social Network. But Vimeo isn’t the only option…

3. Acquire a video streaming site

Facebook paid at least $715 million for Instagram in order to better enable its users to post edited photo uploads. Perhaps it’s time for Facebook to consider purchasing one of the many websites that enable video uploads. Possible acquisitions could involve popular video hosting sites such as MetaCafe or Break.com, or live-streaming services such as Justin.tvor Ustream.

An acquisition of this type would allow Facebook to charge for certain content (or channels) that is exclusive to their users.

4. Improve Facebook’s video chat

Facebook video chat is often plagued by strobe-like intermittent motion as well as by visible lag-time between when you see your friend’s lips move and when the words are actually heard. Facebook needs to focus their time and energy on making this experience smooth and fun.

By improving v-chat and providing more sophisticated editing tools, Facebook could bring in more people like amateur and professional videographers and filmmakers. These folks could then use the network not only as a way to let their friends know about the short film they made, but also edit it, and post it easily. They could also host Q&A sessions with their fans. Imagine the millions of hours of engagement that a more robust video offering would provide for Facebook – and increased engagement translates to increased advertising opportunities.

It’s time for the world’s largest social network to improve its overall video experience and to encourage content creation by its users. And if they do it right, I believe there will be real revenue opportunities for them.
Do you think video could be a boon for Facebook? If so, how?

Michael Chang is CEO of YesVideo, the global leader in video transferring and sharing. He is responsible for defining the company’s market vision, and leading his team to continued success by creating innovative products and services for the millions of consumers that YesVideo serves.

Previously, Michael cofounded Greystripe, the largest brand focused mobile advertising network, and also served as CEO. ValueClick acquired Greystripe in 2011. Michael also worked at Incubic Venture Capital and was responsible for investments in Internet and software companies. Michael holds an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and a BS in EE from Carnegie Mellon University.

Traveling, bonding and making memories.

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Guest Blogger

As a child I remember my Mother taking my sister and I to a museum in practically every city we visited. Thankfully she’d choose museums that would captivate us.

I still remember one museum that housed larger than life sized exhibits of animals and dinosaurs. My biggest fear in that place was that I’d knock one of the exhibits down. (You see, as a child I had the uncanny ability to drop or bump into things!)

Now as a Mother, myself, I find myself adopting a lot of what my Mother would do with us, with our kids.

So yes, when we did our 3 day family get-away to San Antonio, we put two museums on our “must-see” list – Louis Tussauds Wax Museum and Ripley’s Believe It Or Not.

Day 1 of our trip was focused on allowing our daughter to experience a birthday gift she will never forget!

Day 2 was a day set apart for the museums and church later in the evening.

Museum-wise, the wax museum didn’t tingle their excitement very much till they found the President

and the Passion of Christ exhibit.

Mama, of course, had fun, irrespective!

What was definitely up their alley, though, was the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not museum.

The museum was a great choice for our family as we got to laugh, explore and absorb all the amazing exhibits in awe.

And best of all we didn’t realize we’d spent close to 2 hours at the museum, till Hubs checked his watch!

Hubs and the kids getting their groove on!

Oh and a certain exhibit inspired us to stick to eating healthy for the rest of our trip!

Did you know the heaviest man in the world lived in New York? He weighed a whopping 1400 lbs. WHOA!!

On the last day of our trip we chose to do something out of the ordinary.

We took the kids out to the Texas Hill Country to explore the untouched, un-commercialized part of San Antonio.

After a picnic outdoors and a little ~~patient~~ waiting, they were treated to visits to the lake by wild deer, geese and ducks.

A definite treat!

Encouraging a love for travel, opens up a child’s world and leaves chunky deposits in their memory banks.

And while we may not have had a vacation packed with a lot of activity, the kids thought it was one that was unique in many ways.

My daughter can’t stop talking about the belugas and my son asks if we can go back and see the deer. (Oh, and the man who had his sides eaten by a shark!! That’s the only exhibit he remembers from Ripley’s. Sigh!)

For me, looking at photographs taken with wide grins on my family’s faces, tells me that they had a blast and we made special memories as a family.

In the end that’s the bottom line…

we traveled, we bonded and we made beautiful memories.

Marina J, is a Texas based, chai-loving, Mom of two giggly bundles of energy and the voice over at Energizer Bunnies’ Mommy Reports. You can find her sharing her latest updates on Facebook, pinning things she loves on Pinterest or uploading fun pics on Instagram.

Your Memories are Safe With Us! Behind-the-Scenes on YesVideo’s Order Safety Measures.

Posted on March 15, 2013 by YesVideo

Today’s guest post is from Lisa, YesVideo’s Director of Customer Service. She goes behind the scenes to explain the safety measures we follow to make sure every order we receive is returned safe and sound.

At YesVideo we understand that you are entrusting us with your precious and irreplaceable memories. We take this responsibility extremely seriously and treat your memories as we would treat our own, like gold.

As the person responsible for customer satisfaction, I am particularly sensitive about this topic. I am very proud of the measures that our company takes to protect your memories, and I was part of the design and implementation of many of these security measures. Receiving Order Shipment

All of our touch points with your order are under surveillance. From the moment your order lands at our door we have our eyes on it. And if you use one of our pre-paid labels to ship your order, we monitor your shipment as it makes its way to us. We have a great relationship with the shipping carriers. We work together to scan in each package, and cross reference counts and tracking numbers to ensure that we have an accurate record of what we receive.

Placing barcode on videotape As we open up your order we place a unique barcoded ID on each piece of media which links back to your order record. This allows us to easily identify and track your media at every point in our transfer process.

Once the transfer process has completed and the discs have been created, your order will complete what is known in our world as “Order Fulfillment”. This is a crucial step in our process, and our last touch point before your order leaves our building.

During this process, we bring up your order record and the system lists all of the items that correspond to your order. This list consists includes your original media, DVD disks and cover sheets for the DVDs. We complete the inventory of your order by scanning the barcode on each item in your order. This ensures that we have the correct DVDs matching to each piece of original media. This ensures that we have both the correct number of DVDs, and the correct DVDs matching to each original media item. So, if you ordered 5 copies and we have only scanned 4 copies the system will not allow the order to be completed. Similarly, if a DVD does not match the barcode on a tape – the system also restricts completing the order.

Once we have fulfilled and sealed your order, it is boxed up and shipped back to you via UPS. The same handoff that we began with when we received your order is repeated when we hand your order over to UPS.

Our security measures don’t end when the order leaves our hands. We even keep a back-up copy on our secure servers – just in case. We can use this back-up copy to re-create your memories should any issues arise.

Safely returning your order back to you is our top priority. We pride ourselves on the safety measures we have in place for the handling of your order so much that we offer a $1500 guarantee. We are constantly finding ways to improve our processes and further our efforts to water proof our security. I hope this gives you a sense of the security measures that we have in place at YesVideo. If you have any specific questions on this topic feel free to send me an email, I would be more than happy to answer your questions.

Lisa McCabe
Director of Customer Service
lmccabe@yesvideo.com

Want Better Personal Video? Think Underwater Tech And Free Cloud Storage

Posted on March 8, 2013 by YesVideo

Today’s post is brought by YesVideo’s CEO, Michael Chang – forecasting the near future for video technology, cloud storage, and consumer engagement through an objective analysis of current business and technology trends. This article was also featured on TechCrunch.com.

Phone Media Reel

The world of digital video has undergone a massive transformation in the past few years, thanks to the proliferation of smartphones and innovation in the field. As a result, personal video content creation has exploded; according to the NPD Group, we started 2012 with phones accounting for 25 percent of all photos and videos captured. That’s huge, but I expect that 2013 will see even more accelerated growth.

I see three huge trends in the world of personal video today, and they have one common theme: answering the call of the consumer. Companies like Apple and Google are looking to consumers to see what they want and building products and platforms that meet their needs.

Here’s how I think personal video tech is being affected by consumer demand and what the industry can do to meet these demands.

1. The Next Hardware Revolution Will Happen Underwater

How do you make a successful video camera in the age of smartphones? Go where phones can’t go: underwater.

That’s precisely what GoPro has focused on, with its set of video cameras built for the adventurist in all of us. And the device has proven its worth: one camera survived seven months in the Atlantic Ocean and was returned to its owner with video intact. Consumers and media saw the value of the product, and GoPro’s value proposition was clear – so clear, in fact, that they they recently took a $200 million round of funding from Foxconn, valuing the company at $2.25 billion.

How long will it be until smartphone makers take a cue from GoPro and create waterproof cameras with better low-light settings? Not long. I predict that Samsung, Sony and other legacy video hardware companies will try to acquire GoPro in 2013, which will prove pricey given Foxconn’s capital boost.

2. Video Cloud Storage Will Become Free

Consumers today have a real and urgent need for video-centric cloud storage, and I expect that cloud services will see a boom of video material in the coming year and react accordingly. Right now the major players in cloud storage – Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon – provide deeper integration with their own services and devices. Dropbox and Box are the most device-agnostic. Yet none of these cloud services have been designed specifically for video storage.

Last year Google dropped the pricing of Google Cloud Storage twice — and both drops occurred in the same week. How will Google’s move affect the strategy of other big players in this highly competitive space? The Google threat to other players is significant because of Google’s massive and highly profitable search revenue, which can fund a long-term ‘subsidy’ intended to drive consumers toward their solution. Google is the best positioned at this point in time to fund a completely “free” play in the space that results in more customer engagement on its properties and further acquisition of customer data, both of which feed back into its advertising machine. To put the scale of their search business in perspective, if you were to start a new $1 billion business within Google this year, such a new business unit would only contribute to annual revenues by 2 percent.

In terms of using cloud storage as a loss leader, Amazon too has very significant alternative revenue streams, but the margins are slimmer than in search and it’s not as clear that consumer storage is a related, linear play vis-à-vis its offline e-commerce business. That said, the longer-term future of Amazon’s e-commerce shifts to digital goods and Kindle-related products — and, therefore, a popular consumer-facing storage business with a sophisticated application/content layer — fits right into that strategy. They already have a large and growing connected device customer base. Amazon may look to purchase Dropbox in order to quickly leap ahead in the consumer storage category — particularly around media (photos, videos, music).

With the core cloud storage business becoming commoditized and prices dropping, cloud providers are in danger of becoming “dumb clouds” à la telcos that over time became “dumb pipes.” The margins in core cloud storage will continue to decline similarly to what occurred with telco carriers serving broadband into the home. Carriers have been forced to play nicely with Apple while losing revenue on services they would have normally provided but can’t because of Apple’s disruptive lead with consumers and stringent models. So it’s still a business that competes on price; they were not able to move upstream or laterally to add more value.

The same will occur with cloud storage providers. But Dropbox and Box are executing on a great strategy of becoming not just storage, but platforms for data to be shared between the application layer and users. Once they are the default platform (think OS on a PC), more and more apps plug in and then customers (or the ‘OEMs’ of our time) are willing to pay – think “OS in the cloud” paradigm. The other play is to actually provide apps for specific categories, but the challenge there is finding customers willing to pay for one-off apps. Bottom line: being stuck in the middle is to be doomed.

3. Consumers Become Prosumers

It’s a tough economy, and entertainment companies are feeling the pinch just like other industries. This year, Hollywood, the music world and sports leagues have all taken steps to encourage prosumers to create their own content in an effort to connect with fans. In this case, the prosumers will be die-hard fans equipped with smartphones and cameras.

Cheap cloud storage, slick tools offered in high-tech sandboxes, and the desire to capture consumer attention are all driving a wave of fan-edit/co-creation opportunities. The pros are finally allowing consumers to lean forward and take part in their content. Just look at the recent moves of Netflix, Amazon Prime Instant Video, Hulu, and YouTube. These companies are now offering interactive contests, judging opportunities and the use of professional studios to give consumers a chance to be a part of creating content alongside celebrities.

Facebook, Twitter and Google+ create an added bonus for these companies, since prosumers will likely share their work with family and friends.

In 2013, we will see players in the video industry continue to answer the call of the consumer, and do all they can to make personal video easy to make and take – from the cloud to the ocean. What trends do you see happening in the personal video arena?

YesVideo…Bridging the Distance

Posted on March 4, 2013 by Guest Blogger

With family thousands of miles away, it’s hard to not feel homesick.

While the children get to see their grandparents once, if not twice, in two year pockets… it’s just not enough.

My saving grace?

Technology!

My mother stays connected via Facebook and emails, so the exchange of photographs and the latest “Grand-kiddos” buzz is practically up to date.

Hubby’s dad on the other hand, is not very fond of accessing his emails on the computer. He’s more of a “pick up the phone and talk” kind of person.

Unfortunately this also means that he misses out on a lot of photographs of the kids.

Bridging the Distance

There was a time when we’d take physical hard copies of photographs and mail it to him. But with the escalating rates in postal charges, this has become less frequent.

Thankfully, we now have YesVideo!

Having 90 minutes worth of photographs and home videos from the past several weeks to enjoy, at leisure, while relaxed on the sofa, is definitely a treat.

With YesVideo, our “Memory Preserving” DVDs makes something that was once a probability, now a possibility!

And you know what’s great?

Like any proud grandparent, my father-in-law can carry his DVD(s) stuffed with special moments from our kids lives, and share it with other family members in the vicinity.

(Definitely beats lugging around a heavy photo album, right? Plus the antics of an animated child caught on tape is always the cherry on the cake!!)

For our tech-comfy grandparents…

YesVideo has now launched new and improved services on their MemoryShare site which allows you to create videos and share them from your account.

Which means grandparents can also get video updates!

Honestly with all these developments, all I can say is…

Thank God for technology!

Getting Smacked Down in the Golden Gate Smackdown

Posted on March 1, 2013 by YesVideo

Today’s post is from Sharleen, YesVideo’s Director of Marketing Communications. She shares her report of last week’s Golden Gate Smackdown.

YesVideo, along with VSCpr, Tandem Capital, and Xtreme Labs sponsored the first annual Golden Gate Smackdown in San Francisco last Wednesday. About 200 techies, reporters and VCs gathered at the Mezzanine for an invitation only mixer in the form of…a ping pong tournament!

Photo Courtesy of VSCpr

Our CEO, Michael, and I found out just days before that we were 2 of the lucky 64 to be vying for the crown…and $1000 towards a charity of our choice. We immediately confessed to each other that our table tennis skills fell a little short of Olympic-caliber. So a couple hours before heading up to the Smackdown, we quietly snuck out of our headquarters and into City Beach, desperately hoping that 10 minutes of practice would save us from a night of embarrassment.

At the Mezzanine we checked in and picked up our official YesVideo headbands. Yessss!

We met up with some of our YesVideo teammates and were able to enter Bill, our mobile developer, into the 64^th and final spot. An experienced player, he would surely make up for our novice showing.

Michael and I were predictably smacked down in our first round matches, and Bill advanced a few rounds in the bracket. But in the end it was Saad Kahn of CMEA capital who eliminated Jordan Meyer of Ustream for the ginormous cup.

Photo Courtesy of VSCpr

The open bar featured the Fireball, a bold shot of cinnamon schnapps shaken with Tabasco sauce. I was not so brave, but instead happy to see the Kung Fu Tacos truck parked out back to feed the famished ping pong stars.

The evening was closed out by a live blast-from-the-past performance by Shock G of Digital Underground. Both Shock G and his alter-ego “Humpty Hump” brought back the 90’s hip hop that flashed me back to high school and still occupies most of my iPod today. With some help from the VSCpr crew, I even got to meet him backstage!

All in all, the first annual Golden Gate Smackdown was a huge success. We were happy to be among the sponsors and to meet new folks in the tech world while spending some quality offsite time with our YesVideo teammates.

My next project: convincing Michael that our office needs a ping pong table, to get these underdogs ready for next year’s Smackdown!

Running Away from Home and Sharing the Memories Along the Way

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Guest Blogger

I ran away from home at just the right time.

OK, technically, I didn’t “run away from home.” It’s just that after I graduated college, I was a bit moody, and confused, and bored, and angry with the world. Kind of like my six-year-old is every time he threatens to run away from home.

But I did run away from it all. I packed my bags and moved to England. I had no job, and nowhere to live. But within a few weeks, I had both. I had a slew of new friends, and even a new boyfriend.

Eventually, my work visa ran out, and I had to return to America. But after a couple of years, the boyfriend I left behind also came to America, so that we could get married and start a family and spend the rest of our lives together.

So far, “the rest of our lives together” has included moving around. A LOT of moving around. In the first seven years of our marriage, we lived in five different states. Since he’s from England, he’s of course been away from his family for many years. But I’ve also been far away from mine. Neither of us see our parents or siblings on a regular basis. And that’s been tough. Sure, we joke about how nice it is to never have to deal with the in-laws (joking, JOKING, I promise!). But living far away from family isn’t easy. We both come from close families, and we grew up relying on that network for companionship, advice and support. It’s been hard at times, starting a family and raising our children, without our families close by.

But remember, I said I ran away from home at the right time. That’s because when I moved overseas, email use was becoming widespread. I could stay in touch with my family and friends back home with ease. By the time I had my first child, blogging was becoming a “thing.” I learned how to make my own rudimentary website so I could share pictures of my son online, and all the grandparents could watch him grow, even if they didn’t see him in person very often. By the time my second son was born, Facebook was getting popular. My husband and I both enjoyed reconnecting with old friends we’d left behind in the many places we’d lived.

Nowadays, there’s no reason to feel isolated or out-of-touch. With my ever-present smartphone, I can snap a picture or take a video and instantly send it to dozens of people. In many ways, modern technology has brought my far-flung family closer together than ever.

Did you know that YesVideo is a part of this “technological revolution” that’s bringing families closer together? Sure, you probably know that YesVideo helps you preserve family memories. And that YesVideo transfers your old formats (slides, printed photos, old movies on film) into a modern, digitized, high-quality format. But these days, it’s all about sharing — sharing our memories, our occasions — across multiple platforms. YesVideo makes doing this incredibly easy.

With your YesVideo order, you of course get a DVD as your finished product. But you also get an online account. There, you’ll find a digital copy of your order. You’ve got plenty of space to store your orders in the cloud. From that account, you can easily access your videos from your mobile devices. And the best part? You can securely send your memories to friends and family, or share them via your favorite social networks. No more trying to upload videos to an external site, hoping that “private” link is really private, and then praying that Grandma can figure out how to navigate her way to your profile. With YesVideo, you can store and send, safely and easily, all from one location.

Because even when you run away from home, it’s still nice to stay in touch with everyone while you’re gone!

Amy Bradley-Hole is a freelance writer and speaker who covers tech, travel, business and parenting. She blogs at Freaky Perfect about the freakiness of her not-so-perfect life. When she’s not goofing around on the internet, she dreams up new ways to drive her husband and two kids crazy.

12 traditions for creating birthday memories

Posted on February 18, 2013 by Guest Blogger

Some of the best memories I have of my childhood are the amazing birthday parties my mom threw me. Themed parties with fun foods and crafts and games… I remember treasure hunts for a golden birthday, a tea party with teddy bears, spring themed with lots of flowers…

I now have kids of my own: a son that just turned 3 and a baby girl that will be one in a month (eeek!). I love carrying on the tradition of fun and memorable birthday parties. I mean, the days of their births really are the best moments of MY life so I’m going to celebrate!

Here are some ideas for creating birthday memories and traditions:

birthday traditions

Cake Batter Pancakes! Here’s a breakfast tradition I wish my mom had done I’ve also seen “ice cream for breakfast” made with waffles for the cone, bananas for the ice cream, and strawberries on top.
Birthday Wishes: one balloon for each year with a wish tied to each one.
Chair Cover: “My Special Day”
Birthday Chair: a special place to sit! Add ballooons, stickers, crepe paper… anything you want!
Birthday Countdown: a countdown itself would be fun, but you could add to the excitement with an activity or special moment each day.
Birthday Book: instead of a card each year, add a page to a book with a special handwritten note.
Balloon avalanche: what a fun surprise when they open the door in the morning! Or you could hang a bunch of balloons from the top of the door at all different lengths.
Sky lanterns: send one off every year on their birthday!
Years of Memories: have old friends mail a story or memory of the birthday boy or girl. This particular image was for a 60-year-old and his daughter collected the stories for him–love it!
Birthday plate: we had a “you are special” plate growing up that came out every birthday–we always looked forward to using it!
Birthday Photo: take a simple photo every year and edit in some text about current likes, favorite colors and toys, etc.
Birthday Tablecloth: Use the same tablecloth for the special occasion and add hand prints every year–fun way to see your child grow!

Pick a couple of them and continue them each year. You and your children will look forward to these special moments. With Rebecca’s first birthday coming up in a few weeks, I’m getting ready to start her traditions!

Now, you need to preserve all these wonderful memories on DVD! YesVideo even has a custom Birthday Theme and the option for online sharing. You can share your photos and videos of these precious moments with friends and family no matter where they are!

Emily Dickey is a mom of 2 in the Chicago area and has been blogging for over 3 years. She also does social media consulting and freelance work. You can find more of her parenting and family stories at her blog, Baby Dickey, or chat with her on facebook!

Preserving Family History with YesVideo

Posted on February 11, 2013 by Guest Blogger

Family history has always been something that has intrigued me. I love looking back through old family photos and hearing about my different ancestors from my parents. Learning about my heritage helps me to see where I came from and to be honest, it’s a lot of fun! But how fun would it be to see those ancestors on film – hearing their voice, seeing their face, and listening to the stories they tell about their life? It doesn’t even have to be film – it can be pictures of your ancestors on DVD as well!

As a YesVideo Ambassador, I’ve had the opportunity to read posts from some of the other Ambassadors, and let me tell you – they are awesome! One Ambassador found family reels and was able to transfer them to DVD via the YesVideo service. Another found a friend’s old wedding footage on tape and transferred those to DVD. I was able to transfer my boyfriend’s kids’ footage from tape to DVD. It’s an exciting feeling knowing that you can watch them over and over again simply by popping the DVD into the player. Not to mention the fact that you have the opportunity to share the uploaded content with family and friends via the YesVideo cloud service.

Now that you are feeling inspired and wanting to document your family history with the YesVideo service, you might be wondering what questions one could ask family members when filming them? Here are a few ideas for you:

- Tell us your name, when you were born, and where you were born.

- Do you have siblings?

- What kind of career do you have?

- Do you have children?

- What special talents do you have?

- What is an event that has happened in your lifetime that had a dramatic effect on you?

- What advice would you give to future generations who might be watching this?

Keep the memories alive with your family and transfer films, videos, and pictures to DVD using the YesVideo service. It’s easy, fast and totally worth it!

Shannon Gosney is the author of The Mommy-Files, a national blog with a loyal following. With 3 active boys and and an active life, she loves living on the Central Coast near San Luis Obispo, California. A full-time Social Media and Professional Blogger, Shannon also serves as a National Brand Ambassador for many well-known companies. Her blog focuses on motherhood, family fun activities, traveling and recipes while providing, professional opinions, product, performance, restaurant, and various business reviews. You can also find her online on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram, and Pinterest.

How to Host a Family Memory Night

Posted on February 4, 2013 by Guest Blogger

Family Memory Night

There are a lot of things that we love to do as a family and creating memories is one of them. We’ve done so many things as a family over the years but sometimes it’s hard to remember everything that we’ve done. I knew that when hubby and I started having kids that I wanted to be consistent in documenting things in their lives. Birthdays, first steps, and the first day of school were just a few of those firsts. I’m pretty proud to say that I’ve actually done a pretty good job in staying consistent with my documentation, better than I thought I would be.

It seems as I reflect on videos and pictures, my boys have become more and more interested, especially my 7 year old. He’s seen some home videos and pictures of himself and is always asking to see more. What better way to enjoy the memories together than with a Family Memory Night? We’ve done family movie night before, but I thought it might be fun to spin it a bit and enjoy memories. Better yet, I think we are going to start doing it monthly.

Our first Family Memory Night was definitely a hit. We recently had our son’s birth from 7 years ago converted from Mini DV to DVD using YesVideo. It was the first time my 7 year old had seen it and his face just lit up. We also looked through some pictures and memory books that we had. Of course, we couldn’t forget the snack, a big tub of popcorn!

If you’d like to create your own Family Memory Night, I really encourage you to do so! Below is a list of items to gather before your Family Memory Night to ensure that the evening is successful.

1. Picture or Memory Books

2. Home Videos (If you don’t currently have them on DVD, I encourage you to start transferring them. It makes viewing so much easier and more convenient.)

3. Snacks for viewing – Get your favorite treat or a big tub of popcorn to share withe the whole family.

4. Set a date – If you set a day that you are going to have your Memory Night, it’s more likely to happen. Mark it on the calendar and make sure to tell the whole family!

What is your favorite family memory you’ve caught on video that you’d like to watch for a Family Memory Night?

Tiffany Snedaker is the author of Babes and Kids Review, a product review, parenting, food and health blog. She is married with two boys, ages 5 and 7. She loves blogging, running marathons, shopping and works part time as an ultrasound technologist.