HOW TO: Start Your Own Internet Talk Show

The accessibility of video is a big reason why Internet talk shows are trending. Though talk shows hail from the muscle-car-and-milkshake days of the 1950s, our modern explosion of computer and Internet technology hasn’t rendered them old-fashioned. In fact, 2010’s man-of-the-Internet himself is a talk show host. (We’re with you, Coco!).

Twitter has created a culture in which people expect two-way dialog between everyone: friends, strangers, and even celebrities. Video is the ultimate online two-way interaction, and every day computer scientists are making bits and bytes travel faster and faster, and video is becoming more accessible.

Do you fancy yourself a budding talk show personality? With a few inexpensive tools and a bit of planning, you can launch your own web show. Here’s how to get it done (no orange hair dye required).

Select a Topic

Passion is the most important ingredient in a good talk show. Brainstorm ideas you are fanatical about. Even if you’re not going to be the host, you won’t want to produce a show week after week about something you don’t care about. You’ll get burnt out.

That’s why Gary Vaynerchuk, probably the web’s biggest talk show celebrity, is so successful with WineLibrary.tv. The guy loves wine.

The Internet will one day eclipse television, and old media is notoriously bad at making tech transfers. So don’t worry if a similar program exists in the “real world.” You can establish an Internet audience in as big or small of a niche as you want. There’s no way A&E will put a Sword Swallowers Weekly talk show on cable, but you can collect all the knife-eating carnies on the web together with relatively little effort and hopefully make a name for yourself while you’re at it.

Select Your Tech

You don’t need a camera crew, boom mics, or backdrop curtains that look like New York City to host a show. You can start small with what’s built in to nearly every new computer: a webcam. A popular way to do this is through a free video streaming platform like Ustream.tv.

One of the best platforms I’ve seen for hosting a webcam-based talk show is Vokle.com. It allows you to host a one-way show like Ustream, but it also lets you host webcam “callers” with video questions, split the screen between two speakers, and throw questions up on the screen alongside a speaker; this is perfect for interviewing guests and letting viewers interact with them.

“You can take live video questions from the audience and keep them engaged vs. becoming background noise in a sea of browser tabs,” says Vokle CEO Robert Kiraz. “Hosts and co-hosts can easily click to broadcast callers from a queue of submitted video questions. When they’re done with the caller, all they do is click again to drop it. The video caller then returns to the text chat ether.”

Here’s an edited recap of a Vokle show I recently appeared on, called TechBuzz:

Yes, that’s my kitchen, and yes, those are ferrets.

Perhaps the biggest up-and-comer in talk shows is ThisWeekIn. Entrepreneur and investor Jason Calacanis, founder of Mahalo, started the show ThisWeekInStartups in 2009 and subsequently grew it to a network of 20 shows, with topics ranging from YouTube to Mad Men. Calacanis’ format includes news, interviews and audience interactive segments, and he broadcasts through Ustream.

ThisWeekIn is an example of a show that has ramped up its tech as its audience and aspirations have grown. Whereas you can always run your show with free software and a webcam, you can work your way up to a nice studio for a pretty light budget.

From Sony XR-500V cameras to a NewTek Tricaster video switcher, ThisWeekIn has a professional studio setup that could be easy to duplicate if you have a budget. Here’s a full breakdown on their equipment.

Select Your Guests

Don’t be afraid to shoot for the stars as far as guests go. These days, you can contact anyone via Twitter, and you’d be surprised how easy it is to get in touch with a celebrity in any industry.

Choose people who are compelling and spontaneous. Your talk show should feature interesting people who your viewers would like to meet. Also, notable guests will bring their fans along with them.

One important note: Practice with your guests before you go on the show. This can help both with questions and important tech considerations. When I appeared on TechBuzz, we determined in practice that I needed to switch from Wi-Fi to a plugged in ethernet cord in order to cut my lag down from eight seconds to one. The show would have been ruined otherwise.

Distribute

Ping.fm and TubeMogul are your best friends when it comes to blasting your video across the web. These and similar sites can publish your talk show immediately across all the big video destinations.

But remember: Embed a watermark or mention your site URL frequently so the audience comes back to you, not just to video providers like YouTube.

Kiraz says, “It’s important for hosts to embed their show on as many third-party sites as possible. Since each site has its own unique community, embedding a figurative ‘doorway’ to an event can enable the host to see their viewer count increase, meet new audience members, and expand their fanbase.”

He continues: “Form relationships with a network of relevant blogs that are looking for content, and simply ask them to embed your show! It’s a great way to form relationships with other bloggers and their communities, and [it] provides the blogger with live content on a recurring basis.”

For a good step-by-step on how to market your talk show, it’s worth buying a copy of Vaynerchuk’s book, Crush It. Skip to the last few pages for a useful checklist.

Cash In

This is the part where you become instantly rich and get invited to host the MTV Awards.

In seriousness, unless you’re living off of a giant inheritance, you’ll eventually need to monetize your show in order to keep it going. If you have an audience, you’ll be able to turn your time — and your show — into money.

ThisWeekIn announces its sponsors several times a show, in a way that’s not annoying but that also sticks in your head. (I sometimes go to bed with Jason’s voice chanting “DNAMail, DNAMail, everyone loves DNAMail.”) If on-air sponsors aren’t your thing, integrate your show with a destination site where you can host post-show interaction and make money from display advertisements.

Go, Go, Go!

If you’re passionate about something and want to make a web talk show about it, the best thing you can do is stop putting it off and do it. It can be free, and now you have the instructions. Grow that beard, part that orange hair, and make it happen!

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Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Graffizone

More About: business, internet, interview, Live Stream, monetization, ping.fm, small business, talk show, talkshow, techbuzz, tubemogul, ustream, video, video ads, vokle, web video, youtube

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