Edition #134 – 8/17/2007
It’s my pleasure to announce that the first episode of The Next Internet Millionaire is now online!
As you may know, Joel Comm and I have been working on this for some time, and it’s been an incredible journey already.
I’ve been working on the project since the beginning of the year, and now eight months later we have something to show for it.
I am very proud of all the people who have contributed to the show in so many ways, and it wouldn’t have happened without our production crew and everyone else who has put in a ridiculous amount of hours to turn our concept into a reality.
For those of you who have been waiting, sorry it’s a day late! Being pioneers in this realm means we are facing some challenges as we chase the bleeding edge of web video technology. It was a bit of a shame to take the 10GB High Definition version of the episode and compress it down to 163MB for the web, but I think you’ll find it to be among the best videos the world has ever seen produced exclusively for the internet.
You can watch the show at:
I would be honored if you took the time to check it out, and I would love to hear your comments about it (good or bad).
As always you can post your comments here on the blog.
Have a great day!
A blatant ripoff of The Apprentice and Survivor. Wow… how wonderful.
Eric,
The 1st episode is fantastic!
Highly professional and
intriguing. Really
pulls you into the story.
I can’t wait to see the next episode 🙂
Have a great day Eric.
Kimberly
So Eric, when was the last time you got any sleep? 🙂 Sorry to hear about the delays in the Macs and final rendering.
But… Suprt nice work on the first episode. I really enjoyed it.
The pace was good. The production quality and scoring was fantastic. You have to feel for the contestants, having to hit the ground running is tough. But they did a very good job.
Having been a Simple-ology user now since March and seeing the impact it has had on my moving faster to my goals, it was great to see the first Speaker as Mark Joyner. What a bonus.
I am glad though that I didn’t have to struggle through the challenge.
Can’t wait for the next episode. Way to go!
Now go get some sleep before having to get cranking on the next episode 🙂
All the best,
Harry
I can say that production is really professional and it is entertaining for first couple of minutes.
But after that it becames boring and I do not see much of eductional value in it either.
Less info for making money than in seminar recordings and it is way to long to watch end have fun (unless you are reality show freak)
Really diffucult to find purpose of it. Maybe if somebody like reality shows it would be fun for them but other that that I think this project does not have much value for watcher.
It may have good value for you and Joel as producers to brake in to real TV but for people watching nothing really.
You asked for honest comment and this is my honest.
John
This is straight clone of The Apprentice. Nothing creative there. Just steal somebody elses concept and run with it.
This is like sitestealer.com just for show. I would call it showstealer.com.
I know it is hard to read this after putting so much effor in it. I am sorry but this is what it is.
The whole thing sounds like it will be a great show. It is not my ‘cup of tea’ but go for it and the best of luck to all.
I like Joel Comm and Eric. I subscribe to both. I have used a lot of what I have read from both of you.
Thank you
Deniece
Just finished watching the first episode. Fabulous show! It was extremely fun to watch and entertaining. The production quality is superb. You have all worked very hard to produce such a high quality show on the web. Congratulations to everyone involved. I’ve been learning a little about video and putting some up on the web at different hosting sites. It ain’t always easy to say the least. I look forward to next week’s episode.
Cheers,
Robin
Everyone involved should be heartily congratulated, I would have enjoyed it more if I could have HEARD it better. I received too much background noise. Otherwise top-notch and right on TIME!
If the bad sound quality was because of my system, I would like to know. So please respond if you had good sound reception.
Ken
Hi Eric:
You and your entire team have done an OUTSTANDING job putting together this series!
I’ve produced and directed a number of large scale video productions and no one can understanding the amount of work and effort, AND the number of “unknowns” that come up at the last minute, no matter how much you prepare.
Outstanding work and a fun and entertaining series to watch!
i’m looking forward to the next edition.
Phil
P.S. Ken, my sound (and picture) were fine, although I am on a broadband connection in the States.
I agree with most of the positive comments. I think the Apprentice rip off factor made it attractive to me since I know what to expect. For an internet audience though I think the format is too long. I think 20 – 30 minutes would be a better format.
I applaud all of you for having the guts to do this at all, it is very pioneering.
Lillian
Hi; Don’t watch much TV, so I don’t know about the knockoffs ,but your production was great. The two teams had great pressure to do the job and it showed in the presentations. More power to each person in the group.
Hello Eric and Joel:
First and foremost. This is labor of love! We can see that! 🙂
Thanks for making the show! I wish you great success with it!
I highly recommend that you take all of your inner circle to look at the first two minutes of this show and pick at every piece to make sure it is as perfect as it can be. ( Sure where were you Dexter at 3:00AM while it was being edited! )
I personally went through it second by second for those first couple of minutes and took notes on what I liked and did not like. You are the website optimization experts, so not doubt part of your optimization of this video is to test for audience reaction. Rather than drop all these details here.. I would say primarily “GREAT JOB”
Every show does a little bit of re-editing after mass audience sees it. I think you may find after review you may make some tweaks to increase average audience understanding of the show, some audio mixing tweaks to enhance Joel’s voice over the background and perhaps change the supporting text sections to further identify the contestants etc.
The primary thing is … The ship is launched! Not in dry-dock! Congrats!
Regards,
Dexter
http://www.GetDexter.com
I have to agree, the concept on a whole is fantastic. But I did not feel a single bit more informed on internet marketing. As far as the drama…I can get that at the dinner table. You have a monster on your hands with power…..but you are making no impact. I was contemplating buying a .TV domain at end…so I checked out some domains and videos. No where did I see any Monetization. No where did I see you teaching people how to make money with the concept. I have a new website at
http://www.apply-for-a-credit-card-today.com
but I was not sure if a .TV domain will translate or convert well for that niche. If only somewhere in the sites someone was explaining cool ways to make money this way. Of course I will now do my own homework but I had my own credit card out and ready to fire. But all I got was a little entertainment.
Im sure you guys will Evolve and Ill be waiting when you do!
Very profeesionall done, but that is not enough.
How about an original idea. I watched it for about 5 minutes, and that was enough for me.
Have seen it dressed up several ways, all done in ways that you folk will never be able to top, unless you are willing to spend some of those millions the boss claims to have earned.
The only thing I am curious about is what you are going to sell. The TV producers sell huge amounts of dollars in advertising – enough to pay for the prize, and to make expenses as well as a profit. They can do this because they capture a prime time audience of billions of watchers worldwide on a TV network show.
Perhaps D. Trump shlould MC. It is a precise knock off of his own earlier shows where he developed young businesess execs – not internet marketers.
If, in fact, you are actually pitching a show you have sold to a TV network, or are trying to sell to a network, then it makes some sense – although I, for one, won’t be tuned in. Not my thing.
I’m sorry I wasted any time watching a boring show. Reality shows in general
are vastly overrated and over-sensationalized. Much too-insulting to the
average intelligence and demeaning to the contestants.
No more for me.
Somewhat entertaining but completely useless.
There is no way how anyone can learn anything from this.
This is cut/cut and cut so there is not any real information giving.
This is just another dinner table time waister.
Those 51 minutes should be spend on doing action on learning something.
I am really disappointed. All that time I was expecting that I will learn something from it but instead this is just another reality show for my wife to watch with one eye doing kitchen chores.
Eric and Joel,
Can’t wait until the next episode. I’m eager to see who comes through as the victor of the next challenge. This show is entertaining as well as educational!
Excellent and professional production!
You are both to be commended!
BRAVO!
Very well done! I don’t watch much television, but this was something I would look forward to seeing. Keep up the good work. As for the teaching how to monetize…you showed it instead of told it. You had sponsors, and the projects the teams worked on obviously monetized the show. And that’s the way more marketers need to start thinking. No more hitting people over the head with a spoon-fed version of “click here to make money” Frankly, anyone looking for basic nuts and bolts information should buy any one of a thousand ebooks. For education, read a book, for entertainment watch a reality show!
So Eric, I recommend that you don’t even bother trying to be all things to all people. You will always have naysayers if you are on the cutting edge. Remember, they don’t push the envelope -they lament because no one gave them free stamps!
-Sabrina
I don;t watch tv so this looks cool and fun keep the camera rolling . congrats to everyone on your opening and all your hard work . cheers
Looking forward to next week! As a beginner I did learn a few things – not really practical techniques but rather new names and vocabulary to research for myself. I thought it was a bit long but I’m sure there’s SO MUCH more you wish you could have included. You did a great job highlighting the personalities of the challengers, and the name “COMMplex” gave me a laugh! Want to see more.
I couldn’t ever get it to load…I tried several times and left it loading for over 5 minutes to go do something else…still trying to load.
Eric,
I had not heard from you in a while, now I see why. Wonderful, fantastic, repeat success and win excellent idea, educational, and that is from a 49 year old online Kaplan student. This is the kind of material presented in college learning, yes boring to some, brillant to others. Keep up the great work Eric. I see if you set your mind to do anything, it can be done. You have my attention!
Repeat success, this is important, find someone who is successful and repeat what they are doing. Sell on a street corner, open a retail shop, advertise, talk shows, game shows, soap operas, millions of newspapers, magazines, and many more ideas; please tell me one person who does not use someone else’s ideas everyday to succeed.
Eric, if I did not repeat what I learned in school, college, watching television, listening to radio, or on the internet I would not do much!
You a maze me with all the back lashing you receive; you just keep on ticking.
Just for the fun of it make you words sound like music to others ears!
🙂
Well. I came here to comment on the show, but after reading the other comments I feel I must comment on them!
I got what I expected from this first episode of the show. I did not expect to be taught, I expected to be entertained. I was. I did not expect all my problems to be solved, I expected to be entertained. I was. I expected to view a well-produced reality/elimination show. I did. I will tune in to the next one.
My only critiques of the production are minor: The music was too constant and was distracting in places, in my opinion. Also, the graphics of the contestant’s names under their images as they spoke took just a bit too long to finish. I couldn’t read their names as they spoke them and had to wait for the animation to quit and by that time I was not focused on what they were saying. Just a bit distracting. Minor stuff, indeed.
It’s obvious to me that LOTS of time and effort and talent went into this and I commend everyone involved. Congratulations to all involved.
Can’t wait to see the next one!
Quinn
Eric,
It is really cool. Sucked me in .. had to watch it all. Very well done.
Day one outcome was very interesting, “sandbox” and all.
Will definitely be looking forward to ‘next episode’.
Ray
Eric
You forget the cardinal rule of marketing.
‘Optimize for Dial Up, cause over half the world is still on it.’
Being a muso, I have proved time and time again on youtube, that it’s not the quality of the sound or vision, it’s the quality of the Content.
So if you wanna leave over half the money on the table and disenfranchise the greater part of your audience, just keep doin’ what your doin’.
At 100k per minute whats the use of trying to access something that’s going to take 1,630 minutes (27 hours) just to see if it’s any good.
See ya.
Cheers Pete
I had a great time watching the process of Day One unfold, and feeling the tension mount in the contestants. Makes me ask—– how do I compete to take part in the next go-around…..cuz you gotta have a next go-around,
and this is my idea of some real fun!
Giving the video a good critical eye, I do think you spent too much footage on the Judgment Room process, at the expense of not showing enough detail from the day that explains the judgments being rendered. You showed some, but not enough. A matter of tighter editing, with a certain logic.
I am looking forward to Day Two——-thank you so much for this!
Well well ..
First of all, welcome back, Eric.
The happiness you are back ( http://five4all.com/blog-wrestling-%c2%a9/ ) is shadowed a bit.
I was really hard times finding your site-blog un-updated for so long and no emails from you ..
Sure, video is high proffesional made, a lot of money were spended there for all stuff in, yet ..
Something is not quite on the line.
I know, or at least I want to belive that, you prize more the truth and sincerity then nice-warm-tickling words.
I registred into this at very begining but I gave up soon after, saying to myself to respect one of my ways – never buy something at first time hit the market. That would be translated in many ways, including that that if something is really good, stil can be improved while cheaper, on second edition. Examples : cars, computers, softwares, anything. After hitting the market, feedback force producers to make a better one for future. Or simply forget that product.
Sorry to say, but “hacker safe” t-shirt I would have won for ever from first day. Well, it would happen if “judges” would have been programed to prize new-unespected-out of the box things.
Alas, bringing MJ have made me sure that there is no need for someone ready to make things different.
Remember the “2 points, stright line” on that table ?
the shortest way between those 2 points was NOT a line going from left point to right pointed to right point. But left-point to left and out of table, continued from far right edge to the right point.
I bet I would have done that there, MJ would probably need a hearth doctor.
In conclusion, as have been said allready, nothing new, lot of “inspiration” from other places (I don`t want to say rip-off or steal because you and Joell have play the cards on a allready success recipe, which, considering the money involved, is normal.). Yet, NOTHING original.
Btw, the woman representing Hacker-safe .. I have lot of imagination but sure I coulnd`t find or think to a person whorst than she. If I`ll “see” hacker-safe is run by people similar with her, I would NOT trust that anymore. She ruin all image, for both TNM and HS.
Finaly, I`m happy I didn`t run for that contest and I`ll stick to read you here, where you are great.
Hope you`ll be back full time here soon, Eric.
Im checking it out now
Hi Eric,
The final product looked really good and was much more polished than I expected. So, great job on that. Having worked on a film last year, I can appreciate what it took to do this and make it look as good as it does on the web.
I agree with the posts saying they didn’t learn anything. Now you don’t need to teach anything if the end goal is to entertain. But if there’s lessons to be learned here, then I would recommend tighter editing of the decision room conversations and maybe have Joel or that week’s guest do a brief overview or review that could be a vice-over atop the closing credits or any number of other ways.
A couple questions:
1. Did you guys lose a sponsor midway through this? I noticed the laptops/prizes were digitally smudged, so I assume either that prize sponsor was lost or there never was one and you weren’t going to give free product placement to them. It’s not important but it just got my curiousity up.
2. Joel refers to the Bullseye team guy from Costa Rica (sorry, don’t recall his name) sittin down and interviewing Mark Joyner but we never saw even a small clip of that. With that much emphasis placed on it in the decision room, I would’ve wanted to see some excerpts from that conversation, especially when it’s Mark Joyner.
Overall, I think you’re off to a good start and with some fine tuning this could become great.
Good luck! I’ll try to keep “tuning” in for the next episodes.
Best,
Michael
Wow! Eric(coolest dude on the net) you asked for it and I guess you got it huh?
Anyway GREAT job and well done I am sure. I am still downloading the thing and oh yeah Pete it only takes 8 hours give or take to download and I am on a slow isp that only allows 5.1 max throughput.
To all of the above that only complain, Go ahead and do it. That’s what it’s all about. I am sure Eric will learn from it.
Hello Eric.
I have just watched the first episode and I am very impressed.
I am a big fan of reality TV shows, like Australian/American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, The Great Race, etc., mainly for their ‘entertainment’ value.
THIS program presented by Joel, is more ‘believable’ for me, because Internet Marketing is what I am involved with on a daily basis. Because I can’t sing or dance, etc., those shows are. like I have already said, just for entertainment value only. YOUR show, however, has meaning and has tangible value, as I can learn from Joel, the participants, from Mark Joyner and the other presenters that will appear in future shows, just from watching AND be entertained at the same time.
I have already picked the winner, but I won’t mention who right now.
Anyway, Eric, GREAT idea, GREAT program, GREAT presentation by Joel, and I look forward to seeing every episode and watching MY choice go all the way and become, The Next Internet Millionaire. They will get my TOTAL support, now and forever!
Ignore the comments of the ‘woe is me’ type people who have already posted their useless comments here. They will NEVER amount to much on the Internet, so don’t let their negativity spoil what YOU have achieved in getting this program up and running and presented to those who have a TRUE interest in the Internet and in Internet Marketing.
Kind regards,
John
Joel and Eric,
Here’s the report card I’ve given you in two categories:
A. Entertainment Value: A
You two did an awesome job of producing the first episode with plenty of Hollywood flair and have captured my “Curiosity Factor” to perhaps commit another 50 minutes to see the next episode. However,
B. Business Value: C-
I didn’t get any value from having spent 50+ minutes watching the first episode. I was hoping to learn something of value in Internet Marketing that I can apply to my business, but I was really disappointed to be honest.
In order for me (and many others who have posted on this blog) to consider watching the follow on episodes, I highly recommend that you put out a “honey pot” to reel in some of the audience who have lost interest in this event; that is, give us a preview of upcoming successful marketers who will teach us something “real” that we can put to good use to make money.
Good show. Shame their is some background noise in some of the COMMplex scenes. But well done, really a quality show, with a very professional seeming production.
I had a super time watching it and I was disappointed it was over so soon. I never expected to get some education out of it. It was just a show to me nothing else. I can’t wait for the next segment. I wish more marketers would come up with similar ideas to help others to become successful on the internet. Keep it up!
Well this was better than I expected it was going to be, presentation wise that is, quite an enjoyable rip-off of the Apprentice, and the JC and MJ came across well. I did not really learn anything about internet marketing though. People were judged on their presentation skills, leadership and team working skills, the ideas that they had come up with for the landing page were not discussed. In that I was really disappointed.
On reflection perhaps the only thing I learnt was the value of Rico interviewing Mark Joyner (although as someone said that was not shown), finding out from the site owner what turns people off buying – in this case Rico reported that ‘trust’ was the biggest issue, and I think that team had the idea of putting the ‘hacker safe’ logo on the site (lucky that their leader had won the membership earlier).
Considering that I spent 51 minutes watching this just for one tip about IM is disappointing, leave the dissection of general business skillss to the TV reality shows and focus more on stuff that is specific to IM, although I realise there is some cross-over we can get that elsewhere.
It probably works well as a lead generater for Simpleology and HackerSafe though! $25,000 prize money seems meagre when you think of the extra sales those guys could make through taking part in this.
Hey Eric!
I like the show, it was definitely entertaining and funny at times! You selected a great mix of contestants!
The editing, format, layout, order, and transitions were all professional and the show flowed really well. I could only imagine what it took to sort through the hours of footage to put it all together.
My only improvement/suggestion is that I would of liked to have seen a bit more of Mark Joyner’s training and presentation, but I know the show is only an hour long. Perhaps you can release all the shows on DVD at the end of the season and include it as a bonus feature. 🙂
I look forward to seeing Armand speak in the next episode and I think you did a good job showcasing the contestants, I’m getting drawn in to the drama. 🙂
Excellent job Eric (and Micah)!
Why is the release date of the next episode not being posted somewhere? I think you will lose audience if you don’t let people know.
Hi all,
Thank you very much for the comments. I see that some of my own readers are my toughest critics, but I suppose I wouldn’t expect anything less (after all, I asked for it!) .
It seems like every complaint I’ve seen is lumped into one of three categories, so I’ll address those briefly…
1) I ripped off the Apprentice, Survivor, etc….
OK, while it’s flattering to be compared to arguably the greatest reality show of all time (Survivor), I don’t see how anyone who has watched both Survivor and our show would come to that conclusion. As for the Apprentice – yes there are definitely some parallels (in the planning phase I would often compare and contrast the concept of our show to the Apprentice for people who did not understand our concept, but were familiar with the Apprentice). Again while it’s a great honor that anyone would view our show in the same light as Mark Burnett’s masterpieces, I think it’s a gross exaggeration to call it a rip off. On top of all the original aspects we brought to the show, I’d point out that one fundamental difference between TNIM and the Apprentice is that our contestants are competing for an online business venture, not a J-O-B 🙂
2) Not enough educational content
My primary objective for the show is entertainment, and education is secondary. If the primary goal was to educate, then the show would not be needed. We could have just done a teacher series. That said, I want viewers to learn something from each show. The degree to which you learn something is obviously going to be somewhat dependant on how much you already know about internet marketing. For the general public who don’t know anything about IM, everything will be new.
3) The _________ (insert production attribute here, ie. sound) quality is not too good
Our production team learned a lot, and we did our best with the resources we had. Although we spent what would be a small fortune for many people, its a very low budget in the entertainment world. We adapted and improved the quality of some of our production areas as time went on, and I expect to see some improvement in the audio/video over the first few episodes.
Thank you to all who have left your compliments about the show, and to all who have blogged about it, posted about it, told friends about it, etc.
Warmly-
Eric
PS– Peggy, we will be posting the release dates soon. We just want to really pin down the production schedule, because so many of you gave me flack about getting the first episode out a day late 😉
Hi Eric
I’ve only just watched the show, I’m on broadband and it loaded up fine.
I agree with the critics but would say that I think the idea of the Show is a good one and came across quite well. Whilst entertainment may have been your motivation – I think you will find that your audience consisting mainly of internet marketers were hoping to be entertained AND Learn something about internet marketing (otherwise what is the point- they might as well have watched something of their own choice to be entertained, like a film on TV).
I will look forward to watching the next episode if only to see if the comments that have been posted have been taken into account – or just ignored!
regards to you and Joel
Graham
Hi Eric,
I think you did a great job.
I was really entertained.
How many episodes will be there altogether?
Keep it up dude.
Your friend,
Koorosh
http://www.hiddenmindsecrets.com
I just saw episode 2 and I had to trace who the production team was, coz it’s a really good job. A very high quality production in terms of shooting and editing. I’m a fan of Joel Comm and internet marketing. Keep up the good work, though I would like to see more internet marketing tips in the show and a shorter “execution room” scene.
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