BlooperBox – The Internet’s Funniest Home Videos Contest

5 thoughts on “BlooperBox – The Internet’s Funniest Home Videos Contest”

1. Visit https://blooperbox.com/ – What is your initial impression of the site? Are you immediately drawn to vote for a video and sign up? Why or why not?
   Seems like a fun idea, but there’s not enough information to make an educated decision based on the homepage. I have a bunch of questions and they aren’t answered.  I’m certainly not “drawn” to sign up, maybe I would consider it, but I dont feel compelled. What kind of videos are okay? What’s off limits? Are there prizes, publicity, a chance to script-write for a comedy company? Who is judging? How many times can they vote? Is it a popularity contest? Do people have profile pages with all their videos? Do they have to be original? Can I vote for more than one?

   Watch one of the videos in the current contest. Did you find it entertaining? Was it clear that you’re supposed to vote for your favorite funny video?
   I dont think everyone will take the time to watch each one and then vote fairly; they’ll watch until they laugh and then vote that one. It’s clear that we vote for our favorite, yes. I watched a few. One was alright. A few were as bland as could be. It was like watching slips of America’s Funniest Home videos that never made it into the show. I did not find this entertaining or interesting at all.

   Are you encouraged to sign up for a free trial/free account? If not, why?
   No. It doesn’t seem like you have a good membership base. By this, I mean that your contributors aren’t providing you with good material. Either that, or (as I just noticed) your staff is not equipped to select appealing videos for people to vote on.

   How do you think the site compares to other similar sites/competitors like break.com and collegehumor.com?
   I dont think you could reasonably compare a site like college humor to this one. They are well-established and well-read, and you’re just starting out. There’s no personality on your site, no interaction or text to accompany videos.

   Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have.
   If you want to build a membership, you need to communicate with your audience. Write blurbs to go with each video. Set them up, and leave a reader curious to watch it. Sell the video. Make the site fun. Have a blog or a chat room or something to attract a community, even a small one. There needs to be more interaction. Give some kind of special award to winners of more than one video contest, and make sure to recognize them on the site. Give the best contributors a reason to come back and keep giving you new and better material. Make it more clear as to what kind of videos are acceptable. I would start putting up/encouraging a wider variety of material to attract a more diverse sense of humor and contributions. I would get the community involved in choosing the best vids for each contest. I cant help but wonder how much good material isnt chosen because you have one or two judges with the same sense of humor/taste. Rotate judges if possible, or have more than one or two.  Redo the front page to make the ideas more apparent to first time visitors. The landing page feels like the “Get Started” page instead of the home page. Leave at least a small blurb to sell the idea and how anyone can contribute right off the bat. Invite people to submit a video as soon as they reach the site, in text, and plain as day.
   Hope that helps
    
   -W-

2. W,

   First of all, thank you for taking the time to thoroughly respond to our start-up.  My name is Brad and I am one of the founders of BlooperBox.  We have really taken a lot of your feedback to heart and we went back to the drawing board to increase usability, mainly how we present the concept.

   As you stare at something for a few months during the development process, you get used to where things are located and how to navigate so it’s easy to lose track of the first-time user perspective.  Thank you for the slap in the face :), we needed it.  If you take a look now, you might notice the subtle, but important updates that are meant to be more of a guide to the user.  Example: the homepage now has a few sentences describing BlooperBox and what the visiting user should do.  We have added an “in this video” intro text that we can toy with to lead the user into the video. The most important update in my opinion is the addition of the one-click voting. People can now vote by simply entering their email and clicking vote whereas before they needed to completely register (username, email and password).

   Regarding the content, you mention that some of our videos seem like the rejects that didn’t make America’s Funniest Home Videos.  While they might not be worthy of successfully syndicated television show that has aired for over 20 years, we deem them worthy of our start-up.  We have built a solid collection of videos that are funny, original and have yet to be seen by most people because we simply had to start somewhere.  Our goal is to attract better videos and now that we have something tangible to show people (if a website can be tangible), we can increase only hope to be viewed as more legitimate and worthy for someone to upload their funny video with us.  I’m sure you’ve heard someone say, “Oh, I wish I was recording that so I could send it to America’s Funniest Home Videos.”  We want that same mentality with BlooperBox, but it will take time and constant feedback from people like you.

   Again, we thank you for taking the time to answer our questions as we believe was in earnest. I’d love to hear more thoughts as well, please do not hesitate to reach out to us.

   ~ brad hogan

3. Visit https://blooperbox.com/ – What is your initial impression of the site? Are you immediately drawn to vote for a video and sign up? Why or why not?
   My initial impression of this site was that it is just like YouTube. However, I was immediately drawn to a video to watch because you have some right on the homepage.

   Watch one of the videos in the current contest. Did you find it entertaining? Was it clear that you’re supposed to vote for your favorite funny video?
   
   I watched one of the videos. It was about a child that throws up in the end. I didn’t really find that too humorous. Some people might find that funny, but I did not. Yes it was clear to vote in the end, but I didn’t vote.
   

   Are you encouraged to sign up for a free trial/free account? If not, why?
   No, not really. If I can just watch the videos with out signing up, what is the point? It’s just another username and password to remember.
   

   How do you think the site compares to other similar sites/competitors like break.com and collegehumor.com?
   It’s a lot alike. The user interface is different but the concept is the same. I like the $50 prize though.
   Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have.

4. @lindsayrae1989

   Thank you for taking the time to look at our start-up and especially for providing constructive criticism.  We are constantly looking to improve the user experience so that we can increase usability.  

   Regarding your feedback about being encouraged to sign up.  We have taken this into account recently and done an overhaul of the site.  I would love to have your opinion of the new set up if you have a few minutes to take a look.  The goal now is for a user to watch one video and then “unlock” the other funny videos by providing their email.  Example > https://www.blooperbox.com/video-view.php?vid=267

   Outside of that, we hope to differentiate ourselves from huge sites like YouTube and CollegeHumor because we offer money to the winners of our contests rather than just another website for them to upload a video to.  I’d love more feedback regarding these issues and more, cheers!

   Brad, co-founder

5. Hi Brad,
    
   Glad I could be of help! I’ll have to check out the site again. I agree that the quality of videos is a good place to start, and will admit that I didn’t watch a large number of them. I think it’s possible that you may be able to put yourself out there as a resource for aspiring filmmakers to gain exposure, and if you can get that rep going, you may find exponential growth there. Who knows?
    
   -Will-

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