Archive for the ‘tour’ Category

  • The Poptent Tour Part 5: Using Search

    Posted by Mark Schoneveld on November 14th, 2008. Categories: FAQ, features, poptent, tour | No Comments »

    The main architecture of Poptent is built upon Search. Whenever you want to see something new, or find something old, chances are you’ll start with Search.

    Say, for example, you’re working on a video project for an Assignment on Poptent and you’d like to find an editor in your area to collaborate with you. Search for ‘Creators‘ then refine your search to your area:

    The search results will bring up a list of Creators in your geographic location.

    Look at the summary of information in each listing. Below, you will see my listing. I come up in that search because I’ve told Poptent I live in Philadelphia and that one of my skills is Editing.

    If you’re curious to see what kind of work I do as an editor, there’s a drawer on my summary that shows quick links to my media. Hover over any of those thumbnails and you’ll get even more information. Click them to go watch them.

    Now, say you’re really needing some good music for your video, but you’re not much of a musician. No problem, there are lots of musicians here on Poptent. First click ‘Media‘ in the drop-down menu, then click Search.

    After you get results, filter them down by Media Type and you’ll pull up all the audio files on Poptent. (By the way, check out our awesome new music player!)

    Lastly, if you’d like to check back on a particular search result you can create a ‘permalink‘ by clicking that cool orange thumbtack. Use that link on your blog or to send those results to a friend.

    Be sure to read the rest of the Poptent Tour posts here on our blog! We’re rolling out new tools and features all the time so stay tuned here and we’ll keep you up to date.

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  • The Poptent Tour Part 4: Importing YouTube Videos

    Posted by Mark Schoneveld on November 10th, 2008. Categories: poptent, tour | 1 Comment »

    We’re launching new features all the time on Poptent because we’ve got big plans and dreams to be a super useful platform for your independent video business. One cool tool we just launched last week is a new favorite of mine: the ability to import media from other sites you already use.

    If you click the new Account Settings link at the top right of the page when you’re logged in, the following dialogue box will pop up and you’ll be able to make changes to your account. Easy!

    One of the first sites we wanted to give you ability to import from is your YouTube Channel. Got a great video you made that your clients and Poptent friends should see in your commercial portfolio? Don’t re-upload it, just let us import it from where it lives on YouTube.

    As you see above, you can also currently import items from your blog and your Twitter account to Poptent.

    To add a video from YouTube, all you have to do it tell Poptent where to look for your videos, then tag the videos you want imported with the word ‘poptent’.

    Voila! They will magically appear in your media library.

    The other things you can do in Account Settings are pretty straight forward, but important. We have granular control over what email notifications you’d like to receive under the “Notifications” tab.

    On Poptent, people will sometimes add you as a credit, ask you to join a discussion or invite you to a project/group/team. If they don’t already know you’re on Poptent, they might invite you via email. To be sure we don’t double up on you and that they find you, you can also associate more than one email address to your account.

    Don’t worry, we won’t expose your address, it’s only for our servers to know you’re a part of the system when someone invites you.

    Be sure to check out all of my Poptent Tour posts here!

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  • The Poptent Tour Part 3: Assignments

    Posted by Mark Schoneveld on October 14th, 2008. Categories: FAQ, poptent, tour | No Comments »

    So you’d like to make some money on Poptent and join up a commercial assignment. Great! Let me walk you through how to do that.

    First, from the homepage, you’ll see a button called “Show Me”:

    When you click it, you’ll see a range of different things you can jump to. Click on ‘Assignments’:

    That will bring you to a page with all current assignments. Browse through them until you’ve found one you want to check out. When you’re on the Assignment’s landing page, you’ll see a button at the top of the yellow box that says “Accept”. [Important: accepting an assignment does not mean you actually must enter it, it just means you've accepted the Terms and Conditions and can browse the material in depth as well as join the assignment's discussion thread.]

    Once you’ve accepted the assignment, watch the introduction video, then download the Creative Brief which will give you all the details of what the brand is looking for in your videos. People who read the Creative Brief most carefully have their videos purchased far more often than those who don’t, so be sure to go over it closely.

    When you’re ready to start making your video, you can download the assets you’ll need by clicking the Download link of each asset, or by downloading the asset directly from the asset page. Want a still image? Just need video? You can filter the assets by type by choosing an option in the drop down menu in the lower left. Or, click on the “See all…” link to view a list of all the assets in the tray.

    If you’re looking for more information or you’d like to check out who else is working on an assignment, click the Creators tab. That bin will show you everyone who’s accepted so far.

    And finally, if you have further questions or you’d like to discuss ideas or problems, follow the link to the Town Hall discussion and see what’s being talked about there.

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  • The Poptent Tour Part 2: Video Controls

    Posted by Mark Schoneveld on October 13th, 2008. Categories: poptent, tour | No Comments »

    When you upload media to Poptent, you’ll notice several buttons just below the video when you’re signed in. We’re hoping you find them useful. Let me explain what each of them do.


    The first button you see from left to right is the ‘Share’ button. Simply, this allows you to send this media to another Poptent community member directly, email it to someone outside of Poptent, or grab the permalink to the media’s page. Remember, if you want to embed a Poptent video to your About Me section or your blog for example, all you have to do is hit play, then click the “< / >” button to copy the code to your clipboard.


    The ‘Submit’ button is an important one as it allows you to enter an assignment with that piece of media. If you don’t see any items in that drop down menu, it probably means you haven’t Accepted the assignment, which you’ll need to do before you can submit to it.


    The little mountains icon is where you can choose the thumbnail for your video. This is the image that will appear before a video gets played. Obviously, videos with catchy thumbnails are more likely to get watched. You can pick one from the video, or you can always upload your own as well. Your choice. But be sure it’s something eye-grabbing.


    The ‘Versions’ button is perhaps one of my favorite features. This allows you to upload a different version of the same video without having to redo all the meta data like tags and titles.

    This will be a powerful tool for you to use when working on projects. Imagine uploading a rough cut of a video to send to your friend. Once you work out some changes, just upload your new version. Then, by clicking the check mark, you can watch either version, giving you the ability to compare and contrast your work.


    The wrench icon allows you to change the privacy settings for your media. You can also allow or block downloading of your original source file which can be handy if you’re collaborating on a project with friends in distant places. In the example above, you might not want the world to see your rough cut. Keep your video private, and change the setting to public when you’re happy with the version you have uploaded. Or, you can simply share a video with your followers to keep it limited from the outside world, but not completely hidden.

    The last two icons should be self-explanatory. The red X button deletes your media. And the down arrow on the right side of the toolbar allows you to download the source video, if its allowed by the media owner.

    As always, let me know if you have further questions about these icons and how they can help improve your workflow.

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  • The Poptent Tour Part 1: Our New Video Player

    Posted by Mark Schoneveld on October 10th, 2008. Categories: features, poptent, tour | No Comments »

    A lot of you who have been with us when XLNTads.com was our main community site are probably like our friend Jared Cicon who emailed me today to ask, “How is Poptent different than the old XLNTads site?” Well, I’m glad you asked! ‘Cuz there’s a whole lot of new stuff.

    In fact, we’ve got so many new features, I’m going to start rolling out posts to highlight them, as well as some of the dreams we have for the future of Poptent. Believe me, we have lots. Every time we go out to lunch we can’t stop talking about the potential. Maybe I should video that sometime and share with you.

    Okay, so first of all, you’ll notice that a lot of what Poptent does is similar to what XLNTads.com did. That is, you can accept and join assignments for making branded video content for brands.

    One thing you’ll notice right away is our new video player. It’s pretty great, and I’m not just saying that because my brother Paul built it. ;)

    The video player’s time code bar goes down to the millisecond (1), it can be embeded and shared by automatically copying the code when you click the buttons (2), and it has the ability to go full screen (3).

    The video player is also now HD-compatible. All you have to do is upload your video at least 720 pixels tall, and Poptent will automatically recognize it as HD and offer viewers the option of playing back in high resolution.

    One of the best new features of the new player is the ability to add credits to your media. This crediting system will travel with the video. Anytime someone clicks “Show Credits” in the title bar, the credits pop up and link back to that creators Poptent profile. You can add actors, editors, gaffers, whatever! You can add as many credits to your media as you want.

    Friends not on Poptent yet? Why not invite them to join? It only takes a few seconds to sign up, and they’ll get that additional exposure for helping you make your video.

    And now, see it in action!

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