TubeMogul: Universal Upload & Tracking

Uploading

Even if it offered nothing else, TubeMogul would still be a fantastic tool for the simple reason that it lets you upload your videos to up to twelve of the top video sharing sites in one shot.

The process is exceedingly straightforward. After signing up, upload your video file to TubeMogul like you would to any other site. While the file uploads, you’re asked to input the appropriate metadata, including the title, description and category. Once you’re finished, select which sites you’d like to distribute your video to, and sign in with your username and password.

TubeMogul currently lets users upload to Metacafe, YouTube, MySpace, Google, Revver, Dailymotion, Blip, Brightcove, Yahoo, Veoh, Crackle and StupidVideos. Unlike some competing sites, TubeMogul allows you to save your login information so you don’t have to enter it for every upload. Some users might be concerned about privacy, but this information is supposedly encrypted for your safety.

Uploading is very speedy, both to the TubeMogul servers and when distributing to video sites. After uploading is complete, you can check the status of your video on all the sites to which you submit, saving you the hassle of checking each one individually.

The only real shortcoming of the uploading process was its inherently generic nature. While the uploader allows you to assign your video to site-specific categories, it’s fairly nonspecific with respect to other issues. This is particularly bothersome for uploading to Metacafe, as you are not given any option of submitting to Producer Rewards or Producer. You can obviously do this afterwards on Metacafe, but it’s an extra step that could be avoided with the development of an API.

Tracking

Once you’ve uploaded your video and it finds its way into circulation, the true fun begins. TubeMogul gives you some of the most professional tracking tools available, and best of all, it won’t cost you a cent.

The service lets you track individual videos or publishers and works for anyone from any of the partner sites. This means that you can keep tabs on the competition, wherever it happens to upload.

This goes without say, but the service also works for tracking your own videos – all videos you upload through TubeMogul are automatically tracked and can be accessed through the “View Report” link in your “My Uploaded Videos” page. Video reports can track viewership, comments, ratings and cumulative views over daily, weekly, or monthly time spans. Data is kept as long as your video is live.

One particularly nifty aspect of these reports is that they can be scheduled in advance, so you can sit back and let the information about your competitors pour in whenever you want. These reports can also be exported to Excel for further analysis, if you’re into the whole “math” thing.

Why should you care?

If you’re wondering why you should care about tracking views, the truth is that tracking isn’t for everyone. But for serious producers looking to get noticed, it helps to know how your marketing efforts are working. For instance, if you embed your video in a popular blog, it’s useful to see what kinds of results you achieve.

As for uploading to more than one site, the answer to the “should you care?” question depends on what you’re looking to get out of producing. Do you want fame and fortune, or just a place to show off your videos to friends? If it’s the latter, you might as well just stick with whatever site you find most appealing. If it’s the former, however, then drop whatever you’re doing and head on over to TubeMogul to upload.

The audiences at video sharing sites can be surprisingly diverse, and with different audiences come different success rates. For a video describing this exact phenomenon, check out this clip from Webby Online.

Whatever you decide, best of luck and keep on producing great videos!