Fire-Wired Blog

This week the Foundation mailed out the first issue of its new magazine, "Forward," and coinciding with its release is the release of my first videos for the Foundation. As I've stated before, The ISUf's main purpose is to raise funds for Iowa State. For scholarships, for facilities, for endowed faculty, for programs, etc. "Forward" Magazine is meant to highlight the cool things ISU is doing and keep donors informed about where their funds are going. It's a pretty cool magazine. I'll probably produce 5-6 more videos for the next issue which will mail in June. Up to this point I've been doing a lot of prep and planning for upcoming projects and reworking previous video material for different purposes, but the last couple of weeks I finally got to shoot a couple of videos. The one above and this one: These videos, along with 3 others I edited from old content, are supplemental material to an article discussing the use of...

For many, discovering how to make money off of what they love to do is not easy. I am no different. I love to make videos and I love the boundless nature of the internet. Problem is I didn't properly equip myself to make money off my fanaticism right out of college. I enjoy broadcast journalism but its more of a necessity for videographers than a passion. Well recently through the wonders of web 2.0 - remember that term? - things are changing. Right after I graduated in 2005 I signed up for Google AdSense and thought "If others can make a bucks off their blog readers, why can't I?" Well the problem was the ads were ugly and I felt kind of a drug mule for Google. I turned off the ads and didn't touch my AdSense account for 6 years, last October. YouTube opened my various accounts up for monetization and I decided why not give it another shot.  So I placed text ads on about 5 or 6 of my most popular videos. I was averaging just over a buck a month until rece...

If you know me outside of the information super highway you know I am no longer a television producer. That's right I quite my job and as of January 9, 2012 I am the Multimedia Specialist for the Iowa State University Foundation. Hooray! The new gig is very similar to what I've done in the past; filming events and putting together videos. The main difference being now my work is used to promote Iowa State and cultivate & steward donors for the University. Of course there are other responsibilities but this is the quick and easy explanation. I wish I had an example of my work to share with you but projects take a little longer to perculate here than a TV station. This post isn't to tell about my new job, no it's more about HOW I got my new job. Like the social media maniac that I am, I'm proud to say I discovered the Foundation's position through Linkedin. That's right I'm one of the 16% of job seekers who found their new gig through th...