Watch

When you’ve got something people want, it only makes sense to ask them to pay for it, right? But that logic doesn’t always work when it comes to mobile content. There are plenty of studies that show people are reluctant to plunk down more than .99 for an app they’ll likely use every day. On the other hand, several newspapers have had luck with mobile, paid subscribers.

“In February 2011, Volkswagen’s ‘The Force’ ad stormed the Superbowl to become the most shared ad of all time in just six days, jumping from 100,000 to 1,000,000 views in just a few hours.” That’s the first line of Unruly’s “What’s Next for Social Video Insight Report” and it really explains it all, doesn’t it?

This year, I tried to go outside of the social media echo-chamber and focus on people who are expanding beyond their blogs. As Michael Stelzner said at Blogworld, “You’re not a blogger, you’re a publisher!” These are 20 people who stood out to me this year. There is no ranking, nor is there a competition. If you are after more variety, I’ve included links to other round-ups at the end of this post. Do you know of someone that has really stood out in 2011? Let us know in the comments, or

Everyone expects to see commercial breaks when they sit down to watch TV, but commercial breaks on online videos. . . that’s another thing. When sites like YouTube began offering up short-form entertainment, people weren’t willing to watch a commercial, before, during or after. So they slapped an Adsense banner ad across the bottom of the vid and called it the cost of doing business. But online video has experienced explosive growth in the past year and video ads have grown right along with it.

Ok, first watch this video: Next watch this one: Question: What do these two videos have in common? If you said something about innovation, you’d be right but that’s not what I am looking for. What I am looking for is more about the way the folks in these videos talk about their projects. In both cases they called their work an experiment. Not a product or a service, just an experiment. This is important. The way that we talk and think about the projects we are involved in has a direct

Occasionally, I come across a really cool product that I can’t wait to tell people about. Recently, it was the WeWOOD watch product line. When I read that they have an affiliate program, I knew I had to share it with all of you. WeWOOD is an eco-friendly luxury watch manufacturer. The company emerged from Italy and is currently located in Los Angeles. They’re all about keeping the watches natural, simple and stylish. At the same time, they are working on a few ways to protect the environment.

Google Maps is pretty interesting to watch and sometimes difficult to keep track of for those of us who have other things to do in life. Today, the Google Lat Long blog tells about Map Maker which is a way for people to help Google build out their map experience with local information that end users feel is important. Check out the video for the Map Maker overview.

Welcome to the 2011 list of bloggers to watch. A few caveats before we launch into the list: Many thanks to Ali Luke, Jonathan Wondrusch, Allison Boyer, Andy Dolph, and Srinivas Rao for their help with background research.