I’ve been talking quite a bit about how to create a successful web series, and the types of content that work well on the internet. The honest truth is, there are probably a ton of great ideas I’ve never considered. Even more likely, there are a bunch of things which I would say are outright stupid ideas, which if done right would end up being huge successes. However, here are a few things I absolutely know won’t work, so don’t make the mistake of creating these types of web series:
- Kiddie Mobsters – You and your friends are between the ages of sixteen and twenty-five and you just love Tarintino. We’ll that’s fantastic, but no one is going to believe you are all wise cracking gangsters. If you can’t find actors that actually fit the part, then don’t do it. Unless you are doing it as a comedy, it simply won’t work.
- Zombies – It might just work, but good lord is it difficult. If you are working on a low budget its best to stay away from special effects ridden genres such as zombie flicks. Another downside to zombie films is that they require characters to die off to maintain a sense of high stress. As I mentioned before, killing off your main characters is bad for business. Maybe after you get a successful series under your belt you can go for zombies, but for your first series stay far away.
- Non-comedy musicals – It’s simply not part of the typical web audience. Something that is funny might work, or even something very dark and unusual like Sweeny Todd might work. But don’t expect Fiddler on the Roof to hit it big on the internet.
- Children’s programs – Its nice if you want to create wholesome children’s entertainment, but it probably won’t work on the web. Both at school and at home, many young kids have sites like youtube blocked by filtering software. Most teens know how to hack these programs, but kids under 10 don’t and don’t particularly care to. They are too busy playing webkinz, or whatever it is little kids do these days on the internet. Also, don’t forget that internet media is a one on one experience. I certainly don’t know many eight year olds with a whole lot of buying power. That means very few advertisers interested in using you as an advertising channel. As far as I know sugar coated cereals don’t advertise much on the net, so unless you get a ton of toy sponsors you probably won’t make much money off of your series even if it does become popular.