Video Blog Wallstrip Off To Slow Start

Howard Lindzon's video blog has not been a home run. But he didn’t expect it to be.

Investing "is boring stuff for most people," the hedge fund manager said in an interview. "You can pretty much say in 10 minutes how people should manage their money, everything else is repetitive." But, marrying stocks with humor, as Lindzon’s team at Wallstrip.com does, well, "That's different."

The videoblog is posted on Revver.com where it gets a couple thousand downloads a day. “We have a loyal, small following,” he said. Although it's been featured in the iTunes podcast directory in the past few weeks, Wallstrip is not now among the top 25 newly-subscribed shows.

Wallstrip.com reflects Lindzon’s trading strategy. Finding investments, "Where pop culture meets stock culture," with a production style decidedly reminiscent of Rocketboom. An attractive actress/host talks about companies, and either comments or hands off to others, to profile the businesses, do people on the street interviews, or otherwise explain a stock's success and divine its future.

That means pieces on companies such as Whole Foods (WFMI) (sell), Apple Computer (AAPL) (buy), and Crocs (CROX) (buy). Think of it as trading with the trends.

Lindzon, personally, is keeping a fairly low profile compared to James Cramer.  "He was the reason I got excited about the Internet," Lindzon said.  But his machine gun style of stock commentary is too much to help most investors, Lindzon said. "The average person can't keep up with Cramer.  After a few shows, it all becomes noise.”  Wallstrip's content, he believes, is more useful.  "It’s evergreen.  You can listen to the piece about Harley Davidson (HOG) a year from now, and the company will have the same issues and opportunities. It’s a culture play."

Listen to an interview with Howard Lindzon.

In an earlier post, I was negative about Wallstrip.com saying that a blog about stocks proved that anybody with a digicam and a wireless microphone could videoblog.  That's true, as Lindzon agrees.

But Wallstrip has gone beyond showing a pretty talking head tapping keys, flailing arms, and mugging for the camera.  Adam Elend and Jeff Marks have produced 22 original and watchable shows in their first month. There have been interviews with VCs and money managers, and attention paid to un-trendy matters like Berkshire Hathaway (BRKB) and the Dow Jones Industrial Average. 

How to make this stuff interesting is the challenge.  Wallstrip is trying.  A few thousand viewers are a start.  But there are few site comments about each episode, and I haven't seen other stock bloggers linking. Alexa shows traffic meandering. Lindzon’s hoping to build a large audience which he can monetize through advertising and product sales.  He's given himself six months.  We'll check back before the next Ides of March.

Disclaimer: I own shares of Apple and Berkshire.