Channel Focus: 

We recently had the opportunity to interview Amy Wilson, creator of the Magnify channel, StreamingGourmet, a site that 'makes it easy to find, post and share cooking videos from anywhere on the web or from your very own desktop.' Amy is a great example of someone who has taken the Magnify platform and run with it. Below, we ask her a few questions about Magnify and how she created what has become one of the most innovative and fun Magnify channels out there.

When was the idea for the channel first conceived? What was the motivation?

The idea was conceived in the middle of August of 2008. The site launched Oct. 1, 2008. That Magnify made it possible to get a site up and running in 5 weeks with so many of my feature wishes fulfilled is, in many ways, the true story here.

My motivation was that I wanted to create a Vimeo/Youtube for cooks. I saw that there were hundreds of thousands of videos on Youtube tagged with "cooking" so there was a market for video-hosting related to food, but I wanted to create an environment where people would know what they were getting. They would feel safe and happy in this cooking-oriented video destination. When they typed cooking as a search term, they wouldn't stumble onto something that was really "cooking" if you know what I mean.

I liked the clean design and enhanced social networking tools of Vimeo and tried to replicate that feel as best I could. Other cooking video sites that I looked at when researching "the competition" didn't have everything I wanted my site to have. None of them had live streaming video, which I plan to incorporate even more over time. Epicurious doesn't categorize its user-generated content adequately and users don't have profiles. Eat, Drink or Die is aimed at a demographic that is younger and more male than my target audience.

When Taste of Home launched a week before I did, I cried. But then I got over it and went ahead anyway, thinking that maybe I would reach a different audience. Now that we've both been up for awhile, I do feel that we serve slightly different purposes. Lately, my content has been updated more regularly than theirs and I'm willing to throw in videos with a sense of humor (like the Christopher Walken one or the viral GUACAMOLE one, for example).

My goals have evolved as I've learned more about the space and the web in general. I see myself almost like an Alltop for gourmet videos. You can come and find the greatest and latest without having to work at it. AND if you are a high-quality content producer who doesn't already have a huge following, I'm more than happy to feature you and help you with exposure.

At StreamingGourmet, you are the Food TV Star, but if you just want to watch Tyler Florence, we've got that too.

You seem to be dedicated to cooking -- can you tell us a little bit about how you came to it?

I come from a family obsessed with food. Holidays move from one meal to another. Love is mediated through food. It's a sickness, really, but I've decided to embrace it.

What is your background, are you a 'video person',  a 'web person'  or is this your first time at this?

I am neither and both. I've never been a professional web, video or cooking person, but I've been passionate about all three for a long time. I was a high school physics teacher and then administrator for 15 years, (which gave me an opportunity to pursue these hobbies at work, actually) but after having my 2nd child last year, I stopped working and had more time to devote to side projects. I've always been passionate about cooking and have dabbled extensively with video (even working for a documentary film company in NYC in the early nineties), but I never made a career of either - until now. I feel like I'm finally doing something I'd do for free (which is a good thing, because so far, I am).

Tell us how you went looking for a place to build your site, how many others platforms did you consider - and which ones (if you don't mind sharing)?

I actually approached Vimeo to see if they would license their technology to me. They sort of laughed. At the time that I was conceiving the site, I was researching live stream video options. My husband was an advisor at Justin.tv at the time and was enthusiastic about the direction this technology was going. I've done a little live streaming on my Magnify site (via Mogulus).

While researching live stream options in August 2008, I came across a mashable article about Mogulus that mentioned Magnify.

That was the first time that I stumbled upon Magnify and I couldn't believe that there was this off-the-shelf solution to create the very website I had conceived. I contacted the web developers/programmers that I had been talking to and told them to go ahead and pursue that iPhone app project they were excited about. I had found my answer - and the price was right and I could do it myself.

Once I found Magnify, I didn't consider any other platforms and I didn't hesitate to upgrade to Pro to get the user interface I was after. I have done all of the customization myself. It's amazing what you can learn by doodling around online.

What made you decide to go with Magnify?  What feature or service?

I didn't find another platform that would allow me to integrate video upload with social networking that I could truly customize and make on my own. Did I miss something? I just looked at Fliggo and while I like the clean, AJAXy interface, there's no there there.

One of my favorite Magnify features is being able to run down a list of videos that I know are going to be high quality and just tick them all off to add to the site. I don't do automatic searches much because I want to hand pick everything, but being able to hand pick them quickly is great.

How would you describe Magnify.net to someone thinking about launching a video channel?

For a while, I didn't want to breathe a word about Magnify to anyone, because I didn't want people to know how easy it was to create a site like mine. If pressed, I would describe Magnify as an off-the-shelf platform that allows you to create your own video-hosting/social networking website - your own Youtube without all the gobbledygooky scary videos. I would explain how easy it is to search for the very best videos across virtually all of the video hosting sites and add them to your site. I would also describe how easy it is to add affiliate and google ads to your site. Look and feel are also more pliable than immediately apparent.