Because video blogging is one of the top trends in Internet marketing strategies for 2011, plenty of bloggers are starting to use video more frequently on their blogs. Simply put, the average website visitor is more likely to watch a video than read a chunk of text.
While the idea is sound and many of your blog visitors will prefer video to text, there are some aspects to consider before you ditch TextPad for a webcam altogether.
Not everyone likes videos:
– Yes, surprising but not everyone likes videos. Or at least not as an only option. Most people will watch something that interests them, but it’s still a good idea to use text for the majority of your posts unless you proclaim yours to be a 100 percent video blog (VLOG).
It’s extra work, but your blog might benefit from transcriptions of your video blogs. That way those who are for some reason unable to view video, either due to their environment or technical constraints, can still have access to your content.
Be yourself, don’t overact:
– When you do use video, be yourself. Don’t try to be something you’re not. You’ll either come off appearing arrogant, or idiotic, neither of which are a good option if your goal is to attract blog visitors. Just be you. And give folks a chance to get to know you, quirks and all. The advantage of a video blog over traditional text is that you can be more intimate with your audience.
Don’t compromise on video quality:
– Do not undervalue the importance of your recording quality, especially audio. The video itself can be of varying quality, since the importance of seeing you talk is what you make of it, but the audio must be crystal clear. Otherwise the viewer won’t hear what you have to say, which is the very point of video blogs. With that said, a good image always gives your vlog an extra boost of professionalism.
Keep It Simple Silly (KISS):
The KISS ( Keep it Simple Silly) principle works well for videos, keep your videos short and interesting. While the Energizer Bunny may be a great concept for batteries, a video that keeps going, and going, and going will turn more people away than it will attract. Three to four minutes is a safe zone for web video running time. In three to four minutes you can convey a decent amount of information in a short sequence of time.
Use Humor:
Use various styles in your videos. Humor is great, but you probably want to keep it clean. Interviews with interesting guests are good. Tutorials for something your followers want to learn are always helpful. You can also offer tips and hints, review products and more. Mix it up and you’ll find you’ve created a much more exciting, passionate, and popular blog.
Be a Good Listener:
Listen to what your visitors have to say. If most of your followers prefer videos to text, go for it. If, on the other hand, the majority are readers, you may want to limit your video posts considerably. Either way, ask your audience what they prefer and give them want they want as often as possible.
Video blogging is an effective Internet marketing strategy. Just learn to do it well, like you do anything else associated with your online business, and you can’t go wrong.
10 comments
Video blogging , sometimes is a form of blogging for which the medium is video , and is a form of Web television. Entries often combine embedded video or a video link with supporting text, images, and other metadata. Entries can be recorded in one take or cut into multiple parts. It is also a very popular category on YouTube.
You Tube can be used as a channel to promote your video blog post, it works magic to get new users and go viral
My first try on youtube went up like magic. I saw traffic to one of my websites from youtube and when I dug deeper, I discovered an old vid I did is still pulling traffic for me today.
Yesterday I watched Seth Godin (Affiliate Summit 2011) speaking on online advertising. It’s quite clear that we are now moving into a new revolution where we need to transform ourselves into a ‘leader’. I think video marketing is one of the best medium to show ‘who we are’ and ‘what we know’ on topics we are talking or writing about in our blogs. Building trust is becoming more and more important.
As you rightly said Video Blogging builds a lot of trust for the blogger and the blog. The videos need to be done well.
video blogging is a great strategy .YouTube is a great platform to share your video.Personally,I prefer video to text.It’s more convenient.Thanks for sharing
Without planning, if you are producing video and streaming on the popular video sharing site. I am 100% you are going to fail. A well planned and well defined video does not matter how short will make it’s presence on the internet.
Many people still do not like the idea of doing video blogs, but for those who would like to try it out, your tips will surely help. Having transcriptions of your video blogs would be very helpful especially if the reader does not have much time to wait to download everything (especially when the video is very long).
Without planning, if you are producing video and streaming on the popular video sharing site. I am 100% you are going to fail. A well planned and well defined video does not matter how short will make it’s presence on the internet.
To make the effort of producing videos worth it its good if you can make some money from it. There are easy to use free services for creating and publishing videos to your blog with the extra benefit of making you money from the ads being displayed.