It had to happen. The first few blogs (blogs) are catching on like wildfire, and everyone is posting their thoughts, rants, or just minutiae online on their own blogs. Then came podcasting, the equivalent of blogging in audio form. Today, the newest novelty is video blogging (also called vblogging or vlogging).
What is a video blog?
In its simplest form, a video blog (vblog or vlog) is the publication of serial videos on a website, with a response from the recommended audience. Despite the fact that this new form of web communication is in its infancy, vloggers have already started to periodically post online.
Many vbloggers are using video blogging to create their own mini-shows, using an RSS feed to deliver new episodes automatically. Others are experimenting with the new technology. Like any new community technology, there is no telling where vblogging will go in the future.
Why use video blogging?
You may already express yourself on a regular blog. Think of all the communication you’re not communicating by writing everything down: the cocky little facial expressions, the tone of your voice, and the clever conversation between you and your partner.
In addition to this, they are a fantastic tool for delivering unspeakable content. Being in the right place at the right time can get your vblog off the ground. Or if you like blogging about sporting events, a vblog can allow you to capture the action and deliver it to your fans, not just describe it in overly pale words.
If you’re away from home, this can also be a great way to keep up with friends and family. Think of it as a great new way to share your baby’s first steps with your grandparents.
And then, you may have harbored a secret dream of being the next great newscaster or TV reporter. This may be your perfect opportunity.
How to make a VBlog
Creating a video blog is not as simple as writing a regular blog. With a normal blog, you only have to be able to write a normal post. But with vblogging, you will need to have access to a good computer that can run movie shows, as well as a camera that can take videos and take snapshots.
The first part is the simplest: create your digital video on your camera or camcorder. There are an infinite number of ways you can put your vblog together; you are not tied to a studio and you do not have to adhere to any rules that you did not make up yourself. Once you’ve created your video, you need to download it to your computer in preparation for formatting and compressing it.
You can use a variety of different movie programs to work with your video blog, but the most widely used are iMovie (for Mac, it comes as part of the operating system) or Movie Maker (for PC, it comes as part of Windows). Others widely used are Final Cut Pro and Avid Free DV. If your camera or camcorder creates movies in the Quicktime format, Avid Free DV is a great idea.
Once the movie is downloaded, you can use your movie program to make changes to the video clip, insert a new movie, create titles and / or subtitles, and even add music to your video.
Once you’ve finished editing your movie, you’ll need to zip it up to prepare it for uploading to your vblog. But here’s the catch. You want the movie to be compressed as much as possible so that your audience can download and view it quickly; but the smaller you compress the film, the less sharp the video quality will be. The idea is to find a happy medium, with your film as small as possible, but with enough resolution that your audience won’t squint to turn your grainy square pixel image into something vaguely human.
As you work to change the compression of your movie, you should be able to monitor the expected file size at the bottom of the dialog window (in any of the above programs). Ideally, you want to compress your movie to no more than 5 megabytes (approximately 5000K). If possible, you should compress it to a single megabyte. Video blogs shot with minimal movement and with a solid color screen behind the vblogger’s head pack the most, but they are the least fun type of video blog to create.
Once you have compressed your video blog, you are ready to publish it online. As a compressed Quicktime movie, you can put it on your website with a link directly to it, just as you would a normal web page. Or maybe you want to participate in a video blogging community; If you do this, each community will have its own rules for posting your new vblog and organizing introductory information around it, and you should read this carefully.
You should also read the user agreement carefully. Some video blogging sites may not accept vblogs with certain types of content; others can help promote certain types of content. You definitely need to know what your chosen video blogging community will do and what they disapprove of.
After posting your video blog, download it once and take a good look at it. Does it download quickly? How is the video quality? Anything you need to change?
Once you are happy with your new vblog, please promote it. Set up a link in your email signature line or post links to it on the bulletin boards you frequent. Creating the vblog is only half the job; Someone has to see it now!
To help ensure your vblog doesn’t get lost in the mix, create some text around it as well. The major search engines only search for text, not video. You must give them text to categorize your vblog, or they will ignore it.
What else should I know about video blogging?
A great additional tool that you can use for your video blog is an RSS feed. This is a technology that allows people to subscribe to your video blog and automatically download it to your electronic device (you can download it to a computer, a PDA, a phone, and certainly other devices).
Congratulations! Now he has become a video host, the star of his own tiny network.
