A video blog, also known as a ‘vlog’ is a website that uses video as its primary mode of content delivery, rather than text or image. Video blogging is not just limited to general websites; you can video blog through your YouTube channel, Facebook fan page or even through your Twitter account. The basic idea behind video blogging is to use videos as a medium to share your thoughts, views, or to raise awareness about a topic, product or service.
Video blogging is a relatively new concept and has not yet taken off, as compared to text or image blogging. One of the reasons for this is that it requires you to master post-production skills e.g. editing, sequencing, adding background scores, adjusting the sound and so forth, just to produce a fairly decent video.
If you haven’t met much success with text or photo blogging, then maybe it’s time you give vlogging a shot. Who knows, you might be the next video blog celebrity!
Hosting your videos is not a big problem. Thanks to video sharing platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Blip.tv, Dailymotion and thousands of other free video uploading services, there are hardly any limitations on the number or bandwidth of the videos that you upload.
Video blogging is gradually becoming a ‘voice’ of the typical blogger who wants to express his thoughts as fluidly as possible. But before deciding whether you should jump into vlogging or stick to text blogging, consider the following pointers on video blogging as a viable mode of communication for you and your audience.
1. Richer Web Experience
You can combine the information of a dozen blog posts into one short video and save time both for yourself and for your readers. It is also a known fact that only a few read line by line, because readers often read the introductory paragraphs and skip the rest.
2. Bigger Audience
Videos tend to attract a bigger audience that goes well beyond language, country and other cultural barriers. Not everyone can read what you’ve written but with videos, everyone can gauge your feelings and intent, even if they don’t understand the language you’re speaking.
Also, videos are more personal in nature and it is one of the best ways to reach your audience. Your readers can see and hear you and this separates your voice from other bloggers who simply write. People get to know about your personal side, people can visualize you in real life and this definitely helps bloggers to stand out and be remembered better among their audience.
3. Easy To Start
You just need a camera and you’re ready to vlog. Don’t have a high-definition camera? You may even use your webcam or mobile phone’s camera to get started. Being yourself is the key to video blogging and if your views or thoughts are powerful, your smartphone camera is adequate enough to get the job done.
Video blogging is easy to start but if you want to master it, you need to learn advanced video editing skills. Compared to text blogging, video blogging is instantaneous in nature and you can video blog from anywhere, even if you don’t have an Internet connection at hand. Take your mobile, shoot a video, share your thoughts and upload it to your channel of choice.
4. Marketing and Promotion
Videos are one of the best ways to promote your products by expanding your reach. A nice video introduction about your service can gain trust more easily and quickly convince a random visitor into becoming a customer than plain text can.
Moreover, search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing put an additional weight on video content these days. Often, you might see video results for specific keywords plastered between search result pages. This is a good way to gain some additional traffic through video search results.
Videos also diversify your content by adding that X-factor that shows that your content is distinct and has added value, as compared to your competitors.
5. Time
The most important aspect of video blogging is time.
Many readers hardly have the time to go through a thousand words of blog content. If you can address their concerns with a 30-second video clip, they will be more than happy to pay your blog a second visit. And there are a lot of instances where you can’t explain everything in text or photos.
A video is more dynamic in nature and if used wisely, it can result in a more lasting impact than blog posts written in plain text.
The only downside of video blogging is that it is not as search engine-friendly as text content is. But times are changing, search engines are getting wiser each day and they are relying on additional information such as your video’s meta data. Right now, video blogging is in its nascent stages but it will surely overtake the popularity of text blogging in the coming years.
Photo credits: www.singingthroughtherain.net, www.sparkplugging.com, www.urbangateway.org
This guest post is written by Lior Levin, a marketing consultant for a company that provides a tool for task management and, who also consults for a company that offers psd HTML conversion.
The Discussion
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Yaa , video blogging is a good option . Time is the main factor , which audience do not have .
And the only reason I cant do video blogging is the bad n slow internet connection in my area. I have few thoughts in mind but have to wait before i start.
thanks for the share
There is a certain audience for this. If you’re blogging a “how to” or a “DIY” type of blog then I say yes this is smart.
I have to agree. I run a music news site and it doesn’t translate well on a vlog
I think you can do some podcasts at least, might help you with the link building.
So true time and Vlog content is the most important to consider. With Vlog, some hope to get viral in less time. It’s possible right? Specially on YouTube.
Great.. I’ll Do This!
Oh yes Video blogging may be a better option than text or image blogging
its a nice concept of making a strong audience to your blog or site like youtube.but is this concept suitable for free stuffs niche,if yes let me know how?
I guess vlogging is only for people who really find time to set up and record the posts. I barely find time for a normal blog post least vlog. Great post though!
I am using galaxy note from some time now and for a change i would like to buy a windows based lumia 900
sorry for the above comment,the browser window went crazy
Well now on topic,
Personally,i think V-blogging is for only those who can devote a lot of time for it,i still remember my first screencast took some 6 hours to finish
I belive vlogging is a great idea and it will become more and more popular.
I’ve also seen blogs that offer an additional audio option. I thought this is was a great alternative to listen to a blog instead of reading it.
~Anja~
Thanks Lior for this great post… I have been thinking about creating videos for my current blog rather than starting a new vlog entirely. Really can I mix video post with normal text post?
Thanks
Kelvin Igbinigie
vBlogging is the future. No doubt Bloggers should focus on this also.
vlogging is a best concept and it will become more popular.Thank you.
I agree with the reasons that you said. Mostly the TIME. It saves a lot of time. In explaining something visual, writing it in a post would be time consuming but by Vlogging, it would be done instantly.
I’ve done a lot of the traditional blogging with great success in the past. Vlogging definitely seems to be the new thing though and I’ve slowly been incorporating it into my sites. Vlogging is the thing of the future for sure.
Videos also rank better and quicker in my experience. Good post. Now 5 reasons you are afraid to vlog….
Time is the main factor
Vlogging is nicer, but a lot of people dont find the time to reconrd and edit…and for vlogging you need some sort of charisma or else people wont like you.
Hi liorl,
YouTube is also the 2nd biggest search engine online and ranked 3rd in the world so we really should listen to your advice and make the most of all those FREE Resources.
Creating videos can be scary for people but all they need to do is create one an they’ll find that it’s easy and once they’ve made one they’ll soon be eager for the second, third etc.
There is free software available online that will allow us to get started. I first started with Camstudio.org which offers a great free tool.
The first video I made was about creating an auto reply on outlook express and that has had over 3,000 views.
I’ll be holding a video challenge soon liorl, so if you fancy it stay tuned to my blog as I’ll be posting the details soon
Take care my friend,
Vicky Sadhu
As fun as vlogging may seem, I’m extremely camera shy and feel that posting video blogs on a regular is for me. It has a lot of benefits though and your video could be syndicated to multiple video sharing sites without worrying about duplicate content.
I like this Vblogging. It is highly promoted in our new generation. It can help build and grab more and more audiences especially if your introducing new products. It’s a cool thing!
Why not do both video and regular blogging and switch between them as appropriate ? I’ve got a feeling it could work on a website with multiple bloggers… am I wrong ?
video blogging! it can make high visitor for our blog
It can be more entertaining when you watch videos especially if it’s a nice one. You promote and at the same time, more viewers know about your products. This is great article!
Agree with you that video blogging should be there if you want to make real bucks from blogging. youtube is the second largest search engine in the world after Google and it encourage us for doing v blogging.
I wish i wasn’t so camera shy!
I do agree that it’s important to reach out to a variety of audiences – that said, I personally do not care for video posts and if I stop at a blog and find nothing but a video post – I won’t hang around.
Video is growing day by day and now most people prefer to watch videos. So i think video blogging is best.
Very nice post ! Very helpful. Thanks for sharing.
So true time and Vlog content is the most important to consider. With Vlog, some hope to get viral in less time. It’s possible right? Specially on YouTube.
Time for a change…..its time for “vloging”
One Big question. Recently heard that after panda update, Google looks for post length too. Blog with less post length might not get proper exposure and additionally it might hamper in search engines as Google and other search engines could not crawl contents in video. So how can we overcome this problem?
This post definitely helps me, I am getting a ton out of it. Great perspective.
Video blogging is definitely a great way to communicate to your readers. It is also a great way to connect with them on a new level. I just made my first video and uploaded it to my blog yesterday.
If I can do it, anyone can.
Take Care,
~Jeremy
I agree with all your comments. As you say, one drawback to video blogging is that it is still slightly less SEO friendly than text – but that has changed so much over the years! As voice recognition improves it will just keep getting better until the difference is non-existant imho.
I love these tips and even as a pro blogger – or at least a full-time one
I concur and WELL-DONE and well-written with your writing voice through and through. I love it!! 
I’ve also found that it’s a great training exercise for when you’re going to need to talk about your area of expertise in mixer situation. Having already scripted something out and rehearsed it really preps you for being in front of someone talking about your niche.
I’ve done a bit of traditional blogging but haven’t really touched on video blogging. There’s no doubt the power of video sharing websites after all Youtube is the 3rd largest site worldwide!
I love to watch video blogs! For me video message is far more better then the texted one.
A message in video is better than in text, more special, and more viewers.
blog video have a power more than blog write , It transport content more than blog classic
As a user I can say that watching is an easier way to get information than reading. So video blogs seem to be more attractive for me.
Yeah. Video blogging is nice and I follow the EEVblog too. But videoblogging require rich audiences, because with a poor net coinnecti0on one can read text-blogs, but can’t stream a video.,
good post but i think that audience don’t have time
good post
The Digital Board is a brand professional SEO company that has been giving its services from many years. There are millions websites flourishing on the top- 10 ranking with a massive traffic.
True, the main problem that vlogging takes up a lot of time and you need to be consistent with these things in order to build an audience.
I enjoy watching Vlogging. It’s very entertaining aside from just reading a simple blog. Some artist like Taylor Swift is making vlog from time to time and it’s really enjoyable. Yeah, there are also a lot of advantages of this blog technique. Great article, I really learned a lot here.
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