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Video blogging lets you share your thoughts about a particular subject with your close friends or the Internet as a whole. Video blogs can be used to tell your thoughts on a particular news topic or to talk about events going on in your personal life. Videos uploaded to video-sharing sites such as YouTube can also be embedded on your own personal Facebook or Web page to share with potential viewers.
If you're considering starting your own video blog, here are some suggestions on how to make it the best can it can be.
Basketball meets Beethoven
Before you start video blogging, decide what topic you want your video blog to cover. Do you want to talk about celebrities? Sports? Music? Electronics? Breaking news events? Once you pick a topic, try to only upload videos to your channel that fit in with your original topic plan. For instance, if you always blog about celebrities, don't suddenly post a video about the hot date you had Saturday night. Picking one specific topic and sticking to it can help you build an audience for your videos. If you blog about a variety of different topics, it can be hard for viewers to know what they're getting into when they start watching and can cut down on the amount of potential subscribers you might have for your videos.
If you feel passionately about recording videos on two distinctly different topics, consider creating two different video channels where you post those videos.
Ummm... what I meant to say was...
While it can be tempting to just sit down in front of the camera and start talking, a little bit of planning can make a dramatic difference in the overall quality of your videos. Write out a script for your video before you press record, and try to stick to it while you do your recording. If you're using a webcam attached to your computer to record your video, you can leave the script on your computer screen for easy reading while you record.
Script seem like too much work? Try writing out a few bullet points you would like to talk about, and keep that in front of you when you record to help keep your video on track.
What's that sound?
Try to eliminate any extra sounds like music or fans going on in the background while you record your video blog. Extraneous sounds are distracting for your viewers and makes it difficult for them to focus on or hear what you are saying. If possible, try to use a microphone when you record to help improve your sound quality.
Light bright
No one wants to watch a dark video. Before you record, turn on the lights in the room when you are recording and try to make it so you can be seen clearly in your video. If your video is going to have to be hard to see, consider putting some graphics of pictures over parts of it to make it more interesting to watch for viewers.
What's that over there?
Recording a video in front of a static background such as a white wall or a curtain is almost always better than recording a video with a cluttered background. Try to minimize what your viewers can see in the background of your video blog so they focus on you and not your old record collection piled up in the corner.
Attention-grabber
The average attention span of an online video viewer is a little over a minute. Try to make your point, keep your thoughts organized, and keep your video as short as possible. If you feel like you have tons to say and need to make a 15-minute video, consider breaking your video blog up into a few different posts that are easier to watch. While the occasional long video blog can be fine, consistently long videos are likely to not keep viewers' attention.
Video blogging allows you to express your opinion about a topic and can help you make new friends who share similar views. Once you've gotten a few videos posted on your channel, try making friends with others who post on similar topics by subscribing and commenting on the videos they post, or reach out to them through Twitter conversations.
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