#bloggingedumacation: Vlogging Tips & Tricks

What is a VLOG?
A video blog.

What type of VLOGs can you find?
Journal-type vlogs, DIY (how-tos for crafts, beauty, fashion, food) vlogs, Product Reviews and Recipe vlogs.

A journal-type vlog

Why should you VLOG?
1. Your readers get a chance to hear the voice behind your blog. That connection is a powerful one. After I hear a blogger speak in a Vlog, I can now “hear” them as I’m reading their posts. I hear them smile, I hear them laugh. I know how they might be saying something in a particular sentence. By adding your voice, you open up your full personality to your blog.
2. If you write sponsored posts, Vlogging opens up so many other doors for you if you choose to vlog about your experience. Basically you create a mini-commercial for a brand. Currently most brands aren’t requiring vlogs. But I can see that trend increasing because the message is so much louder with a video than with just a written post. I’ll explain why in just a moment.
3. People are more likely to watch a tutorial on something if there is a video available. I’ll explain this tidbit below, too.
4. Because it’s fun! And the more you practice, the easier it gets (and the less scary). Remember, it’s just you and the camera (unless your vlogging with other people are around).

A Tutorial Vlog

The number one thing to remember when Vlogging is to be yourself. Be your authentic-self. People will know when you are on for show and when you are really being yourself. Very rarely am I ever scripted when I’m vlogging. I think the only time I was semi-scripted was when I put out a call on Twitter asking people to ask questions they’d like me to answer. And then of course I wrote down those questions so I wouldn’t forget them.

Product Review Vlog (also learned that holding my camera vertically produces the black space on each side…so make sure you flip your phone sideways for a full picture view)

Also, I very rarely re-take a vlog. Unless I screw up royally with my words, I keep going. I want people to know that I’m a real human and that I’m having fun. And that this is me and how I am in real life, so take that world. 😉 lol No seriously, I typically don’t re-take my videos.

How long should a Vlog be?
Unless you are providing a tutorial for something that has a step-by-step process or you are journal-vlogging, I’d keep your vlogs to under 3 minutes. But also in saying how long, your message must be interesting. If it’s interesting enough, people won’t care how long your video is. If you think your video is too long, break them up into Part 1, Part 2, etc.

What do you need to Vlog?
A camera and a device that can upload your videos to youtube (either your computer or your phone). Either your point and shoot (if it’s got video recording), your laptop/computer or your cell phone. If you have an iPhone, make sure you record with the iPhone sideways (horizontal). You’ll get full screen shooting that way and not have this crazy negative/black space on both sides of your video (which happens if you record while holding the phone vertically). I typically record my vlogs with either my laptop camera or my iPhone.

Do I need to edit my Vlogs?
Yes and No. It depends on what your intent is with your vlog. If it’s a journal-type vlog (where you just randomly talk about things), I wouldn’t do a whole lot of editing to that. I typically just hit the upload to youtube button and grab my embed code and paste it into my blog post. So all I have to do is create the vlog and upload it. Youtube has an app called Capture which allows you to record via their program or upload an existing video from your phone into their app for uploading.

If I edit my vlogs, what do I need?
On Windows: Windows Live Movie Maker
On Mac: iMovie

There are tons of tutorials on youtube that walk you through how to edit videos with both programs. So if you aren’t sure how to go about editing a video, go do some homework/research on youtube. 🙂

Now, let’s get to the good stuff.

Why you really should be vlogging….

|Source|
These stats are from YouTube’s site. Read number #3 and #6 a couple of times and let that info sink into your brain.

|Source| |Source|

There are 2 sources cited (from same website) in my graphic above. Most sites say that YouTube is the #2 Search Engine available. I would have to agree. If you look at the clip of me adding in YouTube’s numbers (it’s overlayed on the graphic above), it easily surpasses Bing and Yahoo to be right under Google. And honestly, I don’t think Google would have it any other way. Another reason, you need to jump on the Vlogging Bandwagon!

So you know why you need to vlog and all the reasons that go along with that (if I haven’t convinced you yet, re-read my post.) 🙂 Now it’s time to start practicing. If you aren’t comfortable in front of a camera, practice. Unless you have someone videoing you, it’s typically just you and your camera. Practice until you are comfortable. Practice, practice, practice!

Setting up a YouTube channel is super easy! Hop to it! You can even set up a specific channel for your blog! So that there’s not any letters or your full name (pulled from your email) attached to your URL. By setting up a Blog specific channel, it actually creates a G+ page for your Blog at the same time. So when you log-in to YouTube, it’ll ask who you want to log in as.

For example:
From here, I can log-in to my YouTube channel as my blog.

When I first started vlogging, I was operating under my previous blog name. And unfortunately you cannot move videos to a different account. I haven’t had an opportunity to re-upload them to my current channel, but it’s on my to-do list! 🙂

You can subscribe to my YouTube Channel (cause you know you won’t want to ever miss any of my future vlogs!). If you have a YouTube channel, leave me the link in the comments and I’ll subscribe!

What questions do you have about Vlogging?? Leave them in the comments.

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