Video blogging is “the future of blogging”

Whether you enjoy video blogging or not, it is a thing of the future and is currently being utilized by many bloggers across the net to give them an edge on their competitors. People cannot get enough of Darren Rowse’s videos over at Problogger.net and many bloggers are starting to realize that creating a video can be a pretty valuable tool to help promote their website or blog. Though I’ve never personally created a video, I have thought more about how the use of a webcam has revolutionized blogging and has proved to be a great medium for bloggers to share their advice through. If you haven’t considered making a video to help boost your blogging career and promote your website, you may want to seriously reconsider! There are so many benefits that video blogging has to offer, that you’d be really missing out if you never give it a shot.

What’s required for video blogging:

1. A webcam - The only thing that’s required for a video blog is a webcam. Many computers come with cameras and many of the newer laptops have webcams built right in. The newer Mac computers even has an option to export your video directly to YouTube after recording.
2. A willing person - Not everyone is willing to put themselves infront of the camera. Some people are shy and may be afraid to put themselves out across the web. The most important part of video blogging is your willingness to get yourself more exposure: you’ve got to be willing to step up, be confident, and not really care what others may think of your appearance.

The advantages of video blogging:

• Most visitors would rather “watch” than “read” - Let’s face it, the majority of people would rather watch someone talk rather than read an article. Since the majority of people would rather watch videos than read, video blogging has become extremely popular. Society is becoming more fast paced and ADHD than ever before. Though I enjoy doing a fair share of blog reading, I’ll admit that blogging videos really capture my attention.

• Bloggers don’t like writing - Some bloggers really enjoy writing and would gladly showcase their writing skills rather than make a video appearance. However, many online bloggers don’t really particularly enjoy the writing aspect of blogging. You don’t necessarily need to enjoy writing to enjoy blogging. Why force yourself to write if it isn’t one of your strengths?

• It’s relatively easy to do - Recording a video is extremely easy to do. All it requires is: knowing your topic, recording of yourself talking, and uploading the video to your blog. It’s a very easy process and is much easier than putting your words into text. Speech is much quicker and more efficient than writing and comes naturally for a lot of people.

• It is much quicker than actually writing - The majority of bloggers that I know like to be quick and sustain a good level of efficiency. If all you need to do is flip a switch to turn on a webcam, press record, and talk for 15 minutes about a topic relevant to your blog, you will save a ton of time vs. writing a lengthy article that takes over 1 hour. With video blogging, there’s no need for editing misspelled words and grammatical mistakes. Writing articles can be a very time consuming process: especially if you aren’t a very good writer - video blogging is a great option!

• People enjoy getting a 1-on-1 talk - Video blogging is great because it gives your visitors a 1-on-1 feel with you as a blogger. It can really make them feel as if you are giving them a “personal lesson” or private advice. Not only do people enjoy getting a visual of you as a blogger, they enjoy hearing your voice to associate with your face. The combination of visuals and audio really provides them with a much better sensory experience than reading text.

• Videos are relatively easy to promote (i.e. YouTube) - All it takes is one catchy video, or even a highly informative video, to gain quick popularity on YouTube. All a good video really takes is a thumbs up on StumbleUpon, a contribution from the Digg community, and it has the potential to dominate social networking websites and draw some serious traffic to your website. Videos are very easy to promote and there are a number of websites that you can submit your video to.

• Gives your website an advantage - If your website happens to offer some nice blogging video in addition to great written content, while your competitors are only offering written content, who has the advantage?  YOU do.  Because you are enriching visitors’ experience more than other blogs, you have an advantage.  Anytime you can offer a great service that others aren’t currently offering, you will have the “edge” on your competition.  When written content can be found on every blog, yet video can only be found on some, which websites get extra attention?  Obviously the one’s that offer video.

• You can make some serious cash - If you make a really high-quality video and submit it to metacafe, you can earn some serious cash. This guy Kipkay who shows you various really sweet hacks has racked up quite a bit of money. The way to make money in any field is to provide value: if you expect to make money from your videos, they’ve got to have some sort of value. What can you do to provide value in your videos and earn some cash? You can share helpful information, a unique personality, insights, make people laugh, etc.

The disadvantages of video blogging:

• Some people are “camera shy” - For the people that are camera shy, making a video to promote your blog may be out of the question. Writing is much less intrusive into a bloggers identity and gives away much less information. Some people may not be huge fans of creating an online video and enjoy the feeling of being anonymous that comes with Though I don’t think you should allow shyness to hold you back from creating a video, you should be confident about making the video.

• Appearance may play a role - Level of attractiveness usually plays a role in every area of life whether you like it or not. Exposing your appearance to others can in fact ruin any preconceived notions that they may have about your appearance. I personally don’t judge anyone by how their appearance, but many people do. Unfortunately, if people think you look less attractive than someone else, they may not enjoy watching your video as much. Though appearance may be a disadvantage for some, you should never allow how you look stop you from creating an online video, period.

• Say goodbye to your privacy - Video blogging is somewhat intrusive and people can connect with you on a personal level. With that said, more people know more information about who you are, what you look like, what your voice sounds like, etc. I’m not suggesting that anyone will be out to make an attempt to steal your identity - nobody will get your credit card number, social security number, names of family members, etc. unless you give them out. I’m saying that you will have less privacy in your life. The internet gives an immense number of people access to know who you are and what you’re all about. For those that enjoy having a large privacy barrier between you and the web, video blogging will do a great job at breaking down that wall.

Can you expect a video from Andrew Pavelski?

When I get a new computer or laptop (with the webcam built in), you can expect plenty of videos to be thrown in the mix with my content. I really think that you will enjoy watching my videos and I think that I will really enjoy creating them. I currently don’t have access to a webcam, though I may look into buying one soon. Until I do manage to get a webcam for video blogging, I’ll keep working to improve my writing skills and keep having confidence in my ability to write timeless content.  When I do decide to incorporate some video posts into my routine, I am not going to abandon ship on producing written content. I think having a balance between some nice written content and some nice video blogging posts will look classy and would improve my blog’s online image.

Do you think you’ll step up and make a video sometime?

Have you ever tried video blogging? Do you think that you’ll ever try video blogging? Feel free to share your responses in the comments section and let me know your thoughts about video blogging.

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