In case you hadn’t noticed, video is kind of a big deal on the interwebs, now. It may have put the thought in your mind to do a video blog or start adding videos to your current blog. I’ve already written about how to get started video blogging, so what I want to do with this post is cover what great video blogs have in common with each other, so you can get started thinking of your own ideas.
Seven qualities of great video blogs
- Original content
- Funny
- Shareable
- High production quality
- Plays to the strengths of video
- People in the videos are photogenic
- Frequent updates
Original content
Original video content that you produced yourself is going to get more attention and attract a following moreso than a link blog. While it’s possible to have some success with a video link blog (I’ve done it), it’s just not as compelling, shareable, and linkworthy as original content is. If you want to have a chance at video blogging stardom, you must create your own content.
Funny
It always seems to me that the most successful video blogs have a clear and unique sense of humor to their videos. Maybe it’s something about how both the sight and sound of another person laughing makes us laugh, too. Maybe it’s the greater possibilities for nuanced humor due to the combination of vocal tone, facial expression, and physical movement. I don’t know for sure, but I think it’s people simply love to laugh. So if you can make ‘em laugh, you will increase your chances of gathering a loyal audience.
This is one area where I struggle, personally. My sense of humor is quite cerebral, verbal, and sarcastic. It doesn’t want to come out consistently even when I write. For some reason, it just switches off when I hit the record button. Maybe I’m afraid to let it loose. I don’t know, but it’s something I’ve been thinking about. And by “thinking” I mean “sitting and staring into space with this dumb look on my face.” See, there it goes. I’d like to improve in this area; we’ll see how that goes.
Shareable
When people like your videos, they will want to share them. DO NOT GET IN THEIR WAY. Allow for embedding and downloading if your video service allows it (if it doesn’t, find one that does). Do not force people to visit your blog just to see the videos. Do not tell people not to upload your videos to YouTube. The greatest threat to your success isn’t some outdated notion of ownership, it’s being unknown and ignored. Being shareable is the best way to prevent that, other than producing great content. Use a service like YouTube or others that will distribute your videos for you. Multiple entry points to your content means more traffic.
High production quality
This can mean several things:
- Quality camera (over 1 megapixel)
- Decent editing
- Professional-looking titles and effects, used sparingly
- Good lighting and sound
- Clear, sharp video quality in the embedded player
I definitely have a ways to go in some of these areas. In an effort to save time, I haven’t been editing or adding titles to my videos (because it makes the entire process take at least 3 times as long). I don’t have a separate audio track. I don’t have any decent editing/effects software (yet).
Plays to the strengths of video
One reason to use media on a blog other than text is that different people have different preferred learning modalities. I know that for myself, I prefer video with sound and some text titles over anything else for good retention. Pure audio puts me to sleep. Most content I consume online is still text, but the percentage of video is increasing.
Video can do things that the written word cannot, such as provide context to words through vocal tone, inflection, facial expressions, and body language. In the humor department, the possibilities are endless, from funny effects to old-skool slapstick. The “talking head” style of video is the least creative thing you can do (note to self: STOP DOING THEM, THEN) unless you’re Ze Frank and have mad editing skills and are willing to do 5 or 6 takes.
The main point here is this: take advantage of what’s unique about video. If you could have just written it, then maybe you should have. I’m not dissing on writing. I write as well as I can, but this isn’t about some misguided notion that video is better than other media. No. It’s just that great video blogs take advantage of the medium. Great video blogs maximize the medium.
People in the videos are photogenic
Let me be absolutely clear that photogenic does not mean good-looking, and that if you’re not pretty, then don’t bother. Nothing could be further from the truth! Photogenic does not equal pretty or handsome. Think charisma, instead. Think personality. Other than that, you need to have readable facial expressions and you need to speak clearly. Enhance your personal branding by adopting a unique appearance through clothing, makeup, hair, or mannerisms. I don’t mean be fake. Accentuate what is real about you so that it stands out strongly. Be real, don’t try to be something you’re not. But remember you are performing. It’s hard to explain the fine line between performing and being fake or just acting. I hope you know what I’m getting at.
Frequent Updates
If you want your blog to be known as a video blog, you will have to update it frequently with new videos. If the mix of media is such that no single one dominates, or if text is the dominant media, your blog will still just be a blog. Nothing wrong with that, but you need to decide what you want to be and then be that with a vengeance. Although I’ve been doing more video, I don’t consider Remarkablogger to be a video blog.
Great video blogs to learn from
Ze Frank – The Show
Internet celeb/writer/programmer/designer/performer Ze Frank (pronounced “Zay”) made a video every weekday for a year. The man never blinks. His commentary on politics and culture is dry, witty, and sharp enough to make you gasp but never sharp enough to draw real blood. My kinda guy. The masterful editing and high-quality production values make what would otherwise be a “talking head” style of work into a masterpiece of the craft. Some adult language.
Qualities found: all seven (although at the beginning, Ze didn’t want them downloaded then uploaded to YouTube — now he shares)
Tasty Blog Snack
Justine is one of my favorite combinations: cute girl + loves tech. She’s great at creating the kind of content that takes advantage of the medium’s strengths. If you watch the clip above, you’ll see what I mean. There’s no way that would have ever had that much funny in it if she had just written about her first WoW experience. She does write on her blog, and there are the occasional “other” forms of media, but really it’s all about the video.
Qualities found: all seven.
Pop17
The cool deal with Pop17 is that Sarah Meyers is essentially presenting it as a far brainier, far techier version of E.T. It’s about internet celebrity and the people and tools for it. This video has the best effects I’ve seen in a while — very pro! This could outright be on television.
Qualities found: All but funny
45n5.com
Mark Wielgus of 45n5.com is committed to doing a video every single day for a year, a noteworthy goal! I wouldn’t be surprised if he smashes his camera with a big rock afterwards (as long as he records it on another one so we can see it!). Mark’s got a very approachable style. He’s just shootin’ the breeze with us, talking shop regarding making money online. He can be pretty opinionated sometimes (which I like about him, even though I don’t agree with everything he says) and that’s always good for traffic and comments.
He’s doing a lot of things right: the URL and site name is continuously displayed. The videos are decently edited. He mixes it up in terms of location, effects, and some humor once in a while. The video above is also a great example of how you don’t always need high production values to make highly entertaining and informative video content. They guy’s got pieces of paper taped to canned air and a stuffed animal, fer cryin’ out loud! But you know what? It’s great stuff! It works.
Qualities found: all but high production quality, which in Mark’s case is almost a trademark, so it’s no strike against him if you ask me
The Daily Flip
Jim Kukral is doing some great work. There is so much cool stuff going on here that it needs to be broken down to be understood. Okay, check this out: The guy’s show is called The Daily Flip. The Flip video camera
Qualities found: all but high production quality and funny
Wine Library TV
Gary Vaynerchuk has been receiving a lot of attention, lately. This man is all about vino with a vengeance! He practically explodes off the screen and spills wine on your keyboard with passion and knowledge about the wines he sells.
Qualities found: all
Conclusion
I hope you have been inspired by what these folks are doing when it comes to your own video blogging. Remember, you don’t have to start out like these guys–they’ve been doing it for a while. Some of them have made hundreds of videos. If you haven’t yet started your video oddysey, do not be intimidated. Just grab a camera and start. You certainly will never get anywhere if you don’t even start! And you start at the same place everyone does: at the beginning. I hope to improve my own video-making as well. I’ve learned a lot in researching this and taken a tough look at my own video work with an eye to making it remarkable.
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Adding a brief textual description adds to the taste of a good video blog!
That is a great checklist and above all, I agree with you that the one big obstacle to overcome is to compare oneself with the best guys around and feel intimidated.
All the seven points should be develped little by little with time and the most imortant is to practice.
Creating a character to that is a great help, but of course, the character must be faithful to yourself.
As you use to say (with a little paraphrasing): Get the tools and start videoblogging your ideas.
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What I don’t like is the time it takes – I could read a dozen blogs in the time it takes to watch one video blog. I don’t have all day to watch videos..
@ Abhinav – Absolutely! Good for your readers and good for search, too.
@ Guilherme – Yes, these can be developed over time as you gain practice and confidence.
@ Tony – Takes far more time to produce them, too.
thanks for this great guide!
I guess most of us still prefer reading a blog, rather than watching a blog. It can be time consuming to follow a video blog all day long. For video bloggers, they really need to have the ‘X’ factor to succeed in a video blog.
@ Damien – considering the staggering growth of video blogging and mobile/live video online, I’m not sure it will be “most of us” for long. But in any case, most of my content is still text.
pardon me for saying “most of us”. I do watch video, but i seldom follow them. While you can differentiate a good post from a bad post by reading the headline and glance through the content, it is harder to differentiate a good video clip from a bad one unless you finish the clip. I find this rather time consuming. Just my two cents worth of opinions.
nevertheless, I do agree that video blogs are gradually picking up in the community.
Michael:
Excellent article – you and are actually in the same boat with respect to the lack of video editing skills but with a “JUST DO IT” attitude. I’ve only made 3 videos so far and I’m still learning the ropes. My goal is to provide a mixture of video and text to make things a bit more interesting and bring me closer to my subscribers/visitors.
I forwarded your post to the administrators of Overstream, the do-it-yourself subtitling website asking them to pay particular attention to the “Shareable” section because at the moment, they don’t provide a way for people to share or forward subtitled videos to others. I’m told they’ve put it on their list but because demand isn’t high enough, they aren’t focused on that just yet.
The vidoes you gave as samples of those that meet many of your self imposed qualities looked pretty interesting.
I’m sure your article today will inspire people to at least take the leap of faith and give it a shot without worrying about meeting all 7 criteria of making a video.
But you’re right about the humor part. Humor has always been a main attraction for people these days. We all could use a good laugh but I think I would also add that a good dose of authentic inspiration also does wonders.
Thanks for a GREAT article – I enjoy your articles very much. Oh one more thing. I appreciate your honesty about not being able to spout forth humor as much as you’d like. Don’t worry – maybe it’s your inner disease of perfectionism that many of us suffer from. Or maybe it’s the fear of sounding foolish but like you’ve counseled me in the past, JUST DO IT and let your tongue roll forth.
You’d be surprised at what you have within the depth of your consciousness that could be funny.
@ Damien – GREAT POINT! Watching a video is often a matter of trust, and begins with a leap of faith for something promising. There are people whose videos I watch without hesitation because I’ve learned I can trust them for great content.
@ Stephen – Thanks for throwing my own words back at me! No, I mean it. This isn’t sarcasm. Made me laugh out loud. I thought, “damn, I did say that, didn’t I?”
Ze Frank was awesome and one of a kind. I’ve yet to find anyone that can keep me interested enough to come back over and over. There have been a lot of people that tried to copy what Ze did but they all fail miserably.
I must admit though that I find the vlogs where someone just sits there talking to the cam saying the same thing they typed on their blog post, boring and don’t get the point. I’ve podcast many of my blog posts but I think that makes sense because they can be downloaded a listened to on an mp3 player while someone is doing something else, but if you’re going to sit there staring at the monitor listening to someone talk, it just makes more sense to read it to me.
Okay, now I’m thinking that “Create Your Videos” as a name is a violation of the rules. I would have left it alone if he hadn’t called your post a “blog”.
One quality frequently overlooked and becoming more irksome is the all-or-nothing nature of video blogs. Video is great, but sometimes, all you want is the information.
I’ve lost count of the number of interviews with Mullenweg, Arrington and others that contain great quotes and insight. In order to report on them, I have to sit through the interview, put up with the inane questions and puffery responses in order to get to the ‘meat’ of the interview.
Videos without transcripts, for a working journalist, can be likened to putting out a release in PDF format. PR shops quickly got the lessen and switched to quick text. I’m hoping video-makers do the same.
We have to get beyond the ‘coolness’ factor of video blogging and return to the original goal: information exchange.
I, for one, will bypass videos that don’t include a transcript.
@ Ed Sutherland – Good points, man. I have switched to providing text info alongside the video. Not a full-blown transcript in most cases, but then, they’re not interviews. I think my next video will be through Viddler because of the annotation capability.
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can you suggest me what is the best script to show the video inside my blog because i’m new in this video blog stuff, thank you
@Fery – Check out the new Kaltura plugin for WordPress: http://corp.kaltura.com/
Thanks, Mr. Michael, I have checked and downloaded the plugin, it’s really works now
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