Tips for Video Blogging

So you've decided to give your fingers a rest and put your best face forward.  You want to get involved in video blogging, and why not, it is a great way to connect with your audience and provide them with interesting information in half the time it would normally take them to read it.  However, when you have decided to make a video blog, there are several things that you must remember.  These tips will allow you to have a video blog that individuals actually want to see, and it will keep your blog interesting and informative.  

The first of these tips is to make sure that you keep all of your video blog entries short.  In most cases you will want to keep your blog in the range of one to three minutes.  If you feel that you have much more to say than in this short time span, simply, create a sequel to your first blog.  But remember, you will not want to keep your blog longer than four minutes, because many people that are watching video blogs are not there for thirty minutes.  They want to be entertained in a short amount of time, and then move on.  This is why having more video blog entries is better than having fewer, longer entries.  

The next step is to talk about a story that is interesting.  Even if your story is just about what happened to you at the grocery store today, make sure that you have a beginning, middle and end.  However, again if you feel your story would take longer than the suggested amount of time, either don't talk about it or make it into a multi-post story.  Many video bloggers will not only write about their story, but they will also include a video that helps describe the story.

A good example of this is say you saw the strangest dog in the entire world today while walking down the street.  Upon seeing it you took a short fifteen second video.  After you have finished writing about the dog, you can include the video to allow your readers to see exactly what you saw.  Videos are much more powerful than photos, because the video actually places you in a moving scene, instead of a stagnant one.  

Of course, this next tip is something that everyone should follow.  When you are recording your video blog, make sure that there is no background noise.  There is nothing more annoying than hearing a strange noise when the speaker is trying to talk.  Many times, individuals will tune out what you're trying to say, and will focus on the background noise, or they will simply leave your blog.  Also, make sure that you utilize close-ups instead of longer distanced shots.  This is because when you are talking into a camera, the viewer wants to clearly see who is speaking to them.

It's the same concept as in real life, you wouldn't listen to a person who was trying to give you information from across the room, so don't set up your video blog to where you are distanced from the camera.  A good way to discover if you are at the correct distance from the camera is by looking at the screen and making sure that only your chest and up is visible.  You don't want to show your whole torso, because you would be too far away for the viewers.

And remember, always use good lighting.  Don't sit in front of a window that has the sun shining through it, always face your lighting, and never have a backlight for video blogging.