The earthquake in Chile and the pacific brought destruction to Chile and tsunami warnings on Hawaii, and the hours that the island inhabitants had not only been spent on evacuating, but setting up cameras to document the event.

One video was streamed on Ustream, where it garnered over 4.3 million viewers. You can see the recorded video above.

It’s a question you should ask yourself–can my blog handle vlogs?

A vlog, simply put, is a Video bLOG.  And if your blog is a Wordpress blog, as many of them are these days, it’s very, VERY, easy to slip a video in there.  You might think that you don’t have the face for video, or the stage presence, or the equipment.  But if you spent a half-hour or so on YouTube, you’ll discover that that doesn’t stop a lot of people.  Even posting a video to YouTube isn’t difficult; many camcorders will come with a “one touch upload” button that automatically handles a lot of common YouTube issues.

Meanwhile, a video blog reaps at least three separate benefits you’ll love.

1. A video blog gets a whole new audience involved.  People who’d never find your blog because they’re spending all their time on YouTube might well find what you have to say exciting.

2. A video blog gets you extra credibility at Google. If you’ve got a blog with keywords and such, you’ll get ahead when you have a separate video blog with keywords PLUS the blog posting of your video with keywords.

3. A video blog gives you access to a whole new field of endeavor.  Maybe you’ve thought about collecting your blog posts into a book or even an e-book.  But with video, you could release your own DVD.  If your blog is particularly entertaining you could even try to get it to video stores or distributors.  Or it could even get you on TV proper–hey, it worked for Lonelygirl15!

So when you add these together, the end result is that it may be a smart idea to consider doing a little video blogging alongside your regular turn of blogs.

In yesterdays post I talked about the basics to consider when setting up for a video blog post from home.  Today we are going to look at actually getting your video onto your blog and then promoting it.

Assuming you have used some or all of the tips from yesterdays post and are now satisfied you have got a reasonable video entry for your blog the next step is to edit it.  Whether you are a Mac or PC user, if you bought your machine in the last 18months you already have the editing software on your machine - free! On a Mac it is iVideo, on a PC it is Windows Movie Maker. Now neither of these are going to give you a big budget summer blockbuster feel but they will allow you to do some of the basics and will certainly allow you to edit out those unfortunate bloopers ( you can save those for another blog post).

Having made a few edits and saved the file. You are now faced with the challenge of getting your video onto your blog. Even though your blog editor probably allows you to upload the video file directly to your blog storage I wouldn’t recommend this. Video is, by its nature a disk hungry beast, if you are using a free hosting service you most certainly don’t have the capacity to load videos.  Besides why use your bandwidth when you can use someone elses?

Youtube, Vimeo, Viddler, Crackle and others are all great video hosting services. Each have their limitations but any or all of them will allow you to host your video, present you with a link or embed code to place in your blog entry and run your video for you.

If you really want to get the word out about your Video consider using TubeMogul.com which will actually distribute your videos to all the popular video hosting sites for you and even provide stats about the views your videos receive, even better their basic service is free.

Video has become increasingly popular amongst bloggers. Some Vbloggers make it look very easy. With the advent of low cost video cameras it can be tempting to just jump in.

However, before you do so, there are some things that you should consider beyond just a camera.

Firstly, the camera itself. A basic webcam, whilst ok for video chat might not give you quite the quality you are looking for to present on your blog.  The low end cameras such as the Flip Mino offer a reasonable alternative and now that they include HD options the quality is certainly a lot better than that offered by a regular Webcam.

Lighting is the next thing to consider. Will your desk lamp really show you to your best?  A cheap lighting kit will run you a few hundred bucks, but can make your video look like a million bucks. If you aren’t quite ready to pay out that much, get creative, a shop lamp from your local hardware store clipped to the top of your camera or monitor will provide a good light source, soften it with a sheet of diffuser from your photography store or even Wax paper to make sure you dont have glare from your face.

Background, thinking about what is behind you in the shot is very important. An unscreened window can lead to lighting imbalance and leave you washed out or completely in the dark. A cluttered spare room probably isnt a great back drop either and could distract your audience.  For a few thousand dollars you can invest in your own “Green Screen”. But a more realistic option is to simply tidy up around you, and frame the shot so that there is something interesting but not too distracting over your shoulder.

Lights, camera, action. We’ll discuss getting your footage onto your blog tomorrow.

Just thought you guys might find this interesting. This dude, Matt Harding, traveled around 42 countries within the past 14 months and… well, danced. It’s just simply amazing. This is actually Matt’s 3rd time doing this. The first time was all self-financed by himself. When the people of Stride gum discovered his interesting viral video, they offered to sponsor him if he traveled around the world again to make another video. Matt liked the idea and the second video was born. The video below is his third and most recent.

To watch the video in HD, go ahead and click here. Go ahead and check out Matt’s site, Where the Hell Is Matt?, if you want to learn everything there is to him and his videos. 

Pork and Beans… and I’m not talking about it literally. What I am talking about is the new song by Weezer (the band behind “Beverly Hills” and “My Name Is Jonas”) called Pork and Beans. Anyway, what’s so special about the song? Well, if you haven’t seen it yet (and I doubt that you haven’t), all I want to say is that it’s one of the best music videos I have ever seen. This music video is a perfect example of how viral marketing is the best types of marketing on the internet. Weezer knows exactly how to go viral on YouTube… by referencing popular viral videos on YouTube. Does “Numanuma” sound familiar to you? What about “Peanut Butter Jelly Time” or “Leave Britney Alone”? The band incorporated some of these viral videos and some of their characters into their new song and video, which has made themselves go viral. But enough with the talk, go watch the video below and you’ll see why. If you have already seen it, watch it again!

By the way, if you want to see all the original videos that this song referenced to, check out this page. Gizmodo has done all the work for you by putting up all the videos on one page, so just sit back and watch!

Over at 45n5, Mark has posted up a helpful video going over how to make your site “sticky”. When he says sticky, he is talking about the bounce rate of your visitors: how long they stay and how frequently they come back. Making a sticky site depends on many things from its structure to the content and sources you provide. As long as you implement these tips, you’ll have people coming back to your site everyday without a problem.

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Original Video On YouTube

Forget SEO, PPC, or afilliate marketing to promote your site. There is now a new revolutionary way of internet marketing, and some of you are already doing it right now. It’s not actually new, but you would be surprised that many people are not implementing this easy method of promotion. If you really want instant traffic and exposure, there’s only one thing you need: Social Marketing.

 

So where is this all leading to? Well, I’m not going to write hundreds of words about social marketing, how you should do it, or why you should implement it. Instead, I’ll just let you go ahead and visit Stompernet’s best video yet, Social Marketing: Success Without SEO, Pay-Per-Click, and Affiliates. If don’t know what Stompernet is, then that means you haven’t seen their other video that I have posted a few days ago. But what you really need to see is this one first. The video is very long, so make sure you take time committed to watching it. If you pass it up, you’re also passing up success with your online business, whether it’s a blog or any other type of site.Remember, you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to make money online. In fact, this video will without a doubt increase your income over 20% and help you save money as well. So get yourself comfortable, grab a snack and watch this video.