• HOW TO: Make a Great How-To Video via Mashable. This article walks you through five of the basic steps you need to consider before (and during) you produce your next vlog. You might also want to check out 4 Tips for Producing Quality Web Videos (also via Mashable).

• Video and Vlog-It! via Danielle Smith. Danielle is a friend of mine who is known throughout the blogosphere as the go-to gal for vlogging. In a former life she was a news anchor and she knows her way around a camera. She has vlogging down to an art and she shares her experience with you several times a week in the form of video tips to take your own vlogs to the next level. She’s pro and you’ll learn a lot from her.

• Simple Vlogging Tips by Jendi. Jendi’s another friend of mine who fell in love with vlogging back in 2008. Every Friday she challenges you to practice your vlogging skills by giving you a topic to vlog on — then you have a week to produce the video.

• How to Be a Vlogging Superstar via Wellsphere. Beth (aka RoleMommy) gives some solid advice about how to start vlogging (hint: be a storyteller). Regardless of the topic, if RoleMommy’s talking, I’m listening.

photo credit: laverrue

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• How to Use Video to Jump to the Top of Google Search Results via TechCrunch. “Google has given over more and more of its search results real estate to “blended” search results, displaying videos and images towards the top of the first page, and pushing down—and sometimes off the page—traditional web results that would have otherwise competed for top rankings.”

• Design a Prettier Web Form with CSS 3 via Nettuts+. “By following this tutorial you will not only end up with a lightweight and beautiful form, you’ll also learn and understand new CSS3 techniques, such as box-shadow, gradients, opaque colors, and rounded corners.”

• Web Resizer Shrinks Your Photos to Bandwidth-Friendly Sizes via Lifehacker. “Upload a photo to Web Resizer and you can not only resize the image to smaller dimensions, but tweak its appearance and image quality. You can round the corners or leave them square, add a border, crop, rotate, sharpen and adjust the image quality to push the image size down even further.”

• 5 Copyright Steps to Take Before Launching Any Site via Plagiarism Today. “If you value your content, its worth taking some time before launching to make some adjustments and make sure that your work is protected. Doing so will not only help you enforce your copyright, but also track where it appears on the Web, legitimately and unlawfully, letting you better understand your audience and reach.”

photo credit: mallix

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Upload video from your computer

1. Go to your Facebook profile. On your wall is the text box where you usually update your status. Below that box is the word Attach with a line of icons next to it.
2. Click the icon that looks like a video camera. You’ll see two choices: Record a video and Upload a video.
3. Click Upload a video.
4. Click Browse, find your video on your hard drive, and upload it to your profile.

Record a new video on your Facebook profile

1. Go to your Facebook profile. On your wall is the text box where you usually update your status. Below that box is the word Attach with a line of icons next to it.
2. Click the icon that looks like a video camera. You’ll see two choices: Record a video and Upload a video.
3. Click the Record a video. You’ll see a box asking if Facebook has your permission to access your computer’s camera and microphone. If the answer is yes, click the radio button (the circle) next to Allow.
4. Click the “Close” button in that box. You’ll see a picture of yourself in that box. Position your screen in a way that centers you in the box.
5. Click the red button with the dot in the middle to start recording. To stop recording, click the button again (it’s a square now).
6. You’ll have the option to play the video, save the video, or reset the video. To see how the video came out, push the play button (the triangle). If you’re happy with it, click Save. If you want a do-over, click Reset and re-record your video.

Once you’ve saved your video you will have the opportunity to tag people in the video, give the video a title and description, and choose the thumbnail that will accompany the video (these are stills from the video).

Finally, you have the option to Save (publish to the group), Delete (delete the video permanently), or Skip for now (which means you want to publish the video, but haven’t actually given it a title, description, or chosen a thumbnail).

Once you get over the initial horror of seeing and hearing yourself on video, it’s actually quite fun to make a daily Facebook vlog and share a moment or two of you with your community. Why not give it a try? It couldn’t be easier.

Before you go, leave me a comment about whether you use Facebook’s video feature or not. If you’re one of the many who don’t, why not? Is it because it never occurred to you? Or because you don’t want to see yourself up there? Or because you weren’t sure how? Now that you know how easy it is, will you try it? How do you see the video helping you promote your brand? Thanks for reading; I can’t wait to hear what you have to say.

A version of this article was cross-posted at BlogHer.com.

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So far I’ve tackled using podcasting and photos to give new dimensions to your content. Today I’ll finish up by discussing how to create and use video (also called screencasting or vlogging) on your blog.

When should you use video in your blog? Well, video is ideal if you are providing a tutorial. Although written instructions are always appreciated, seeing how something is done is even better in some instances. Not only does a video allow you to show your audience what you’re talking about and where to click (for example, if you’re explaining how to do something on your blog), it saves you from having to write lengthy step-by-step instructions. Many times when your audience sees what you’re doing in a tutorial, it makes more sense to them.

What if you’re not writing tutorials? Why should you include video in a blog post? As Skellie explains, Video is Your Chance to be a Pioneer:

We’re at a point now where every niche imaginable has been saturated by written content. You can still forge a name for yourself and gather an audience for your stuff, but it’s harder than ever to set yourself apart. . .Video blogging immediately sets you apart. You offer readers a different sensory experience and a different kind of engagement with the content. Often it’s an experience that simply can’t be translated into text. In fact, great video bloggers often make poor writers, and vice versa.

Using video on your blog can add an entirely new dimension to your blog community. Not only can your readers hear what you have to say, but they can see you as well. It’s an entirely different way to connect with your readers. Jendi (Jendi’s Journal) has put together a series of tips for bloggers who want to incorporate video into their blogs. Her advice includes

• what to include in your first video
• how to plan your video (hint: you need to write a script, even if it’s just an outline)
• consider the background of your video (avoid messy cabinets!)
• how to light your video
• use a stable camera (in other words, don’t hold the camera)
• make sure there are no distracting noises during your video

Amy Oztan at Selfish Mom does a screencast every morning to keep in touch with her readers and does the opposite of what Jendi (and many others!) suggests. Instead of worrying about getting herself made up, Amy just starts taping. “The recommended way would take too much time. . .The really great thing about my vlog is that I don’t waste a lot of time stressing about getting it “right.” When I type something out, I go back and edit and try to make it as perfect as I can. With my daily videos I made a rule for myself that I would just turn the camera on (usually in the morning, in my pjs, without make-up and with bed-head), and what happened happened. Sometimes I have nothing to say. Sometimes one of my kids busts in and ends up being a guest. Sometimes I say something dumb. It all gets posted. No editing, no deleting.”

I also asked Amy what equipment she uses and what bloggers need if they want to start vlogging or screencasting: “I have two Sony Vaios, a laptop and a tiny Lifestyle computer. Both have a camera built in. I record and save, and upload to YouTube, and then embed the video on SelfishMom.com. It’s incredibly easy.

“Being a fairly lazy person, I would recommend getting a laptop or computer with a camera built in. Everything will work together seamlessly. But if you don’t have that option, you can use any camera that captures video. Sometimes I use my Casio Exilim and then just put the memory card into my laptop and use Casio’s software to upload directly to YouTube. I know a lot of people who use Flip and Vado cameras. As long as you can get that video file onto your computer and get an internet connection, you can get your vlog onto YouTube.”

When you have your video completed, where should you upload it? Well, you can always go with YouTube and create your own channel. Or you can use vimeo–it’s fairly popular too. If you’re in the mommy blogger community there are actually two really great places to upload your video for free and also be part of a community: NewBaby.com and MomTV.com. Both are owned by my friend Maria Bailey of BSM Media. I have uploaded all of my travel video to NewBaby.com (over 40 videos from my Mommy Blogger Disney Cruise in January, 2009!) and I uploaded video from the Tulsa Mom’s Night Out/Blogger Meet Up to MomTV.com. I’ve been really happy with the service.

Further reading

• Video Download Helper: An Essential Firefox Extension
• ScreenCastle Records Your Screencast without Software
• Screencasting – What is the Ideal Length?

Don’t forget: Blogging Basics 101 provides several video tutorials.

A version of this article was cross-posted at BlogHer.

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One of the women I met at Blog World is Barbara Jones. I met her via Twitter before the conference. Everyone was tweeting back and forth about meet-ups and parties and sessions. At the time I thought I’d be traveling alone and I tweeted my lament that I wanted to hook up too! Barbara immediately contacted me and invited me to meet her and her group for dinner on Friday night. I couldn’t make that (because I arrived on Saturday), but when I showed up, I tweeted my arrival and Barbara was the first to say I’m at ___ session! Come find me! This may not sound extraordinary, but Barbara didn’t even know me! We’d never met. She was just reaching out to another blogger and helping me feel welcome.

When we finally did meet, Barbara had looked over BB101 and was on fire with ideas for me. Her main goal is to help women bloggers succeed. To that end she founded the One2One Network. Just like I can’t say enough about Blog World, I can’t gush enough about Barbara. She’s a woman with drive and she’s ready to take you along. In the following video, Barbara explains just what One2One Network does.

In the next week or two, Barbara and her partner, Epson, will be sponsoring a giveaway here at Blogging Basics 101. I’ll have more information in a few days. In the mean time think printer/fax/scanner/wireless.

You can see all of my Blog World Videos on my Blogging Basics 101 YouTube Channel.

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On the page where you view the video, look to the right of the video. You’ll see a square with information labeled URL and EMBED.

• If you just want a link to the video, copy the URL information from your browser’s address bar (highlight, Ctrl+C) to the clipboard and follow the instructions below.
• If you want to actually embed the video in your post so viewers can see it without clicking to YouTube, copy (highlight, Ctrl+C)  the script information in the Embed box (usually below or to the right of the video) and follow the instructions below.

Typepad and Blogger:

To link a video:

1. Compose your post as usual with the WYSIWYG editor.
2. Write a description of the video. For example, you might write: Darren Rowse of ProBlogger fame gives his best advice for beginning bloggers.
   
3. Highlight the part of the sentence you want to link.
4. Click on the link button on your Typepad or Blogger toolbar (it looks like a bit of chain).
5. Paste the URL you copied from YouTube into the box.
6. Continue writing your post or save your work.

To embed a video:

1. In your WYSIWYG editor click the tab that says Edit HTML.
2. Paste the script information you copied from the YouTube page.
3. Save as a draft (so you can preview to make sure it’s right before you publish).
4. When you click back to the WYSIWYG version (the Compose Post tab) of your post, you
   will not see your video. In Typepad, you will need to click the Preview button to
   see what the post will look like when you publish it. Click Preview to see the video. In Blogger, you won’t be able to see it until you publish the post.
5. If you’re happy with the result, either publish it immediately or assign it a publish date and click Save.

Typepad also offers instructions on how to insert other types of video into your posts.

WordPress:
I was amazed at how easy WordPress makes this process. It’s basically three or four steps. You can find them at the WordPress FAQ site.

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On the page where you view the video, look to the right of the video. You’ll see a square with information labeled URL and EMBED.

• If you just want a link to the video, copy the URL information from your browser’s address bar (highlight, Ctrl+C) to the clipboard and follow the instructions below.
• If you want to actually embed the video in your post so viewers can see it without clicking to YouTube, copy (highlight, Ctrl+C) the script information in the Embed box (usually below or to the right of the video) and follow the instructions below.

Typepad and Blogger:

To link a video:

1. Compose your post as usual with the WYSIWYG editor.
2. Write a description of the video. For example, you might write: Darren Rowse of ProBlogger fame gives his best advice for beginning bloggers.
   
3. Highlight the part of the sentence you want to link.
4. Click on the link button on your Typepad or Blogger toolbar (it looks like a bit of chain).
5. Paste the URL you copied from YouTube into the box.
6. Continue writing your post or save your work.

To embed a video:

1. In your WYSIWYG editor click the tab that says Edit HTML.
2. Paste the script information you copied from the YouTube page.
3. Save as a draft (so you can preview to make sure it’s right before you publish).
4. When you click back to the WYSIWYG version (the Compose Post tab) of your post, you
   will not see your video. In Typepad, you will need to click the Preview button to
   see what the post will look like when you publish it. Click Preview to see the video. In Blogger, you won’t be able to see it until you publish the post.
5. If you’re happy with the result, either publish it immediately or assign it a publish date and click Save.

Typepad also offers instructions on how to insert other types of video into your posts.

WordPress:
I was amazed at how easy WordPress makes this process. It’s basically three or four steps. You can find them at the WordPress FAQ site.

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In addition, many people don’t like music on web sites or blogs not only because it’s distracting, but because it’s a bandwidth hog and it can take forever to download.

Still want to include music on your blog? OK. It’s your blog, after all.

• Beta Blogger for Dummies offers a tutorial for the new Blogger. As does the Blogger Help site.
• Typepad has instructions for adding music to your blog too.
• Even WordPress is on the fun of adding music to your blog. When you click on that link, scroll down the page to learn about integrating your music.

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