Sep 19 2008
How To Add Video To Your Blog – Part 1
Video Conquers The Internet
Back in the paleolithic era of the internet, all web pages were static.
In time, animated GIFs appeared, proliferated, then faded away. Banners flashed, hamsters danced, babies burbled. Some of these innovations were amusing, some annoying – but all were constrained by the limited download speeds of the average user’s modem and the immense size of video files.
Quicktime and Real Audio/Video sought ways to stream the rich media content web users craved, but the results were still choppy. Old timers remember the brain-numbing routine of watching a few seconds of action… pause…. watch… pause and on and on. It’s never easy to be a pioneer.
The growing adoption of broadband marked the beginning of the end for this stage. The explosive growth of You Tube ushered in today’s interactive internet. Full motion video is no more noteworthy than full color photographs. Your viewers, readers, and buyers expect it. If you aren’t using video today, you will be using it tomorrow – or you’ll be losing business.
Embedding Is Easier Than It Sounds
The fastest, cheapest, easiest way to add video to your site is to simply embed a video from You Tube. Amazingly, you don’t even need a You Tube account to embed You Tube videos. The embed code is displayed right beside every video on the site. Everyone is allowed – indeed encouraged – to borrow it.
Embed Code on You Tube
Find the embed code, copy it, and paste it into the HTML on your web site or blog. Presto – instant video. At one time, this process was more difficult for WordPress users, but now, even if you have a WordPress blog, it’s just a question of copy and paste. But note: you must paste the code into the HTML of your site, not into the visual editor. The same process works with Vimeo and other video hosting sites.
If you don’t have video of your own, but you’ve found a You Tube clip that perfectly illustrates your point, use it!
In the next installment we’ll talk about the pros and cons of bypassing You Tube and hosting your own videos.
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