Last updated on October 30th, 2020 at 02:57 pm.
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What is the basic idea of a video blog? Videos posted consistently on some online platform. The platform may be your Website or a Third Party website.
The important part is where to host the videos. After that, your main worry is getting the videos on your blog/website. There are lots of different places to host videos : YouTube, Vimeo, Wistia and so on (so many others, just Google them).
If you have a YouTube Channel or Vimeo Channel. You may want to have those videos embedded on another Website. You may be interested in embedding them on your Website as posts or as a video course series.
If you are a beginner or would like to get started into Video Blogging, check out this Video Blogging post.
In this post I want to talk about random things about the Video Blog Website you may want to create. Of course, throughout this Video Blog series I will be covering a whole lot more in future post/Videos .
The Video sources problem to solve
When you are beginning, you may not be sure where to host your videos. The general advice, however, is that you should never host your videos on your own Web Hosting Space.
Most Web Hosts probably will not allow this kind of hosting on their servers because it will eat away at their Server bandwidths.
Most people use WordPress as their Website platform. Therefore I will use WordPress as an example here. When you are creating a post on the WordPress editor . You do know that it is possible to upload any media to your Website and add it to the post. This includes even video and audio files.
You may be tempted to upload your videos on your Website instead of uploading them to sites like YouTube or Vimeo.
If you don’t want your videos on YouTube . You may try other alternatives. My favorite is Vimeo. Mostly because it has Vimeo Pro and Vimeo plus. With an upgrade, you can deliver your videos privately. You can restrict the videos so that they will not be embedded on any other domain. You can edit the Video player. And no advertisements. Even the free version Vimeo plays without ads on the videos.
I won’t talk about any other Video Hosting platforms but you can Google the alternatives. Platforms like Wistia and Amazon Web Service . If you want to go extremely professional, Vimeo Pro/plus is a good start.
YouTube is still the best for any beginner. Very easy to get started.
You have chosen your platform of choice. Where you will be uploading your Videos. Henceforth I will be assuming YouTube and/or Vimeo.
The next thing that you want is a website where you can embed these videos. It’s always good to have a website. Mostly because you may decide to offer some service once you have built your personal brand.
You never know what may come as a result of your videos. And therefore you need to have a website where you can have all your contact information. Along with all your videos .
The tool to use for the website
Nowadays it’s a no brainer. If you want to get online as quick as possible, you will use WordPress.
Note that there is WordPress.com and there is WodPress.org .
WordPress.com
On WordPress.com you will create your Website on their platform. You will create an account and set up your blog there. If you don’t buy a domain, your blog’s link will be something like : myvideoblog.wordpress.com .
WordPress.org
On the other hand, there is WordPress.Org . Where you will download WordPress and install it on your own web hosting space. You don’t need to download it though. Most Web Hosts have what is called one click install.
With the one click install once you buy our domain and hosting. You can install WordPress by following instructions provided by the Web host. Every Web Host will have a guide on how to install WordPress.
This second option is what is referred to as, Self Hosted WordPress. This is my favorite. Why? Because it gives you superpowers to grow into whatever you want.
For example, let’s say you want to create even more awesome videos. And sell them as downloads. You would just install a WP plugin such as Easy Digital Downloads. Set it up and start selling your Videos. Or maybe you want to create videos which are only accessible to paid members. You’d just install a Membership plugin and restrict some content.
With Self Hosted WordPress your Video Blog can grow into whatever you want it to be.
Maybe, we are thinking too far ahead. Let’s get back to the simple video intensive blog we were talking about.
What kind of WordPress theme would do well for your needs? Your needs are a WordPress Video Blog Theme that works well. One that would work well with your embedded YouTube or Vimeo Videos.
The WordPress theme attributes
The WordPress theme needs to be able to display videos well.
Bear in mind that your Videos are in Youtube or/and Vimeo. Therefore the theme needs to make it really easy to embed a YouTube video. And what can be easier than just copying and pasting the link of the video to your WordPress post?
Some attributes for the theme would be:
Responsive theme
The video intensive theme must be able to display videos well on any device. It should be able to resize on small screens.
Very simple to use
This is self-explanatory. The theme must be easy to use.
Minimalistic / Fast Loading
It should not be bloated with too many features. Features that will make the theme slow. The speed of your website is now a ranking factor in search engines. By Search Engines I only mean Google.
Here is the psychology. Your website shows up in the search results.
Then the user clicks your website on the Search results. Your Website is loading too slow . They click the back button immediately. Then choose another website among the Google results. Where they will stay for a long time.
This behavior tells Google that your Website is not worthy of being in the top results.
You can see how important it is to use a fast loading theme.
Easy to customize the theme
The theme needs to be easy to extend. You may need to add features to it. May be this sounds complicated so I will just end it here.
We’ll continue in the next post with our Video Blog series. If you have something that you need to ask, use the comments below.
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