Friday, August 28, 2009

Video Blogging?

For a while now, I've had the odd idea of 'video blogging' running through my head.

Generally, I'm not a fan of videos on blogs. I tend to ignore them, as I do my blog-reading during lunch hour at work. Even if you're scoffing your well-deserved sandwich as you do so, it's still not de rigeur to watch TV in the office!

Likewise, I try to avoid posting videos on my blog, as some readers don't have access to Broadband and it's frustrating to try and watch choppy, jagged videos - or not be able to see them at all.

But video blogging does have the potential to be cool - and net you a lot of attention. It's also a unique and exciting way of expressing yourself on the Internet in a way words simply can't.

Like blogging itself, there are various thoughts about where is best to host your videos. You can upload them directly onto Blogger - although that eats into your storage space - or use an outside service like YouTube.

A new alternative is Thoughts, a social-networking site which labels itself as a 'conversation' site. You can host videos there, linked to a personal profile with widgets and other cool gadgets that allow you to control exactly how other viewers see you and your content.

This is pretty cool, since it means people can see your videos on your blog and then 'follow' them back to your Thoughts profile if they want to see more. The facility to generate feedback, conversation and interaction with other viewers (which equals more blog hits) is considerably slicker than with other video posting sites.

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