Feed Your Inner Filmmaker with a Video Site

Jan 4, 2011 by admin    No Comments    Posted under: Uncategorized

You’ve got a site account on http://sites.ulethbridge.ca, you’re comfortable with how you can create posts with photos and text – but what about video content? Video sites are simple, here’s a few tips on turning that basic site into one that would make Bollywood blush:

1. Get a YouTube Account
   While there are many online services that allow you to upload and embed video in your blog sites, YouTube is probably your best bet. It’s free, gives you the ability to stream your stuff in HD, and if numbers are your thing – has great analytics to show you who’s watching what.
2. Be Professional (Maybe)
   It’s your site, express yourself – record a tutorial, share some tips, an event, or simply chat to your audience – but remember – try to use a microphone and find a clean background that doesn’t distract from your message. If your webcam is mounted on your computer, great – if not, place it on a stable tripod or table. If you are in your room, try to clean up the stray socks and plate of last night’s pizza before recording.
3. Get Comfortable
   Use a script, or cue cards if public speaking isn’t your forté, try to find a spot with a lot of light – it’ll make the images cleaner and make your web camera look like a million bucks. Try to remember to look at the camera, you’ll engage your viewer better when you’ve got eye contact.
4. Remember YouTube’s 10 Minute Limit
   The best vlog posts are quick to the point without a lot of dead air. It might be useful to run through what you’ve got to say once or twice before actually recording – if you find yourself rambling, there’s always editing software to hack it down, but remember – after 10 minutes YouTube shuts off.
5. Embed your video into your site post
   Got everything ready to go on YouTube? Now bring it on over to http://sites.ulethbridge.ca and embed it right into your site post for the whole world to see. You can do that by switching the tab in your visual editor from “visual” to “html” , cut-n-paste-ing the resulting code YouTube gives you to embed – blammo! the YouTube player is embedded right into your site p0st.

Need more info or a hand with vlogging on sites.ulethbridge.ca? Contact your friendly neighbourhood University of Lethbridge web team via email – we’ll take care of the rest!

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