The contest
Click Consultants and The University Kid are giving away a Creative Vado video camera, perfect for video blogging! What I love about this camera is that it has a rechargeable battery, which is also removable so you can swap it for a fully charged one when it runs out. This is exactly what I was looking for after my disastrous experience with my old HP photo camera that would switch off after 10 seconds on fresh AA batteries. Seriously, it was that bad! :mad:

Why videos?
Personally I prefer reading written posts because of the terrible internet connection we have in our area, and since I read quite fast it’s usually quicker for me to read a post than to wait for a video to load. On the other hand, the majority of internet users have a fast connection and so this is not a problem for them - viewing videos is much quicker and more entertaining than reading plain boring old text. Also, have you ever written about something you saw or experienced and found that words just cannot describe it adequately? Using videos solves this problem - your audience sees exactly what you see. Another advantage is that it’s much quicker to record a video than to type your whole post out, especially if you’re like me and still haven’t learnt to type properly! Right now I’m typing with four fingers plus my thumbs for the spacebar :blush:

My experience with video blogging
About two weeks ago I posted my first post with video content, a VectorDesigner tutorial. As you can see if you go to the YouTube page, the first comment I received was a negative one - it had me a bit down, but that’s how we learn
Now I know that it’s better to have sound with the video, even if what you’re trying to get across seems clear to you without it. Just because you understand something easily doesn’t mean others will too - maybe they have no experience with the subject, or maybe the video quality is not very good and so a voiceover narrating what’s happening is necessary.
The reason I didn’t add audio was because I stutter, and after recording that tutorial over 10 times trying to go through the whole thing without stuttering, I had to give up. However, I just got SoundStudio in the latest MacHeist bundle, so from now on I’ll be able to record the video and then just record the audio over and over until I get it right

Making money with video
Now on to the interesting part: how can you make money by posting video on your blog? Well, first of all I believe it will enhance the appeal of your blog to readers, by making your posts easy to understand and your content quick to view. I think I can be overly verbose sometimes, or explain something in a way that seems clear to me but is a bit confusing to anyone not inside my head :drop: If your content is good they’re also more likely to come back and hopefully click on your ads every now and then.

But there is a more direct way of earning from your videos, and that is by hosting them on sites like InVideo, Revver and Metacafe. The InVideo and Revver players display ads with your video and share revenue with you - and the best thing about them is that if other people embed your videos in their blogs, any ad revenue gained from them will still go to you! InVideo also has a referral program that can earn you extra money. Metacafe, on the other hand, only pays you if your videos pass their quality controls and get a certain amount of views each month, but if your videos do meet these terms then you’ll get paid quite a bit :$:

Conclusion - video blogging or written posts?
I would really love to win the Creative Vado, as I would be able to make videos about so many more things than I can with just screencasts :doeeyes: The digital photo camera I’m using now, although it’s battery power is better than my old HP camera, takes really bad quality video. But if I am lucky enough to win it, I will still post a written version of the videos I make for people who also have a bad connection like me - I know how frustrating it can be when nothing wants to load! Wish me luck!

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