RGMP 14: Publish your video on your blog
This is the 14th post in a series titled “Reporter’s Guide to Multimedia Proficiency.” In the 13th post, I discussed how to edit video in a very simple editing program. In this post, I will explain an easy method for embedding your video in a post on your blog. (What, you don’t have a blog? Shame on you! Go back to RGMP 2 for remedial work!)
First, of course, you need to shoot some video (see RGMP 12) and edit it (see RGMP 13).
(Note: The HQ button switches this video to a higher-quality image.)
The easiest way to get your video online is to upload it to one of the free video viewing sites, such as YouTube or Vimeo. (Those two seem to be the most popular; for more options, see this list at Mashable or this list at Top Ten Reviews.) Sure, you could upload the video to your own server, but then you miss out on the chance to tag it, link it, and associate it with other people’s video about similar topics.
In other words, do you want people to watch your video — yes or no? If you answered yes, then put it where people can find it — okay?
These instructions are going to follow the procedure for YouTube — for two reasons. (1) YouTube is still the king of online video sites. (2) The WordPress.com instructions for embedding a YouTube video in your blog post are foolproof, and RGMP 2 told you exactly how to get started with a WordPress.com blog. (If you’re not using WordPress.com, you’ll need to find the equivalent help page for your blogging platform.)
Another cool thing about YouTube is that it’s easy to create your own playlists and channels there. For example, I created a YouTube channel just for videos made by my students. You can send or embed a link to a playlist — for example, here is my playlist of videos about journalism topics.
How to upload the video
You’ll need to have a YouTube account. It’s free. Just sign up. (You can have more than one.)
YouTube will accept a variety of video file formats.
Log in to your YouTube account. Then find and click the yellow button near the top right corner of the page — it says Upload.
You will start the upload process by clicking the obvious button (“Upload Video”) and then browsing on your computer to find the video file. After the file starts uploading, you will be able to assign a title, description, tags and category to your video. Make sure to click “Save Changes” at the bottom (you may do this before the upload is complete).
The upload might take a long time, or not — it all depends on unknowable factors, so just be patient. You might have to give up and try again later, or even try again another day. But if you’re lucky, your video will be online in just a few minutes!
Do not close the Web page before the upload is complete!
How to embed the video in a blog post
After the video is ready on YouTube, start a new blog post the way you normally would. You will need the URL of the video (at YouTube) to embed it. If you don’t have that URL, go to “My Videos” on YouTube — if you are logged in, that would be here:
http://www.youtube.com/my_videos
Click the video to open it, and copy the complete URL from the address bar of your Web browser (including http://).
Then simply follow the WordPress.com instructions for embedding a YouTube video in your blog post.
Save the post and publish it as you normally would. The video should be visible and playable. If it’s not, then open the post in edit mode and review the WordPress.com instructions! (They really do work, I promise.)
Note for self-hosted WordPress users: The plugin I’m using for YouTube videos on this blog now is Smart YouTube.
Note about the video, if you care: Shot by me with my Canon PowerShot SD700 IS (still camera). Edited in Final Cut Pro. Music from a CD of Cambodian folk music, produced in Cambodia.
Previous posts in this series
- RGMP 1: Read blogs and use RSS
- RGMP 2: Start a blog
- RGMP 3: Buy an audio recorder and learn to use it
- RGMP 4: Start editing audio
- RGMP 5: Listen to podcasts
- RGMP 6: Post an interview (or podcast) on your blog
- RGMP 7: Learn how to shoot decent photos
- RGMP 8: Learn how to crop, tone, and optimize photos
- RGMP 9: Add photos to your blog
- RGMP 10: Learn to use Soundslides
- RGMP 11: Tell a good story with images and sound
- RGMP 12: Learn to shoot video
- RGMP 13: Edit your video with iMovie or Windows Movie Maker
Categories: blogging, multimedia, training, video
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[...] sites, such as YouTube or Vimeo, writes McAdams in the 14th part of her series in video reporting. READ MORE> “Those two seem to be the most popular; for more options, see this list at Mashable or this [...]
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Wonderful blog — thanks for sharing insights! I noticed the footage you took from your Canon SD700IS was edited in FCP — which Audio/Video settings did you use for the sequence to edit in FCP? Did you transcode it into a different format b4 importing into FCP? The footage I get from my Canon SD850IS is .avi — which requires endless rendering. I searched online for other strategies and found that if you convert the raw .avi files into Apple Pro Res 422 (plus audio at 48kHz) using MPEG Streamclip, you can edit natively in FCP w/o having to render as much — only thing is that the footage now takes up tons of files pace…just curious to see what your work flow is from your SD700IS > FCP.
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[...] In the 14th post, I explained an easy method for embedding your video in a post on your blog. (Video shooting and editing were covered in RGMP 12 and RGMP 13.) In this post, I will explain how I maintain and update my own proficiency in all of these skills. [...]
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