Feb 26, 2013 / Intermediate

Quick Tip: Add Video

Have you ever had this experience? You’re a big fan of someone’s blog. You read all her posts, you know her pet peeves, her sense of humor, her favorite books and movies. You know her dating travails, and that her best friend tends to drop by unannounced. You know her job sucks (or rocks). You know what she looks like, too – you’ve seen photos of her, her apartment, her car, her dog (forgive me if this is sounding stalkerish). You think you couldn’t possibly know her better.

Then, one day she posts a video of herself talking. And you’re blown away! “So, that’s who she is!” you think.

I’m all about the words and pictures, but adding video to your blog is a game-changer. It allows you to illustrate your subject in an entirely new dimension. And thanks to the prevalence of smart phones, you no longer have to invest in a video recorder to star in your own webisode.

Traveling in a new city? Pictures are great, but a video of that gondola ride will really put your readers right there in the canal with you. They’ll be able to hear the accordion and the lapping water, and see the ancient buildings glide past and the bridges pass overhead.

Blogging about a new recipe? You can write out in detail all the steps you took and photograph each phase of the process…or you could demonstrate with a live action cooking show.

If you want to show off the great work you did in your garden this year, why not give us a video tour? If you just adopted a new puppy, why not introduce us?

WordPress.com makes it easy to add videos to your site. If you want to upload your own video files directly to your Media Library, you’ll need the VideoPress upgrade. But if you don’t want to spring for it right now, you can embed videos from all of the popular services for free!

For example, say you want to share a video from YouTube. You might think that you should copy the video’s embed code, and for sharing on many websites, that’s exactly what you would do. But here on WordPress.com, you want to copy the video’s URL instead. The URL is what appears in your browser’s address bar while you’re viewing the video. It’s what you’d copy if you wanted to share the link itself.

So, for example, if you wanted to share this video of a baby panda sneezing, you’d copy the URL and paste it on its own line in your post’s Visual Editor, like so:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAcdvmnZ_GM

Make sure that the link is not hyperlinked – if the link is clickable, just click the “Unlink” button in the Visual Editor to remove the hyperlink. Then, when you publish the post, instead of the bare link, you’ll see:

You can share videos from Vimeo and other video sharing services just as easily. The actual method might differ a bit from YouTube, but there are step-by-step directions for each service linked here.

If you want to get a little more advanced, stay tuned! Tomorrow, Cheri will teach you how to use shortcodes to do even more cool things with your video embeds.

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  1. I think videos can really help add to the content of a post, but sometimes the videos can look like the video WordAds and then I don’t think people are as likely to click on them. I also had a problem with a video I tried to put in my post disappearing after I published it. I’m not sure why this is, but I finally got it to work…somehow.

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  2. Videos can be extremely boring.

    They don’t always add value. Some youtube music ones are good, some personal uploaded ones are good, but top tip is to keep them pretty short before people switch off to them.

    Not an easy medium to add unless you are good and have a steady hand in terms of personal vids.

    I often skip them.

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      3. I have to admit that it was the panda image that even got me to read this post — but not for the reasons that, perhaps, most would. I saw the headline ‘baby panda sneezing’ and I saw a panda in a zoo; I don’t find it ‘cute’ that probably one of the very last cubs of a species that is on the verge of extinction due to our irresponsible stewardship of this planet is unwell: I find it grotesque.

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      4. Sorry to budge in. grotesque? what do you mean? The panda is indeed on the verge of extinction due to shrinking of their natural habitat (yep human’s fault). They need to eat s–o— much bamboo leave (very low nutritional value). But you also have to give credit to human too. The panda bear has extremely low rate of reproduction. Human dramatically increase the population of the spices. Of course a reserved is set up. And that’s a good thing right? The bear probably has already extinct without the human efforts.

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      5. I find it grotesque because we spend all this effort trying to save the cuddly, cute beasties while turning a blind eye to the fact that we are directly responsible for the largest extinction of species that this planet has ever known. Currently, an estimated 200 species go extinct Every. Single. Day. And, why? Well, mainly, so that we can continue to… shop.

        ‘Grotesque’ is too kind a word.

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      6. Actually, you forgot eat animals and drive in cars, while still gushing over little cute animals vids, but you pretty summed up my views rather well. I would have said hypocritical, but each to their own in choice of words.

        And while I didn’t intend to start a debate on a comment, sometimes it needs to be said that not everyone agrees with cute animal pix/vids that achieve nothing apart from awwwww. You said exactly what I thought.

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  3. I haven’t considered adding personal video’s to my blog posts yet. I’m just not that adept at taking them and I don’t want to share sub-par stuff. I will practice, a lot before I get brave enough to share. And I think the Panda video is adorable.

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  4. I love video in blog posts. I’ve been using videos since the very beginning and have found that it gives my posts another dimension. Since I usually blog about books and teaching English, I need all the liveliness I can get my hands on. So, I’ll always add a video, as long as it’s relevant, to each of my posts.

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  5. I think whether a video will be boring or not is depend on us. If the video have a good content that could enrich the information being conveyed to the readers, then it should be there. If you post junk content, the reader will get the garbage.

    The important thing about this posting is when we really need to post a video content there is a way to do it without upgrading to a premium wordpress account.

    So yes, thank you for this good info.

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      1. now THAT is funny! We were just watching old videos of our dog tonight, and when the camera panned around to include me, I ’bout upchucked. Well … maybe not THAT bad – but close!! 😆

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  8. Hey – great timing! I just so happened to post my first real video on my blog, Mango Mornings. I don’t think videos need to be professionally done as it shows an authentic experience. Anyway, it’s great for us bloggers to get out there and try it – also to experiment with different filters, music, length. etc. Plus, there are plenty of beginner video editing programs. The one I used is Magix Edit Pro.

    Here’s the link to my video post, about a recent trip to a beach here in the Philippines:

    https://mangomornings.wordpress.com/2013/02/26/wannabe-beach-bum/

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  10. Great reminder! I love watching other blogger’s vlogs.
    I am due for another myself. I usually include one for my Use Me and Abuse Me Days to explain how they work. I used to include them in my posts all the time, but they end up being the feature photo in the reader, so I have used links more recently.

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  12. I wanted to add a video recently, just to vary the way I post. I think short videos are great – but take the point above about not overdoing it! Will definitely be giving this one a go once I work out how to upload from my iPhone to YouTube.

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  14. Thanks, I don’t think video is for me, but my daughter likes playing with stop motion, and may well add some to her blog – I’ll have to pass the message along.

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  15. I’ve had a bad experience with every video I’ve uploaded so far unfortunately. My stats drop to zero practically – I think the reason is that many people find it difficult to view or listen. I guess I’ll keep trying now 🙂

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    2. Strange. Have you tried encouraging your readers to let you know what they think of the videos? I think combined text and video usually does better than just a video on its own – that way, people who don’t like videos can just read the rest of the post. 🙂

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  16. Let’s hear it for words! Carefully chosen, well-used words that paint a picture. Don’t people have an imagination any more? Or just a short attention span.

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    1. haha Jo! I have an extremely short attention span for a) poor lengthy videos and b) videos that are plonked up without an explanation of why I should waste my time watching them. The worst tend to be of someone walking a dog around the street showing us a road, a pavement and 20 or 30 identical houses. Riveting stuff.

      However I’m quite happy reading a lengthy post of 2000 words plus (just as well or I wouldn’t be able to read some of my own posts) so long as they are in short paragraphs.

      I’ve even posted a couple of extremely short and badly done vids, but that was really to capture the music element of parades/processions.

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  20. I want to work on building great content before I add videos to my blog. I think adding video’s would be a fantastic idea…just want to have good videos on my blog…
    Ahhhh the life of a blogger….what will i post today…

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    1. Always a fantastic idea to focus on good content first. Then later once you’ve gotten in a good flow with your posts, other forms of media might start to sound like just the thing!

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  21. I wanted to make a copy of your article. There was no click to print just article so I clicked on print at bottom so I got 7 printed pages which included comments instead of two pages. Sorry this is not on subject………wondered how difficult that format is to add? Again sorry off subject which I enjoyed and did print to save. I hope to use your lesson on adding video in the future. Thanks

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    1. Actually, if you don’t mind, I’ll leave it, since some other people might wonder the same thing, actually. If you hover over the little gray arrow at the end of the ‘Share this:’ row above – where the Facebook, Twitter, etc. sharing icons are – you’ll see a dropdown with some additional icons. One of them is a ‘print’ button. 🙂

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    2. Oh, never mind – I read your question too fast. That’s what you did, but you just didn’t want the comments! There should be a setting in your browser’s print window that lets you tell it to print just pages 1-2.

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  25. Unless your pet is a sneezing panda, no one is clicking. Videos should be less than 30 seconds and hilarious or riveting or a song that brings you right into the mood of the piece. That said, I did watch the Hyperbole and a Half video of when somehow, a goose got into her house. But seeing and hearing HER was better than the footage of a feral feathered intruder (because she’s a genius and I’m a gushing fan).

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  27. I don’t have a smart phone but I downloaded something from the internet called Pamela. You get a month’s free trial. I then recorded the humorous poem I’d written and added a picture slideshow in a loop using Picasa. I uploaded to Youtube and embedded in my blog

    The Ugly Bug Spring Jive

    I think using voice on your about page would be brilliant and make your blog more personal. I’ve yet to find another method for recoding voice only, which is free.

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  28. Thank you for posting this!!! I always thought that using the video option meant springing extra $$$ for it but now I see I can simply imbed a YouTube video to it with no issues or extra cost. Thanks again! Great post!

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  30. OK, I read this blog and thought; I would give this a shot? So I hopped on my motor bike and drove up a mountain to a Buddha Temple (I live in Thailand) and made this one- take video, which I thought it, would be a good way for people to see a different side of me. No script, just some points I wanted to cover. Give me some feedback! Don’t know if it’s a good idea…or not?

    There are two things you are talking about here. One is putting a link to your sight, which should relate to your message that can help your reader to expand on your message… that can work. Now, what I think is more important, a personal message from you on what your blog is about.

    Now, don’t stress out here, I know most bloggers are very good at the written word but many are terrified to get in front of a camera! Relax and breathe, just talk to me. I believe it’s more important for your readers to meet you on an uncommon level; it will create a different connection. Have fun with it, no need to try to make it a Hollywood production. Picasa, from Google, is a free program and a good way to get started.

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