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Using Video to Enhance Your Reach
Use Video to enhance your Web site or blog
In previous articles, Linda showed you how to begin to build a base foundation for your Web site, including adding news stories and articles. In this article, she'll provide resources that point to video that you can use in your blog or Web site.
Other "Free" Video-Sharing Options
- Vimeo: Vimeo is a community filled with creative people who share, critique and push videos to the world. They have HD capabilities as well as many users who are film/video creators. The nice option with this site is that it is not as well known as YouTube, and the video quality options for embedding may be more your cup of tea. If you want to be among the first to embed a great video in your site, this community can offer a chance to do just that.
- Internet Archive: Internet Archive's Moving Images library of free movies, films and videos contains thousands of digital files uploaded by Archive users which range from classic full-length films, to daily alternative news broadcasts, to cartoons and concerts. Many of these videos are available for free download.
- Google: If you want to find a variety of video production and sharing sites (or sites that will not share), visit this search link. I searched for a "how-to" video on how to animate, and found a huge list of videos available to view. But, you'll need to click on the videos to learn whether they are available for sharing. For instance, I clicked on "How to Animate in Adobe Flash," and went to the HowCast site to learn how I could share this video. Not only can I use code to embed this video on my site, I also can use various social media tools to share it through Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Digg and more.
- Bing Videos: Check your Web site stats to see how many users now are arriving from Bing. You might be surprised at the results. One reason behind this move to Bing as a search engine is its format, which seems simpler to use than Google. Bing Videos operate much in the same manner as Google's video search, though – but, it provides another option to find videos that you can find, embed and share. The only drawback is the limited resources to date. When I searched for "how-to" videos on animation, all the videos shown in the search results came from YouTube.
Even More Video-Sharing Options
The following sites require time (more than searching time, in other words) and money on your part, but may be worth the effort if you want to expand your video options:
- Thought Motion Equity: Although you can find some license-free images and videos at this site once you register, for the most part this site offers ways to purchase licensing agreements for many popular photographs and videos produced by major sources such as NBC and the Smithsonian. This site also offers a way to share your video productions.
- ITN Source: With over three centuries' worth of videos from news to drama, celebrity, comedy, music, wildlife, natural history and film, and growing at a rate of over 20 hours a day, ITN Source is the most diverse commercial archive in the world. But, it will cost you to license these images.
- Shutterstock Footage: Find royalty-free video clips here. Royalty-free does not mean that you do not pay for the downloads, however. It just means that the cost does not include the licensing fees that larger resources may charge.
- iStock Video: Ditto for iStock and other royalty-free image/video sites. With that said, iStock also offers a 'free' video for the month. You might look for other benefits from sites like Shutterstock (mentioned previously) and other image sites, too.
- Media Scripts: I cannot vouch for this software, as I have not used it. However, their Social Media features include the ability to upload videos to your site and to share this option with other peers, much like YouTube's options. The price is right, considering it would cost much more in time and effort to develop this option on your own.
Linda Goin
Linda Goin carries an A.A. in graphic design, a B.F.A. in visual communications with a minor in business and marketing and an M.A. in American History with a minor in the Reformation. While the latter degree doesn't seem to fit with the first two educational experiences, Linda used her 25-year design expertise on archaeological digs and in the study of material culture. Now she uses her education and experiences in social media experiments.
Accolades for her work include fifteen first-place Colorado Press Association awards, numerous fine art and graphic design awards, and interviews about content development with The Wall St. Journal, Chicago Tribune, Psychology Today, and L.A. Times.