GET YOUR VIDEO ON THE WEB – QUICK & EASY! by Lou Bortone

Online Video is here to stay, so it’s time for you to join the party! Fortunately, with the proliferation of free video hosting sites like YouTube, Blip.tv, iFilm and Veoh, today anyone with a camcorder and an Internet connection can produce a video and share it with the world. Best of all, you don’t need to be Martin Scorsese to create a video for the web! Online Video viewers are very forgiving…

Producing video for the Web can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. Some benefits include:

• Free or low-cost publicity and exposure for your company
• Instant access to a worldwide audience on the Web, 24/7
• The ability to use your video hosting site’s HTML code to add the video to your own Web site

Here are 4 simple steps for getting your video on the web:

1. Produce a short video “Short” is the key word here, for several reasons: First, online viewers have a much shorter attention span when watching video on the Web. Second, longer videos mean larger file sizes. Most free video hosting sites have a 100MB limit; some even less. For great, do-it-yourself, online video tools, visit Serious Magic and look at their inexpensive “Vlog It” software. You can use a webcam, an inexpensive camcorder or, my personal favorite, the ultra-cool Flipcam.

2. Output your video for online viewing
Once you’ve got your video, it still needs to be encoded and compressed to make it “Internet-friendly.” Video files can be enormous, but compression software shrinks the video file size so it plays more smoothly on the Web. Remember to save or export your file to an online-compatible size, which is 320 X 240 resolution; and compress it so it’s under 20MB, if possible. Be sure to save your video file in a format that most video sites accept, such as a Quicktime movie (.mov), a Windows movie (.wmv) or Flash (.flv) file. QuickTime Pro (for Windows or Mac) is ideal for compressing your video and transferring it to whatever file format you prefer (Windows, Flash, MPEG). Of course, if you’re using the aforementioned Flipcam, you just flip open the USB connector, and plug the videocamera directly into your computer.

3. Upload to several free video hosting sites
Now comes the fun part – You get to upload your video and share it with the world! Most of the popular video sites have relatively easy upload instructions: First, you’ll have to create an account for each site. The video hosting sites usually have a two or three step process that allows you to browse for your video file on your computer; add a title and description; and then click “upload” to post your video file. Most sites will also give you options for adding a thumbnail photo, selecting your genre or category or, in some cases, signing up for revenue sharing. I suggest that you go beyond the obvious sites like YouTube and Yahoo, and upload your video to some of the other, more feature-rich sites such as Revver, Brightcove and Stickam. Visit the individual sites for easy upload instructions.

4. Promote and share your new “online TV channel”
After you’ve uploaded your video, the video hosting sites provide the option of “sharing” your video by giving you a link/URL that you can e-mail to your contacts. Most sites also include a great feature that allows you to copy the HTML code and “embed” the video right into your own website or blog. Simply cut and paste the code provided into your own site.

Follow these four steps and you can have your own video on numerous video websites and on your own website or blog – quickly, easily and inexpensively!

Lou Bortone is an author and entrepreneur with over 20 years experience in marketing, branding and promotion. Before starting his own company, Lou was an award-winning marketing executive in the media industry. Lou served as National Promotion Manager for E! Entertainment Television, and later as Senior VP of Marketing and Advertising for Fox Family Worldwide, a division of Fox, in Los Angeles. Today, Lou helps entrepreneurs and solo professionals navigate their online businesses with services such as copywriting, video production and creative services. Sign up for Lou’s free mini audio course about using Online Video at http://www.TheOnlineVideoGuy.com.