As the internet, and blogging in particular, continues to develop, there will be newer and newer developments coming along all the time. Those that read blogs regularly like to be on the forefront of technology, so it is a smart thing to do to embrace these new developing technologies. Over the past year or two, one of the things many successful bloggers have turned to is video blog posts.
Video blog posts are great for a number of reasons. The ability to see the blogger in person, so to speak, is a great way to establish credibility in a world where there is always skepticism about who the person behind the website or blog really is. Video blog posts also sometimes allow the blogger to be able to demonstrate a process or set of tasks easier than communicating by text does. Another thing that video blog posts do is present an aura of high tech understanding about the blog that is featuring them. Since it is much more difficult to make and post a video blog post than it is to simply type text, many blog viewers also then take the blog or at least that post a little more seriously than others.
There are downsides to video blog posts as well. While the benefits are somewhat enticing to bloggers, if those bloggers turn their backs on standard text blog posts, the could do some incredible damage to their blog. Many people do not read full blog posts, but they do skim through to pick out points of interest to them. So when these people run up against a video blog post they are unable to skim through it, so the blogger risks losing them as loyal blog readers.
There are also a number of people that read blogs while they are at work. Sometimes they have permission from their employers and sometimes they do not. Regardless of permission, they may not feel comfortable watching a video blog post because of the possibility of someone else over hearing it.
Despite the proliferation of DSL, cable internet connections, and fiber optics, there are also people out there that suffer through seemingly intolerable slow internet connections. These slow connections often make it impossible for these people to view videos online so they would no longer be able to get their information from a blogger that primarily blogs by video.
The biggest reason that bloggers should be careful about either how often they blog by video or about switching to only video blogging is the lack of search engine optimization that a video post can perform. Search engines scan websites and blogs for content and then archive that information. Because they cannot scan the content of a video post, that blogger’s post on that subject may never come up as an option to go to when a computer user types in their search query.
These are just a handful of reasons why bloggers should never forget that whatever blogging strategy or methods they decide to use, they also need to continue making use of good old fashioned text content. Video blog posts can be great fun and also can provide extra value and interesting content to a blog. Bloggers should be careful though and not overuse this technique, and definitely not switch to video blogging completely. While broadcasting by video has many advantages, it also comes along with a number of disadvantages that can be highly detrimental to a blog’s success. Like most things in life, when it comes to video blog posts, they should best be done in moderation.
