Adding Videos to My Wordpress Blog

Question:

“What is it that allows video to start right up on the site vs. opening in a separate window with media player or something like that? I’m keeping my sites as simple as possible using Host Gator and Word Press. I can put videos on them, but don’t like the added step.”

Answer:

Videos can be added to Wordpress, but you need to decide how you want to add them…

The easiest way is to embed a video from a syndication site, like YouTube.  This is a good idea because it is their bandwidth and they will create a player that is fairly robust (i.e., most people will be able to play it).  Of course, then it has their brand and possibly some advertising on it.

(Companies like Revver will actually split the advertising revenue with you, though…and Revver has its own video plug-in which is pretty simple to use…)

I use YouTube for most of my blog videos. (I have had issues with latency of distribution time with Revver…and I want my videos up ASAP after I make them…YouTube is usually done within the hour and their editing process is a bit more liberal).

I use the Smart YouTube plugin to do this:

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/smart-youtube/

If you want to host it yourself, you do need a container for your video.  I do this on my membership websites and integrating into a blog can be done; it just may be a little bit tougher.

Normally, you can upload directly in Wordpress by using the upload feature:

Still, most servers put a limit on how big of a file you can upload (and most video files exceed this limit).  You can either manually FTP the file to your server or you can readjust the file size upload limit in your server’s initialization file (this one is pretty advanced!).

I personally host my videos using Amazon S3…sure, you may have tons of bandwidth with your server, but you never know how fast it is and who you are sharing it with (if you have HostGator shared account).  I also have a lot of volume, though, so I feel the effect.

The second thing to consider when hosting videos yourself is the player and the file type.  Video companies, like YouTube, convert all of their videos to an older version of Flash.  This is because Flash (and soon, MP4) is used rather universally across all browsers and platforms (both Mac and PC).  Video types like WMV work well on PC’s, but not Mac’s.  Quicktime is just the opposite.  So if you are going to host it yourself, I recommend that you post it in Flash, Shockwave, or MP4 (all of these work well in a standard Adobe Flash Player).

For a simple Wordpress plug-in for flash videos, check out:

http://www.mac-dev.net/blog/index.php

Personally, I think your best bet at the beginning is to embed the video using YouTube.  It is easy, robust, and you can also build some traffic on YouTube and the other video sites (I use Traffic Geyser to syndicate and bookmark all of my videos).

If traffic starts building and you want your own brand and your own player, you should consider hosting it yourself.  It is really just as easy, but may not be as fast or robust (but that can be improved once you understand it a bit more!).

cheers…matt