Gotta enjoy this from Matt Raney.
If I were walking to class and found Mario hanging out on the wall in pixel form I would probably take it as a sign. A sign to turn around. Go back to my apartment. Listen to this Dubstep remix of the Super Mario theme. Bust out my Gameboy. And squash goombas all day long.
- Ted
When the Lumiere Brothers first introduced motion pictures to the public in
the late 1800s, all the people cared to see was movement. Then they began to
want narrative. Then more quality editing. Then better film stock. Better
lighting. etc.
When web video got introduced in the late 1900s, all people cared to see was
movement. Then they began to want narrative. Then….
Do you see where I’m going with this?
While YouTube will always have it’s place as the 24/7 version of America’s
Funniest Home Videos, at some point or another (I would argue the time
has come) people will want quality over crappity.
So… get prepared to produce quality stuff.
Done ranting.
- Ted
I hope to tell you that if I ever do find the one, I’m convincing her that we need to do this. Creative. Awesome. Easily Accessible. Now the trouble is.. finding that girl. Anyway, you came here for my commentary on the video – not my (lack of) love life. I think setting the shots up as if they were pictures was what did it for me. Love the idea and hope to see more of this soon.
- Ted
I have just recently started doing some video and promotional work for iThemes.com and WebDesign.com and have been loving it!
It has mainly been motion graphics work so far, but there is some other video-related stuff that I’ve been working on for them as well. Hopefully this summer we will begin doing some really cool stuff merging Vlogs, Tutorials, and Community Building. They’re based out of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and so since I’m in Waco, Texas it’s hard to help with any of their in-house videos and live shows for now, but it’s a great company that you should definitely take a look at! Anyway, I’m happy to be able to work with them and here are two of the promotional videos I have created so far for their Builder Theme (This is the Theme I have for my site) and Flexx Theme.
Anyone who has ever uploaded a Youtube video has wondered how anyone could possibly stumble across their video with the ungodly number of hours of video hosted on the site. So the question is, “how do I make my video appear at the top of searches on youtube?”
Believe it or not, Youtube’s search engine is much easier to “play” than the super complex Google algorithm. Here is my ordered top five list for the most important parts of your video in optimizing for youtube search:
1) Title – Your video’s title is incredibly important. Not only does a title often score (or lose) you a view, but it also is the biggest factor in determining keywords for the youtube search engine to pick up on. Be very keyword heavy and don’t feel as if a lengthy or awkward title name is always bad. Something like “How to throw a football – The Process Step by Step” may be long, but it is dang effective in encompassing key words.
2) Inbound Links – Have you embedded your video on your personal site or blog? Have you shared it on social networks? Are others sharing it as well? This is important to the algorithm because it is a huge factor in determining if the video has good and worthwhile content.
3) Description – Your description should be thorough. Should it be line for line what was said in the video? No. But! It should be a very good keyword based summary of what happens in the video. There is no point in being misleading either.
4) Views – Yes, unfortunately for those who are just starting, not only does the number of views on the video you have uploaded matter, but also the number of views your channel and other videos you have uploaded have. This is sort of the community impact factor of the search. It helps answer Youtube’s question, “are you actively involved in the Youtube community?” This really makes a lot of sense – especially for Youtube (well Google since they own it) – including this as a factor encourages us Youtubers to frequent the site.
5) Tags – The tags are third on the list of text based Youtube SEO (ranking behind the title and description) because these are what I like to all “catch all” key words. Most often this is where I include my name, my website’s name, the city I shot it in, and/or some other random things people might search if they can’t remember what the video was called.
There are other factors and all of the above can be further explored, but this is a general list to get you started.
Never forget that if your video has good content, it will get found and viewed, but you could do yourself a huge favor if you just do a little consideration of the above!
- Ted
