Let’s Get Visual

How Flickr and YouTube Can Amp Up Your Blog

Sheila Scarborough@SheilaS on Twitter

Why photos and video?

The Web is multimedia publishing Take advantage! Stories often better told with pictures or

video Plain text on the Web is hard on the eyes

Jakob Nielsen’s usability studies Web users “impatient, selfish and ruthless” http://www.useit.com

Images, graphics and video are sometimes more compelling

Photographs can….

Amplify your text Set the atmosphere for a post Serve as short posts themselves Use your own photos, or….

Consider Flickr But only those photos with Creative

Commons alternative copyright

Creative Commons

http://creativecommons.org Alternative copyright for a new age Different licenses

Attribution, Attribution-NoDerivs, Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivs

Which one is best for which type of blog My rule of thumb: ads on blog=commercial Default one to pick: Attribution

Finding good Flickr photos

Search tips Start here

http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons Use a variety of words to search Click “Interesting” in results See one you like but wrong license?

Ask owner for permission to use it

Your own photos: Google-y?

Good for SEO Good for Web accessibility for

disabled How to do it? Via detailed…

Titles Tags Descriptions

Sure, put in links They’re “No follow” for bots, but not humans

Quick Tour of my Flickr photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sheilascarborough

Video: it’s a no-brainer

Video demo at Freelance Austin (courtesy Julie Tereshchuk on Facebook)

Basic equipment

The digital camera you already own Use the Video setting Warning: memory hog + audio issues

Flip http://www.theflip.com

Have heard good things about Kodak’s new Zi8 External microphone, FTW! (for the win!)

Flip: Point, shoot, upload

How I use video Short Interviews

Find people at events/conferences Experts in your niche Line ‘em up and shoot ‘em (sort of)

Travel blog post ideas Narrate a scene Describe a dining experience Quick music clip

Your own videos: Google-y?

Good for SEO Good for Web accessibility for

disabled How to do it? Via detailed…

Titles Tags Descriptions

Sure, put in links They’re “No follow” for bots, but not humans

Lessons Painfully Learned: Shooting Video

Don’t move the camera too quickly! Pan s-l-o-w-l-y, or….barf

Keep it short, 2-5 minutes They’re just not that into you.

Audio, audio, audio Get close to your subject Speak loudly and clearly to narrate Flip is pretty forgiving, but take no

chances

Quick tour of a YouTube channel

http://www.youtube.com/user/SheilaScarborough

Lessons Painfully Learned: Movie Editing

One single narrative is easiest If you do string short clips together….

Use “Fade” to connect them Keep it simple

Title Topic you’re covering, name of interviewee, any site

URLs Video itself Credits

With your name, your blog URL, thank subject, their URL

Quick Tour: MS Movie Maker

Sample clip with @SeattleMaven can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKep7vH3cyU

Thanks!

@SheilaS Tourism Currents Sheila’s Guide to

the Good Stuff Family Travel

Guide Perceptive Travel

Blog