Starting a video blog doesn’t take much these days. You obviously have to know what you are doing and have a plan on what you want to accomplish with your video-blog. And of course, if you play all your cards right and get a bit lucky, you may become the next Internet video superstar. But before you do all that, you are going to need a place to share your videos with your fans. A lot of newbie vloggers start with YouTube and only after they have gotten a few subscribers, they put up their websites. But you should always do the reverse. Whether you want to use Viddler or YouTube to host your videos, you should always have a website to post your videos to and let your fans to connect with you. That’s the best way to get the biggest bang out of each video.

As someone who has built close to a thousand websites and blogs in the past few years, I can tell you that creating a simple vlog is not as tough as it used to be. With technologies such as WordPress, Drupal, and Ning, you can build a killer video community without breaking the bank. Even if you are not a designer, you can still use a premium video theme to get started fast. There are lots of video blogging themes available for WordPress, so you should have no excuse for not having you site up and running before posting your videos on YouTube.

1. TV Elements: TV Elements is very clean video blogging theme that makes it easy to put your web show online. Great way for your visitors to browse through your episodes.

2. Tubular: Tubular is a cool dark video blogging theme that allows you to embed videos from YouTube, Viemo, and other top video sites to your site. So you can essentially have your own videos as well others that you find interesting.

3.  Groovy: Groovy is cool, fun video blogging theme from WooThemes that gives you plenty of options to share your videos with your fans. 17 color schemes to choose from, so you have a lot of options to choose from.

4. WooTube: WooTube is another great theme for YouTube vloggers. This is an ad ready video blogging theme that is very easy to customize. And you get 7 color schemes to choose from.

5. eVid: evid is a cool little video-blogging theme that makes it easy for you to share your videos with your visitors. Your visitors do get a chance to rate your videos too, so you can get feedback and work on creating better quality videos.

These theme won’t cost you a fortune, but they do give you the chance to get a head-start over vloggers who only focus on putting their videos on YouTube without having a real long-term strategy. If you are just getting started with your vlog, I strongly recommend registering your own domain and putting a website that your fans can refer to for more content. Have fun vlogging!

That’s where TubeMogul comes in. It’s an innovative video distribution service that lets you upload, tag, and submit your videos to multiple video sites in one shot. The service is designed for people who want to get the most out of their videos and track user interactions as well. The interface is designed to allow you to easily add your own title, description, and proper tags for top videos sites such as YouTube and DailyMotion.

Once you have added your information and uploaded your file, the service is going to ask you to enter your username and passwords per each video sharing site. So as long as you have an account with all those video sharing sites, you can easily add your videos to them without going through the hassle of submitting videos by hand one by one.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of TubeMogul is the tracking feature. You can add any artists profile to your tracking system and track his/her videos and ways people have interacted with them. Best of all, you can find the top videos per artist and find out what they are doing right.

All in all, TubeMogul is a video sharing service that shouldn’t be taken lightly. It’s easy to use, affordable, and gets the job done. It also makes the tracking process much easier to manage. A must use service for all vloggers.

YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour a Day is the latest book on YouTube and everything video. Unless you haven’t been paying attention, video plays a big part in the marketing world today. Whether you are a pro blogger or you work for a company that is looking for more ways to get the word out about its products, knowing how to take advantage of YouTube is a must. YouTube allows you to upload your videos for free and go viral. So whether you want to do a better job branding your business or just want to get the word out about your product or services, YouTube is one great community to be a part of.

YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour a Day is a cool YouTube book that focuses more on what you need to do to build killer YouTube videos rather than just showing you how to sign up for a new account on YouTube. The book does cover YouTube specific topics, so you do get a chance to master YouTube. But the main focus in this book is on content creation, distribution, and promotion. Becoming a killer web producer is not that easy. Not everyone can pull off what iJustin or other YouTube superstars have pulled off. But you can always learn about their approach and find your own way to dominate YouTube. This books shows you what you need to keep in mind to produce high quality and viral videos on YouTube. You are going to learn what makes viral videos, well, viral.

Video optimization for search engines is also covered in this book. A lot of bloggers and affiliate marketers are using YouTube to get ranked high on Google and other search engines. We are seeing a lot of spam as low videos that are highly optimized are getting picked up by Google. But if you have a killer video, you’d be naive not to tag and optimize your videos to rank as high as p0ssible on YouTube. You are also going to pick up a few tricks on how to monitor and analyze your video results.

Making videos and putting them online may not be as tough as it used to be. But you still have to have an idea about what you want to offer your viewers and how you want to reach out to them. Your focus should be on providing the maximum value to your visitors, especially if you expect to increase your subscribers on YouTube. At the end of the day, producing videos is a serious business and needs to be approached in a serious manner. YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour a Day not only shows you how to create videos but also how to push your business online and go viral. If you are looking for a book that goes beyond the YouTube basics, you are going to enjoy reading this book.

Rating: 8.5/10

If you’ve decided that you want to take your blogging to the next level and start making videos rather than typing out your ideas, then you need to start learning a little more about what it takes to succeed as a video blogger or vlogger. There’s more to it than just having a video camera and something to say, much like there’s more to blogging that just having fingers (or whatever else you type with) and the ability to string words together. Here are some tips to help you build your skills as a video blogger.

1. Do several takes. Chances are good that unless you’re a real pro at talking in front of a camera that you’re not going to be perfect on the first take. Do it at least twice to see if you can get it right the second time around.
2. Pay attention to how you’re speaking. The speed at which you’re talking, your tone, emphasis and other elements of your speech will have a big impact on the watchability of your clips.
3. Avoid just rolling out of bed and vlogging. As superficial as it may be, appearance counts. Take a shower and brush your hair before you start blogging.
4. Learn to edit video. There are few things more awkward than dead air. Learn to edit your videos down to professional looking segments. There are many places to do this for free online, so fancy software isn’t required.
5. Have a script or notes. While a select few out there might be able to wing it when it comes to video blogging, most people will need something to work from. You don’t have to and shouldn’t just sit there are read from a paper, but at least have a reference when you’re speaking.
6. Actually have interest or expertise in what you’re blogging about. No one wants to hear me vlog about sports because a) I know nothing about them and b) I don’t care to. Keep your vlogs on topics you can actually get inspired by or have a clue what you’re talking about otherwise you’re not going to get many repeat viewers.
7. Keep it within a reasonable time limit. Generally, about five minutes is a good length for a video blog. Making it too long will pretty much ensure viewers will turn you off before you’re done talking.
8. Realize that public speaking rules still apply. All the things that you remember when you’re giving a speech in public or talking in front of a group of people still apply when video blogging, so keep that in mind.
9. Give a summary. Most people don’t want to have to watch a video in order to know if they wanted to watch it in the first place. Always offer a short summary about what each video contains so visitors can get the gist beforehand.
10. Learn from the best. These days, even the President gets in on video blogging of sorts. Listen and learn from what the bigger names in video blogging do and emulate the things they do well.

This post was contributed by Jill Gordon, who writes about the top online universities. She welcomes your feedback at Jill.Gordon25@ yahoo.com

Fliggo is another cool service for anyone interested in building a video blog or portal. It’s designed to help you build a portal without having to write a line of code. You gain access to pre-made templates, and you can easily upload your short videos (1 GB) without too much trouble.The service is for free for now, though the premium plans are on the way.

Once you sign up for Fliggo, you are going to be provided with a chance to choose a URL for your video portal. Fliggo does not allow you to use your custom domains at this point, but it’s in the works.

For now you are going to have to settle on a Fliggo domain, but just like many other services, you are going to be able to use your own domains for a monthly or annual fee. I do recommend you lock up your brand name on Fliggo just in case. Once you have done that, you are going to be provided with the chance to choose your vlog’s template.

Fliggo allows you to choose how you want to manage your community. You can choose to have a closed community, though it’s much better to settle on a moderated one. Fliggo comes with a lot of free features right from the start, but for $50 more, Fliggo promises many more features.

Fliggo may not be Viddler, but it’s a great place to start for newbie vloggers. The free service is a great way to practice the art of vlogging and learn new things without spending money. The details on Fliggo Pro are sketchy to say the least, but it’s interesting to see what you get for $50 / month account fee. Either way, Fliggo is a great place to get started as a video blogger.

Viddler is a cool video hosting / distribution service that lets you host your videos and get a piece of the advertising pie in the process. You can host your videos for free (with various limitations) or build a business with your videos. What I like about Viddler is the fact that you know what you are getting with your plan. There is not a lot left to guesswork when you sign up for Viddler for business. You can always use the free service to share your videos but business plans are the best for anyone who’s serious about vlogging. Here are the business plans available through Viddler:

• Startup: not bad if you are a casual vlogger but the bandwidth won’t be enough for frequent vloggers (3,000 views/month – 3 minute high quality videos).
• Basic: not for beginners but not for advanced users either. It’s one of those middle of the road plans for vloggers (12,000 views/month).
• Plus: should be enough for fairly advanced vloggers. You get enough bandwidth and space to host a fairly popular vlog (60,000 views/month).
• Enterprise: the most serious plan for business vloggers. If you are a superstar and get a lot of traffic on your vlog, you are going to need this plan. It’s not cheap, but if you are very popular, you can probably afford it (240,000 views/month).

But you don’t have to pay a whole lot of money to Viddler if you are popular enough to become a partner with Viddler. The company will provide you with enough space and bandwidth to expand your vlog, but you are going to need to have high quality videos and a number of them in that. If you have been vlogging for a while on YouTube or Viddler, there is a good chance you are going to have enough ammunition to sign up as a Viddler partner. And if you don’t, it’s never too late to start.

Building a video blog is not as simple as it sounds, but it’s not too complicated either. Addressing your hosting issues can go a long way towards helping you start and build a very successful vlog. You are always going to need good content, but it’s good to know that your users will be able to see them once you put them up.

One thing is for certain if you are using WordPress for your blog: you are going to have a lot of options when it comes to deciding a theme for your blog. You just want to make sure you think long-term and choose a theme that can be easily customized. To help you find a cool theme for your blog, here are 5 pro-blogging themes that are worth a serious consideration:

1. One Theme: an all in one solution designed for all types of bloggers. One of the most flexible themes on the market that allows you to use it in any niche. It’s search engine friendly as well to help you get some free traffic.

2. Thesis: Thesis needs no introduction. It’s one of the most flexible themes on the market. Almost all top bloggers have used Thesis in the past. The strength comes from the back-end where you get to change the settings of your blog without having to write a line of code.

3. Arthemia: an attractive and flexible theme for blogging portals. Great theme to start and manage your blog more effectively. And you can’t argue with the design which is simply stunning.

4. Black Aperture: a dark theme that is great for handling lots of images and is user friendly as well. It has a super professional look and feel to it. Great for those who like to plan things long-term. You’d have a hard time out-growing this theme.

5. VideoFlick 2.0: is a great theme if you plan to create your vlog/blog hybrid site. A lot of people are starting their vlogs these days, and this is a great time to do just that. You can easily embed videos from all kinds of sources, and you won’t have to spend a fortune to get your hands on it. It’s SEO friendly as well.

All in all, you want to make sure you get a theme that is well-designed, SEO-friendly, and customizable. You can always pay thousands of dollars to get a custom design for your blog, but I recommend that only when you have a major following. With these premium themes, you get to spend more time focusing on providing valuable content to your readers and less on other things.

Your turn: which of the 5 designs do you like the most?

Have you seen those folks who go around the country and blog/vlog using UStream, YouTube, and Twitter? Wouldn’t it be nice if you could share your videos with your audience and show them at the same time where you exactly are when you are shooting your video. Now you can thanks to an innovative service called Vidmap.

Vidmap makes it easy to geo-tag videos and show your progress through the video on a Google map. So if you are blogging from the road, your readers are going to have an easier time following you and find out exactly where you are.

Uploading a video is not that hard. You just need to take your video when you are on the go, and then take the time to supply enough information to Vidmap to show your videos alongside Google maps on the side.

Overall, if you interested in Geo-vlogging, you are going to love Vidmap. It still needs a lot of work and is in beta, but it’s a novel idea and something definintely worth trying.

Camcorders & Video Cameras

Sony Webbie HD: Sony Webbie MHS-PM1 HD Camcorder is a decent mini camcorder to get started with vloggers.

Flip UltraHD: the Flip needs no introduction. It has been around for years and is great for vlogging.

Kodak Zx1 HD: An affordable mini HD Camcorder for those constantly on the go.

Microphones:

Audio Technica AT2020USB Condenser USB Microphone: it’s the microphone I use for my projects. It’s not super expensive but the quality is very high.

Shure 55SH Series II Microphone:  Shure 55SH Series II is a bargain and one killer microphone.

Samson CO1U USB Condenser Mic: another decent choice if you are looking for a fairly high quality Microphone. For most podcast projects, this is enough.

Software:

Adobe Audition: the best pod-casting software on the planet. Great for manipulating multi-media files.

Camtasia Studio: a great software for capturing videos and conducting video demonstrations for your visitors.

Video Blogging Books:

Producing Video Podcasts: a great book to get you started with your own professional video blog.

YouTube – An Insider’s Guide to Climbing the Charts: if you want to vlog on YouTube, you need to read this book to learn the latest tips and tricks.

Video-Blog Web Hosting

• DreamHost: my current web host. They are pretty decent and the support is wonderful.
• Wpwebhost: tailored towards the needs of WordPress site owners. Supports WordPress MU as well.
• Blue Host: used by a whole lot of small businesses for blogging, pod-casting, and …

WordPress Themes and Templates

• TV Elements: is one of the best video blogging themes available on the Web. It allows you to create your own show and manage your episodes effectively.
• WooTube: is another great theme for YouTube vloggers.
• evid: evid is a cool little video-blogging theme that allows your users to rate your videos. Makes it easy to add your own videos too.
• Tubular: it is a cool dark video blogging theme that allows you to embed videos from YouTube, Viemo, and other top video sites to your blog.

There you have it. There are a few other things that you may need depending on the sophistication of your video blog. If you are having guests and so on, you are going to need audio mixers, camcorder lights, better microphones, and …, which is why there is a second part to this post. Stay tuned.