Everyone in the blogging world is talking about videos and the necessity of having them on websites these days. While regular articles are still very much in demand, people are consuming more videos each and every year. By adding video to your website, you won’t be getting ahead of the curve. You’ll just be catching up.

You do not want to add video to your blog just for the sake of doing it. Adding the wrong type of video to your website can only set you back. Even if you are creating useless videos, you are going to have spend some time on them. I don’t know about you but I don’t like wasting any time. Here are 7 ways you can make sure your videos get the attention they deserve:

1. original content matters: this should go without saying. Trying to imitate what others have done is not going to get you a loyal following on sites such as YouTube. Covering what others have reported without adding your two cents is not such a smart idea either.
2. watch other players: have no idea how to produce a killer video? Watching what others have done should give you some good ideas for your own work. Again, you do not want to just parrot what others are saying or steal other people’s styles. The key here is to find your own voice and video personality. By looking at other successful people’s works, you can figure out some of the tactics they are using to make their videos successful.
3. watch trends: creating a video about a topic that is currently trending can get your video a lot of action and attention. Many successful YouTubers have used this practice to set themselves apart from others.
4. work with other players: I have seen this happen so many times. By working with other YouTubers, you can gain more views and possibly more subscribers. This concept is very similar to guest blogging.
5. communicate with your fans: if you are posting videos on YouTube or any other site for that matter, you should take time to engage your fans and respond to their questions. Of course, you should not forget about those people who respond to your videos on your site.
6. optimize your video for SEO: adding a video site map and tagging your videos properly are easy ways to get your work more love from the search engines such as Google.
7. distribute your content: want to receive more traffic to your blog from your videos? Don’t forget to watermark your videos and submit them to top video sites (go beyond YouTube). The more your video gets around, the more people see your information and may take time to check your site.

Video marketing is not rocket science. Having an idea and executing it to perfection is one part of story. The above steps won’t make you a video superstar but following them will get your videos more attention.

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!

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.

Whether you have been watching Gary Vee lately or following the blogging industry trends, you know the present and future belongs to video. Many bloggers have already started posting their videos online. Some use YouTube, Vimeo, and Viddler to share their content with their users. A few others go hardcore and buy expensive video hosting services to start their own web shows. If you have a lot of money to burn, you can always get fancy and buy the latest camcorder on the market and pay someone to design the best vlogging theme for your site. In reality, you don’t have to a millionaire to start a video blog these days. You just need to have a passion and the dedication to work hard and execute your video-blogging strategy.

Video Flick is a very well-designed vlogging WordPress theme that helps you get your site up and running fast. The theme is SEO-friendly and comes with two color schemes (white/black). VF is designed to make it easy for you to add videos to your WordPress site fast. It uses WP custom fields to help you embed YouTuve, Vimeo, and … videos.

Customizing Video-Flick is a piece of cake. The back-end settings enable you to change all aspects of your video blog without having to write a line of code. Whether you want to change your logo or just set up your Google Adsense ads, you can do it all in the back-end without having to change your code all by yourself. I also like the fact that Google Analytics is integrated into this theme. It makes things just a bit easier.

Overall, if you are looking for an affordable WordPress theme that lets you start your own video-blog past and doesn’t require you to be a programming genius to customize it, you should consider VideoFlick.