Now that your video has been filmed and edited, and you’re proud of the finished product, the next step is to add the video to your website, where the world will be able to see it.
Video files can be quite large, however, so uploading it straight to your website isn’t always the best way to go: Files will take a long time to download, and most of your site visitors are not willing to wait around that long. The best and easiest way to add video to your site is to upload it first to a video hosting service like YouTube. You will also need to have access to the back end or edit mode of your website, or FTP access to upload new HTML pages.
If you don’t already have a YouTube account (or a Google account), start one. You’ll need to be logged in to upload your video. Once you’ve got your account and are logged in, click on the Upload Video link, and find the video file on your computer. Depending on how large the file is, it could take a while to upload. Give your video a description and keywords, and set the privacy setting to public, so that everyone can see it.
Once the file has been uploaded, you’ll see your video, with a little YouTube icon in the corner. Play it if you want to watch it again, or to see what everyone else will see, and then scroll down to find the embed code. Choose the size you want your video to be on your website (640×480 is a good size), and then copy the HTML code that appears below the video.
Go to the back end of your website, and find the page that you want your video to appear on. Open that page, make sure you view the page content in the HTML editor, and paste your copied code. Save, and view the front end of your site. If you video doesn’t appear, it’s likely that you missed a few pieces of the code, go back and copy and paste again and see if that fixes the problem. It’s as easy as that.
You can track the stats of your video by going back to its page on YouTube. You’ll see how many times it was viewed, and on which platforms. It may even draw a few comments or links from other websites.
YouTube is not the only option when it comes to hosting video on the web. Other services include Vimeo and Viddler, but I think that YouTube is the easiest option. Plus, YouTube is also a highly ranked search engine, and it doesn’t hurt to have more options to find potential guests.
So, now that you know how to shoot, edit and upload video to your website, what’s stopping you? Make your business stand out by using a video that perfectly captures the nature and essence of your business or B&B.
Got a question? Have something to add? Add it to the comments!