How to: add video to your website
- Luke Telford
- 7 October 2009
Photo credit: foxumon @ sxc.hu
We go on and on about ‘genuine content' in the Quick Fix section for a reason: you need to mean it. This is especially important of video production. It needs to be short, sharp, informative and entertaining. Production values are secondary to
these things (although it is nice if it looks as good as these
do).
With that in mind, all it takes to create some genuinely complimentary video content for your site is a camera and a microphone. What isn't quite as straightforward is getting this content onto your website.
There are a couple of ways to do this simply.
The first is to use a video site like YouTube or Google Video. Create an account on either of these sites. Upload your videos to the account. Then, find the ‘embed' button. This will give you a line of HTML that references the location of your
video on the web. You then insert this into the code on your site in the appropriate place and publish. You can find an example of what the code aught to look like here. The only issue is
for those of us who aren't so flash with HTML (no pun intended). Trial and error is the only way around this. Basically you just need to play with the HTML until it does what you want it to. For pointers, you can check sites like HTML Goodies , HTML Code Tutorial and W3Schools Flash tutorial.
Sites like YouTube are effectively providing you with two distinct functions. Firstly, they encode your video file (.AVI, .MPEG etc.) into Flash (.FLV). Flash is a format that was created by Adobe Systems Inc. for the economical use of streaming video on websites. Secondly, they provide a server to store your video
on as well as sufficient bandwidth for enormous numbers of people to stream it simultaneously.
If you feel it doesn't fit with your company's image to have a little YouTube logo at the bottom right of your videos, it is possible to do these things yourself.
To change your video files into flash, you'll need to download the Windows Media Encoder. This is a free, PC only software downloadable from the Microsoft site. The program itself is fairly simple
to use, though here
is a 5 step guide to getting the flash file you need. Unfortunately, this guide assumes that your site has FTP capabilities (File Transfer Protocol), which basically entails a ‘drag & drop' method of placing video files onto your site.
If you don't have the FTP option, and you plan on uploading video to your site regularly, it may be worthwhile conferring with your IT guru to set this option up and walk you through how it's done.
If you're still resolute about keeping the IT whiz as a last resort and the volume of traffic through your site never dwindles long enough for you to surreptitiously play around with the code (lucky you!), then you should investigate the DIY, ‘not free' option: video software.
Video Lightbox is one particularly simple to
use program that does a lot of the work for you. It features a built in FTP capability as well as a number of stylistic features like gallery themes and thumbnail styles. It's free if used non-commercially and the professional version is
surprisingly cheap to purchase.
Easy Web Video is effective as well, although more
expensive. It also enables you to add streaming audio to your site if required.
Using web video is simpler than it might seem. If you haven't already investigated it, now's the time. #
