How to Use Video to Promote Your Art Website: Some Basic Equipment
Did you know that 52% of all web traffic video-related? Or that over 70% of people surfing the web watch online video? Or that an average YouTube visitor spends 27 minutes watching video? So what does that mean for you as the average artist or crafter working away in your studio? It means that if you don’t have video on your craft website, you are missing out on a huge opportunity.
Here are some reasons why video is a great idea for your website:
- Video makes your website “sticky” – when you have video on your website, visitors tend to stay longer in order to watch the video.
- Video is seen as high quality content- while everyone can write a short article or tutorial, a video on the exact same topic will be seen as more valuable and useful
- Video can help in your search engine rankings- one of the things that search engines look at when ranking your website is how long people hang around. Since video can make your website “stickier”, this will also help with your search engine rankings.
- One video is worth a thousand words- while you can write an article that tells the story behind what you do, a single 2 minute video can do more to connect you with potential customers than that1,000 word article. Plus, people are more likely to watch that video than they are to read that article.
Shooting video can be as easy or as complicated or as cheap or expensive as you want to make it. To get started with video, here’s a list of basic equipment you’ll need:
Video Camera
Don’t think that you’ll need to spend thousands of dollars on the latest and greatest digital video camera in the store. I’ve seen perfectly good video shot using a digital camera, a web cam, or even a cell phone!
The type of camera you’ll need depends on the type of video that you’re planning on shooting. For shooting quick, on-the-fly videos like customer testimonials, quick video tours, you’ll want something that’s lightweight, portable, and easy to operate. Something like a FlipVideo camera runs less than $150, will take up to 60 minutes worth of video, and would be perfect for this type of video work.
If you’re planning on doing longer, higher quality videos, such as how to videos, presentations, or a video brochure, you’ll want to get a higher quality video camera. I’m not going to get into specific brands and models, but here are some features that you’ll want to keep an eye out for:
- The ability to zoom in and out, and the ability to focus both manually and automatically
- A external microphone jack that allows you to connect a separate microphone to the camera (more on this later)
- The ability to control contrast, exposure, and white balance
- The ability to connect your camera to your computer through USB, Firewire, or an iLink (specifically on Sony cameras) connection
Don’t overlook the last point about being able to easily connect your camera to your computer. That appears to be a main point of frustration for most people when they are first experimenting with video.
Microphone
Most cameras come with a built-in microphone and while they can be adequate for quick, on the fly videos, but if you’re planning on doing higher quality videos, you’ll want to use an external microphone.
The problem with using the in-camera microphone is that you get an echoey sound in your video that can become quite distracting especially if your recording a presentation or workshop, or speech. Using a lavaliere microphone that attaches to your collar will greatly improve your sound quality. This is why it’s important to make sure any new camera you buy also has an external microphone jack, or simply put, a hole in which you can plug in an additional microphone.
Some of the higher quality wireless microphones (Seinhesser is a good brand) can run you several hundred dollars. But you can start off with a wireless microphone that runs on a transmitter from Radio Shack, which costs about $50 or so. While the sound quality is not the same as a $200 Seinhesser, it is much, much better than using the microphone on the camera.
Lighting
One common problem with amateur video is that there’s usually not enough light. Low light in digital video can cause the picture to look dark and pixilated. When you’re shooting, you’ll want to make sure that there’s as much available light as possible. Shooting beside a window is one option, but that can limit you to just shooting on sunny days.
You can also bring in more light by using some inexpensive work lights, clip lighting, or construction lights from hardware stores like Home Depot. Even bringing in a couple of household floor lamps can help you lighting up your space considerably. Just be careful to arrange your lighting so that you don’t create overly bright areas or “hot spots” in your video.
If you know that you’ll be shooting a lot of video in the future, you may want to invest in a Lowell professional lighting kit. Your basic two light kit can run you about $700 brand new, but you can find used lights for a fraction of the cost on eBay. A lighting kit should also come with stands for the lights plus reflecting umbrellas to refract the light.
Tripod with a fluid head
If you’ll be shooting a lot of videos by yourself or videos in which you’ll be stationary, you’ll need to invest in a tripod. When shopping around for a tripod, you’ll need to get one with a “fluid head”, that is the head of the tripod allows you to pan and tilt the camera into different angles without any sticking or sharp jerks while you’re shooting.
Headphones
You should also get a pair of headphones where so you can monitor the sound coming into the camera. When you’re shooting you want to make sure that the sound coming into the camera is not too loud or too soft or that it’s coming into the camera at all!
Computer
You’ll need to have a computer edit your videos and of course to upload to your website, blog, or video sharing website like YouTube. Editing video can eat up a lot of hard drive space and a lot computer memory. Plus, the faster your computer’s processor is, the easier and faster it will be to edit your video. Most modern computers built within the last three to four years by big name computer manufacturers like Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Sony, and Apple are capable of basic video editing, especially if you’re dealing with short 1 to 5 minute clips.
Now while I usually don’t weigh in on the whole PC/Mac debate about which is better, when it comes to video I can say that it’s a bit easier to deal with editing video on a Mac than it is on PC. Does this mean that I’ll buy new computer just to put a few videos online? No, it just means that I’ll expect to have a few more minor snags working on a PC.
The only time I would consider getting a new computer is if I’m planning on working on a lot of video on a regular basis or if I’m planning a large-scale project like a video DVD. What you would pay for a new computer you’ll more than make up for in time lost by using a slow, ill equipped computer.
External hard drives
As I mentioned before, video eats up a great amount of hard drive space. While a computer with a 60 or 80-gigabyte hard drive can easily store a bunch of 1 to 5 minute video clips, you’ll still take up a lot of your hard drive space, which can slow your computer down. Plus, you’ll lose all of those clips if your hard drive crashes.
To store your video projects and clips, plan on getting at least one external hard drive. If you know that you may be shooting a lot of video, or if you’re thinking about doing a large scale video project like a 30 to 60 minute DVD, you’ll need to get a couple of high capacity (500 or more Gigabytes of storage) external hard drives. Some good brands include LaCie and Western Digital.
Now don’t think that you have to run out and get all of this equipment at once. You can still get started with the most basic camera and your existing computer and add your equipment as you start doing more or as your skills increase.
