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5 Elements of A Great Vlog

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Have you been wanting to learn how to vlog? It’s a great way to expand your bloggy horizons. Today the masterminds of VlogTalk are here to walk you through the 5 key elements to creating a fun, professional and entertaining vlog. Read this and youʼll be on the road to adding video to your blogging bag of tricks.

5 Elements of A Great Vlog

Adding video into your blogging repertoire is a welcome addition. It allows your readers to see and hear you. It has great SEO benefits, being that YouTube is the second largest search engine. Also, it is something that brands are now welcoming with open arms from bloggers. Let’s go over the 5 components to a great vlog.

How To Vlog

Sound

One of the most important elements of a video is sound. If people can’t hear your video, they won’t watch it. It’s like trying to read a blog post in tiny font – it just can’t be done unless you want to put your face on the computer screen.

Use an external microphone when recording to make sure that what you’re saying will be heard. Also play around with the location of the microphone to make sure that it’s not too close (so you sound like Darth Vader) or too far away (so again you can’t be heard).

Lighting

You have to be careful when lighting a video, just like you do when youʼre lighting a photo. For example, if the sunlight (or indoor lighting) is behind you, itʼs going to black out your face. Weʼll see a silhouette, but we wonʼt be able to see you…the star of the show.

You also have to be careful of the opposite problem. If itʼs midday and the sun is beating directly on you (or indoor light), youʼre going to be very glossy and almost sparkle. Think Edward in Twilight. Not something we want. Unless youʼre Bella. Or a vampire.

A few easy tips:

  • If youʼre shooting outside – shoot early in the day, late in the day or when itʼs overcast. The midday sun is so bright that it will actually not give you the best shot.
  • If youʼre shooting inside – be careful of windows and lighting. If youʼre near a window, covering it with a white sheet will work magic for your video. When it comes to lights, make sure they are placed in front and not behind you.
  • Use trial and error. Take a test shot and see how you look. If itʼs not the best, make adjustments and try again.

Editing

There are several video editing programs available. Three of the most common are Windows Movie Maker and Windows Live Movie Maker (for PCs) and iMovie (for Macs). To make editing easy, especially when first getting started with vlogs, we suggest recording in small clips and piecing the clips together during the editing process. Add transitions, text and music to your videos to add some entertainment.

There are several tutorials available online for all three programs. At the VlogTalk site we have a series started on how to edit using Windows Movie Maker and iMovie.

Length

Length is another key aspect to videos. The shorter your video is, the more likely people will watch it. When making a video, don’t do a long introduction going over what the video is about. Get to the point right away in your video.

Use a title slate in the opening and closing of your video so that your site URL and Twitter handle will always be shown but will not take up a significant amount of time (this will also brand your video and help direct people back to your site).

We suggest keeping the timing at 4 minutes or less so that you don’t lose people’s attention.

Entertainment

Remember that with a vlog, just like a blog post, you want to engage your audience.

This doesnʼt mean you need the comedic timing of Vince Vaughn to start vlogging, but you do have to find a way to grab their attention.

You may entertain them with your editing talents, your fun personality or your story telling skills. Either way, just as we all want to read well-written posts, we all want to watch well-done vlogs.

We all have personality that comes out through our words. Through a vlog, we have the chance to actually let someone see our personality first hand. Be yourself and youʼll shine through.

Now that you know the steps to create a kick A$$ vlog, get your cameras out and start recording.

More On The Vlogging and Blog Tips

Ready to take your blog to the next level? Read more on vlogging and other blogging tips!

About Tracie Nall

Tracie lives in Arizona with her husband, teen daughter, and more books than her shelves will hold. She spends her days writing and editing. Many of her words end up on her blog, From Tracie. Find Tracie on Twitter @FromTracie and on Instagram where she takes pictures of things that are yellow.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  3. Whitney says

    This was on my list of things to accomplish this year. I have bookmarked this post and will visit your site. Thank you so much!

  4. Sophie says

    Thank you for all the great information you have provided! Now, if I may, I would like to add my own badass point.

    No matter what, make your video. No matter if the sound, light, editing is bad or not, just do it. BE YOURSELF and shine your light in the world, because it REQUIRES it.

    And if you have some kind of fear around it, let me know. I do workshops for people to get over that!

    How much fun can YOU have with this video?

  5. Paulin says

    Thank you for this great article. I must admit I am very camera shy and therefore haven’t done a single Vlog yet. But, having useful information like this will hopefully help me get over my anxiety about being on camera.

  6. Tanya Trevino says

    I hate the ones with a guy standing outside in dismal surroundings droning on and on. I am way to camera shy, but I do like watching the entertaining ones.

  9. Nell Jean says

    Thank you so much for the tips, especially the one about getting right to the subject. I watch videos about greenhouse gardening when I can find one. I hate the ones with a guy standing outside in dismal surroundings droning on and on. Let’s get inside quick and see the pretties!

  10. Pamela list says

    I didn’t see a thing about loosing 10 pounds first. lol

    One day maybe I will try this. But mostly I like to live in secret behind my computer screen. ROFL

  11. Mimi says

    Great tips! I need to start vlogging. I HATE the sound of my own voice and feel like I communicate better with written words.

  12. The BabbyMama says

    I’m still working on SOUND. I can’t get my video program to recognize my external mic. Anyone have recommendations for a free program I can use with my cam to record video that will also let me choose where sound is coming from??

  13. Dez says

    This post was SOOO helpful!!! I’m still new to blogging, and have been curious about vloging. I can’t wait to read more of your posts, thanks so much!!

  14. Christopher Campbell says

    These are really practical tips when Vlogging. I agree with you. Poorly made Vlogs are like “bad articles”, you end up hating them you’ll be planing not to follow the blog.

    I hope this post will reach a lot of people to help them be better Vloggers.

  17. Allison says

    Awesome! I plan to start vlogging soon. Thankfully my hubby is a video producer so I have all the lighting and sound issues taken care of!

  18. Through the Lens of Kimberly Gauthier, Photography Blog says

    What I struggle with the most is lighting and length. I try to keep my videos to 3 – 3.5 minutes (5 minutes if I’m fascinating), simply because this is about how much time others have with my short attention span. Recently YouTube congratulated me for making it to 15 minute video status. 15 Minutes!!! LOL

    I love love love the editing that YouTube allows you to do with your videos now. So if the lighting or color is off, I can fix it in YouTube. Even better, I can get creative and turn myself into a cartoon!

    Thanks for these great tips. I’m going to get back into vlogging soon.

    • VlogTalk says

      The first one is the hardest. It’s one of those things you just have to do it. After that they become much easier to do.