The Ultimate Blog Podcast - 83. Getting Started with Video on Your Blog with Danielle Wallace

Episode Date: July 18, 2023

Have you thought about adding video to your blog? Today, we are joined by Danielle Wallace to talk about all things video for bloggers. Danielle is a former TV news reporter and owner of Chayil Media Publishing, a copywriting and brand storytelling strategy business, where she helps online coaches flip facts into sales-driven narratives. She is also the founder of Virtuous Creative, an online magazine for Christian women creatives in business. If you are thinking about adding video to your blog, you don’t want to miss this episode!Thanks for listening! Connect with us on Instagram: @sparkmediaconceptsCheck out the show notes for more information including links and resources mentioned in today's episode!SHOW NOTES: www.sparkmediaconcepts.com/episode83

Welcome to the Ultimate Blog Podcast with Amy Reinecke and Jennifer Draper. We're on a mission to empower women who want to start or grow their own blog. This podcast is for women who want to learn blogging basics and who crave inspiration and encouragement. Whether you're just getting started or have been a blogger for years, we're excited to welcome you into this space where we are passionate about creating community over competition. We are bloggers who want to encourage you to believe in your potential, step outside the norm and step into a life where you create your own schedule, your own success and your own story. Join us for weekly episodes as we navigate blogging

and work from home life all while raising a family and having some serious fun along the way. all while raising a family and having some serious fun along the way. Welcome back to the Ultimate Blog Podcast. Today, we get to dive into video, which is a topic that we actually, surprisingly, have not addressed here on the podcast yet, which it's kind of crazy that we're this far in and we haven't talked about it because video is so huge. And to talk about this, we're bringing on Danielle Wallace. And Danielle is a former TV news reporter that is the owner of High Yield Media Publishing, which is a copywriting and brand storytelling strategy business where she helps online coaches flip facts into sales-driven narratives. She is also the founder of Virtuous Creative,

and it is an online magazine for Christian women creatives and business. Danielle, welcome to the Ultimate Blog Podcast. Thank you so much for having me on your podcast. So excited to be here and talk about all things video for bloggers. So exciting. Yes, we are excited too because video is all the rage these days. And it feels like it's been honestly for a long time that video is just what people want. It's how we're consuming content. And video on blogs does really well as well. So let's dive into that a little bit. Why do you feel that video is such a powerful tool for bloggers these days? You know, these days it is, you know, first of all, the online space seems so noisy, right? And there are a lot of people probably doing what you do. And I feel like video is another way for you or a big way rather for you to stand out in your space and just create a deeper level of connection with your readers

versus just always posting, you know, your traditional type of blog posts. You know, why not take things up a notch on the different platforms that you utilize to promote your blog? Why not use video to amp things up a bit? Because it just catches people's attention a bit more. It catches their attention quicker. And there are tons of ways that you can get creative with sharing your content in that capacity. Yeah. I think a good thing about video too, is you can repurpose it, which I'm sure you're going to dive into a little bit. But you can shoot one video and it can be repurposed in a lot of different ways. Absolutely. It really can.

It definitely can. So what's the process if somebody is wanting to add video to their blog? And we have all the different kinds of bloggers who listen to the podcast. We have food bloggers, we have travel bloggers, health and wellness, craft. I mean, there's just an array of people who are listening. So how can somebody kind of start... Where do they begin when they want to begin adding video onto their blog? How can they start to utilize that? Right. So considering that you have different types of bloggers that listen to the podcast. All right. So the first step would probably be to just do some brainstorming, writing down, you know, what could you possibly showcase on video? Just do a brain dump of things. Right. What, you know, visually, what would you like to show, highlight or whatever? visually, what would you like to show, highlight or whatever? Verbally, what would you like to say?

Just do a complete brain dump of what you would like included in your videos. And in terms of, let's say you're like a food blogger or somebody like that, you're probably not going to do a lot of talking in your videos a lot, unless you are sharing step-by-step advice and you want to talk in your videos. But if you aren't, then why not make something called like a shot list of what you would want or a B-roll, people call it B-roll or whatever, for your video. What would you like to show in the video to get people's attention or whatnot? If you would like to talk in the video, what are some points that you want to say and for people to understand and latch on? If you're someone that does more, that your video would require more talking or whatnot, jot down some main points that you would like to say in those videos.

Now, I've heard a lot of people say, whether you're doing a Instagram reel or a YouTube video or something like that, especially YouTube, I've heard people say this, that you don't have to use a script or whatever. I highly disagree with that because a script can just keep you on track. Of course, you can add lip from the script, but I really feel like a script is necessary. I used scripts when I was working as a professional reporter, right? And so it's definitely necessary to keep you on track. Whether like when I was going live for stuff, I still had a script. It was required that we still had a script, but it was there to keep me on track. So, you know, after you brainstorm, you know, make sure that you are writing out a script. If you have to do a whole lot of talking

or whatnot, just plan out the points that you want to make in your overall video, but keep in mind, okay, I'm still going to ad lib if I need to off of this script. But again, the script is there for you to stay on track and just not be all over the place. And some people might feel like, oh, that might sound like I'm reading or something like that, or it doesn't sound genuine. But if you

don't think of it as just reading, then you'll be okay with that. Another part of it is getting started with video. You want to make sure that, okay, think about, okay, what are you going to record with? These days, it's so easy to just pick up our phones and start recording, which, you know, we've come a long way. So blogging probably back in the day, a few years ago, 2013 is totally different now. You can actually, you know, record a video, a quality video with your phone easily. All you need is your phone, some good lighting, making sure that your audio is good and you're good to go. So after scripting, making sure that you have those elements. First of all, I think I forgot this part. After brainstorming, you want to plan out your videos. If you're a planner like me,

you can plan out what types of videos that you would like to do. Maybe you have a plan for your blog already. Okay. So if you have this plan for your blog already, you know, write down beside each blog post, you know, what type of video would you want to do? Are you going to do like an explainer video or one of those videos that they call like talking heads? Like you're going to, you know, just basically talk to the camera. Are you going to do something else? Like a tutorial that's not even showing you. So you can plan it out that way

and plan when you're going to record them as well. I wouldn't recommend recording them on the same day that you write a blog post. I've tried that. And even me being very creative and wanting to knock stuff out, I like to write stuff on one day, record the stuff on another day. So you can have a clear mind and you have good energy that you can show up with as far as recording. And I think a lot of people

think, oh, I don't have time to do these videos or whatnot, but you have time. You can definitely have time for them, 30 minutes every week or something like that. If you can commit to that, then I think that you'll be good. So those are some starting points to getting started with video. The main points is doing some brainstorming, some planning, what type of video that you want and making sure, okay, I have an easy way to record this. Don't make it complicated. Yeah. I have a question. And this is kind of a technical question as you're talking through this. What is the best way to record? Should you record

video vertically or horizontally? What do you recommend? Because I know all social is vertical. But for blogs, a lot of time, for images, we want a horizontal picture. So what do you recommend when shooting video for that content to be able to be repurposed? So what orientation should your video be? Yeah. So a lot of people might not like this answer because it's going to require a second step. So for instance, like, okay, if I'm recording a YouTube video for my podcast or whatnot, I'm going to shoot it horizontally because it's going on YouTube, it's going on my website or whatnot.

But then I'm going to turn around and I'm going to shoot a vertical video of, you know, just promoting the actual long video, right? So I would recommend shooting in both formats. Let's say if you want to, you're doing a long form video that it needs to be horizontal, right? I highly recommend you doing a vertical one. And like, after you shoot the horizontal one, just to, you know, you can promote it elsewhere. You can have it, the horizontal one on your blog, on YouTube, wherever you want to, wherever that would go. Right. But then also you can, you know, do a one minute video of you promoting the actual full blog post video, what have you, if that makes sense. So I recommend doing it in both. And I take a lot of this from like my background from news,

because, you know, at the end of the day, I had to have a story, a full story at the end of the day, but I was required to also have like a 30 second, a 30 second clip of me promoting my story that was going to air later. So you got to, I recommend that you do it in both formats. So you can promote it on social media, drive people to your blog or wherever you want to drive them. So I kind of want to roll back to the brainstorming part a little bit, cause I have a question there. So you might go out and start looking. I think what a lot of us do is we might go out and look and see what other bloggers in our niche might be creating in terms of video. And so when you're looking from an SEO perspective

at writing a blog post, it's almost like there's a certain format you have to stick to so that you have a chance to compete and rank and all of that. But when you're looking at adding video, how much creative freedom do you have? Do you need to make videos the way that other bloggers are making videos? Or can you have some creative freedom just to try something totally different? I recommend just having some creative freedom to try stuff that's totally different. Because here the thing, and I'm glad you asked this question. Like right now on social media, I don't know if you all noticed, but if I'm scrolling and I'm looking at reels or whatnot, I see a lot of the same type of stuff. And when people see certain types of videos go viral or get a lot of traction, it's like, okay, let me try it.

I mean, that's cool and all, but do you want all your videos to look like everybody else's? Or there is also on social media right now, there's a certain type of editing style that everybody is doing. And it is like, okay, y'all are all blending in to me. Right.

So, and I can't think of the guy's name who started this. He, his video is very popular, but everybody has, and I Googled it. I was like, somebody mentioned his name and it was like, why is everybody doing his same type of editing style? I guess because his videos got very popular and now everybody's doing it. And I'm like, are you talking in the food blogging space? No, I think his name is, his last name is Harmosy or something like Alex Harmosy. And I looked him up to see, okay, what does he do? I think he's in the business space. His videos are edited in a certain type of way. And basically a lot of people are using that editing style on reels and things like that. I'm like, okay, y'all. It has these different types of texts and

things that pop up. I mean, it's not anything new under the sun, but I think that a lot of people caught on and was like, okay, let me try it. Let me try it. Let me try it. But I really think that a lot of people caught on and was like, okay, let me try it. Let me try it. Let me try it. But I really think that it is important for you to have that creative freedom to think outside the box, right? Think outside the box. How can I stand out in my own type of way? If you are like a food blogger or one of those types of bloggers where you have to like showcase like a lot of objects or different things like that. The camera's not always on you. But I think outside the box of different angles that you could use, things of that nature.

Just in brainstorming, that's a big part of it. Like just sitting down and just really think about how can I make this video stand out? I personally wouldn't go down a rabbit hole of looking at what everybody else is doing because then you're going to put yourself in a comparison trap and you're going to probably either feel like, oh, I'll never be able to do that. And then you'll be like, I'm just not going to do anything anyway. I'm not going to even try to do anything.

Or you might try it and you might be disappointed and you might feel like, oh, there's got traction. Why can't mine get traction either? And I did the same type of video content. I included the same type of stuff that they did. And so I wouldn't recommend going down a rabbit hole of looking at people's stuff like that. Yeah, it's good for you can take a look and see, but I wouldn't like, I wouldn't do it too much or too often. Yeah, I think that's really good advice. Yeah. I think content is different. Like, like a written content can be different. But video, you have that visual comparison that you can put those two videos next to each other. And especially if you're just beginning and you're comparing yourself to somebody who's been doing video

for a while, you could easily just be like, I'm not posting this or I'm not sharing this because I'm not at their level. And then you lose the site that you're offering value still to your community, even if it doesn't look... They might have no idea who those other people are. Your video might be the only one that they're looking at. And so, yeah, I'm really glad that you gave that advice. I think myself included needed to hear that. Because video can be really, really intimidating. Intimidating is the word I would use for it. Yeah, it can. It definitely can be. And I, you know, I don't want people to feel that way, that it is intimidating. It's like, I think a lot of people either think, oh, I don't want people to feel that way, that it is intimidating.

It's like, I think a lot of people either think, oh, I can't do that. Or, oh, I'm afraid to talk on video or whatnot. And when it comes to talking, what I always like to tell people is like, I mean, just think of it like you're just talking to somebody in real life. Like you're out and about doing whatever throughout the day. Somebody comes up to talk to you or you're talking to somebody, whether they're, you know, it's just think of it as like you're just talking to somebody in real life. Like it's just a camera there. But I don't know. A lot of people have nerves about it. I've interviewed like tons of people in the past when I was a reporter and like, I don't know, video really,

it will get them very nervous, very, very nervous. And when I would, you know, in that capacity, if they were nervous, I would tell them, Hey, you're not looking directly at the camera in that field. You do not look directly at the camera. You look directly at the person who's talking to you. And so that helped them out. But I know like, if you're in this space, you're going to have to look directly at the camera, but just think of it as, you know, don't think too hard about it. I know it's easier said than done, but don't think too hard about it at all. It sounds like that's kind of an overall theme. Like don't overthink it. And the thing is, do not overconsume so much other content. That's the thing.

People consume too much. And it just makes you feel like, Oh, I'm not that good. So I'm not even going to try. Yeah. This week, I saw somebody share, you need to create before you consume. You do.

And I've heard that in other capacities. But for some reason, this week, it just really struck a chord with me. Because how often do we hop online to create something and we're like, well, let's get inspiration. And instead of that, instead of doing it that way, just create what you are feeling called to create at that time and show up as what you have to offer, what your niche is, what your expertise is, and all of that. And it's amazing what we can do when we just step into our authenticity and share what we're meant to share. I think instead of letting all those other voices get in the way, and then they just add more obstacles.

They do. They do add more obstacles. And even, you know, I have been doing this stuff for years, but you know, when I started doing it, we didn't have all this social media stuff around us. We didn't have Instagram stories. We didn't have all of this stuff. Right. And so I noticed like, you know, a lot of us will probably, yeah, scroll a bit too much trying to find inspiration for stuff. Like me going here and find inspiration for my next reel and end up feeling like, oh, I don't think I can do that. Or, oh, how they do that. So I personally, I try to stay away from the apps during the day because I don't want to get in that mindset. I try to stay away from it as much as I can so I can move in my own authentic way.

That's just good advice in general when it comes to our businesses, because, yeah, you just get caught up in so many different issues. If you start to scroll, if you start to compare, if you start to try to get ideas, you kind of lose sight of your own purpose and mission at that point. So yeah, I think that's just good advice in general. It is. It absolutely is. Yeah, it definitely is. I deleted Instagram from my phone and I'll get on there. Really, I will be intentional about getting on there at the end of the day if I want to post some stories to my Instagram pages. Because if I'm on there throughout the day, it's just going to take away from my creative mindset.

Yeah. So besides getting distracted, what other types of mistakes do you see like bloggers speak when it comes to creating videos or trying to get started with creating videos? Have you seen any common roadblocks or mistakes that they make along the way? Yeah. So, you know, one of the biggest mistakes that I see is, you know, whether it's long form video or short form video, if you're talking to people in the video, like you're starting off talking to people, right. Starting it off where it doesn't really hook people in, like what you say in those first few seconds matters. It's just like with anything, even if it was like in written format, you know, you got to hook people in, right? So don't start, if you are doing like a talking video, don't start

your video saying, hey everyone, I hope you're having a wonderful day. I would prefer you to just jump in and talk about what you want to talk about. Ask some sort of like thought provoking question for them that leads into what you're about to say. Something that really hooks them in versus, you know, starting it with a whole bunch of, you know, it's fluff. It's nice things to say, but it is fluff when it comes to video, like really just draw them in at the beginning. That is the biggest, that's the biggest thing.

Whatever you say in the beginning, make sure that it draws people in. Whatever, if you aren't talking in the video in the beginning, let's say you are a food blogger. I know we keep using that as an example, but there's this one person that I follow and I love her videos of her food recipes and stuff. It's so on point. And when I was working in news, I shot my own videos a lot. And the first shot of any video needs to draw people in. It needs to pop just as much as what you have to say.

All of it needs to pop. So those are the biggest mistakes that I see, not starting it off with something that's going to draw them in. Yeah. I see that all the time when people are doing Instagram live videos and things like that. It's like, well, I'm going to wait. Those people, because their attention is so, so short these days, people want to know what they're going to get, why they should watch and you got to get them so fast. with Instagram live, it's like, no, just get on in there. Just start the live, start, just start the live. You're going to save the recording for people. Right. And so as you see people come in, cause you can kind of notice like when people start popping into the live video, as more people come in, I usually I'll say, you know, if you're just joining, I'm talking about X, Y, and Z. Like I'm not just going to wait 5 minutes for a whole bunch of people to

show up. Yeah. It goes back to that. Whether it's somebody on your blog, whether you're writing content or whether you're creating video for a social platform, creating content for the people who are already there. Yeah. Not waiting for more people. But you have people who are already there who are wanting to consume content, who are wanting to learn from you in some way. So whether it's 5 people, whether it's 1 person, whether it's 5,000 people, remembering that each one of those people is just as important. You don't need some big number in order to make an impact. Yeah, exactly. And that trips people up a lot. That number thing will trip people up.

And it will stop you from doing what you need to do. So it doesn't matter how many people are watching, how many subscribers, followers that you have, just jump right on in and go because whatever you have to say, whatever you have to show somebody, they're waiting for you to do it. So go ahead and do it. Okay, so if somebody is like, all right, I want to get started with video.

I love that you said that our iPhone is sufficient. To be honest, I'm like, oh, thank goodness. Because we all have that. We all have a smartphone of some sort. If you're a blogger, I guess 99.9% of us already have a phone that is able to record video like that. So we can shoot with our phone because I know for a long time, it was like we should be shooting with video. So that's good news to hear that our phone is sufficient. Is there any other equipment or tools that somebody might need in order to start shooting more video content for their blog? Yeah. So you got your phone. Let's see here, you know, a good microphone you can use,

you know, I have one of those blue Yeti mics. And what I did was I went on Amazon to buy a, and I can't think of the proper word for this tool, but anyway, it connects my Yeti mic to my phone. It connects the, that USB cable to my phone. So it works perfectly fine as if you were plugging it into a camera, but I'm just plugging it into my phone. If you're somebody that needs to get started right now, that's the easy way. You can get a Blue Yeti mic, any type of mic, really. On Amazon, they have like those, you know, either wireless mics or wired mics that you can pop onto yourself. They have a bunch of those on Amazon. Lighting, like you can use the ring light. Those are everywhere. You can find those. A tripod, usually for your phone. Those

are everywhere these days. And then, you know, in terms of like video editing software, and this is one of those things too, that trips people up. It's like, okay, I shot my video. I don't feel like editing this. Right. I totally understand. I totally understand, but editing, it does not have to scare you as much. When I first started editing video, I was doing it in college. And I remember my first time editing my first video. And I thought that I was horrible because it took me hours and hours. I remember it was like for a student news story. It took me hours and hours. And I was like, okay, Dio, you're overthinking this. And I actually, I didn't have time to stay there for someone to teach me. And I actually, you know, I didn't have time to like stay there

for someone to teach me. I actually went to YouTube university and I taught myself how to edit it, edit video from that point on. And, you know, as I went on throughout my news career, after I graduated and all that, I got better and better and better at it. And right. Like when I stopped working in news, like it would literally, it would take me like 15 minutes to edit a video versus like when I first started 45 minutes to an hour, it would take me 15, probably 15 minutes to edit it. And then when I edit my podcast stuff, it doesn't take that long, probably like 10 minutes or whatever. That's only because I've been doing it for a while, but you know But there are tons of video editing software out there. And to me, they make it easy for you to

get started. There are some ones out there, they have a basic interface, it's user-friendly. Some of the ones that I'm going to name, you can go and look them up and see if you can try them. There are tons of them. One is what? CapCut. I don't know if anybody's heard of that. That's easy. One on your phone that is super convenient, InShot.

I've made a lot of reels off of InShot. That is very convenient. Another one that a lot of people might like, it's not an app, it's called Descript. So in Descript, you can, it actually, it transcribes your video for you. You upload the video to it, transcribes it. You can go in there and you can, obviously sometimes the transcription

is not gonna be perfect on point. So you can go in there and highlight words and correct them or whatever. It has like different features on there for you to show the words at the bottom of the on your video and different elements that you can add. I really like that one. But yeah, check that out. A lot of them are very, you know, these days they're very user friendly and easy to use. And I guess they're making those like that because, you know, obviously video is the thing and more people need to use it. So they want to make it as easy as possible for people to get started. So there's tons of them out there for you to use. And so after you create a video, then you're going to create it.

And then what type of file should you save it as? So I like to say mine is a MP3 file or MP4 file. You can save it like that. It's like that's the easiest way to upload it to places like YouTube or whatever, or even on Instagram or whatnot. places like YouTube or whatever, or even on Instagram or whatnot. And I wouldn't recommend if you're shooting on your phone. I know some people like shooting in 4k. If you have an iPhone, I wouldn't recommend it because it takes up a whole lot of space on your phone. And then it's going to be a lot to like upload or whatever. It's going to take just a long time to get your stuff done, but save it in that format. And you know, it's just make it easier for you. Don't save it. And if it does save an MOV file, there are places out there where you can convert it. So it's easier to upload in other places. I think that's really helpful just to be able to know.

Really, it is right at our fingertips. It just takes a little bit of courage to get started. Because I do think people feel shy. They have that comparison trap going on and all of that. But you've really provided a lot of just really tangible ways to tackle it. And if I've learned anything, it's just do it. At the end of the day, it's just like, just do it. It's just, you know, that's the, at the end of the day, it's just like, just do it because you got to think about this. Okay. Do you believe in the mission that you are, you know, trying to share with people? If you really believe in that mission, then you will like, okay, I got to get this out

there. I've got to share this. Like, I don't care what anybody else thinks. Right. And another thing, what gets people is the way they look like, oh, I need to, I need to make sure my hair is a certain way. I need to have, make sure my makeup is a certain way. Like don't overthink it. Like just don't overthink it. Just pretend like you bought the, I don't know, Just pretend like you're just moving in real life.

Like I said, let's say you're just going to a coffee shop, sit down and somebody pops up and ask you a question. Okay. Would you be scared to talk to them? Probably not. Just... Yeah, just do it. Yeah. Yeah. Show up as yourself.

I think that's really important in blogging. That's something that we talk about a lot is show up as yourself. That's what your community wants. That's what your community needs. Most of them are not asking for perfection. There's always those bad seeds. And I get it. There's going to be people who are going to comment, whatever. But that's not really who we're creating content for, are the people who are going to feel like that. It's going to be the people who are there for the goodness that we have instead of the way that we look. And I think we get very, very, very wrapped up in the way that we look and that can kind of prevent us from making the impact that we can make.

Exactly. It really can. It can slow you down. Of course, you don't want to look any type of way, but I mean, just you want to look professional or, you know, just just like you're going about your normal day and you get dressed up to go go to work or whatnot. You don't have to be. It doesn't have not to be anything extravagant. Show up as your authentic self. Seriously, because that's the thing that keeps people from stop using video. They want everything to be perfect and not everything is going to be perfect. And even if you have never shot a video before and you do it for the first time, chances are, it might not be perfect. You're going to learn from it and see what you can improve on. Like that's just the way it is. Like anything that

we do for the first time is not going to be perfect. Yeah. We were all beginners. We were all beginners at some point. We all cringed at the first thing we put out there. Like I think it was like a few weeks ago. I actually, I went back and I, I don't know. I was just curious. Like the first version of my online magazine, which was a blog at the time, I went back

and looked and searched for it on Google. I was like, Ooh, this is, I mean, at the time it was wonderful, but now I'm like, Oh, this writing. And I don't know, but I'm like, I'm glad I put it out there. Right. But anything that you do is for the first time, it's going to be, it's going to be, it's not going to be good probably, but you can improve. You can find ways to improve. Yes, you can. Yeah. Awesome. This has been so helpful. I hope that people have listened to this and feel inspired to add video in some capacity, either on their social media, on their blog, however they can just to further it. So

Danielle, can you please tell our listeners how they can connect with you and find you? Yeah, absolutely. So if you want to connect with me, you want to, I guess, learn more about the power of copywriting and storytelling and marketing and stuff like that, you can connect with me at cayomediapublishing.com. I'm pretty sure y'all will provide this in the show notes, but that's the website for that. And you know, if you're someone, you know, you are a creative, obviously all of you are creatives. And if you're like a Christian woman creative, then you can connect with me on my other site. It's called the virtuous creative. So awesome. Thank you so much for

coming today. We appreciate it. You're very welcome. You're very welcome. It's good to get this type of information out there. Thanks so much for tuning in today. If you'd like to continue the conversation about blogging with us, please find us on Instagram at Spark Media Concepts. You can also sign up for our weekly newsletter where we share blogging tips and inspiration. You can sign up by finding the link in the show notes. For those of you who are ready for the next step and want to start your own blog, join the waitlist for the Ultimate Blog Bootcamp. The link to join the waitlist is also in the show notes. Go out and make today a great day.