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Video seems to be the latest development in the make money online blogosphere. As I go through my RSS reader, I see more and more video. Mark Wielgus has done video on a consistent basis in the last couple of weeks. And other bloggers (like Nate, Darren, Yaro, and Glen) are joining him by producing their own online videos.
Now, I have nothing against video. I did a video case study last month. I think video is effective. The conversion rate for video is higher than text or audio. I like producing video. However, I’d rather read text than watch video.
I can process more information faster by reading since I read pretty quickly. I can learn more efficiently by reading.
I think I’m in the minority. I don’t watch a lot of TV or movies. I love reading. I like listening to podcasts when I exercise or drive. But I realize online video will be more and more important because the present generation is much more visual than the previous generation. Just look at YouTube’s insane traffic volume.
What about you? How much online video do you watch? Do you like video posts more than text or audio posts?
Text, please. I don’t know why really, to be honest. I guess it has to do with the fact that text requires less attention from me, and I’m able to digest the information at my own rate. Now I don’t have anything against video, but you’re less likely to actually catch my attention with a video than you are with text online, simply because it requires more effort from me.
I’ve never been much of a YouTuber either, but I guess I need to rethink my online surfing habits a bit in the near future if this keeps up. I don’t think we’ll see the demise of text based information online just yet though ;)
I agree with Lars– text is better. I think it’s because it’s less intrusive. Text I feel like I”m taking it in my way… video is someone yelling at me. Now, there are some things that video is great for — just like pictures are good for some things. But video should not (in my opinion) be the only media presented. Just like you wouldn’t (normally) do a whole blog post in pictures, you shouldn’t do the whole thing in video. It’s long and time consuming, and hard to navigate. I think navigation is another big thing… If I’m bored in an article I can skip ahead to a more interesting point. If I’m bored in a video, I have no idea where to skip ahead too, because there are no headlines.
My 0.02$
thanks for the mention. I love video blogging talking heads and get twice as much done.
You can minimize a talking head and listen while you browse the rest of your feeds. Your productivity should increase! In my case I have 2 monitors so I read on screen one and have video playing on screen two. I love it.
I much prefer writing over making video. But I just wanted to really add the human side of my to my blog so that people could find it easier to relate to me and see me as a…human.
I prefer text. I took a speed reading course in high school many years ago and can read very fast as a result. When I’m viewing a video for educational purposes, it always seems a bit slow. And with text I can go back over or slow down if I need to understand something. Video is too linear to do that.
Of course speed reading helps with the subtitles on foreign films as well.
I think we can consume text more rapidly, as you all said. When I am using Bloglines, I usually scan through the posts content before starting to actually read them. With video-only posts, you can’t do that.
An advantage of video and audio, though, is that you can consume that content on the go. Or you can multi-task, as 45n5 pointed out. I think video is great for tutorials too, much more than text is: I use it on my blog to explain how to install and use various software and my readers like it.
Personally, I don’t mind videos. Whenever I go to ProBlogger, I am primarily looking for his video. Why? Since I am a blogger myself, I tend to be doing five different things at once. If I have to stop what I am doing to read an article, that takes away from my productivity. However, if I can continue to work and listen to someone talk to me, to give a presentation in a sense, I can still get all the information and also get my work done. Personally, I like videos, but that’s just my personal preference. That doesn’t mean I don’t like text. I just think that hearing something rather than reading it can add a bit of personality to the information.
Great idea, but I don’t have your multitasking skills! :)
Video can seem slow at times for me, too. I’ve never taken a speed reading course, but I consider myself a fast reader just from comparing my reading speed with my friends’.
Good point. Video and even audio is a lot of personal than text.
Good point about video being great for tutorials. I remember struggling to install Wordpress when I first started blogging. I couldn’t understand the installation articles but I found a screencast that helped a lot.
Thanks to everyone who commented. It’s been an interesting discussion. I’m a little bit surprised at how many of you prefer text over video. It could be that the make money online niche is more text-oriented than other niches. Also, a holistic approach (video, audio, and text) may be the best approach.
As Vido points out I think that video is perfect for tutorials and I get the point of being able to use the video on the go which can be rather difficult (or dangerous) if you are in your car.
As most others I prefer text over video as well but I think that the reason is more than the one of feeling like it slows me down because I can read faster than that. I think another reason is that there are many videos that seems to “my first home video”-like and therefore I really can’t focus on the content but rather focus on the poor quality.
What I will look forward to however is when interactive video makes a breakthrough. Now that would be something :)
I used to hang out at YouTube, so I got used to the “home video” quality. Plus, I don’t watch much TV. I don’t even own a TV, so maybe I can’t remember what good video quality looks like!
I agree with you about video being “slower” to consume than text.