Blogging used to be the big thing on the internet and rightly so. Everyone has something interesting to say about life. But today the focus has moved toward vlogging. Just in case you don’t know, vlogging means blogging but on video. Instead of reading someone’s thoughts, you get to watch them speak in video form.
If you have an interest in vlogging, you probably have a lot of questions, like which sites are the best choices to upload your videos to. You have a lot of choices these days, after all. That’s okay because we have the answers.
YouTube has been around the longest. It is a great platform that almost everyone knows. Chances are if you are not going to YouTube to watch videos, you are going there to upload your own vlogs. YouTube remains the best place to upload your vlogs simply because of the number of users who interact with the platform.
It’s not without its problems though. You probably heard about several recent controversies between YouTube and it’s users. The platform recently suffered an “ad-pocalypse” when YouTube changed some of the rules for how creators can earn money with ads on their platform. Then there has been a recent crackdown on videos, where the company has censored the videos of many users. It appears to some that if your politics lean too far right, you may get censored.
Despite these issues that YouTube is constantly struggling to improve, it remains the best and most popular place to upload videos of all kinds. Vlogs especially do well on the platform. And even though it is harder today, you can still earn ad revenue by doing it.
Dailymotion is the second most popular free video sharing website, and the user interface is similar to YouTube. Many vloggers who don’t like Youtube are having success there. Dailymotion recommends videos to users based on what is trending just like YouTube does. Here, you will also be able to display ads in videos to monetize your content to earn money. Another interesting way to earn revenue is by selling a subscription to your channel instead of using ads.
While YouTube has both novices and professional video creators, Dailymotion tends to have more pros. There are still plenty of vlogs, and that number will surely rise as some vloggers leave YouTube for greener pastures.
Vimeo is another popular option for vloggers and it stands out from YouTube in a few ways. The user interface is different, even the comments tend to be very different from what you would find on Youtube. They are generally nicer for one thing. You’ll find no trending videos on the front page. They choose instead to focus on high-quality content that has been curated by Vimeo’s staff. They feel that these videos are the cream of the crop. You won’t find ads here either.
While Vimeo is more a place for serious creative pros who make short films and the like, you’ll also find vlogs on the site.Just be aware that these vlogs tend to come from a more serious professional type of vlogger. Still, it seems like a great place for any budding vlogger to elevate their content and rise to a pro level. You could do very well here.
Vloggers have many options today, but we feel that these are the best. The most important thing after finding a home for your vlogs is to create unique and compelling content.
The only downside with Vlogging in my opinion is getting the balance right between being able to do a video quickly, i.e. just record and upload from your iPhone or Android, and making it look professional.
The more you want to do to make sure the video is well made/professional looking the longer it takes. It can therefore be a bit of a time suck to try and do vlogs regularly.
Other than that, I agree it is a great marketing channel and another interesting way to create and share your own unique content.