Is Video Blogging Making A Rise?

Yes, I think we can say that video blogging is starting to rise. In November 2007, there were 9,299 votes cast for 10 nominees for the best video blog in the 2007 Weblog Awards. In 2006, there were 6,434 votes. And in 2004 there wasn’t even a video blog category.

Are these facts in and of themselves evidence that video blogging is on the rise? No. But if you Google “video blog” you’ll find over 100 million results. The top results include some of the biggest names in search – Google has a video blog, AOL has a video blog, and online news source WebProNews has recently started adding video reports to its website. Many bloggers and blog consultants are now starting to experiment with their own video blog posts, such as Michael Martine at Remarkablogger. I think it’s pretty obvious that video blogging is certainly becoming more popular. But will it transform blogging as we know it?

I think the next two years will be a stepping out period for video blogging. I believe you’ll see more video blogs on the rise. There will be good ones, bad ones, and mediocre ones. There will be a lot to learn about video blogging – camera angles, lighting, pacing, scripting, editing, and even SEO. But I don’t think every company online will need a video blog. It will certainly benefit some companies, but it won’t be a necessary element for all. It will be interesting to see how video blogging matures and whether YouTube will be the host of choice for videos that companies put on their blogs.