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Comment by danso | Hacker News Reader

I guess I'm old fashioned but I almost never look at video blogs...for informational value anyway. It might be a great way to communicate the personality/likability of the blogger, but it seems like a really inefficient way to communicate ideas compared to static graphics and well-formatted text.

Imagine if HN were a discussion board filled with youtube embeds for web-cam comments.

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You're absolutely right that video blogging is not for everyone, and not for every startup. I also agree that HN would not work as a web cam comment site.

For the right startups and founders with a certain type of DNA video related content (with transcripts and time-coded key points) can be an excellent marketing tactic. Just look at Gary Vaynerchuk - his videos are far from polished, but they are entertaining, and get the job done.

I've been trying to start on videos[1] because I also feel it's got a lot of potential reach. Even though the view numbers are significantly lower on my videos than my blog, I get many more emails and comments about the videos. I guess people respond better to a face and a voice than to text.

It's definitely something I'll be putting significantly more time toward exploring in the new year.

[1] About 30 videos up so far at http://youtube.com/robfitzpatrickable

SOME people respond better to a face and voice on video. Others prefer any one of a kaleidoscope of possible engagement methods. That's why it's important to try lots of approaches and see which ones resonate with your market.

Use your creativity folks - your videos CAN and WILL rank on page one with the right SEO (assuming there aren't already 1,000 videos targeting the same keywords).

One thing that's a bit different is screencasts, accompanied by good textual content. A lot of companies have used this to their advantage. Remember the first Ruby on Rails screencast (well, it was a video of DHH's screen during a conference, but close enough). In a few minutes, it succinctly showed the power of Rails much better than textual content.

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