I'm looking at a lot of websites as I plan my own. I'm seeing some where videos are just links that take the viewer to YouTube, others that link to YouTube but play there in the same window, and others that seem to be hosted within the website. (for want of a better way of explaining what I'm seeing)

Is there a best practices for this? Pros and cons? Where is a good source to answer questions such as these?

Thanks very much,

Jeffrey

Personally I prefer to embed videos I've hosted on YouTube or other sites right in my website because I don't want to give people any reason to leave my site, and I especially don't want to force them to leave my site.

One thing I think everyone should avoid. When you are youtube after your video ends they show you other videos to watch. There is a way to eliminate that. I don't know how - sorry. My web buy knows. You have to eliminate a line of code.

On your Youtube video page there is an "Embed" button that allows you to create the code to put a video on your web site. Simply uncheck the "Show Related Videos" option. The code will automatically change. Now copy the code and paste it into your html, then upload the page to your site. When the video is viewed on your site, the other videos will not appear.

Hope that makes sense...
Tom

I prefer posting the videos directly to my site. I think it gives it a much more personal look, and as Brian said, it keeps viewers on your site. When I see Youtube links, it seems a little cheaper because it's free to post to Youtube. Because I've purchased a hosting service, I might as well use everything that's available, and having the videos directly on the site gives it a much more polished and professional look.

And ironically, I just checked and the first video on my site links to Youtube. Time to repair some HTML!

Andrew,

great point about the positioning with having your video embeded on your host site.

Is there a player that you would recommend; be it free or otherwise?

Thanks in advance

Also, it depends on your market. I love the idea of youtube as it's so easy, but for my market (schools) most of them can't view youtube so it ended up being a blank spot on my website. Now I have them through my site directly.

But if I were marketing to other areas, I would probably use Youtube for videos.

I upload to a server using FTP and the videos are .mov files. You'll find all kinds of different opinions as far as what file type should be used, but I've found .mov to be fairly universal so that it will play on different computers.
You can check mine...http://www.andrewzuber.com/Media/index.html
The first video link still isn't fixed, but all of the other videos are directly on my site. That way you can get an idea of what the .mov file extension will look like.
I'm still learning about a lot of this stuff, so I'm by no means an expert, but I've learned and designed the site on my own which is a fun process!

Great thread and great info shared by everyone! Andrew is spot on with using Quicktime to be the most universal format.

I'll go one step further and say that using the H.264 codec in Quicktime is the best option.

Sites/devices that use Quicktime:
iPods, iPhones and the iPad (to be released Saturday)
Youtube
Vimeo
Hulu
Ted
ABC
CBS

(For those who say most of those sites are Flash... wrong. They are encode as H.264 Quicktime files and are played through a Flash player. With the release of HTML5, the iPad, and iPhone, each of the sites have created sites specifically for those devices to play the H.264 natively).

The file will usually be a .m4v file when encoded for these devices.

Chad brings up an excellent point. Many sites could be blocked by firewalls, so self hosting can be a good option. This is what I do. However, why not have BOTH. Youtube is just too good NOT to use!

Cheers!

P.S.
Tom, thanks for that tip. I never knew that!

Nice tip Tom, thank you:)

Also, just to magicians as a whole...please disable comments or at least make them so you have to approve them! I have seen so many videos where the magician just gets thrown under the bus or exposed by people's comments. Just something to think about...

I usually suggest to clients to self host videos, but also get them to post video's to youtube (and a few others)

the reason.. if the video is self hosted it doesn't link off of your site (or use Traffic Geysers player to remove the links)

why to post to youtube? umm because Google loves video and for hard to hit phrases you can break into the front page with a good video..

If your site is going to get a lot of traffic, YouTube is the way to go . . . ever run out of bandwidth on a hosting account? Its very easy to do with high-quality video . . . that in itself makes embedding worthwhile

Luckily, no one ever visits my site, so lack on bandwidth hasn't been a problem yet But it's certainly an excellent thing to consider. While I would love to, I export video from Final Cut Pro at less than perfect quality. It still looks quite good, but doesn't take up massive amounts of space.

I use myspacetv.com only because it was linked with my account
and at the time I didn't have broadband so I didn't want to
create a yt acct when I didn't know how serious I'd get
over uploading video.

I'm still thinking of using vimeo

-------------------------------------------------------

Tom, Thanks so much for this timely advice. I have already modified the Youtube video on our Children's site, accordingly at: http://www.monsieurmagic.com

We still need to embed our Corporate Youtube videos on our Adult's site asap, as right now, we only have Media Player and I understand from recent client feedback that those clients with Macs that have Quicktime, cannot view our video as is at: http://www.maxmagician.com

Andrew, I'm not sure I agree with you --that Youtube videos on our site give a "cheaper" look... Perhaps. I was under the impression that when clients see that you have a YouTube video, they are likely to perceive that you are good enough and confident enough to let the world know about your existence. Of course, as I reflect more on this, I realize that "anyone" good or bad can upload their videos onto YouTube, so this seems to support your opinnion on this --that it may "cheapen" your perceived value. Still, I am not yet convinced... which is more desirable --Youtube Videos or non-Youtube videos on our sites? More opinions on this subject would be appreciated.

Hart --excellent point. I realizzed this myself not too long ago when I started getting a few responses form other magicians that kept referring to me as "hey dude"... Though friendly, "dude" was not the image I wanted to give of to my corporate clients, even though the gist of these comments were positive. I therefore revised my YouTube settings to screen all comments before posting, as Hart has so wisely suggested.

Mike, great points about the reasons why our videos should be uploaded onto YouTube (so Google finds them and out rankings move up and stay high).

Scott... sometimes yo are just too technical for me to follow, but I appreciate your knowledge and generous advice just the same --I only wish I could afford to have you modify our sites to make them as top notch as yours is. Your videos on your site are outstanding!

What's "vimeo" Marshall? Never heard of it?

This is a very valuable thread, Jeffrey. Thanks for starting it off!

Jonathan

I use vimeo and its nice.
A lot of websites now use youtube or vimeo these days, it is becoming more common. I don't think it matters as long as your video is captivating.

I thoguht Vimeo wasn't for commercial use??

Ed

Certainly just a personal preference I think my reasoning behind it is in line with what you said - anyone can post something on Youtube if they want to, whereas having everything contained within the web site gives it that polished look that not everyone has.

I think you are not allowed to put your information in the video.
But if you are just uploading videos of your performance then embed it in your website, its all game