Blogs are traditionally about text but they don’t have to be. I realized today that I have hidden behind the written (well, typed) word out of fear. Fear of looking and sounding bad.
The thing is, if you are a bit camera-shy like me, there are other options to enable a bit of multimedia into your blog.
For a start you can add pictures. Your own, from Flickr (CC licensed), or stock photographs.
For demonstrating software or techniques, I particularly enjoy a screencast. It is so much nicer to be shown something rather than have something explained. You can create these with free software, shareware, or more expensive suites. The leading product is Camtasia on the PC, but there is a free, though less powerful alternative. On the Mac I have been trying iShowU.
A nice new idea is the Sketchcast. Sketchcasting is a way to provide an animated doodle that illustrates an idea, or purely for entertainment. This can be done using an online service or the same screen capture software as video walk-throughs are created with.
Then of course there is video, either talking heads or captured video. Some video is free to use, others will require permission. In most cases if they have an embed feature then they want you to show off the video on your own site.
Inevitably this stuff takes practice. The key is to feel the fear (and shame!) and do it anyway. In the end it will all be worth it. Go on, give it a try :)
Do you use multimedia in your blog? What do you use? How do you do it? Show us your best stuff in the comments …
