Businesses large and small can benefit from video blogging. A quality vlog (Video-Blog) that is regularly updated can increase any business web presence and draw in potential motivated customers. With high-speed Internet connections becoming widespread, it is easier than ever to share your videos over the Internet.

A blog (a contraction of the term “web log”) is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual or organization with regular entries of commentary by using published textual descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed for review to the general public or private members.

Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages and other media related to its topic.

The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (Art blog), photographs (photo blog), videos (Video blog), and music or audio.

A Microblog is another type of blog, featuring very short posts. These are commonly used for pod-casting to portable internet accessing devices such as cell phones and palm computers.

Video blogging arose as a video form of blogging. A video blog, or vlog, is a collection of videos (your own or your favorites) posted on a web site. It is easy to create a free video blog, and it’s a great way to reach out to audiences and show off your work. With a camcorder, editing software and a high-speed Internet connection you are well on your way to producing a successful video blog!

Entries are made regularly and often combine embedded video or a video link with supporting text, images, and other metadata. Entries can be recorded in one take or cut into multiple parts.

Vlogs (short for Video Blogs) also often take advantage of web syndication to allow for the distribution of video over the Internet using either the RSS or Atom syndication formats, for automatic aggregation and playback on mobile devices and personal computers.

Radio and television stations are now using video blogging as a way to help interact more with their listeners and viewers.

Here is some history behind vlogs (video-blogs) to indicate how quickly this medium has taken-off and become almost a standard in internet communication.

· 2000, January 2 – Adam Kontras launches the first (known) video blog, THE JOURNEY, detailing his move to Los Angeles and his attempt at show business. He would later host a segment on The Early Show.

· 2006, July 2 – YouTube has become the 5th most popular web destination, with 100 million videos viewed daily, and 65,000 new uploads per day.

· 2007, May and August – The Wall Street Journal places a grandmother on the front page of its Personal Journal section. In August she is featured on an ABC World News Tonight segment This shows how even the elderly are now becoming involved in the online video world.

Vlogging saw a strong increase in popularity beginning in 2005. The Yahoo! Video blogging Group saw its membership increase dramatically in 2005.

The most popular video sharing site to date, YouTube, founded in February 2005, was publicly launched between August and November 2005.

YouTube is a video sharing web site on which users can upload and share videos. Three former PayPal employees created YouTube in February 2005. In November 2006, YouTube, LLC was bought by Google Inc. for $1.65 billion, and is now operated as a subsidiary of Google.

The company is based in San Bruno, California, and uses Adobe Flash Video technology to display a wide variety of user-generated video content, including movie clips, TV clips, and music videos, as well as amateur content such as video blogging and short original videos.

Most of the content on YouTube has been uploaded by individuals, although media corporations including CBS, the BBC, UMG and other organizations offer some of their material via the site, as part of the YouTube partnership program.

Unregistered users can watch the videos, while registered users are permitted to upload an unlimited number of videos. Videos that are considered to contain potentially offensive content are available only to registered users over the age of 18.

The uploading of videos containing defamation, pornography, copyright violations, and material encouraging criminal conduct is prohibited by YouTube’s terms of service. The account profiles of registered users are referred to as “channels”.

The BBC launched their first official video blog in October 2006, with a feature allowing children to name a new Blue Peter puppy. Many open source content management systems enable posting of video content allowing bloggers to host and administer their own video blogging sites.

With the convergence of mobile phones with digital cameras allows the publishing of video content to the Web almost as it is recorded introduces a new application. One example of this phenomenon, Qik, gives its users the ability to use a wide variety of phones with data plans to stream video via its built-in camera.

To have a successful video blog you will need to continuously create and update your content. If you are creating videos about a topic that you love, keeping an up-to-date video blog should be a joy and not a chore.

You will probably be able to generate lots of interest from your audience at first, but if you don’t add new content regularly they will lose interest and stop checking in. Depending on the content, and where you choose to host your video blog, you may be able to make some money from your videos.

There is no reason to limit the vlog to what is happening within your company. Add videos on related topics that interest your customers, and you will keep drawing audiences to your business.

Show customers how to use the products that you sell with handy how-to videos. You can create the videos in-house, contract them out to a video production company, or find online videos that can be embedded into your vlog. Video news releases or video messages from executives will keep the world informed about your companies latest products, projects and achievements.

A vblog will give your companies web site more in-depth content. Good videos can increase your web audience and your ranking in web searches. You already know the benefits of sending out press releases and advertising your business. A video blog is just another means to do that, and one that appeals to modern, tech-savvy customers.