Adding video on your website is a relatively new concept, but it is gaining popularity almost everyday. Especially with the ever increasing popularity of websites like YouTube, Google Video, Myspace, Yahoo video, etc; this concept is currently on an all time high.

There is nothing like advertising your products and services on your websites with the help of short videos. Instead of reading a whole lot of text, people usually prefer viewing a quick and interesting video because of its visual appeal. The only drawbacks could be the download speed, and the hosting storage space. Tackling this problem is only a matter of time. There are many websites like YouTube, etc; which offer free video hosting. And with high speed internet networks always on the rise, it won’t be long before we see many high bandwidth applications like streaming audio and video online on a regular basis.

But if you compare adding video to other online concepts, it is still in its infancy. This is because many people are still not well informed about it. They have many misconceptions like: 1). Adding videos online is very expensive. 2). Making these videos is only for professionals. 3). It is very difficult to shoot videos and the put them online for an amateur like me. 4). And many more similar doubts.

In reality all these doubts are no more than a myth. This is because adding videos to your website is simply very easy and not at all expensive. All you need is a video recording and editing software. You can download a free software like Camtasia. This software records your screen activity alongwith your voice. It can then save it in a few compatible formats. This is a great tool for creating online instructional videos. In this case you don’t even need a video camera or a webcam to record your footage. Another popular software from Microsoft which comes free with their operating systems is Windows Movie Maker. This can record your own face and speech with the help of a webcam and mike. This software is also great for editing existing videos, adding titles, transitions, etc. And above all both these software are so easy to learn, that even a child could do it. If you are the more advanced type, then you can also try professional video software like Adobe Premier, After Effects, Combustion, Avid, etc.

As far as hosting these videos is concerned, like explained before there are many free video hosts available. Websites like YouTube, Google Video, Yahoo Video, MySpace, etc; offer lots of space for storing your videos and ways of streaming them on your own website.

Lastly, I would like to cover one more topic which is also gaining rapid popularity. This is the concept of video blogging or ‘Vlog’. So far you might have heard about text blogging. These text blogs are extremely popular with users and search engines alike because of their fresh updated content and user interaction. But video blogging seems to be the future of text blogging. In this way users will be able to express themselves in a much more creative way. You can also show your products in a video format and get instant reviews and feedback from users, since people would like to see your products before they buy them. So in short it is like showing a full commercial advertisement of your product on the internet for free.

With all these advantages and its ease of use, it shold come as no surprise that online video and video blogging (Vlogs) are gaining popularity everyday and are the future of the internet.