Create Videos for YouTube, Google and Elsewhere for Free. No Special Equipment or Software Needed.
You might have a website and have heard that posting videos on YouTube, Google Videos and other free video hosting services is a powerful way to generate a ton of traffic. But here’s your problem: You don’t have a video recorder and you don’t have a clue how to make a video.
If you want to create a video that is basically a slide show with music and images, there’s a free (yes, free) program available called “Memories on Web” that makes video creation a snap. So you can see how easy this is, I’ll make a little video right now.
When you open the program, you will see a screen that looks something like this:
CAPTION: Memory on Web Interface
Let’s say that you want to start out your video with a text message. Click the icon on the top of your screen that reads “T”.
CAPTION: Creating a Text Screen - Click "T"
Once you’ve done that, double-click on the icon that shows up:
CAPTION: Click the Text Icon
…and then type your text.
CAPTION: Click the + sign to add your text.
CAPTION: Type in your text and if you want, adjust the fonts and background.
As you can see, when you are creating your text screens, you can change the background, the font, and even add special effects. I generally wait until I’ve generated all of my screens before adding the effects, but it doesn’t really matter because you can edit as much as you want before publishing.
To make your video more interesting than just a series of text messages, you can also easily add photos. You’ll see at the bottom of your MemoriesOnWeb screen your file locations. You can change the “view” so you can see thumbnail images:
CAPTION: Click this icon to change the view so you see thumbnail images.
Drag your image that you want into the movie:
CAPTION: Just drag the thumbnails into your storyboard on top.
Keep repeating this process to add material to your video. By dragging material into your storyboard screen on the top, you can see how outrageously simply it is to make a video. In making this video sample, I’ve added a bunch of pictures that don’t make a lot of sense. They’re in there simply to show how easy it is to add images.
To spice up your production even more, you can also import premade videos into your project. A great place to find short video clips that you can use is a service called “Istockphoto” (you can also get fantastic stock photos for your web pages there, too. I highly recommend them). Just download the clip that you want, and then drag it into your “storyboard” in your MemoriesOnWeb program like you did with your pictures:
CAPTION: Drag in your movie clips from their file locations (on the bottom) to your storyboard (on the top).
Once you have all of the material that you want to present in your video, you can add some music. In the example video that I’m creating right now, I used some music from DJ Raymo’s Megatrance Volume 1, available for download at Dance-Industries, which has a lot of free music downloads. This Singapore DJ has some great stuff to listen to!
Anyway, to put your music background in your video, click the “music” tab in your MemoryOnWeb program:
CAPTION: First, click the music tab as shown.
Click the + sign at the bottom of your screen to find your music file:
CAPTION: In your "music" menu, click the + sign in the lower left, and you should see your files on your hard drive.
Double click on your music file that you want and it will be inserted into the movie. The options at the lower right of your screen will allow you to choose whether you want it to fade in, fade out, loop, or all three. Play around with the options:
CAPTION: Choose fade in, fade out or loop from the options on the lower right.
And then you are ready to add effects. BUT FIRST (AND PAY ATTENTION, DO THIS FIRST), you should click on each individual movie screen (the thumbnails in the top portion of your MemoryOnWeb program) to make sure that each item is in the proper order. Sometimes the program automatically inserts them out of order. Just click on each item and, if it’s in the wrong location, drag it to where you want it to appear. For text images, you have to double click to see what the text box says.
CAPTION: Move your images and text blocks to the order that you want. You might need to double-click on the text boxes to see what they say.
When you are satisfied that everything is in proper order, click the “effects” button. Play around with all the effects to find out what you want. For the video that I am creating in this post, I will apply a separate effect to each slide in the storyboard because I’ve imported a video clip. As you apply each effect, you’ll see a preview. Here, I am applying effects to selected slides:
CAPTION: Click the effects button as shown, and then apply your effects either selectively or across all screens in your video.
An easier way to do this, especially if you want each slide in your presentation to be different, is to go to your storyboard, click on the first image, select the effect, and go through each slide, one by one.
CAPTION: You can start with your first screen and selet the effects...
CAPTION: Click the "apply all" button and then select the appropriate option (i.e., whether you want the effect on the selected screen, all of them, and so forth).
CAPTION: After you've selected the effects that you want, click next and apply the effects for the next screen. Remember, this is for individual screens. You can apply one effect to the entire video, if you wish.
You can click the preview button at any time to watch (and listen to) your video.
CAPTION: Just click the preview button...
CAPTION: And click "start" and you can preview your movie, with sounds, effects and the whole bit.
Make adjustments as you want, and then click PUBLISH.
CAPTION: You can type in your YouTube account information and publish your video directly onto YouTube.
As you can see, the program will automatically publish and upload your video to your YouTube account. I find that it is faster to save my video onto a disk, and then upload from YouTube’s interface and also from Google’s interface.
CAPTION: In this example, I've clicked the "Generate New Video" option and am storing the video on my hard drive so I can upload it from YouTube's interface, from Google Video's interface and other free video hosts.
CAPTION: You can log into your account at YouTube and upload your video, using the browse feature when prompted to do so.
Here’s the completed video, that you saw me make right here in this blog post:
And here’s the same video, as published on Google Videos:
Some Extra Tips and Link Review
- Download MemoriesOnWeb - It’s free.
- When publishing your video, it is possible that you will need to upgrade your XviD codex, which is software that installs on your hard drive to compress your videos so they’re not too big. Get XviD codex here.
- For really great photos and short video clips, visit IStockPhoto. This is professional quality stuff that can really enhance your videos and web pages.
There are many more editing features in Memories On Web that you can play with so that you can really spice up your video into something enjoyable and that you can be proud to publish. The software program is quite intuitive; I suggest you play around with it and you’ll see how easy it is. Videos are a HUGE way to start generating some web traffic, so start creating them now with the free and easy-to-use resources discussed here.
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This is great! Videos indeed are the way to go these days. With a software like this that can make videomaking so simple, I can make videos faster.
And best of all: it's totally free, hehehe. Now you don't have to hire someone to do the videos for you.