Interactive Video Plugin, great way to keep your audience involved or annoying.

[jamesww]

I really do not know where to list this but I decided since this is a blog plugin that it is best in this forum. If I am wrong please move it.

I have decided to make a move towards being hyerlocal by using WordPress sites. I anticipate adding lots of video, narrow niche market updates, IDX search modules, information on restraunts in the area, and of course blogging on local events. My plans were to have Video be a major player on this website and I found a plugin that will allow me to easily add video directly to the site without embedding from social media networks. It also allows visitors to add video or audio comments. Along with a laundry list of other things. A link to the plugin is below please tell me is this a great way to engage visitors or just annoying.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/...ractive-video/

[Mark Z]

James,
Get it up and running and then I think we can give you a true assessment of our thoughts. Lets see an example, its hard to just imagine it.

[CanaDave]

Hi to all .. it's been a while between posts.

I believe if Video is done well it could be a tremendous way to make your blog more sticky.

James, it sounds like we're on the same page. This week I downloaded the plug-in but have been unable to figure where to go from there.

I've only been using wordpress for a short while and only know html.

But I'm gonna figure it out .... I think it's the future.

Cheers ........ CanaDave

[tsteuwer]

The plugin sounds like it may or may not work. I see a couple who say its a great plugin, then there are many others that say that it doesn't work and that there is no documentation. It would be interesting to see.

[jamesww]

Thanks to everyone who responded. I have heard that it is a fantastic plug in but not easy to configure at this point and it only allows for 3 GB of bandwidth usage before you have to pay for the band width.

What made me ask the question is that I was told by a IT guy that I know that making video and audio comments would bug people and I do not see why that would be the case. However, i am not the biggest internet nerd so, I thought maybe I should check if I am missing something. As I think that having a standard for video and video commenting will allow the search engines to index video very well and furthermore could allow for more weight added to the addition of video. Right now search engines have to trust meta data set up for the videos. If they can actually determine to an extent what exists then they can give added weight.

Please let me know if you guys think I am crazy or if what I am saying makes sense. Please do not hold anything back.

[CanaDave]

James .. I wouldn't give any consideration to the value of video to the search engines when deciding weather to have it on my web site or not. I believe the focus should be on "does it give me a better opportunity to make a connection ? ...... will it make the users of my site want to stay longer, come back more often ? Will I make more money?" If there is an SEO benefit it would just be a bonus.

If SEO was the focus there are many less time consuming ways to get better results.

Just my 2 cents (Canadian)

Cheers ...... Dave

[jamesww]

Dave,

Thank you for your opinion and I would like to say you make some valid points. Anyone else have anything to add?

[Ryan Ward]

There is a self hosted plugin for video - let me find it. Give me 2 minutes...

[Ryan Ward]

Here you go: http://www.realestatetestblog.com/te...-hosted-video/

Pardon the site as I was in the middle of redoing the skin from scratch and I've had to put it off while I convert my current site to something much better. Lots to do to get it live. Anyway, I posted about it on my test blog a while backl and I haven't gone back to really tweak it. you can post videos in your sidebar, posts, whatever you want and the player itself is super customizable. The actual video produced was the first one I really ever did and I used standard MS Movie Maker Software. If done correctly, be it for a listing or for commentary, it will be good if the quality and the content is valuable to someone.

It's simply one more way to grab someones attention. I probably won't get back to trying to master the actual video player until January or at least late December, but, if you can host your own videos, don't fool with someone else's rules. You can still upload videos to other outlets, but, why not host it yourself. If you can do the plugin linked above, might as well do it yourself.

[jamesww]

Thanks Ryan, I was looking at some of the great features of the interactive plugin like video and audio commenting. I love your single property websites and plan on using them. You have really put up some great stuff.