In his video lecture  Learning Web Audio and Video from LinkIn Learning, Joseph Labrecque teaches us how video and audio are implemented into blogs. He shows what kind of details are required for the webpage functionality of the video player to play on a webpage. Is the video going to play as soon as the page opens up or if the person has to press play? Will the video loop? Will the audio be on or off when the video plays? All this is taken into consideration when creating an audio/video player. That is why there are mistakes a blogger should avoid when adding a video to their blog. In Jay Baer’s (Video) 4 Mistakes You Make When Posting Video on Your Blog, he discusses what would make a blog more appealing to the audience when there is a video added.

The following video is of Rocky Walls going over mistakes to avoid when using videos for your blog and how to keep the readers engaged.

https://youtu.be/0SOWv0oWwxI

1.  No Indication That There is a Video in the Post; There are two ways to indicate a video in your blog, one is to add the text VIDEO at the beginning of your title. Second is to embed the video at the top of the blog so it’s one of the first things the readers will see. This allows the readers to know there is more information on the blog and the video could help them find what they are looking for.
2. No Text Content; provide context to inform the viewer about the video before they watch it. 
3. No Customization; the video is either to large or to small for the blog. Making the video the correct size would save the readers the headache of having to squint or click off the page. Make the video easy to watch by the viewer.
4. No Call-To-Action; The end of the video is a great opportunity to include how they can learn more about the topic and links to your social media. It’s a great opportunity to gain and grow your audience.

The importance of adding video to your webpage is more than about “how-to”, they serve a purpose for you and your readers by providing them with information in an interesting way and allow you the opportunity for increased readership when they share your content.

This chapter is a revised version of a blog post titled “(Video) Avoid these 4 Mistakes When Adding a Video to Your Blog”  on the blog Production for the Net.