I’m a big fan of self hosting whenever it’s possible, for the same reasons you’ve mentioned. Of course, in order to get your content in front of as many people as possible, posting it to places like YouTube often makes sense too.

Regarding your video importing functionality in Drupal, there are similar plugins for Wordpress you may want to investigate. I don’t have any names or links offhand, but a quick search should summon up a few popular options.

David:

Thanks so much - I appreciate your kind words. Now I just need to actually start posting here again. It’s been a crazy year, and I’ve certainly let the sheer volume of deliverables required of me to take control of my attention. Hopefully 2010 will be more forgiving. ;-)

All the best,

…Dan

Found you through Copyblogger. This a great post, thank you. Your concern for quality production in video and writing matters a lot.

I like not being on YouTube as I have my own TOS, can make videos any length and virtually do whatever I want to them.

YouTube is such a powerhouse of users looking for videos that it’s hard not to use it. I’m two days new to WordPress, have done most of my work on Drupal for the past four years and at least on Drupal I know you can import/embed videos from virtually all popular video hosting sites and make them as individual posts.

Is there anything else you’d like to see a tutorial on? I’m gearing up to create a few more Final Cut ‘how to’ videos over the next week or so.

Thanks again!

I think we’re all hitting pretty much the same point here, which is a hard one to argue from any angle that I can imagine. Perhaps I’m biased. You think?

Jay: You call up some totally great analogies. Perhaps the lack of quality control can be at least partly attributed to a simple lack of consideration due to the relative ‘newness’ that much of this implies for many? I sure hope so…

The bottom line is that when it comes to using video for marketing a business, property, etc., quality DOES matter. Just because you yourself may not know how to achieve an acceptable level of quality yet does not make its importance irrelevant. Perhaps people need some time for this to sink in…

Jay - I also loved the line about the Mino HD. High definition crap will pretty much look like, well - ‘bigger crap’, with all of the imperfections even more clearly visible. It surely isn’t an excuse to care less about presentation and / or editing. ;-)

Still waiting for someone to disagree here. Awesome comments everyone!

…Dan

I find it ironic that women that spend hours perfecting their makeup, hair, and clothing will produce a video that make themselves look horrible and then say to the world, “look at me!”.

Now, if you want to post goofy clips, or rant at the camera, then please, go at it!

But if you’re trying to sell a house or promote your business, then LIGHT IT, get a decent mike, and keep the camera steady.

And remember, just because the Flip Mino is HD doesn’t make it better, it just makes it bigger.

Jay Groccia, Principal Photographer
OnSite Studios