Though you're now at the end of the process, this seems like an appropriate place to answer a pair of related, fundamental questions: "What is a Vlog?" and "What is the difference between a blog and a vlog?" In the broadest sense, a vlog is a video that is available for viewing from a web host. In a much narrower conception, a vlog is a particular vehicle for providing access to such web-hosted video, namely a web log (or blog) consisting of video entries as opposed to the old-fashioned text-only blogs. According to this second definition, vlogs and blogs are two distinct variants of a web log—an either-or classification that doesn't allow for hybrids.
Being partial to nuanced, broad concepts, we here at Serious Magic prefer the first definition. By emphasizing the mode of delivery rather than the mode of presentation and access, it leaves a variety of doors open for getting to the video: a link within a text blog, a video-only web log entry, a link sent out in an email or a text message, a carrier pigeon with wireless networking... The mind boggles at the possibilities! If you subscribe to this definition, then vlogs and blogs can coexist in peace and harmony rather than being eternally segregated.
This discussion of semantics may lead to a another question: "So what?!?!" Why should you care what exactly the word "vlog" means? That's a great question (read: "We can answer that.") If you came in thinking of a vlog in the narrow sense as its own stand-alone breed of blog, then you might reasonably expect that the host account to which Vlog It! uploads your videos would serve as the front end, the web page where people go to access the video. But that's not the case. Instead, the host is exclusively a server that streams your vlogs to anyone who accesses them through links that you make available.
That leads us to the topic of this page. The last move in the Vlog It! Eight-Step is creating a link to the vlog that's sitting on the host ready to be viewed. As mentioned, you can put that link just about anywhere. If you want it in a blog, then you'll need an account with a site like blogger.com, BlogStream, TypePad, or Moveable Type.
When you first publish by the "Publish Video as a Vlog" method, the last page of the publisher wizard is Link your Vlog panel. To open this dialog later, select Link your Vlog in the Hosting Menu. This menu option will be available only if a) you have already published the current project as a vlog and b) you have not subsequently revised the show. If you've made changes to the project since you last published it, then the Link dialog will not be available until you republish.
Vlog It! lets you create four types of links. To select one, click the More Options button and then click the radio button for the the desired mode.
Your vlog is a veritable ship in the harbor until you point people to it. Assuming that a) you're inserting it into a blog or as a more-or-less stand-alone vlog, and b) you're content with the thumbnail as the link, then this is a basic click-and-drag operation.
Vlog It! will paste the necessary information into the blog. If you are in the WYSIWYG view in your blog authoring tool, you should see the thumbnail. When a reader clicks the thumbnail, a video player will pop up and begin playing the vlog.
Wrong Icon? What to do: If you get as far as this final dialog only to decide that you want to change the thumbnail, then click Done, assign a new thumbnail, and click Publish again. Vlog It! will skip the rendering step because the video hasn't changed, but it will re-upload to the server in order to update the thumbnail.
... but the thumbnail in my blog didn't update! Now what? If you've already dropped the thumbnail in your blog before noticing that the thumbnail's not right, then the steps above will substitute the new image. The reason you're still seeing the old one is that your browser is using a cached image. Trust uswhen you post your blog, your readers will see the right image (if you don't trust us, select the blog editor's window and press F5 to refresh it; if that doesn't work, then open the Internet Options dialog through your browser's Tools Menu and delete your temporary Internet files.)
Keeping the Link Dialog Visible: To execute this drag-and-drop operation, you
have to be able to access the link dialog and your blog editor. To make this easier, we added the Stay
on Top option, which causes the link dialog to remain the uppermost window even when you select another
program. To enable this option, click the button in the upper left corner of the dialog with the icon that looks
like an equal sign .
The drag and drop method inserts the necessary html code into your blog for you, but Vlog It! also provides access to the code itself so that you can create links through a copy/paste workflow if you prefer.