A couple of months back I decided to start getting my video posts transcribed. A number of readers have enquired as to why I am doing this – here are the 3 main reasons I have my videos transcribed:
1. Accessibility
Not everyone is in a position to be able to consume video content. For some it is a technical issue – not everyone has access to broadband. For others it is about the device (although more and more mobile devices are set up for video).
Others still have a physical issue that impedes them from viewing video – for example I know that a number of ProBlogger readers are hearing impaired and had difficulty with my videos (particularly because I tend to mumble and make lip reading difficult).
Offering transcripts meets the needs of a variety of readers who cannot, for one reason or another, view video easily.
2. Learning Styles and Workflow
Other readers are just not ‘video people’. They rarely view them and would much rather read content than watch and listen to it. I myself would probably fit into this category – while I enjoy watching videos on occasion I’m much more likely to be drawn to content that is predominantly text that I can scan to quickly identify the juicy bits.
Ultimately its about appealing to people with different personalities, online workflows and learning styles to maximise your reach.
3. SEO
While search engines like Google is experimenting with indexing video content – the reality is that text is still king when it comes to search engine optimisation. A post with just a video is not likely to rank as high as a post with a good chunk of text in it.
Do you Transcribe Your Videos?
Getting videos and/or podcasts transcribed does take time and/or money but in my mind it is worth the effort as a way of maximising impact. I’d be interested to hear whether you do it on your blog?
Transcriptions are great. Languages and their ascents change from region to region, country to country. Transcriptions help you understand the video in your way, and easily.
Great post again. Thanks :)
Good post. I haven’t even been video blogging for now. But, I’m seriously thinking about having a few videos posted. This will surely come to help. Give more tips of video blogging :)
I cannot agree more. I think the number one reason is not the performance issue brought up in #3 but the accessibility issue brought up in #1. Catering to a greater audience can be much more beneficial. Not to mention, here I sit at work and have the ability to read a video post but not listen to a video.
I am thinking of doing this from next month onwards. you are very right about the SEO part. Content is still the main factor that will help you in rankings.
One thing I noticed is that not many people can follow your accent as well. They sit and wonder what you just meant. With writing, that problem wont come.
Hey Darren,
I don’t transcribe my videos. However, it is a great idea for hearing impaired readers and SEO.
Is there a software that will do this for you?
Chat with you later…
Josh
I’ve had a number of people on my blog request transcripts to my video blog posts. I was rather surprised as so many people enjoy video. I actually write out my script before making my videos and then post a link to that script for my non-video subscribers. Thanks.
So who transcribes your videos? What service do you use?
For sure! This is actually one of the first tasks I begin to outsource and it was such a benefit to my website
I have been thinking about this…whether I would provide full transcription or “notes” from the video. My reasoning was that (because my site will be for people who might be at the office) they may not be able to watch the video at work, but may want/need the information. The more I think about it, writing “notes” content would take longer (since I’d want it to stand well on its own) so you’ve got me seriously leaning towards transcription.
One thought: Many of my videos will be how-tos (tips for using various software packages in your job), and the reason I’m considering videos/screen capture is that it’s just so much more helpful than explaining it in words. This would mean taking the time to include static screen shot/images to help in the transcript section. A little more work – but much more helpful (I hope).
Thanks for reminding me to consider this along with taking advantage of videos!
@Jason – Is there anyone you would recommend for outsourcing this to? Are they cost effective?
I learned this from Gideon Shalwick and I already start to see seo results. It’s a nice and easy task to outsource to a VA.
Would recommend it to everyone.
The more content the better :)
Alejandro
Not everyone has the same accent. For instance, i find it difficult to understand your Aussie accent sometimes simply because i’m used to American accent. So giving an alternative always helps. I love the way you say “Todai” (Today) and i started imitating that once. All my co workers started asking me “Do you watch Darren Rowse’s videos? Only he says Todai” :)
While videos can be visually appealing, you still need some text, i think :)
Great Post. I’m totally agree with you.
I haven’t created any video actually but i think getting video posts transcribed is very important thing.
Thanks for sharing this great post.
~Dev
I guess you could say that I transcribe my vlog, but that’s because I publish the blog first then create a video version as time permits. The only issue with that is for me it’s much faster to write a blog than it is to create a properly produced video, so by now I’m over half a year ahead of myself with my text blog.
My 10thdim channel at youtube has well over 300 videos but I’m still about 40 entries behind my text blog! Still, I agree with you completely, being able to post a link to the complete text of a video blog when it’s published on YouTube, complete with hyperlinks to the relevant info, does definitely enhance the experience for those who don’t want to just watch a video, or have limitations which makes text more accessible for them.
Nice blog!
Rob
Hi,
I completely agree with your views Darren. I think a lot of people still prefer to read, rather than watch, content.
I am neutral to both, but I guess I prefer written content.
Kindest,
Nabeel
Hey Darren,
This is something that I will be implementing asap, I guess you’re looking out your group of readers as awhile, instead of been one sided.
I love the Idea..
“TrafficColeman “Signing Off”
From a content-consumer’s perspective – thank you so much for bringing this up!
I very rarely click through to video posts and know that I’m missing good stuff, but it’s just not worth my trouble for a few reasons:
1) Learning style – I just don’t retain information that I hear. I don’t know why, but adding slides with bullet points or headlines doesn’t help. I have to take notes to process information gleaned from a video, and then a quick scan of my RSS feeds has just become a little project.
2) I’m in a noisy, interruption-prone environment. If I’m lucky enough to be able to hear your voice, I will be interrupted two times during a 3 minute video. It’s easy to skim over an article and continue where I left off, harder with a video.
3) Simply – reading is faster. I will get through more of your stuff if you let me read it.
Funny you should mention this Darren, I’m a freelancer who works in admin and secretarial support but I’d never thought of transcribing video!
It’s another source of possible work for me which is always a bonus!!! As this can be undertaken digitally anywhere in the world, I’d be interested to know if you still trust it to someone locally?
Cheers
Al.
I 100% agree with this, even if only to distinguish you from the crowd I think it’s a worthwhile thing to do.
Darren,
I really appreciate the transcription of video, because I am not a big video person myself. Many times I am in a situation where I don’t want the people around me to hear what I am looking at.
There is another option for this as well. There is a feature in YouTube that will allow you to close caption your videos and I have heard there is a feature that will do all the work for you. You just have to go back in and change a few words that might not have been transcribed correctly.
Definitely worth checking out.
-Joshua Black
The Underdog Millionaire
Hi Darren,
It is very thoughtful that you remember everyone does not hear perfectly or have a super fast internet connection.
Personally, I really appreciate that you offer a written transcript as well as a video. The main reason is that I can read the information you offer in a shorter period of time than it takes to watch a video. Time is precious as always particularly with a growing business and growing family!
I have yet to implement video in my work but I intend to and when I do I will offer the transcript option thanks to your example.
All the best to you,
David
I haven’t made that much videos yet, but as I have bought a way better camera, I will start that soon.
Transcribing? I want to, but I think it is too expensive for me at this moment in my ‘online career’ I suppose!
Usually I fall into the first or second group: either I’m in a place where I can’t reasonably watch a video, or (more likely) I just don’t want to. If a blog or a Web site forces me to watch a video for certain content, chances are I click away. I’m just not a video person!
Have you seen speakertext? speakertext.com It transcribes videos (I’m not affiliated with speakertext).
I’ve just started creating video content after checking out the Gideon Shalwick book you were recommending last week. I hadn’t even considered whether or not to transcribe my video blogs but I will definitely consider it now. Thanks for the heads up!
Oh yeah, I am so glad and thankful for that! I am French, but it’s not difficulties with understanding english that make it impossible to hear what you say. I also have no problems hearing things in general… It’s just that my children SENSE when I’m trying to listen to something, and they just come wailing around until I just close the browser, incapable of understanding one single word you said. ^^
I like that you are doing that! Its nice to be able to either watch the video or read the transcription.
HI! For those that use Google Webmaster tools, Video Sitemap submissions have just been added to Labs. BTW You are to be congratulated for transcribing your video posts.
Much like you – I prefer checking out the text rather than the video or audio. In fact, I was just commenting on Gideon’s upcoming launch about that same thing and why it’s something that really keeps me from doing video on my own site.
Quick question: who do you use for transcription?
I also don’t like video tutorials and post, because content can explain in better way instead of video.
On the other hand people living in Asia don’t understand pronunciation of English speakers, thus content help them to better understand the topic.
I think the idea of transcribing is just great. And if I only have those equipments, I will probably do the same.
By the way, can you post something on how to make transcription of video automatically and for free? If there’s a way doing it, it would be better.
I’m a 2 Darren – I never watch your videos (or anyone else’s), but I always read the transcripts. Thank you for providing them for those of us who just don’t like taking in info by listening.
I am one of those people who just aren’t video people. Reading feels better and quicker to me. So if there is a video on the screen and the text is below it, I will always scroll down.
A good idea. I´m always fond of ideas that mean you can get more access to a website like transcripts, translators etc. Everyone should be able to surf the web.
I’d also like to add… if I may, that as far as SEO, transcribing video or audio content will rank better not only because of it being text, but also because whatever site does so, effectively grows in size, thus creating a little extra PageRank for the site as a whole.
Those are excellent reasons to provide text equivalent for a video (or podcast, too)!
I’ve found quite an easy way of transcribing videos that might be of interest to readers who don’t have the budget to hire a transcriptionist or VA to do it for them – and it’s much faster than playing the video over and over in tiny sections and trying to type or write out what you hear (especially if, like me, you’re not the world’s quickest person on the keyboard!):
What I do is fire up voice recognition software (I use Dragon Naturally Speaking; Mac users might try MacSpeak; and there’s a free app called Dragon Dictation that mobile folks might want to try – but any decent VRS will do) and put on a headset with microphone. When you hit “play” on the video, you’ll hear the audio track in your headphones, but the VRS won’t hear it – so you can simply repeat the words you hear as teh video plays. The mic will pick up your voice and create the transcription. A little bit of editing to tidy up – and you’re done!
Oops, that should have been MacSpeech, my bad.
Yes, Text is the king over all Media formats, And another important point is, there are a lot of slow internet users or some time internet connection cause problems so, at that time its hard to watch full video, but text is still readable for slow internet users.
Videos are ok provided that they work properly. Some take ages to get going others freeze mid frame. I much prefer to read info. Also if you miss something when reading you can easily go back and read again without having to FF through a video to find the point you missed.
When you’re a writer or when you’re presenting any sort of information to a potentially large pool of people, accessibility is (I think) one of the important key factors! I was glad to see it as top of your list. IT was taught to me in a creative writing class where I had written a poem that was so personal that it wasn’t accessible to my readers. My professor told us that if we want our publishings to be read and understood, it has to be “available” to many people.
It’s cool to see this applied to video posts as well. Great list, Darren.
Brittany
I am the type that prefers to read than watch a video. For certain things, I specifically visit youtube to learn how to do things apart from this I am a text person.I am still old fashion, I have a lot to catch up on with all the new trends that are coming.
Personally speaking I prefer video, but I do realize that a lot of people love reading text.
I tried to install Odiogo on my blog for people who can’t access video, but unfortunately for me. It did not work
Transcribing also helps people refer back to you and quote you in their own posts! Definite win there.
I have to thank Kelly Diels and Dave Doolin for turning my own to video transcription. It definitely sets a pro’s video content apart from the average joe/jane.
i do, and i am actually working on a file to get it streamlined using macspeech scribe to automate transcription.
I agree with transcribing video posts. Personally, I don’t have the patience to watch most videos.
Small businesses often need every break and discount they can get, and traveling can be one of the most costly areas for small businesses. Unfortunately, many of the best travel advantages only go to big businesses.
Darren
I am reading your take on video versus text at the right time.
I did my first test interview via Skype using Vodburner last Thursday and just started editing it.
Not sure yet i will post it as I want to make sure the overall quality is good enough.
Maybe I will keep the good parts and include them in a text post?
My interview was with a fishmonger from Amsterdam who sells only sustainable catch.
Take care
Serge
‘The French Guy from New Jersey’
http://www.sergetheconcierge
I’m a beginning blogger of sorts and online learning as much as I can about accessibility. Transcription of videos/audios is one area I’ve been looking into and would like to first find a simple way to do it myself, and then check into outsourcing. So, if anyone has any suggestions or recommendations I’m very open. I too am one who prefers to scan for the juicy content! Great post.
I’m glad you do transcribe them. I’m a reading person. If someone sends me a video or text link on twitter or SU, I’m more inclined to open the text link.
I haven’t graduated to doing videos yet. If I do, I’ll certainly transcribe them like you do. Besides, I won’t want to miss out on the search engines indexing.
I’m so grateful that you have your videos transcribed! I have Aspergers and Auditory Processing Disorder, which makes it harder for me to understand what people are saying. When people provide transcripts or captioning it makes content infinitely more accessible to someone like me.
A million thanks, Darren.