Q; How do I send a video through email?
There are four basic methods to send a video through email;
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Send a video as an attached file.
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Send a streaming video emaill
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Upload and send.
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Send a link to a 'hosted' video
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Can you earn money by sending videos?
The attachment method sends the video as a file attached to a regular
text email. It is recommended only for very short videos, typically 2 or 3
megabytes or shorter. The recipient will have to wait for the entire
video to download before attempting to watch it; this might require a wait of
more than an hour.
The streaming video method of video email only sends a tiny bit of
information to the recipient which instructs their computer how to view the
video email. Videos up to 6 hours long may be sent by this method.
Although it appears that the video is in the email, it is actually an automatic
link. The recipient may begin watching the video within seconds of
clicking the link.
The upload method is very similar to streaming. The upload method
is best for pre-recorded video, especially very large videos, up to 4,000
megabyte. As in the streaming method, the recipient does not have to wait
for the entire video to download to begin watching it.
The link to a hosted video method is quite simple, though if you are
fairly new to computers it might take a little practice to get it right.
Overall it is a very reliable way to send a video and you do not have to
be concerned about filling up the recipients inbox. However if the site
that hosts the video has a lot of advertising it may take some patience to get
through to it.
1. Procedure to send a video email as an attachment:
The first step to send a video email as an attachment is to start your video
capture program and record videos with your webcam. Then you save the file
on your hard drive. Be sure to give it a meaningful name and make note of
where you saved the file in the next step. Next, start your email program
and create a new text message. Then click on the button to "attach file",
and when prompted, find the file you saved, click on it and follow the
instructions to attach the file. Then your ISP (internet service provider) will
send the email with the attachment to the addressee. Any decent
quality video of a minute will be approximately 6 million bytes. Unless
the recipient has that much empty space in his inbox, the video email will be
rejected. You will be notified that it was refused, and then you can try
to send it again.
Once the addressee recieves your email, they will see that it has an attachment.
They can then click on the attachment and wait for it to download to their hard
drive. Now that they have received the entire file they can view the
video, using any popular viewing program, such as Windows Media Player.
After you hear back from your addressee that they have successfully seen the
video that you sent, you need to go back and delete this video file from your
hard disk. If you do not do this, you will soon find that your hard drive
is overfilled with old, out-of-date, un-needed video files. Be sure to
remind the addressee to periodically peruse their hard drive and erase all of
the video files that the do not wish to keep saving.
Often, you can save a great deal of time and make your video much smaller. Many
digital photography cameras that also record video, record it in a format called
"AVI". AVI is a very simple way of recording video. It is high
quality, it does not require super-fast processors, but it does take up a lot of
space. When you save your video from your camera to your computer, look at
the name of the video; does it end with .AVI ? If so, then you can
use Microsoft MovieMaker(r) to make it smaller. Since the early days of
Windows XP(r) computers have been shipped with this program. It might not be 'on
your desktop', but it is probably already installed in your computer. Run
Moviemaker(r) and then use the 'import video' function to edit the movie you
shot with your camera. Then click 'save as', choose a new name, and choose
one of the formats suggested. For most video you want to email, try 256k
first and see how you like that format.
Learn how to convert videos to other formats here at
converting videos.
Notes on sending video as an attachment:
- you must know what internet access speed the recipient has
- you must know the limit on the size of the recipient's mailbox
- you need to know whether the recipient prefers to use flash, quicktime or media
player
- you must regularly delete old email videos from your hard disk
- after sending, you must ask the recipient if they received your video
- if the video will be more than 40 seconds long, you must find a server to host
your video
- the recipient can copy and save your video and then send it on as if it was his
work
2. Procedure to send a streaming video email:
To send a streaming video email is much quicker and simpler. Simply go to your
webpage, click on 'send new video message'. Record your video, enter the
name of the addressee and click send. Then the servers store your
video and send the text portion of your email to the recipient. The
text portion of your email is sent to your recipient, so there is no possibility
that the video will clog up his/her email inbox. When the addressee opens
your email he will see a graphic filmstrip. If they desire to watch
your video at this time, they click on the filmstrip and watch your video email.
Another magic thing happens at this time. The servers will determine the
connection speed of the internet connection that your addressee is using and
send the best video for that speed. The video is not loaded onto
their hard disk, so there is no need to keep deleting old video files.
4. Send a link to a 'hosted' video
To send one of these videos, it
is easiest to simply send a link in an email. With some practice you will
might be able to embed the video into your email using the 'embed' code that
those sites provide. Note that this will not work with many email programs
that your recipient might be using.
A 'hosted' video is a video that already exists on a website. A very
common example is a video on Youtube™ or
Vimeo™.
During, or after, viewing the video, look for a button or link called "share" or
"link to this video" and click it. You will then see a string of text that
begins with http://www. Copy that whole string of text and
paste it into the email you are sending. The procedure to "copy" and
"paste" the link will vary a little bit by computer and website, but here is the
general procedure.
These instructions assume you are right-handed. Right click your
mouse over the text for the link; a small menu will appear. Now left click
on 'copy'. Now go to your email and left-click your mouse in the
text you are sending to place your cursor where you want the link. Then
'right-click' your mouse, select 'paste' and left-click paste. The
link will be inserted into your email.
Youtube™ and Vimeo™, and others, unfortunately lay claim to YOUR hard work.
You need to read the fine print. They can sell your work to others and
never give you a penny. They can insert advertisements into your work and
never give you a penny. Another disadvantage is that you have no control
over what other content is suggested to your viewers; after watching a video of
your daughter's wedding, they might be encouraged to watch a video of a teenager
puking from excessive drinking. To eliminate this concern, you should
consider hosting the video yourself.
If you host the video yourself, you will have complete control
over its environment and, if desired, you can even control who has access to
your video. Self-hosting is easy; perhaps you already have a website
account, perhaps you already are free using shared hosting. For just
two dollars per month or so, you can have complete
control over your video hosting. Not just video, but any kind of digital
information that you wish to share or backup. You can select if the
content is password protected, or available to anyone that knows the link.
You would email the link to your friends or business associates as described
earlier.
5. Can you make money sending videos?
Yes. There are two simple ways to do this.
1.) Create webpages for your videos, photographs, articles, whatever, and then
sign up for Google Adsense™, like we here at SecondHandRadio.com have done.
If you know how to create web pages, you can get full featured website hosting
with backups and 24 hour staff for less than $5 per month. If you do not
want to bother to learn html, then simply sign up for
Website Tonight™ or
Wordpress Blog Hosting, then choose a template, edit
your information and start earning :-)
2.) Start an email list. Yes, if you are doing videos
about a particular subject, hobby, or community organization, you can very
simply start an email list. Eventually, when your list grows, people will
want to pay to put their ads in your videos, or in your emails. And, since
you own the list, you can turn down ads that you do not agree with.
You probably already are subscribed to one or more email lists. This is
how they work.
Choose a pre-designed email template, or create your own style of email, and
include your video(s). Then once per week, or once every two weeks, or
once per month, write one email that would be of interest to your subscribers.
Click send. Then your email is automatically sent to all of those people,
whether that is 10 or 10,000 people. The system automatically adds
the legally required 'unsubscribe link' etc to keep you in compliance with the
CAN-SPAM act. A
complete email list system is as little as $10 per
month.
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