Last week I posted a vlog. I had never done a vlog before. The thought terrified me. It was a requirement for this fancy schpants partnership that I have with the Home Depot. I’m not sure I’m cut out for fancy schpants blogging. But I lived through it. And true to be told, it was kind of fun. Ike loved it. He’s totally meant for film.

In true blogger fashion, today I am going to share with you tips that I learned from “filming” my first vlog. As a blogger, you are considered an expert once you complete something once. True story. (I hope you all catch my sarcasm in that statement. I still have no clue what I’m doing.)

Oh, and there are outtakes at the end. Ike kills me with cuteness.

Tip #1: Choose a quiet location.

My entire series of posts for the Home Depot was about the outdoors. Filming indoors didn’t seem like a good fit. Unfortunately, there are noises outside that you can’t control. Like sirens. Sirens that I hear maybe five times a year in my tiny town. The ice cream man, on the other hand, drives around every night. Our deck was a good spot otherwise because it’s fairly quiet and pretty.

Tip #2: Be animated but yet yourself.

I’ve watched some blogs where the blogger was either too animated or bored with their own vlog. Try to find a happy medium. Use words you would normally use. Pretend like you’re talking to a friend. I pretended like I was telling Nate all about flowers and I then pretended that he actually cared.

Tip #3: don’t be afraid of the vlog

Vlogging is surprisingly fun. I understand that it’s hard enough to put your words out there for the world to read. It’s another story putting your face and voice out there. I always think it’s fun to actually hear the blogger behind those words I read every day. I received a lot of positive feedback and will be vlogging again soon.

Tip #4: Include your cute dog for distraction.

I bet 65% of you didn’t hear a word I said. And that is beautiful. The dog adds an additional challenge but he does help make some pretty awesome outtakes.

Tip #5: Edit your video.

We used our Nikon D5000 to film the vlog. We then used a free trial of CyberLink PowerDirector to edit the video. We were really pleased with the software. The video makes me look like I have my act together. (Which we all know is not a true statement.) We would buy the software if we did vlogs a lot. Which we might. Who knows!

And now for the good stuff. Me telling Nate how to direct and Ike catching bugs. HGTV is going to be knocking on our door any second now.