If you are going to use FrontPage web site hosting, you should really take full advantage of everything that it can do. If not, you just have another website with stock photos and text. To really liven up your site, you should take advantage of the video capabilities that FrontPage will let you use to create a truly multimedia experience.
Think about the possibilities. If you own a restaurant or a hotel, you can give a virtual tour. If you have an organization, you can play a relevant news clip. You can also demonstrate a product. A video is probably the most valuable selling tool that you can use if you are selling something. If a potential buyer can actually see how your product works, the chances they are going to buy it increases infinitely. In fact, taking the time to put a product demonstration on your site will translate directly into sales, especially if your competitors don’t do it.
The object of your site is probably either to share information or to sell a product. And while the Internet may be a relatively new way of communication, the same principles of selling an idea or a product still apply. If a potential customer can read about an idea, that information will have some effect on them. If they can see a picture, they will be even more convinced to buy. If they can see the product demonstrated, they will be much more likely to buy. However, if a potential buyer can share your video with a friend or relative for an opinion, you are almost guaranteed to make a sale. Just imagine someone sitting at their computer and saying, “Hey wait, come here, you have to look at this!” This is how video and FrontPage web site hosting combined help you sell a product or an idea.
There are three standard types of files that are used the most with FrontPage video hosting.
- MPEG files are the most popular, because they provide the best resolution, which can also be adjusted. MPEG files usually end with the extension .mpg. Almost all video players support these kinds of files, which is why many people use them.
- Quick Time files are the second kind of video file that you can use with FrontPage. Quick Time was developed by Apple Computer, so you have to have the Quick Time player installed on your computer to view the video. Most anyone who goes on the Internet will already have this, but to be sure, all you have to do is install a link to QuickTime on your site and it only takes a minute to install it on a computer.
- The third kind of file is an AVI file, which is a Microsoft Windows product and is playable through the Windows Media Player. Each kind of file works with FrontPage as well as cheap web hosting so it is really just a matter of preference, or what type of files you have available.
As everything you do with FrontPage, adding video is fairly simple. All you have to do is copy the video file and insert it into your FrontPage web file. Next, open the page where you want the video to be placed in Design View. Open the Insert menu, and then click on Picture, and select Video. Use the browse button to find your video in the files and click the Open button. Now you will see a video icon on the page where you have placed it. You can set the playing properties for it to play automatically when the page opens, or have it play when a viewer clicks on the icon. All you have to do is right click on the video icon and set the playing properties. Here, you can set the video to play a certain amount of times. You can also go to the Start area and click the ‘On File Open’ or ‘On Mouse Over’ to start the file automatically or let the viewer play it by clicking on the mouse. It is also easy to take video off your site or change it out for another video.
If you are hesitant to use video because of the quality, don’t be. The box that your video will play in is small, and depending on the quality of the connection, the resolution on anyone’s screen may not be that great, so you are working with a fairly forgiving medium. Also, remember that if someone stays on your site long enough to watch your video, they aren’t going to pick it apart. Many marketers will say that if you are going to have a video on your website, make it professional or don’t make it at all, but look at it this way. You have about ten seconds to capture someone’s attention when they come to your site. Consider the cold hard fact that if they visit your site among many others and if they don’t see anything unusual on yours, they will just keep going. It’s better to use the tools from your FrontPage web site hosting software poorly and leave some kind of impression on visitors than it is to leave none at all.
