Videos - Taking
- Boats are 27.19% more likely to be sold if they have a video (based on all boats sold over past 4 years)
- Boats with videos have average web viewing figures 9.24% higher than boats without video.
- Only 24.5% of boats on the system have a video, but but these boats make up 37.5% of all web views views.
- Always take the video in LANDSCAPE format
- The art of taking great videos is to keep them short.
- No longer than 30 seconds
- The first 5 seconds are key, if its a long and slow start, the customer will cancel and move on without finishing the video.
- Videos don't necessarily need dialogue (there should always be an intro/exit), however it helps to explain the layout and features of the boat
- At Boatshed.com to protect the Owners boat we remove the name of the boat from all photos and videos.
- Boat deck & exterior
- Boat Interior and accommodation
- Boat engine starting
- Galley
- Saloon
- Mast/s and running rigging
- Hello my name is ##### ##### from Boatshed #####.
- I am the broker of this Type/Model
- See my website www.boatshed###.com for more info on this boat and unlimited photographs and full specifications.
- Don’t get the name of the boat in the video. (At Boatshed.com we protect the Owners boat personal property, gear, inside and outside of the boat)
- Don't get the License number in video
- Don't take a portrait video.
- Don't assemble videos out of just a copy a of your photos
- Don't add music as this can detract from the buying experience
The reason for not using music is this is that there are numerous companies on the Internet claiming royalty for certain types of music and a whole range of scams regarding royalty free and paid for music. This potentially threatens the whole Boatshed YouTube channel and could result in all of the boats being suspended by YouTube under their privacy policy rules. - As you know uploading any video is dependent on the file size, which is generally governed by the quality of the image and the length of the video.
- There is also an added complication of frame rate. My little Kodak Play Camera can capture at up to 1080p This refers to the broadcast format of 1080 horizontal lines commonly known as full HD. Lower settings on this camera also enable 720p or VGA.
- The Camera normally shoots video at 24 frames per second but also has the option to shoot at 60 frames per second, commonly used for action shots.
- Bear in mind that any video file size will be governed by the above factors.
- Youtube supports video at 1080p and indeed up to "4k" broadcast quality.
DID YOU KNOW?
Its important to ALWAYS ADD videos using the video up-loader in the Boatshed dashboard.
Adding videos here increases the chance of selling the boat by more than 25%.
Best Practice Tips
Types of Videos
TIPS
Videos and Voice
Taking videos
Examples
Exterior - Deck walk around
Engine Start Video
Commentary
Dont's
YouTube Video Formats
YouTube can accept many different file formats. YouTube simply converts it to the FLV format.
MPEG (MPG) YouTube recommends MPEG4 (Divx, Xvid) with MP3 audio. This option probably provides the best compromise between quality and file size. Other versions of MPEG are also acceptable.
AVI This is the default format used by many editing programs. It provides excellent picture quality but file sizes are large. This can be a good option for short videos.
MOV, WMV & Others These are perfectly acceptable, but may not provide the same quality or small file sizes as MPEG4.
Compression In most cases you will need to compress your video before you upload it (this may be done automatically by your webcam or editing software). The best approach is to compress files the least amount possible. YouTube will re-compress the file when it is converted to FLV, so you don't need to worry about the file size. If you have a fast connection and plenty of bandwidth, it makes sense to create video files with the least compression while still keeping to the 100MB size limit.
Video Size (Resolution, Pixel Dimensions) YouTube recommends a resolution of 320x240. Note that this is smaller than the standard YouTube video screen — videos this size are automatically expanded to fill the screen. A quick test indicates that the screen used for the main YouTube player is 450x338 pixels (do not take this as an official specification though).
On the whole, 320x240 is a fairly good compromise which suits the different player sizes well enough. Remember that the video will not always be seen on the large version of the player, and some versions of the player are actually smaller than 320x240.