It may seem pretty straightforward- but once you start getting into video it opens up a huge new world…one that’s pretty fun too (if I do say so myself….I swear I never knew I was such a techie! ).  There are SO many options and solutions out there for video that it can be overwhelming at times (where to host your video, how to create it, showing a playlist, using a lightbox, incorporating links, etc.)- just type video into the plugin directory at WordPress.org and you’ll get over 40 pages of plugins..yikes!

You may have noticed that my videos have evolved over time. Once you get one piece of the puzzle down it’s easy to start adding more features to your videos. The important thing about video is just to START! I’ll be incorporating some more personal style videos very soon… (me talking into the camera….I’ve avoided this a bit as I tend not to ‘get ready’ ….. who needs to when you work from home? But that’s another post, for another time). The more personal your videos are the better. And when I find an easy video solution- of course it’s time to share it!

I found this video lightbox plugin when I was working on a clients site. I had found a different solution- but it wasn’t something the client could easily do for himself – so I knew I needed to keep looking! This plugin will allow you to add a lightbox to your videos (when the reader clicks on the video, a lightbox pops up with the video, shading out the rest of the site). This plugin works for videos hosted on YouTube, Vimeo and Blip.tv. There are two steps to this plugin- the first is downloading & installing it…( I know, kind of obvious)- but then you have to add a few files to this plugin (super easy….I show you how in the video). Then voila! It’s ready to roll! The two things you’ll need to download for this are the plugin (Lightview plus) and the actual lightview file. You can get those here:

Lightview Plus

Lightview

Let me know what you think.

The third and fourth place answers were basic image editing and post thumbnails. Basic image editing would allow you to crop, resize, edit your image right in WordPress. And of course the post thumbnails option would make it easier to embed a thumbnail image with a post (keep in mind if you use StudioPress themes this option is built in…yet another reason I love StudioPress! ).

I’m looking forward to seeing what ends up making it into 2.9.  Hopefully we’ll see these features this year. If you want to see the full results of the polls and get more info. on each of these potential features, check out the full post on the WordPress blog.