Setting up a VlogNow that blogging and podcasting have become reliable ways for businesses, politicians and individuals to market products, promote party platforms or communicate corporate news, companies are exploring similar options. One such device for communicating with customers, clients and audiences is through video blogging, sometimes also called vlogging or vodcasting.nnA few steps go into setting up a working vlog. Fortunately, due to the popularity of the technology, there is a wide selection of products that ease the process of putting one together.nnKeep in mind, before you start, that you should keep your videos short and sweet. It is popular belief among vlogging pundits that shorter videos keep the audience engaged and are easier to watch online.nnOnce you’ve filmed and edited your video, you will most likely have to compress it so it uploads and encodes faster, enabling you to post it to your Web site sooner. Whatever software you’re using to edit your video will offer options for exporting and compressing the video into a Web-friendly format. A good rule of thumb is 10 MB for every minute of video. There are tutorials online that will show you quick and easy compression steps based on your operating system. One example is Freevlog (freevlog.org/index.php/category/tutorial/), which offers compression examples for both Windows and Mac users.nnAfter you’ve compressed the video, you need to upload it. There are a few Web sites that offer free and easy video hosting, like YouTube (youtube.com), Revver (revver.com) and Veoh (veoh.com) enabling you to just create an account and start uploading videos. Another well-liked Web site within the vlogging community is Blip.tv (blip.tv), which is popular in part because the player is not visibly branded (unlike players like YouTube, Revver and Veoh), it automatically creates and updates RSS feeds for your account, it automatically uploads to iTunes and its player is expandable. However, the others have their own advantages as well. Veoh syndicates the videos to MySpace, Google Video and YouTube with one upload. Revver offers a monetization option. YouTube is extremely popular and high in search rankings, although the lowest video quality.nnAfter the video is uploaded and encoded, you’ll have a piece of html code you can embed in your Web site. If you don’t already have a Web site, you can use free blogging sites like Blogger (blogger.com) and WordPress (wordpress.com) to post your vlogs. Just open up an account, compose a new post, copy and paste the embed code from the video hosting site and then press publish.nnAlthough blogging services like Blogger and WordPress work well for many people and are quite reliable, they don’t offer the guarantees of a Web hosting provider. Almost every Web hosting provider can host video files. However, there are some that specialize in video hosting including HostMonster (hostmonster,.com), which offers 200 GB of video Web space and 2,000 GB of streaming video transfer for $4.95 per month, Blue Host (bluehost.com), which offers 50 GB of space and 999 GB of streaming video transfer for $6.95 per month and IX Web Hosting (ixwebhosting.com), which offers 100 GB of space and 1,000 GB of streaming video transfer for $3.95 per month.