If you’re looking for ways to spice up your blog posts with multimedia content, take a look at Apture. I just started playing around with it, and here are examples of what you can do.
Preview
Before showing examples of all the media file types Apture can pull in from external sources, I want to show you how Apture can display your own stored files in ways that make them more interesting. For example,
Joanna Young gave me the idea to try Apture. Perhaps you’d like to see what Joanna looks like. Beyond just linking to her photo, I can use Apture to add a related link to the image – in this case her website. Apture is a nice way to display my business cartoons. Notice the image in the popup window can be made smaller than the image it links to (click “Open” in the popup window). Beyond linking to a cartoon file, I can embed the cartoon in my post, and even attach other files along with it, creating a little cartoon show:
Examples of Multimedia Linking and Embedding with Apture
Quick Multimedia Linking
Apture links to a reference article
Apture links to a news article
Quick Multimedia Embeds
Apture allows quick and easy customization. For most file types, you can adjust the size and positioning of the image, change the title, and add a caption (I haven’t figured out how to make the caption display).
Embed an image
Embed a video
Embed a map
Embed audio
Embed a document
Embed an element with related embeds – see navigation bar below image
It took 5 minutes to install the Apture WordPress plugin and start using it. Apture draws from all the big media sources, which makes searching for the right mutlimedia file a breeze. Now I have time to add depth to my blog posts the way I’ve always wanted to. I definitely recommend giving it a try.
Brad,
You and the tribe make me feel like a dinosaur. I’ve just about decided to dive into Twitter and you’re off on a new adventure.
Hi Lillie, Don’t feel bad. I only discovered Apture 2 days ago, so you’re only 48 hours behind me.
Glad to hear you may give Twitter a try. If it’s not for you, you can always walk away. But if you don’t try, you’ll always wonder. Anyway, if you jump in, let me know if you need any help!
OK, you and Joanna are egging me on to try it! But I feel like Lillie…
OK, I installed it, but how do I get those little camera icons to show up? I get the link embedded without it right now. Hrm.
Robert, That happened to me at first. When I refreshed the screen, the cameras appeared.
Great post Brad. Happy to see you are enjoying the product. Feel free to reach out to us at support at apture dot com with any feedback or features you would like to see.
Hi Andrew, thanks for stopping by – good to know you are there for support.
Very cool. Does the video count against your server’s bandwidth?
Nope the video is streamed directly from YouTube. http://www.apture.com.create for users who necessarily do not want to install the plugin but want to build dynamic embeds.
Brad,
Apture looks great, but my blog is on wordpress.com – am I right that I won’t be able to use it?
Andrew, Thanks for jumping in and answering Fred’s question – speaks well of your customer support capabilities!
Ulla, Good question – Not sure how that works, but maybe you could contact Apture. It’s obviously compatible with the WP software, so it would seem to be a matter of access.
Brad, I’m delighted to see you picking this up and running with it. Somehow I missed this yesterday, don’t know how, especially when my picture is featured (yikes!)
I came across it when I was looking for a way to do the twitter comments integration and loved the way it opens up a profile and follow option. From there I started to see what other possibilities it offered too. Fabulous stuff – like you say, it really adds an additional dimension to your site.
Joanna, Some people have a nose for news, but you sure do have peepers for plugins. Thanks for finding this one! The way you can attach related files to an upload seems full of possibilities. The other thing I like so far is how easy it is to adjust the size and positioning of images. Zemata, which I sometimes used for images, isn’t very flexible in those regards.
Now that you’ve mentioned Zemanta – how about it, Brad? Did you ditch Zemanta in favor of Apture? I’m using Zemanta for quite a while now. My issue with it is as you say the size of images. I have yet to find a way of resizing pics in Zemanta.
Did you remove Zemanta first before you activated the Apture plug in? Can they work in tandem?
I’m very interested in Apture. The preview of links look like a winner. And they have videos. Zemanta doesn’t have videos.
What about links to other blogs? Zemanta does a fine job of getting links from its database of other users. And if you’re lucky your own posts might be linked to as well – good for SEO, right? Do you think Apture does as well in this regard?
Ahahaha. I’ve so many questions. Why don’t I just give this a try, I wonder. But first let me hear what you’ve got to say, Brad. How about it, Brad?
Hi Jan, great questions.
1. Zemata can work in tandem with Apture. I removed Zemanta, but for an entirely different reason. I tend to write drafts right in my HTML editor and re-save them as I go. Zemanta takes a loooong time to reload, and I’d find myself typing in the editor, and suddenly typing on another part of the page after Zemanta refreshed. Very annoying.
2. Zemanta does better pulling in blog post links, and they are follow links (I think). Very good for SEO. That’s one reason I might use Zemanta in the future.
3. From what I can see, Apture does not generate any link juice – looks like it’s all javascript stuff. Haven’t studied it carefully, though.
Okay, Brad. I’d try Apture. The preview of @JoannaYoung’s picture and link got me sold on the idea. And of course the fact that you both find Apture greatly enhances your blogs. Thanks, Brad. That’s a very quick reply. I think your recent trip to the Apple store had energized you a lot. “,)
I use Zemanta. My concern about it (not sure about Apture) is that it suggests images that are not necessarily available to borrow. Would love to see a creative commons filter on it like on Flickr. Business blogs need to be especially careful about respecting ip ownership (especially us, as we’re in the publishing industry.) Nice post.
Carol, Thanks for stopping by and bringing up this important point about licensing. Apture has a “license” tab where licensing information appears. However, I’m noticing that many of the license descriptions are “license unknown”. Apture does seem to sort only Flickr images that are sharable, which is a step up from Zemanta, I believe.
Currently Apture does not work on Wordpress.com hosted blogs. Also for people who are concerned about rights to use the images we recommend you will see that we provide a pull down filter between Creative Commons and all images. You will see a note on the image filters saying Free Use or you can choose to show all images.
In terms of SEO juice from Apture all links are viewed by Google as outbound links to original content so you are fine SEO wise.
Andrew
Community Manager, Apture
New post – Apture, nifty multimedia tool for bloggers http://bit.ly/vTNsX !
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
New post – Apture, nifty multimedia tool for bloggers http://bit.ly/vTNsX now
This comment was originally posted on Twitter