Click the Red Record Button

Video tutorials on how to use a software product or website can be fun to create, particularly when the product is as cool as VHS to DVD 4.0 Deluxe. It converts all your old media, such as VHS tapes and vinyl records, to a digital format and then burns DVDs, Blu-ray discs, and CDs.

We used the Jing software to capture the VHS to DVD application screens, and then combined HD footage shot by the client (Honestech, Inc.) with voiceover and LiveType in FinalCut. When I produce tutorials or screencasts, I usually record the narration first, and then match the action to that (as opposed to talking while using the software). I think it makes for a more professional video (that, and I can't walk and chew gum at the same time...)

Do You Know Where Your Customers Are?

We just completed a series of eight video tutorials for a unique web application that helps companies locate their customers on an online map, and then route their delivery trucks. MobileIQ's Headlight is an online suite of fleet intelligence tools that service and delivery companies use to take better care of their customers, manage their fleet and routes, and grow their sales.

The project also introduced me to a new screen capture tool, ScreenFlow, that I found more intuitive than some of the competing software products for creating software tutorials. You can see the results in a tour of Headlight.

Nifty Resources for Entrepreneurs

Today I started contributing video tutorials to NiftyClicks.com. This website is the creation of maverick marketing guru Andrew Lock. It offers video reviews of hundreds of web resources to help entrepreneurs get more done. My first video covered the multimedia tool available at SproutBuilder.com. Sprouts are widgets that you can create without knowing Flash or even HTML. It seems like a fun tool, and in fact I think you'll see it "sprouting" on my website soon...