Crunch.co.uk offer a new type of on-line accounting solution for UK freelancers.  Their system combines both a book-keeping system and in-house accountants who manage and sign-off the yearly books.  Nobody else offers this service in the UK…and that’s a part of the problem.

Many freelancers didn’t ‘get’ the idea, Darren Fell (CEO) came to us to get a homepage screencast that would explain what they offer to first-time visitors.

We had a crazy-short delivery time to fit in with their launch requirements, we met the deadline and now our screencast helps explain to first-time visitors exactly what Crunch offers them and why they should sign-up.

“An outstanding service! Procasts did a staggering turnaround within 1 week. Now it’s live it’s made a startling difference to bringing customers on board.  If you don’t have a ProCast on the front of your website, get one now! In my view this is the only fast and coherent way to convey your product or service proposition in 3 minutes.” - Darren Fell, Managing Director Crunch.co.uk

Several prominent freelancers had explained privately that they hadn’t shouted about Crunch, even though it is local and sounded useful, because they hadn’t seen it in action.  Once our screencast was complete these same mavens were able to tell others to watch the video and see it in action, making the idea behind Crunch far more easy to transmit.

We chose to tell the story of how you, the Freelancer, would use Crunch to add an invoice, add an expense, bill the client, add the resulting payment and see your overall financial position.  The screencast also discusses how banks will be integrated into Crunch’s offering later so you need never login to your bank to see if a payment has arrived, and how they’ll automatically sign-off your accounts at the year-end.

The creation process included identifying the target users and their needs, building the right story and integrating key benefits into the script.  We used Jing with the client (thanks Michael!) to see how they used the application and from there we scripted the final narration and actions.  Richard worked on the animations and Andy White voiced the narration.

I’ve just finished production of a new 12-part tutorial  series for ShowMeDo, the result is OpenOffice Calc 3.1 for Microsoft Excel users.  The overview is embedded below, links to all the episodes are further down.

Note that this series is a part of ShowMeDo’s Club so you need to be a paying member or contributing author to get access to all the episodes.  The series was produced on Windows using CamTasia 6.

1. Series Overview in 3 minutes (OpenOffice 3.1 for Excel users) (Free)
   
2. Installing OpenOffice 3.1 on Windows XP (Free)
3. Working with .xls Sheets in Calc
4. Saving as an ODF Spreadsheet (.ods) and PDF
5. Where to get help
6. Constructing a Sales-Forecast Sheet
7. Formatting your Sheet
8. Creating a Chart
9. Printing your Sheet
10. Import and Export CSV files
11. Re-associating .xls files with Excel after OpenOffice installation
12. Light relief - Star Wars Easter Egg and others

Don McAllister, founder of ScreencastsOnline (Mac-focused screencasts) was kind enough to answer some questions about how and why he started screencasting for the Mac back in 2005.

Don started ScreencastsOnline around the time I was co-founding ShowMeDo (open-source software focused tutorial screencasts).

You started ScreencastsOnline in 2005 a touch before ShowMeDo.com started, do you have a potted history anywhere to inspire others?

The show originally started out as a hobby with a tutorial every week. I found I was spending more and more of my free time working on the show to try and keep making better and better quality screencasts.

Eventually, it got to the point where I thought I could make a business from my efforts and with some encouragement (or some might say foolhardiness), I decided to go full time.

Screencasting takes time and effort - what made you decide to share your knowledge in this form?

I think that screencasts appeal to a certain type of person. Those people who learn things visually. I’ve had countless emails from people who struggle learning from a manual but if they watch a 15 minute screencast, they instantly “get it”.  The fact that it’s a direct video of the computer screen allows people to see immediately what is required and how to use applications.

I see you’ve just recently recorded your 200th show (congrats!) - what skills took the longest to learn over the last few years?

Probably being able to keep continuity as you record. Knowing how to recover from making a mistake and rolling back so that you keep editing down to a minimum. You can always (well mostly always) fix errors in post production but I’ve developed certain tricks to help minimise any tweaking. Visual continuity is extremely important in creating a screencast.

You’ve been at this for 4 years - how long was it before you realised ScreencastsOnline could pay your salary full-time?

I started the Extra! membership scheme about 6 months following the initial launch of the podcast. It’s basically a way for members to access “Premium Content”.

The deal is for a low cost six month membership ($57) you get access to a brand new show every week for six months, a choice of resolutions from HD to iPhone, specially formatted versions of the shows with chapter markings for easy navigation and access to a members website.

You also get immediate access to a back catalogue of over 200+ HD screencasts. After the initial six months, it’s only $25 to renew each six months. The take up of the membership took a while to kick in but with the immediate access to 200+ screencasts as well as all the new ones, it’s a very attractive deal for new members.

From what I remember your transition into ScreencastsOnline to full-time work was gradual.  Do you have any tips for someone else wanting to follow in your footsteps?

It’s not easy but you need to have a plan and have multiple ways of bringing in some income. Whether it be a membership scheme, advertising, sponsorship or even setting yourself up as a production resource to do commissioned screencasts, you need to be able to spread out your risks.

You’ve explained the equipment and software you use here - how many iterations did you go through finding the perfect setup?  I’m on my 4th mic now - was it the same for you?

I must admit, I’ve not really changed my audio setup for quite a while. Whilst people are commenting on the quality of the video and the audio, I really don’t want to change it. I do change my computers though, well, you have to don’t you!

Some people use screencasts to educate (such as our ShowMeDo authors and school teachers) - do you have any tips on how they could get started with screencasting?

The easiest way is just to try it. I’d recommend getting a copy of ScreenFlow and seeing if it’s something you’re comfortable with doing. ScreenFlow isn’t cheap but it will take away the pain of editing and exporting video as it’s a self contained package.

Try and record a couple of dummy screencasts and see if it’s something you can cope with. It does take a bit of practice to be able to speak and drive the application at the same time.

Other people use screencasts to help sell or support their software - what do you think makes for a perfect demo of a software tool?

For a demo, it needs to be short and sweet. You need to cover all of the major selling points and advantages of the software but keep the screencast flowing. Invariably, this means carefully scripting the screencast.

I’ve noticed that it can take me just as long (if not longer) to record and edit a scripted three minute promo screencast as it does to create a 30 minute free flowing tutorial.  It’s really hard to get it just right!

We’ve just finished working on the following screencast for Andy (CEO) at Orchestrate to demonstrate their workforce scheduling software.  This screencast replaces Andy’s earlier screencast that we’d critiqued, the new version appears on their Tour page.

“Working with Ian was a pleasure from beginning to end. He has a fantastic understanding of the steps involved in shooting a compelling screencast, combined with the ability to communicate with our target audience.

His approach was methodical and focused reflecting his extensive experience in this field.

I was very impressed with the new video, and we have received many compliments on how well it demonstrates the features of Orchestrate” - Andy Wright (CEO)

Our solution shows you ‘a day in the life of Orchestrate’, it shows you how easy it is to schedule jobs and see that they’re completed.

The goals are to show Operation’s Managers:

• It is very easy to learn
• Everything runs in the web-browser with no additional software
• Scheduling and rescheduling are easy
• There are no start-up fees or lock-ins
• Operatives provide a write-up after the job for Compliance
• Clients can see the status of all their jobs

The ultimate goal is to convince more visitors to the website to try Orchestrate, improving their conversion rate so they acquire new paying users without having to spend more on advertising.

Given the number of software solutions available to Operation’s Managers it was necessary for us to design the right screencast to convince them that this tool is the one they need.  Our process involved:

• Profiling the intended viewers
• Analysing the needs of these viewers
• Dropping Andy’s approach of the Feature Tour
• Adopting the idea of a story
• Story-boarding to create the right story
• Creating a script that fulfills the story’s objectives
• Recording a prototype for critique
• Creating a finished screencast
• Providing YouTube, .flv and .mp4 versions

Now we are monitoring the results to see what kind of improvement the new screencast brings to Andy’s sign-up rate.  Details on this will follow.  Richard has blogged an entry from his point of view as the animator and co-creative and client-Andy has blogged a superb entry:

“I didn’t understand how to tell an engaging story about labour scheduling software, but the team at ProCasts did.”

If you want to more effectively convert your visitors into signed-up paying users, get in Contact to talk about our Examples and how we can help you.

I’m in the planning stages for our forthcoming eBook that will teach you everything we know about producing screencasts.  Some of the topics we could cover include:

• Using screencasts for Sales, Training and Technical Support
• Story-boarding to explain all your benefits and features
• Writing a short, powerful script that really grabs the viewer’s attention
• Techniques for converting your viewer into a user of your software
• The best software packages to use when recording and editing a screencast
• Editing competently so you have a short, polished video
• Using annotations, fades and high-lights to focus the viewer’s attention on the key points
• Improving your audio recording
• Critiques of existing screencasts including ways of improving them
• Check-lists for each step of the process so you can quickly complete each phase confidently

We want to make sure we’re covering all the right topics that teach you the things you need to know.  To that end I’m undertaking various lines of research including using a survey - I’d like to invite you to share your needs with us.

To be in the draw for the free license, spend 5 minutes filling in the survey (no registration required).  It has just 10 questions so it won’t take you long.  If you put your email address in at the top of the survey then you will be in the draw.

I’ve just finished producing a series for ShowMeDo (I co-founded ShowMeDo in 2005) for OpenOffice Writer users.  In OpenOffice 3.1 Writer for Microsoft Word users I spend 45 minutes covering 11 topics for the new Writer user aimed at easing their transition across from MS Office:

1. Series Overview in 4 minutes (OpenOffice 3.1 for Word users)
2. Installing OpenOffice 3.1 on Windows XP
3. Working with Word (.doc) files
4. Working with an OpenDocument Format (.odt) file
5. Help! Manuals, Forums and Mail lists
6. Basic Formatting (bold, italic etc)
7. Exporting to PDF, HTML, MediaWiki
8. Printing
9. Word-completion
10. Find and Replace, Undo
11. Spell Checker

I’ve authored over 130 tutorial videos at ShowMeDo (see Ian’s author page) and the majority of the videos in the Club (which generates ShowMeDo’s income) were researched, scripted and recorded by me.

If you want to learn Python or OpenOffice then do take a look at ShowMeDo, there are over 1,000 tutorial videos (the majority are free, produced by our community) covering all sorts of open-source topics.

I’ve retired the previous poll and added a new one, you’ll see it in the right side-bar.  This time I’m asking ‘You Screencast To Make…?’ to find out if you’re making tutorials, product demos or technical support screencasts.

The previous poll showed that the majority of you use CamTasia, followed by Screenflow and CamStudio respectively.  I’ll be using this feedback when drafting our first eBook on ‘how to screencast’.

We will be publishing the eBook by chapters starting soon, to be notified about the release send us an email.  We will only tell you about the eBook: ebook_notify@procasts.co.uk

Mo Flanagan uses a 27 second mute screencast to show his WindowTabs.

This was one of the first screencasts I’d seen uploaded to YouTube using HD, even though it is mute and with annotations you still get a lot of information on how the product works:

The Good:

• Short, just 27 seconds long
• High Def so the visuals are crystal-clear
• Easy to follow - the Windows are joined and separated, it all looks very easy
• Easy embedding - YouTube is used so I, as a reviewer, can easily embed the screencast here (great for wider exposure)
• Public statistics - over 1,080 views at YouTube in under 2 months so Mo is obviously getting exposure (the fact that others are paying attention gives me confidence)

The Bad:

• No narration - so no explanation of what’s going on and the benefits to the end user
• No music - music is nice to set the scene on a marketing screencast
• No call to action - I get to the end of screencast and I’m interested…but what should I do next? What if I have a question?

Improvements:

• Add narration! Tell a useful story, explain the benefits, tell the user why this is great for them
• Add a call-to-action - you’ve got their interest, tell them how to get started right now and what to do if they have a question
• Answer any fears - remind the user about the money-back guarantee (this could just be in a text call-out) and the fact that it is both easily tried and easily removed
• Add testimonials into the video - let me see Social Proof that other people are using WindowTabs and that they find it beneficial

Our screencast tutorial series gives tips on all the above points.

If you’d like a private review of your own screencasts and advice on improving their quality, we offer this as a service, just get in Contact.

CloudBerry are building a set of Amazon S3 tools, for their S3 Explorer Pro they have two screencasts which show you how to get started.  I’ll critique the first, it is shown below:

The Good:

• The video is short (2:30) and moves along at an OK pace
• The demo works fine and the product looks easy enough to use
• The video is hosted by YouTube in HD so the visual aspects are very clear
• YouTube is used so external sites can embed the video to drive extra traffic like this one.

The Bad:

• Background hum, probably from the mains electricity, this is really distracting.  There’s also some street noise near the end
• Non-native English narration - I can understand it but I’d imagine other international users might have trouble which will reduce the audience
• No call-to-action - if your viewer watches right to the end then they’re probably interested - tell them how to try your tool and how to get their questions answered
• The videos aren’t embedded in the product page but are hidden behind a red ‘Watch Product Video’ link

Possible Improvements:

• The audio must be fixed, I’ve written about how bad audio can really reduce a viewer’s perception of the quality of your product.  Always use a good mic in a quiet environment and perform an audio clean-up step in post-production if necessary
• Many frames could have been cut in post-production to cut out 15-30 seconds of dead footage
• A call-to-action at the end will remind interested users how they too can try your product (remember: Don’t Make Me Think!)
• Embed the videos on the Product page, possibly using a javascript pop-up box (like here in ProCasts), so the user doesn’t have to visit other pages to find the videos

If you’d like a private review of your own screencasts and advice on improving their quality, we offer this as a service, just get in Contact.

Orchestrate is a web-based scheduling tool for service and maintenance personnel.  Andy Wright (CEO) has built a great service that is beautifully designed, the site launched 7 weeks back.

Andy wanted to demonstrate the app to his site’s visitors so he created his own screencast.  Currently it is shown here (YouTube), Andy has engaged us to work on a replacement, now shown here (also see our write-up for the new screencast).  Here’s the original:

The Good

• Short video (1:42)
• Clear and well paced audio
• Even without zooms the video is very clear (thanks to YouTube’s HD option)
• Clear demo, the app looks easy-to-use
• Shareable (thanks to YouTube player)
• Transcript provided for extra Google Juice and accessibility

The Bad

• Andy sounds bored!  This leaves the viewer unengaged
• The video forgets to sell the main USPs of the product
• Lots of wiggly-mouse action when a zoom and highlight would make the point more clearly

The use of YouTube is interesting - the HD option keeps the video’s quality high and Andy has access to the Insigh analytics that YouTube provides.

I spoke to Andy about the audio, this was his first screencast and he narrated whilst recording the screencast which made it difficult to concentrate on the tone of what was being said.  A Twitter user remarked along the lines of “Could this guy sound any less interested?” (tweet since deleted), thankfully Andy saw the tweet and was able to start a conversation:

@nicepaul - I appreciate your candor regarding my voice-over at http://orchestrateapp.com/tour, I’m working on an improved track (twitter)

@andykiteman hope i wasn’t too frank! just seemed not to do the site (which is great, btw) justice. (twitter)

@nicepaul No, your honesty is greatly appreciated and was echoed by others. I was screen-casting & reading the script at the same time - v. bad idea (twitter)

The fact that the video doesn’t mention the Unique Selling Points (qualifications are constraints, locations are integrated, write-ups are required for Compliance reporting) is a big mistake.  From the inside, it is easy to forget that you have to spell everything out to the first-time visitor.

We are working on an improved screencast for Andy that addresses these issues and walks you through A Day In The Life of Orchestrate, I’ll link to the result once it is ready.