See the Screencast Video That Earned $1,000. See the Power of Low-Cost Screencasting on YouTube.
Jan. 17, 2007
A screencast lets you show the viewer what is on your computer screen. It lets you narrate what is on screen. It produces highly compact files compared to regular video or especially high definition video. You can put a lot of screencasts on one CD-ROM.
Screencasts are great for training. They are great for answering frequently asked questions.
They are great for job applications. Provide a shortened URL address link (www.tinyurl.com or www.snipurl.com) to a YouTube screencast on something related to the company you want to hire you. It will impress the personnel person.
You can produce ads that supplement your paper-based ad campaign. Look for these aspects of a good ad: specific benefits described, screen movement to keep the viewer's attention, click-throughs showing features and describing their benefits.
When Camtasia Studio Edition 3 was available as a free download, that was the program to get. The company has unwisely abandoned that brilliant promotion. Today, you can get CamStudio for free: www.camstudio.org.
The screencast advertising video that I liked the best is this one. It introduces people to this site, Gary North's Specific Answers. I include several other examples after this one.
These also demonstrate the power of screencasting. Each has strengths and weaknesses. The people who produced them now have a very useful talent.
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oh6FDh8BJWQ
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=1g6ouaRfoBE
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7hmQ0jiwK0
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFMFOMIBI4Y
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUoBhbJ0H-0
These were produced by Camtasia Studio 3. When I first announced that I would pay $1,000 for a screencast ad of my site, you could download Camtasia 3 for free. I paid $300 in 2005. Sadly, that offer has been pulled by the company. It offers a free 30-day demo of its latest version.
For free, you can still get CamStudio: www.CamStudio.org. Get the beta version.