In this issue:

• Lessons to the aspiring screencaster from Strunk & White.
• Monthly screencast: Let's get "embed" together...
• Client spotlight: Wordtracker and effective keyword research.
• Can you hear the drums, Fernando?
  

Lessons to the aspiring screencaster from Strunk & White.

Dear :

The other day, I got a solid lesson in good screencasting from a most unexpected place.

Most Americans, at some point in their academic careers (could be high school, college, or in my case, both), have an English composition class foisted upon them by the local administration. This is done with the supposed motivation of churning out graduates who can express themselves succintly and coherently in written form. Persons armed with this knowlege will be able to master business reports, research studies, doctoral dissertations, you name it.

Or, at the very least, have the most eloquently written MacDonald's employment application on the block...

One text that's basically regarded as standard issue in these courses is The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E.B. White, and has been thus since its initial publication in 1959. I bought my first copy back in 1989, when the book was a mere pup at the tender age of 30. In its nearly 50 years on the shelves, this tiny grey paperback has prevented millions of grammatical foibles the world over, defusing everything from awkward sentence structure to the careless use of non-words like irregardless.

I recently pulled my dog-eared copy of the shelf in an attempt to decide the correctness between "None of us were there" and "None of us was there" (it's the latter, by the way), when I came across an essay at the back that I hadn't remembered. It was called "An Approach to Style," and moved away from the specific prescriptivist "grammar police" ruleset that comprised most of the book, and instead just offered up a list of basic guidelines to bear in mind when communicating with words.

I was astounded by how many of these suggestions were readily applicable to narrated visual media as well, despite the fact that it was written a good 45 years before Jon Udell ever coined the term "screencast." I wanted to share a few of these with you.

Place yourself in the background. "Write in a way that draws the reader's attention to the sense and substance of the writing, rather than the mood and temper of the author."

This is a particularly sticky one for marketing screencasters. When crafting a video advertisement or marketing spot, it's vitally important to focus on your audience. Their lives, their problems. With luck, you can be there to offer the solution. There are instances (such as this newsletter), where it's appropriate for the author to be more "present" within the content. But you can't ever lose sight of your users and the benefit to their lives that you're attempting to bring to the table. More on this next month.

Do not overwrite. And this goes hand-in-hand with two other basic tenets of theirs, Write in a way that comes naturally and Avoid fancy words. "Rich, ornate prose is hard to digest, generally unwholesome, and sometimes nauseating."

As you write your narration script, you must take care to avoid the kind of thick, jumbled wordiness that makes your video impossible to penetrate without a dictionary in hand. Most people won't bother, so don't use a 75-cent word when a 10-cent one will do. This goes doubly for industry terms and other technical jargon. Only use a technical term when no other more common replacement exists, and when you're certain that at least 95% of your audience will understand it. Take a second in your narration to clarify the term if you're not sure.

Do not explain too much. "It is seldom advisable to tell all."

Amen, brothers. Amateur screencasters often make the classic rookie mistake of explaining every field and button. Even a comprehensive tutorial should exist to show completion of a given task or set of tasks. Clarify only those features and aspects of the application that are directly involved in getting the user from point A to point B. In screencasting, the hackneyed slang phrase "Too much information!" really does apply, so don't inundate your audience with a lot of extraneous info.

Revise and rewrite. "Revising is part of writing. Few writers are so expert that they can produce what they are after on the first try."

Revision is a necessity in the screencast production process. If possible, try to segment your revision as much as possible. What does this mean? Well, take a quick look at my workflow, which generally goes something like this:

Write narration > Craft storyboard > Record footage > Edit silent cut > Record and clean up narration > Produce final output

You should be giving the decision-makers (clients, managers, etc.) access to your work at nearly every point in this process. If there's an unnecessary paragraph in your narration, it's a lot easier to correct early on, when it's just words on paper. If something's destined to get the ax, you're wasting valuable time by coming up with visuals, recording clips, and cutting it all together.

Don't overstate. "When you overstate, readers will be instantly on guard, and everything that has preceded your overstatement as well as everything that follows will be suspect in their minds because they have lost confidence in your judgment or your poise."

Overstatements are dangerous territory, particularly for marketing screencasts. Yes, you want to convey the benefit of your product or service, and yes, those benefits should be as compelling as possible. Just don't promise them the moon. Or, promise them the moon, provided you're ready to deliver on that promise and you can provide good testimonials and other proof that you're not just full of hot air.

Good stuff. The advice of these two men from nearly a half century ago is as relevant as ever to those of us who create content for a living.

Monthly screencast: Let's get "embed" together...

One topic that seems to come up time and again on the TechSmith forums is how to integrate a Camtasia Studio screencast with a pre-existing web page. You know, the kind that's already filled with other content. This has been made easier in the past year or two with the introduction of ExpressShow and Screencast.com embedding, but those who don't output to SWF, or who don't want to pay service fees, are essentially left up to their own devices.

In this screencast, I'll talk about the various options you have for embedding your videos into a content page, including a neat, easy option that works with all output formats, and has the added bonus of saving you bandwidth.



Embedding a screencast into a content page

Client spotlight: Wordtracker and effective keyword research.

In the five or so years I've been in business as a freelance screencaster, I've served organizations of all sizes and flavors, and the exact vocations of these enterprises are as broad and varied as life itself.

A few industries off the top of my head: stock trading, homebuilding, paperwork management, promotional products, plastics, and dental practice management, among many others.

It's hard to imagine that such a broad range of business endeavor exists in the world until someone calls you up wanting a marketing spot to advertise their extensive line of holy bibles in audiobook format (yes, seriously).

There are, apparently, exactly one million and one ways to fill a need for someone and get paid in the process. Nothing surprises me anymore. Of course, fortunately for them, when it comes to a company's screencasting needs, I'm pretty equal-opportunity...

That said, I can't tell you what a rare treat it is to be approached by someone whose product you've not only heard of, but actually use. Such was the case when the good folks at Wordtracker contacted me to create a series of demos on their amazing keyword research service.

If you're a MarComm manager or internet entrepreneur, then it's likely these guys need no introduction. For the rest of you, I'll give you the quick elevator statement: Wordtracker lets you research the popularity and competition level of internet search terms as well as easily pick out potentially profitable related terms. Armed with solid keyword research, companies can avoid costly mistakes in their pay-per-click and web optimization efforts by focusing on keywords that are more likely to bring in actual business.

In fact, you're unlikely to meet anyone really serious about search engine optimization who is not already a Wordtracker subscriber. They're the de facto standard in keyword research.

If you're still confused as to what these guys are all about, I created a seven-day series on getting the most out of your first week with Wordtracker that should serve to clear things up. Wordtracker is giving away the full tutorial series for anyone who signs up for Wordtracker's f*ree 7-day trial. If you plan on ever setting up an Adwords campaign or do any SEO at all, I strongly encourage you to check 'em out.

A quick disclosure, in case anyone was wondering: I receive NO affiliate revenue whatsoever from these trial sign-ups or any subscriptions that may come about as a result. I'm hyping them because they run an awesome service, one that I used before they were ever a client. And also because I'm proud of the work we've done together, and I hope you'll watch a video or two and perhaps play with the service a bit on your own.

But if you happen to be one of those jaded souls who's averse to no-cost, no-obligation signups as a matter of principle, here's a totally 'stringsless' link to the first video in the series. Enjoy!

Can you hear the drums, Fernando?

This month's Screencaster was partially brought to you by a generous bit of elbow grease from Fernando Alvarez Torres, a top systems administrator, my brother-in-law, and an all-around good guy.

Fernando came to my rescue, making an afternoon's inconvenience out of what would otherwise have been several days of frustrating trial and error. Let's take a brief moment to appreciate the systems admins of the world. Along with plumbers, secretaries, ombudspeople, and others whose sole domain is simply to "make stuff work," these folks clear away the chaos and leave tiny parts of the world a little better than how they found it.

If you happen to see your systems admin in the hall, conference room, or kitchenette today, please take a quick opportunity to say thanks. Unless, of course, you are the sysadmin, in which case, please take a quick opportunity to bask in your own glory...

Thanks, Nando.


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All of the above is ©2008 by Daniel Park, except in the case of articles by guest authors, who retain all rights to their own musings.

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