In 2012 YouTube became the second most used content search engine after Google and ahead of Bing, Yahoo and others. One of the reasons is the enormous amount of existing tutorial videos for all kinds of activities: technical and computer topics, equipment configuration, DIY recipes, etc., in short, any activity that needs an explanation.
More and more people are encouraged to make video tutorials and share their knowledge and experience with other people. In this article, we are going to give some basic advice on how to make these types of videos in a simple way and with a correct presentation. It is for those who are new in this field but wants to start taking their first steps.
Tutorial video recording
To make a Video-tutorial showing some activity on the PC, such as the installation or use of a program or Web page, it is necessary that we have a screen recording program installed. A very simple and free one that we recommend is the VFD Recorder integrated into the VFD Suite.
Using the program is very simple. We select the area to record and press the red REC button, then the program will record on video everything we do on the screen, and if we have a microphone, it will also record everything we say. In the end, we press Stop, and the program generates an AVI format file with everything done.
Editing the tutorial video
To edit the video, trim scenes, and insert titles (Presentation and farewell), our advice is to use FlexClip tutorial video maker, free and easy to use.
Tips for a good tutorial video
Once we have the raw video, the recommendations to complete a good Video-tutorial are the following:
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Introduction
It is important to have a good introduction. It must contain the following items:
Presentation: who you are
The subject with which the video is going to deal and is objective.
It is recommended not to make excessively long introductions or with striking fonts or images if you want to give a professional appearance. If you go for a casual or fun style, then there is freedom of choice.
The title must be clear enough for the user to determine whether or not they want to continue seeing it and know what the tutorial will be about.
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Development and purpose
The basic script of a video is the beginning, middle, and end. The beginning has already been commented on, the development is the object of the tutorial video, and the end consists of making some observations and saying goodbye.
If one of these parts is omitted, the result is a dry video, you have to respect the same rules as in a conversation, that is, nobody comes and explains something without greeting you first, or nobody finishes an explanation without concluding or saying goodbye, it is part more of education than of talent.
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Make a good tutorial
It is important to focus the tutorial on a person who does not have our knowledge and to explain each step well and in detail. It is very easy to leave things that for us are obvious from our knowledge but that for the public, it is not like that.
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Speak loud and clear
It is convenient to have a quality microphone to avoid audio problems and to speak loud and clear. A tip: DO NOT use false voices or voices created with Web utilities. It does not look good.
It is always better to use audio, but it can be complemented with text notes. It is not good to write the content of the tutorial video on the fly so that the user reads it instead of speaking.
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Take care of the appearance of the screen
It is not pleasant to see a tutorial with a desktop full of icons, horrendous theme changes in Windows, ugly abstract wallpapers, and thousands of extra applications with shortcuts that make a tutorial video look bad, and its user, although the Create authors that can impress them.
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Do not add more to the explanation
Don’t add unnecessary things like loud music or overloaded effects.
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Credits
End the video with a thank you and a wish that it has been useful. Put the company or personal website as the last image if you want to generate traffic to your pages from the tutorial video.
