How To Record A Video Tutorial For Your Blog

Over the last two weeks I have experimented with creating video tutorials as a new feature for the blog.
The first tutorial discussed a Photoshop tip to save bandwidth, while the most recent tutorial explained how to select winners for your blog contests.
While my experience has been limited, I thought it would be worthwhile to share a few things that I have learned in the process.

Flip Video Camera

For the first video tutorial I used the Flip Video camera that I had purchased a few months back. As much as I love this little camera for taking quick videos, it wasn’t the best option for trying to record a computer-based tutorial as the result was rather blurry and it took a few tries to prevent shaking my desk while recording.


In addition, there were some problems with the quality of the audio as there were a few points where it faded in and out. However, this was not a fault of the camera but rather my lack of focus trying to record a video tutorial near midnight while thinking about getting enough sleep for work the next day.
All in all, I think the Flip Video camera makes a handy camera for recording quick little videos – maybe for a video blog post where you are just speaking – but doesn’t work well for making video tutorials.

Camtasia Studio

With the second video tutorial I turned to Camtasia Studio to record the tutorial. Fortunately, I have a copy of this available to me at work so I was able to experiment without having to purchase a copy just yet.


On the first attempt I captured a nice recording but I didn’t have a microphone for my computer. Since the video tutorial is rather lacking without an audio explanation of what is taking place, I had to head out to the store and purchase a headset/microphone.
When creating the output from Camtasia Studio, I first used the default settings which created a Flash SWF file. Since I wanted to publish this via YouTube, I had to render the output video again and selected a WMV file. Unfortunately, saving to a WMV resulted in a noticeable loss of quality – as the SWF file was very crisp and clear, which is what I will try for the next video tutorial.
However, this second video tutorial was still much more clear than the first tutorial but the quality of audio was still a little problematic due to the headset that I had purchased.

Quality Headset/Microphone Is Required

While I am very happy with the results of using Camtasia Studio, I was disappointed with the quality of the audio. As Brewster commented on that tutorial, it sounded as though the microphone was too close to my mouth.
Well…that was because the thing was practically in my mouth!
The headset that I purchased was a Logitech Premium Stereo Headset with a flip down microphone. At the store this looked like a great option – it had nice soft foam ear pads, inline volume and mute controls, as well as a noise-canceling microphone.
Little did I know that the microphone must consider my voice to be noise, as the only way it would record anything was if I had the thing pressed up right in front of my mouth. As you can hear on the video, this is not the best way to record audio. I even tried stretching a pair of my wife’s pantyhose over it – you know, like you see rock stars do in the studio – but that didn’t work either.
At first I thought maybe it was because the microphone was too far away from my mouth – in case you didn’t know, my head rivals that of Barry Bonds in size. When I wear a baseball hat, the adjustable strap is on the last dot – or maybe the second to last dot if I just had a haircut.
I called my wife to try the headset since she has a tiny, not quite shrunken-head size head and even she couldn’t get any decent sound to record.
After messing around with the computer, as well as trying it on another computer, I came to the conclusion that I bought a piece of crap headset and need to find something better. This Logitech setup will be going back to the store in the next few days.
So if you know of a good headset/microphone to use for Skype or any type of audio on the computer, please hit me up and let me know!

Third Tutorial?

As I mentioned, I will continue to experiment and will hopefully have a better headset when it is time to record the next video tutorial. Camtasia Studio looks like a winner so I will certainly give that another try.
But what should I cover in the next video tutorial?
If you have a topic that you would like to see covered, please let me know in the comments below. If I use your idea, you might just receive a free plug like Matt did for Goodnight Moon Futon.