[WestCoastJustin]

I run https://sysadmincasts.com/, which is a weekly bite sized screencast for sysadmins. Also posted to Show HN a while ago [1]. I can tell you that my inbox is flooded with "Thank You" messages, and requests to put out more content, I am struggling to keep up! As patio11 put it, if you can say: "I'll save you 12 hours of Googling and reading Free Information On The Internet (TM) and it will cost you $50" [2], you can make money. There is just so much text content out there, and not very many high quality videos, so there is a major void in the market. Shane Smith (creator of VICE) talks about how he is creating tons of video content, and text is pretty much toast [3], well worth a watch, just think about how this applies to the tech education space.

I am not doing anything unique or novel though, there are countless sites that I have learned from, railscasts.com, railstutorial.org, egghead.io, laracasts.com, gorails.com, etc. Granted, so far this has all been free, and I have not started to monetize yet, but I do have traction, and see a clear need. So, take that for what it's worth. Very happy to have any feedback, or answer questions, just shoot me an email (see profile). Also, if you have a talent in a particular area, I would highly suggest thinking about how to share that via video with other people.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8011081

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8508187

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qHjln3yZFs

[walterbell]

Just listened to the ZFS on Linux episode. I was sceptical about watching a command-line narrative, but this was incredibly well executed, with episode transcript and mini-reviews of related sites. As the episode started, the speech pattern was so slow I wondered if it was a TTS robot aimed at non-English listeners, but then the voice quickly picked up speed to reach excited-hacker cadence.

How long does it take to write and produce each episode? Would you care to share the toolchain being used for screencasts?

I miss the lost promise of SMIL which would have allowed in-context video links to URLs for related sites, or deep-linking to related video snippets in other episodes. If your project continues, you will quickly grow a library which will benefit from cross-indexing. You will also find that a subset of content will need to be refreshed, as tools and environments change. Metadata for modular snippets will improve discovery, reuse and update.

Rails Tutorial has generated six-figure revenue from screencasts combined with an ebook, so there is precedent for monetizing self-service video training.

[WestCoastJustin]

Thanks for the kind words ;)

> How long does it take to write and produce each episode?

Rough guide is about ~2-3 hours per minute of video. Research, playing around with ideas, demos, writing, recording video, recording audio, editing, etc. So, ZFS part one was 12 min, that's about 24 hours, and part two is 18 min, so about 36 hours. Those two episodes are about 60+ hours of solid work. ZFS did take a little longer than 60 though, since I ended up doing tons of research, but I rather error on a better quality video, than putting out sub optimal content. These figures are shocking to many people, but I have honestly not found a quicker way. As I learn to use the editing software a little more, I have been able to shave an hour here and there, so that is nice!

> Would you care to share the toolchain being used for screencasts?

Sure, here is a basic dump of the tools I use:

  Ubuntu (deskop)
  Kazam (desktop recording)
  Audacity (audio recording)
  Kdenlive (edit the audio/video together)
  Screenkey (keystrokes on screen)
  Decrypt (intro screen)
  OpenOffice Writer (transcripts)
  Shaky (ascii diagram to png file)
  Asciiflow (diagram tool input for shaky)
  Gimp (graphics)

[walterbell]

> Rough guide is about ~2 hours per minute of video.

That makes sense, given the high quality result. A 2003 thread estimated production cost for training videos at $1000-$3000/minute, http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=254620 and that range still seems relevant, https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/17/871420

> here is a basic dump of the tools I use

Great that you were able to achieve this level of quality with FLOSS tools. Have you considered pay-what-you-want pricing, with a suggested anchor? Or creating (for pay) screencasts for commercial software? I've often felt that training material should be included in the marketing budget, as it increases the size of the market. E.g. a portion of donations/fees could go towards the OSS project.

[WestCoastJustin]

Thanks for the links! At least I am not going crazy ;)

> Have you considered pay-what-you-want pricing, with a suggested anchor?

As of late 2014, I am working on this full-time. Scary, but I think I can pull it off. I am shooting for a $12 monthly subscription fee (auto-renewing), that will give you blanket access to everything for 30 days. My thinking is that, I am targeting sysadmins, devops folks, and developers who want to learn about ops. So, if I can save you even 1 hour per month, then it more than pays for itself. I am hoping to push this out in a few days actually, so I will have more data soon! I don't think it will be an overnight success, but hope to build it over a couple years. At least that is the plan.

> Or creating (for pay) screencasts for commercial software?

I have looked at this. Even brokered a deal, but ended up backing out. It just takes way too much time and I needed to focus on putting out my own content. I just need to get some funds coming in rather quickly, or go get a job again. So, I am putting everything I have into this. Once I have some money coming in, then I might look at this again.

[walterbell]

You can have more than one distribution channel, e.g. your own monthly subscription site, plus a bundle of transcripts (reformatted as an ebook) + a package of screencasts, sold via https://www.softcover.io/ which takes 10%. Use 80/20 rule to figure out which topics are in high purchase demand and could benefit from a deeper dive. Lower-cost channels can feed demand for deeper/premium products/channels.

Background: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8224896 & https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7350265

[WestCoastJustin]

Thanks for all the links. I will definitely be checking this out! I had watched Nathan Barry's screencasts with Michael Hartl, but I didn't know he was active on HN, these links look pretty good, so I'll want to read these over! Thanks again.

[crdr88]

Hey, what kind of computer do you run with those programs? Apple or PC?

[jacoplane]

Hey, your site is great, just a suggestion, you might consider submitting your site to PocketCasts (email [e-mail]), it's the most popular podcasting app on Android, and you don't seem to be in their directory. I've added your feed to their app, but it would help people discover your show.