Okay here me out for a second. I run a web design/development firm right. And a lot of the smaller projects that I service for my clients are websites built with a content management system, typically Wordpress or Drupal. The interesting thing that I have found is that each client project has it’s own unique featuers, which makes managing the content different in some areas for each project. You following me? So basically i’m having to train each individual client on how to manage his/her website. You can imagine the kind of time this would/was taking me each time I had to do it. We’re talking about a phone call anywhere between 1-2 hours. That’s some wasted valuable time. Here’s exactly what I did to streamline that process.

Step 1 = Setup Wordpress

A blog in my opinion was the perfect idea for a Video Knowledge Base for my customers. Each post would be for each specific customer. And each customer would have his/her own video. Also, I could hire someone in my organization on the customer service side who is not skilled with web design or development and can manage this content for me.

Step 2 = Install Vipers Video Quicktags Plugin

Next I needed a plugin that would allow me to stream the videos using a flash video player. The Vipers Video plugin uses the JW Flash Video component and allows you to easily point to .flv files on your server for streaming video. Very easy to use and manage with Wordpress and writing posts.

Step 3 – Using Camstudio and Making Videos

My next step was to download the free open source Camstudio software. It was very important that I configured Camstudio’s settings properly. You can see my post on how to use Camstudio for a terrific video on how to accomplish that. With my settings correct I would create videos similar to this one…where I can create a personal video message to my customer on how to use their system!

Step 4 – Convert Video to .FLV

When i’m done with my Camstudio video, the software saves the video out for me in .avi format. The next step for me to use my Flash Video Player in Wordpress is to convert that format to .flv. I downloaded the free program Flash This! To accomplish this task.

Step 5 – Upload .FLV File to Server and Post!

Pretty simple. Just upload my .flv file to the /uploads directory and uses the Video plugin for Wordpress to point to the file to display my flash training video.

Step 6 – Send Email with Link – Sit Back and Relax!

Here’s the beautiful part! All I do is send an email with a hyperlink to the video wordpress post, telling my client to watch the video and email me back if they have any questions that are not covered in the video.

After you have steps 1-4 setup and ready to go, the process literally only takes you about 15-20 minutes max to accomplish for each client. This saves you hours of wasted time on the phone or in meetings. Remember, Camstudio is a screen capturing video software, so this Video Knowledge Base would work for any business/freelancer involved in anything digital that takes place on the computer. I hope this gives you some good ideas on how you can use Wordpress and Camstudio to enhance the learning process of those around you. You can teach and train so many more people in so much less time by using Camstudio and Wordpress to display those videos!

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Related Posts

• How to Use Camstudio
• Stumbles for May 5, 2008
• Setting Up Flash Video for Your Wordpress Blog

This entry was posted on Friday, July 25th, 2008 at 2:26 pm and is filed under Blogging, Information, Tools. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.