Late 2004 was when I had an idea to build an info product. It was my first and I was convinced video was the next big thing online. I guess in many ways that turned out to true. So, I chose video and audio to deliver my information and in 2005, BloggingStarterPack was released. 4 years have flown by in a heartbeat and so much has changed in blogging and WordPress as a whole that I need desperately to update the course. Although still very relevant, I hated the thought of students viewing the old WordPress screens. But at the same time, I also dreaded the idea of re-recording hours of content plus editing – more hours.

That’s the problem with using video in your info products, especially when you are showing people how to do things using a particular software or web site. It dates quickly. If they are simply talking heads or video presentations then it isn’t too big a problem. But things simply move too fast in the tech world which is a down side of my chosen industry I guess.

At many points through the years I’ve often regretted not creating BloggingStarterPack as a written manual with screen shots but then again, I know that so many of my customers would not have been as successful with their blog setups as they have been with the videos. While its true that some people prefer written manuals (me included) for software, many just learn better by watching and the course is geared for visual learners.

After careful re-examination of the course, I found out that my biggest mistake with the videos were:

Creating videos that were way too long – This is a problem in many ways

• It made the videos tiresome to watch
• I had huge, huge, files that cost me a lot of bandwidth each time they were loaded
• It’s difficult to update the content when only part of it has changed
• It’s difficult to find the exact content you want to view since video is not searchable – yet

Editing my videos – editing is supposed to be a good thing right? Well in some ways yes. I like the software to have the ability to edit my videos but I don’t want to spend 30 minutes editing a 5 minute video and if you multiply that by 50+ videos, that’s a whole lot of work!

So I have to adapt. First, I’m re-recording everything in bite sized chunks of under 10 minutes. Actually the average video is about 3-6 minutes long. This means if any small area of WordPress is updated I can re-record quickly and keep better updates. At least in theory it would. I don’t know how well this will work in real life. Come back in 2 or more years and I’ll tell you 😉 but right now it seems to be the best strategy.

This should also make it much easier for students to find content that they want and zoom in exactly to that particular area they want to learn. It should also make learning easier since the content is to the point and easy to digest. Finally, of course, I hope it cuts down the huge loading time and bandwidth to deliver the videos. And if I flub, I’m re-recording the whole thing. No editing. Since the videos are short, they are much easier to re-record so that’s another plus for short presentations.

Current students of BloggingStarterPack would be happy to know I have already completed 49 already and am working on the other half of it. There’s also a total revamp of the course content itself. I even have a brand new, updated design for the course and logo as you see on this page. What are all the changes? You’ll have to check in here to see :).