When most people think of digital products, they immediately conjure an image of an ebook. Digital products can really be any number of things, though. They can be audio or video based, or text based products and workbooks!
A lot of times, your audience is going to be what determines the style of the content you create. If you are doing how-to stuff, video is the way to go. If you are doing something that has learning sections like a workbook, text is best.
With the emergence of free and cheap tools, it’s easier than ever to record audio and put screencasts together. No need for a programmer or expensive computer equipment, just pick up a mic at Target and you’re all set.
As with content based products – you still have to type. There’s nothing I can do about that!
8 Cheap And Low Cost Tools That Make Building Informational Products Easy:
- Audacity
Audacity is audio recording software. It will interface with your mic and record anything you say! You can even use it to record interviews and presentations! Once you’re done, export it as a .mp3 and upload it to your web server.
- GoView
GoView is a brand new screen recording software put out by Citrix. It lets you record your screen and your mic and bundle it together and distribute it on the Internet.
- Camtasia
Camtasia is by far the industry standard in screencasting software. They support HD output and will convert the project into any video format imaginable. The video editing tools and wizards really make you look like a pro in no time.
- Microsoft Word and Open Office
As much as I hate adding this, I have to. Microsoft is the default editor for for anyone writing anything. Both export directly to PDF too.
- Adobe or Gimp
Being that we’re human beings and we like to look at stuff rather than just read, you’re going to need to do some graphic work in order to sell much of anything. If you aren’t familiar with Adobe Photoshop, I suggest you start there. Gimp is the free, open source version and does a lot of graphic type work very well!
- Articulate
If you plan on teaching anything, this software is what you want to do it in. Articulate is by far my favorite e-learning software suite for making dramatic, fluid presentations. You can teach people anything, voice over and narrate a powerpoint, or build quizzes.
There are other tools and software applications out there that do some of the tasks that these do, but none are more complete. I would hate to see you buy a screen recording application and realize it didn’t do what you needed it to.
If you know of any others, please feel free to let me know if the comments! I love trying new tools, especially if they help me make money..
JD
No related posts.
{ 7 comments }
Some of the software in the list is not that cheap in my opinion. For screencasting software, I think DemoCreator could be an alternative. But the downside could be the avaible formats, not as many as Camtasia.
I have never heard of DemoCreator actually! I’ll have to give it a shot.
I agree with you. Camtasia is fairly expensive but it gives you so much.. Articulate is pretty steep too but the interface is amazing. It lets you do so many cool things.
Both Camtasia and Articulate give free demos which are usually more than enough time for you to build your info product…
Very informative post.Adobe is a great help as you say.
democreator is great. i have been using it for a few months and have no compliants
i would like to try this out for sure
Thanks for posting this. I am more of a programmer than a designer but i do need to do some design work and I can use all the help I can get. Hopefully this will make some things a bit easier.
Maybe some interesting additions to this post are the checklist of criteria for selecting a screencasting tool at http://www.indoition.com/screencasting-tool-choos... as well as the list of screencasting tools at http://www.indoition.com/screencasting-tools-surv...