Publishing on SqlShare.com

Publishing on SQLShare

Who Can Publish?

You can become a content author by just submitting a video and having it accepted for publication. We have a few guidelines to keep our quality high, but we think as you read the rest of this you'll see that the guidelines are simple and make sense. All you need is some knowledge you want to share and the willingness to invest a couple hours of your time. In return, you'll get to experience the fun of being a published author - it really is fun!

How Do I Get Started?

The most important thing is to identify a topic about which you are knowledgeable and experienced, and then do a quick search of our site to see if it something we already have. Even if we do have the same topic, it's often useful to present more than one view of how to do a task, but it's something we review on a case by case basis. Either way, once you've read the rest of this page and are ready to go, you can be conservative and contact us before you invest time in your video, or you can just go all out and upload your video and we'll let you know if its something we will be able to publish.

What Topics Are Popular?

That's a really hard question to answer. Our most popular videos have a good descriptive title, are done at a deliberate pace, and explain how to do the task in plain language, all in 1 to 5 minutes. If you had to learn how to do it someone else will definitely benefit from having that lesson available to view.

What Tools Do I Need?

It depends on the topic and how you want to explain it. For videos that use a computer, we highly recommend Camtasia (about $300) if you're planning to do more than a few videos. If you don't want to invest that kind of money right now Camstudio is a great free alternative. You'll need a computer with a sound card, speakers, and a good USB headset/microphone ($50) in a room where you can close the door to reduce background noise. If your video is about a task that requires the user to see what you're doing a good digital camcorder is recommended.

How Long Should a Video Be?

There are always exceptions, but we prefer videos to be 1 to 3 minutes, with a maximum length of 5 minutes. If you need more than that consider breaking it up into Part 1, Part 2, etc. Our goal is to explain very granular tasks quickly and simply. If you have a project in mind that needs to be a lot longer, drop us a note and we'll discuss it.

What Kind of Preparation Is Required?

Here's our list, we tried to keep it short.

Read this entire page and contact us with any questions
Install the software and/or acquire a camcorder and other items you need
Set a title for the video and do a quick search to confirm it's not something we already have
Write a mini script of what and how you want to show viewers along with your main talking points
Consider practicing on a very simple topic just to get used to the process

Are There Any Tips & Tricks?

Sure! Like anything else you'll get better with practice, but for the first few videos we think these tips will help you a lot:

Patience is required. You'll make a lot of mistakes and have a lot of do-overs, it's natural and common. The first video may take hours and 10 attempts, by the tenth video you'll be doing them in 30 minutes with only 2-3 attempts
Invest in a good USB microphone, it makes a huge difference in sound quality
If you do something wrong, just stop and start over. Rather than trying to edit out mistakes it's far simpler to just start over, and the additional practice doesn't hurt. This is one big reason why we like to limit videos to 3 minutes - redoing 3 minutes isn't bad, but no one would want to redo a 30 minute video.
Install any software you need on the computer in advance and think of that as a separate task. That way when you are ready to get started you can focus on producing a great video
We recommend narrating as you do the task. Doing voiceovers takes more practice and adds time to the task.
Work hard to reduce speech fillers like um and uh. It's the end of the world if a couple slip through, but in larger quantities is annoying and distracting
When using a mouse be very deliberate about moving it around. Most people tend to gesture with the mouse and that can also be distracting. Consider using a screen annotation tool like Zoomit when you need to accentuate something.
Do a 30 second test to make sure everything is working and that the sound level (and background noise) are ok before you get serious
Be mildly critical, but not severe. Does it illustrate the task clearly and simply?
If you're only doing a few, writing a "script" to follow may help you get where you need to go a little faster. As you gain experience you'll learn just from the repetition of doing each one a few times until you get it right.

What Settings Should be Used When Recording?

We prefer video to be recorded at a resolution of 1024 x 768. If you're using Camtasia using the default codec. If you're using Camstudio, please use the Techsmith Screen Capture codec. Please test your voice recording levels, your voice should come across clearly with the volume control set at 30-50% of maximum available. The biggest mistake we see is voice levels too low.

How Do I Submit A Video?

Visit our Upload Your Video Page where you'll confirm that you've reviewed our licensing agreemen, enter the title and description of your video, and then upload the video. We'll send you an email to confirm that we've received it. You can also monitor the status of your uploads on the Video Status Page

What Happens After I If My Video Is Uploaded?

We review new content a couple times per week. If the quality and content are acceptable, we'll enter in into our system and it will become immediately accessible (so you can show your friend!). If it doesn't mean our criteria, perhaps we heard too much background noise, or other problem areas, we'll send you a note back indicating the problem. Just correct the problem (by re-recording in most cases) and just upload again.

Do I Get Paid for Making Videos?

We pay authors for original and first run content to which they own the copyright. Payments range from $25-$35 for our standard length videos, and are generally processed within 30 days of acceptance. Please note that this is a one time payment. One of the lessons we learned from the internet bubble back in 2000 is that's far better to make a one time payment for content than it is to try to manage and pay based on page views. The nice upside of the one time payments is that because we know our cost, we can encourage authors to submit content about smaller niche subjects that just wouldn't be worth doing on a pay per pageview model.

What Are the License Terms?

The content upload page has the full details, but the essence of the license is that you grant us a full and perpetual right to use and edit your video with limitation, but you retain the copyright.

Do I Get Extra Visibility As An Author?

Once you're set up as an author your profile page will show all the videos you've published here. We'll send you an email each time one of your videos is featured on the channel home page, and we'll notify you when anyone posts a comment to any of your videos (and we encourage you to participate in those discussions). We provide an RSS feed for each author so that as you acquire fans (you will!) they can easily find out when you publish a new video. Our goal is to be very author friendly, and over time we'll be continuing to expand the ways we highlight the efforts of our authors.