Capture:
- If you’re going to invest, buy a microphone and lights - video gear is the least important. Elgato has good options for both (keylight and wave).
- For video capturing, in the beginning, just use your webcam. A good light will already improve the capture quality more than switching to an expensive DSLR.
- For the screen capture, don’t record your whole window - people don’t need to see your OS menu bars - I usually record a piece of exactly 1920x1080 from my screen and position my IDE and browser to fit there (This also leaves a little bit of space on the side where I put some notes to myself of what I need to say).
You might also want to increase font sizes - A good metric is that your video should be comfortably viewable from a smartphone. - Edit your video - you don't have to record all in one shot. Then, cut the excessive long pauses and "umm"s - but don't get paranoid over it, you don't have to sound like a robot neither spend hours in the editing process.
Content:
- Think about different ways you could approach what you're trying to teach. Keep iterating until you have a good line of action.
It is useful to have a clear idea of who your audience is and try to step into their shoes while developing the content. - Put time and effort to create good examples, not a parade of "foo"s and "bar"s. - For your audience, they make the difference between understanding or not the concept.
- People hate long intros: The first few seconds are key for retention, so go straight to the point and “sell” what you’re going to talk about.
When my content requires lots of explanation, I usually “hide” them between code samples. - Make your final, working code available on GitHub.
Delivery:
- It helps me a lot to write the script of the episode beforehand (even though I don’t read it while recording and it always ends up different than what I wrote) - it helps set a clear picture in my mind of what I need to say and in which order.
- Show enthusiasm with your content. If you're shy, you don't have to fake it - but remember that you're explaining something you find interesting to other people that might find it equally interesting - let the excitement appear through your voice.