A few months ago, I was invited to join a beta program for a site called Howcast.com. Normally I try to avoid getting wrapped up in that sort of thing, but I was in the market for a new way of distributing my videos online, so I decided to give it a shot. At first glance it seemed like any other video-sharing website, but upon closer inspection I quickly realized how valuable it was and how much it could help me enhance my educational material on the web.

As I said, I’ve been using Howcast for a few months now to distribute various episodes of my podcasts and I absolutely love it. The player is what seals the deal! Not only can you post your how-to video on their site (for free), but you can also add in steps, tips, and warnings to further enhance the educational quality of your videos. This is especially helpful when teaching software because it gives me the ability to throw in little tips and tricks along the way and also give warnings when I’m covering a subject that might not be compatible with certain versions of the software.

Another great aspect of Howcast is the ability to create and share wiki guides. I’ve written four wiki guides so far, and I have several new guides in the works as well. These guides allow you to write step-by-step tutorials (much the same way you add steps in your videos) and they also can incorporate images as well. This is great for software training because it gives users the information in an easy to follow format and also a visual reference to make sure everyone’s on the same page.

You’ll be seeing a lot more of Howcast on my websites over the next few months. I plan to distribute all of my podcasts and other videos exclusively with the Howcast player from now on. For more information about Howcast visit their website, and don’t forget to subscribe to my channel while you’re there!