Training videos and promotional techniques

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

Brett wrote about his training video/program:

<Note - I split up the three different threads that were evolving into
separate messages>

> > I looked around at your site and found the sample training you mentioned
> > but
> > it was an exe file.  What's in it?  Is it a program, a compressed MPG or
> > what?
>
> It is a compressed file made using Macromedia Captivate.  The program
> creates the movie and compresses it for sending over the internet.  It is
> still 20 mb, it is not a Mpeg, but a proprietary format Macromedia uses.

Proprietary format?  Hmmmmm.  Hmmmmmmmmmmm.  Does it run under Unix?  What
needs to be installed under Windows to get it to work?  Is Captivate going
to annoy me to death with upgrade reminders like some other, similar
programs did?  (Until I booted them off into deep space, that is!)

> The cool thing about Captivate it allows me to create interactive
trainings.
> I basically instruct, and the viewer has to click thru, so far the
feedback
> is everyone like the interaction with the training.

Well, here's your first NEGATIVE feedback.  If you're trying to sell me
something, make it easy for me to evaluate the quality of the product.  Put
something in a format that's not protected or proprietary.

Right now, I'm sorry to say you haven't interested me enough to want to
download and install yet another flipping program I may never use just to
evaluate your product.  It feels a little like fancy Active-X sites that
scold me for not being able to see their demos because I don't use Internet
Explorer.  Don't vendors know there are 100 other sites that  have the same
content?  I simply click on to another site that doesn't force me to comply
with their terms.

It seems to me if you created something that had your logo, business and
copyright information prominently displayed and played in a standard format
it might promote your business better.  Yes, it will be copied and passed
around, but that may not be such a bad idea for your consulting business.
Buts it's your call.

It's sad that adware and spyware have made many people reluctant to explore
new software, but that's what's happened.  By now there probably aren't many
people who *haven't* installed a shareware app like Kazaa that ending up
infesting their machine with scumware or worse.  In this day and age, when
you ask someone to run a program you're providing, you're asking them to
trust you.  I'm one of those "In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash and Must
Submit to a Strip Search" kinda guy.  :-)

--
Bobby G.