WordPress.tv is Branching Out Into Beginner Tutorial Videos

WordPress.tv is expanding its video catalog beyond WordCamp session recordings. As most of the video content on the site centers around topics for developers and established users, the WPTV team is now actively soliciting submissions for more beginner video tutorials.

Are you a proud member of the WordPress community, who creates (or would like to create) videos that are focused on helping others learn how to use WordPress? If you answered “yes” then we would love your help in submitting your videos to WordPress.tv, so we can share them with the world in our “how to” section.

The current “how-to” category on the site contains mostly outdated videos, featuring ancient versions of WordPress. The WPTV team is hoping to add more “getting started” content that covers basic WordPress site management, including the following:

How to configure widgets

Setting up a custom menu

Managing comments

How to insert an image gallery

The initiative to add more beginner content is not new but failed to gain traction in previous attempts.

“Uptake was slow, so we thought it would be a good idea to give it a go again, and put a bit more structure to it,” WPTV contributor Jerry Bates said.

One guideline in particular that was a sticking point the last time the group solicited tutorials was the requirement of no self-promotion or logos in the videos. Contributors have to submit their work for sheer love of the community, which makes it more difficult to gather submissions.

While we want you to be able to benefit from your work, WordPress.tv is a non-commercial community-run website; we can’t accept videos with watermarks, logos, or self-promotion of any kind. We do have a place for you to enter your WordPress.org profile name as a producer credit, so you will get noticed!

So far, the WPTV team has not received many submissions, but the demand for beginner content is there. According to Bates, some of the most viewed videos are consistently the beginner tutorials, despite the fact that they are outdated.

“This is a popular video type on YouTube and in for-pay training courses, but I think the greatest need is for foundation-level videos,” Bates said. “Anything that would help a new user on day one, week one, etc.”

“We need more short and to-the-point tutorials,” WPTV crew member Michael Wiginton said. “Most will not want to watch a 45 minute video when trying to find an answer.”

The team is also experimenting with a plugin that would bring these tutorial videos into the WordPress dashboard, but the first step is to build a library of suitable beginner content.

WordCamp recordings provide a never-ending funnel of content down to WordPress.tv, but only a small slice of these videos are useful for beginners. If WordPress is going to continue to grow its marketshare, the project cannot depend on only providing developer-oriented videos and education. A strong beginner tutorials section on WordPress.tv is a worthy project that will help support new users.

The WPTV crew is a small team, averaging just 5-6 active volunteers. Creating and moderating videos is one unique way to contribute to the WordPress project that doesn’t require writing code. If you’re interested to submit some beginner tutorials, check out the suggestions and guidelines on the WPTV blog.