Ultimate Wasteless blogging. A Concept

As we create content, we make various accompanying materials that we then throw away.

We can prepare a presentation for a video lesson, or a mindmap for an article - and not publish them, although they would make your message more multifaceted and convincing.

I propose non-waste production of content with bringing all related materials to publication, using the example of a blog about programming.

different types of materials such as

• Images
• Mindmap
• Article
• The code
• Interface
• Slides
• Video
• Audio

may

• flow from one another
• influence each other
• complement each other harmoniously
• remain independent units

all this

• makes your job easier chain reaction, leverage
• reveals the theme from different angles, with bright colors
• fills different distribution channels meeting new consumers

If you're used to creating only one type of content and throwing everything else away as a draft, you might find it difficult to work on multiple types of content in parallel. But, with the right intention and a well-established technique, you will hardly spend extra forces.

Material – Channels

A material	Channels
Images attractive
Mindmap strategic	xMind
Article heartfelt 🔗	Medium, Dev.to, Dashboard, Habr, VC, Telegram
Code easy 🔗	Github
Interface spectacular 🔗	hostings: Github Pages, Netlify, Firebase
Presentation clear 🔗	Google Slides
Video 🔗 Screencast sequential Voice acting motivational Stand-up artistic Animation simplified Subtitles for translation	Youtube
Podcast uplifting 🔗	Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts

Article

The article helps to collect thoughts and describes the concept of the entire project.

I usually copy the beginning of the article from correspondence with friends, where I first talked about the origin of the idea. They give examples of already existing similar projects, and I explain the peculiarity of mine, proving its right to exist.

In the "Full stack web development" specialization of the Hong Kong University of Technology, which I took on Coursera 5 years ago, there was a bonus (optional) task "Project Ideation" – a high-level description of the idea:
*why is this important to you

• what similar solutions exist
• main functionality

You will find approximately the same points in the recommendations for submitting a project on Kickstarter.

All this can be described in the article without going into technical details.

In my opinion, it is better to focus on philosophical and humanitarian aspects, rather than technical ones. The choice of a development stack can be presented not as a comparison table of characteristics, but as a set of emotions, the intersection of motives and the intricacies of fate. "I chose Ionic for the app over React-Native because I made friends on twitter with people who write about HTML/CSS and with the creators of Ionic."

I don't like the step by step text description of the development process. Screencasts are 10 times more interesting, easier to digest and no more difficult to create than writing text. You just need to overcome shyness and master a couple of techniques.

The article should end with an invitation to a screencast of creating an application on Youtube and a link to the project code on Github.

The writing of the article goes in parallel with the work on the project code. At first, it serves as a plan for you, and for friends - an explanation why you are doing this (excuse). And when the code has already turned into something working and beautiful, the article is already turning into a presentation. At the very beginning, put a gif animation with key functionality and a link to Live Demo.

Next, as you create and publish different materials, place all related links in it: to a presentation, podcast, video, etc.

Interface / Code

To keep the viewer interested, you need a working app that shows what you'll be doing. Therefore, think over a beautiful interface with interesting logic in advance.

A good lesson is based on good code: easy to understand, well-structured, without gross errors.

Treat code not just as learning material, but as a software product. Set up a Github repository:

• title
• description
• picture
• instructions (for installation, launch)
• link to the working version (Live Demo)

Video

Screencast (screen recording) is done when the code has acquired a stable form, by recreating it from scratch in "ideal form". Otherwise, every time you change the code, you will have to rewrite the video.

Audio is more convenient to record after the screencast, as if commenting on your actions from the outside. Because it is difficult to write code and speak beautifully at the same time. Sometimes a phone records sound better than a computer – try it as a microphone/voice recorder. Then overlay a separate track on top of the video.

Some concepts cannot be understood without visual presentation. Make it in advance, preferably with animations.

I like to be not just a voice on a black screen, but to appear in the frame with a face and body so that people recognize me. It's called standup.

To harmoniously combine different video sequences (screencast, presentation, stand-up) - use a chrome key. Chrome key is not only a green fabric behind your back, but also any one-color background of a text editor and a presentation that you can programmatically remove and achieve a harmonious combination of different videos within one video.

Subtitles

Subtitles increase the accessibility of your video:

• Google gives out video excerpts for a search query based on the text of the subtitles
• titles appear over the preview video in silent mode, beckoning viewers
• hard of hearing (every 6th inhabitant of the planet) can watch the material more comfortably
• those who do not know your language by ear are guided by the text of the captions
• captions are easier to translate into other languages than audio

YouTube automatically creates subtitles in some languages, but then you have to correct them manually. I prefer to write the text in advance, breaking it up with a line break into logical phrases, and YouTube automatically calculates their timing.

Translation

Subtitles are needed for another important purpose - creating an audio track in another language. English is not my native language, but it is important for me to make my content available globally. Of course, I speak English, but when I speak in real time, I make mistakes. So I:

1. I record video initially in my native language (Ru),
2. make subtitles (Ru)
3. translate subtitles (En)
4. I record an audio track (En) by subtitles
5. I make a video (En) by overlaying a new audio track on an old video

Video Ru --> Captions Ru --> Subtitles En --> Audio En --> Video En

As you can see, there are 3 intermediate steps in the chain of creating an English video from the original one, and 2 of them are subtitles. So, they are really very important, from different angles.

Podcast

When you already have a ready-made application, and you have completed the article based on it, taking into account all the important aspects, you can record a podcast based on the article. It will turn out not as entertaining as an interview with interesting guests, but it will come in handy for someone. Somewhere behind the wheel they will hear that there is such a project / idea and will know where to look for details. And if you focus on philosophical and psychological points, instead of technical ones, it will be quite interesting to listen to.

Reciprocal links

Each material must contain links to all other materials. For example, an article should have a link to a video, presentation, code, mindmap, podcast, working demo. The same goes for the rest of the materials. In a podcast, you should say that there is an article, video, code, presentation, etc. on this topic.

Collection point

Site

Initially, your task is to scatter (distribute) your materials

• in different formats (video/audio/text/pictures…)
• across platforms (youtube/apple podcast/medium/pinterest)
• in different languages ​​(en/es/ru/ar/de/fr)

But it would be nice to have a collection point - a site where all these links will meet with reference to the project. It should be a content-driven platform with good search engine optimization. Next.js with built-in internationalization (i18n) is great for this.

Newsletter/Subscription

People who are interested in your work should be able to subscribe to topics of interest to them in order to always stay up to date:

• the appearance of new
• updates of old

These can be individual projects or groups of projects.

Translations

Since we have worked hard and created various interesting content, the most difficult of which is video. Why not translate it into English and make it available globally? Well, since there are already links to other materials, then they can be translated.

How to translate video through subtitles was above.

Media empire

If you find interesting topics and arrange them in the form of chains of interconnected materials according to the recommendations described above, then congratulations, you have hit the hearts of people and will soon become a media mogul!