Can You Make Your Computer And Smartphone Screen Images A Profitable Digital Product?

According to the website businessofapps.com, the top result in the Google search keywords: “revenue of twitch”: Twitch made approximately US$ 2.6 billion in 2021 which is a 41% year-on-year increase.

According to Wikipedia: “Twitch is an American video live streaming service that focuses on video game live streaming, including broadcasts of esports competitions, in addition to offering music broadcasts, creative content, and "in real life" streams…”

As you can see, there is good money to be made from monetizing what digital data is showing in your computer or smartphone data. When it comes to screen data monetization all gloves are off: videogame walkthroughs, documentaries of pets in their natural habitat, street views and so on.

For example, this japanese street view walking video made over 6 million views in just a little over 1 year: Japan - Tokyo walk from day to rainy night - Higashi-Ikebukuro, Mejiro, Ikebukuro・4K HDR

Videogame play screen recordings is a very good example of how making profit from screen recordings can be so natural and easy. If your hobby is playing videogames, then all you have to do is turn on your screen recorder everytime you play your videogames.

This means that as you are relaxing by playing videogames, you are creating digital content which you can make money on. It is hard to underestimate the popularity of videogames even when not played but only viewed.

There are for example many competitions held in many countries such as Korea where the videogame contest is not only watched in big auditoriums but is even broadcasted in popular media outlets.

Your videogame play recordings would most probably get plenty of views if you are a well-known and even a champion videogame player. This is because there are videogame enthusiasts who actually study the gameplays of champion videogame players.

This is a sample of a short YouTube video titled: Granny Version 1.8 Full Gameplay. As you can see, in managed to get decent number of views even though it has just been recently uploaded.

People of course use computer to code softwares. A computer programmer besides programming for their clients can also record their computer screen images to create videos of computer programming coding using the same software code they’re creating for their clients.

A computer programmer doesn’t have to screen record their entire software programming process. They can select specific parts in their software code to screen record. A computer programmer can for example show only the printing function code of a database program.

This is because many computer programmers learn building entire software systems by stitching together the many computer programming tutorials they see online. For example, one online tutorial may teach how to add a record in a database while another how to subtract.

You can even screen record a software coding process together with its results. For example, you can show a screen recording of a videogame code and then show a screen recording of the playable videogame software afterwards.

Here is a sample of an old programming YouTube video which managed to gain 5.8 million views: Learn HTML in 12 Minutes As the title suggested: 5.8 million views for a 12 minute video, a good outcome for the video creator.

There is a reason why software installation and operating procedures how-to videos exist, this is because most computer softwares even the most well designed and well-tested ones have bugs in them.

For example, uploading app files in the Apple Store is very hard, even the best computer programmers soon find out that they need a how-to video which has been made by another computer programmer who have done the same thing before.

The reason the computer programmer made the how-to video is very obvious to them. They know that other computer programmers would experience the same installation or operating procedure errors and would need tutorials that they can provide.

Another thing to consider is that software installation and operating procedure manuals are seldom read if they even exist in the first place. This is because these manuals are usually hard to understand and contain insufficient how-to instructions.

Here is an old YouTube software installation video which gained more than 9.7 million views: How to Install Windows 10 from a USB Flash Drive. As you can see the maker of the video made money with his installation video!

Ask yourself: “Do I need help in filling up my online tax return form?” if you don’t, good for you, but for the vast majority of people, a how-to video is needed for the task. The same goes for many of the online forms found online especially those coming from the government.

There is also a high likelihood that you’ll watch the same video again of the same form being filled online. For example, you only file your personal income tax return once every year. Chance is that you would have forgotten how to fill up the form after one year has passed.

There is also the likelihood that the same online form you previously filled before has been already updated after a year or just even after a few months. You would need another how-to video just to be able to tackle the new changes in the online form.

The reason why even the most simple online forms sometimes need how-to fill videos is because the accompanying manuals in these online forms are usually not informative enough for one to be able to fill the online form correctly.

Here is an example of a YouTube video which explains how an online form should be filled: IRS Free File Online. As you can see this an online form is owned by the very people who created the video.

Besides recording your screen data as a video, you can also just record snapshots of your screen. You can then put these screen snapshots in a blog or any other website followed by any text or audio data which relates to the screenshot.

This is a very easy thing to do because nowadays, all personal computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones comes with a built-in screen capture technology. If you must know for example, in MacBook computers the command is + + <3>.

You can then save the screen snapshot into a digital file and edit it using just about any image editing software, even the one that come free with your computer. If you must know for example again, In MacBooks the built-in software is called Preview.

From time to time for example I use images that can only be found in YouTube. Sometimes I need the icon of a YouTube video or a particular snapshot of a part of the video. I simply use my keyboard key shortcuts to save the particular image in my image editing software.

Don’t forget to cite or reference the owner of the image you are capturing via screen snapshot. Just because almost everyone is using online images that belong to someone else doesn’t make it right or legal.

When I did a casual search on YouTube and on Google Search, I found that there already exists other YouTube videos and websites that lists the top free and paid screen recording softwares. These articles already eliminate the need for me to create my own list.

For example, when you Google: “free screen recording software”, Google would list out articles which contain listing of free and even paid screen recording software. If you are serious about recording your screen data I suggest you read through these articles first.

But there seems to be a brand name that frequently shows up whenever the topic is about recording screen data especially videogame screen data. The brand is named: OBS Studio which is an open source software.

If you must know: “Open-source software is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose…”

“…Open-source software may be developed in a collaborative public manner.” This definition is from Wikipedia. This means that no single company owns OBS Studio and although this makes it free, it does come with certain risks.

Videogame play and walkthrough screen recordings have proven that computer screen recording can be profitable digital products to offer to digital product consumers. The same goes for everything that a computer screen can display.

You can virtually sell any computer screen data that you can find provided that you have the license/permission to use them. Violating the copyright rights of other digital content producers can cost you a lot of money if you are unlucky.

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