Rouxbe Video Links
When Staples finally wakes up and realizes there’s a fortune to be made with a “Harder Than It Looks” button, I’m buying a couple and mailing them out to the west coast. One’s for Joe, co-founder of Rouxbe Online Cooking School, who came up with the video widget idea pictured above. The other is for Marcelo, the magician programmer who wrote the code that makes it work. As for me? For once, I’m smacking the Easy Button. My part in all this was a cinch. I just loaded up the final product.
I won’t get technical on you, but instead of drinking green beer on St. Patrick’s Day, Marcelo ended up spending a lot of time getting the magic code into a format I could upload. Let me be clear. I don’t mean a format “even I could upload.” I mean a format I, me, Charmian, this blogger here, could upload on her specific site — i.e: Christie’s Corner. Yeah, that’s right. Rouxbe wanted to test their widget before rolling it out to other affiliates. And they asked me.
Someone should have warned them. The Christie curse followed that little widget around for a few days, but Marcelo managed to wrestle it into submission. As a result, after a lot of work on their end and very little on mine, the Magic Rouxbe Video Widget is up and running. (Joe calls it the Rouxbe Cooking Skill Widget, but it’s pure magic to me.)
So, what’s this mean to you? Potentially a lot. The widget scans a recipe or food-based article on my blog and at the bottom of the post provides a series of Rouxbe instructional videos that might help you make the recipe. Just click on the ones that interest you and the video plays without leaving my site. It’s like a private, custom-tailored cooking lesson with each recipe. Why? Joe says, “Our objective for this new Rouxbe Cooking Skill Widget is to provide related cooking skill and technique support right where you need it. It simply doesn’t matter how great the recipe is. If you can’t execute it, your success will be limited.” So true.
The catch? There is no catch. If you’re already a Rouxbe member, you have unlimited access to all the videos. If you’re not, you can watch any 5 videos the widget suggests. If you find them useful, you can sign up for a free 14-day trial (Note: if you visit Rouxbe directly the free trial is only for 7 days). If you join, you can purchase monthly membership or a yearly one. Don’t care to join? Let the free trial lapse and you can still access their free content. It’s up to you. Of course, my blog is always open.
Now that Joe and Marcelo have done the hard work, I’m betting you’ll be slapping the Easy Button too. So what do you think of the video widget?