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Neal Shyam

StoryScroll — turn blog posts into scrolling videos for Instagram Stories

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StoryScroll turns webpages & blog posts into auto-scrolling videos perfectly sized for Instagram Stories, Posts, and other social media!
1. Input a URL
2. Click the Make Videos button
3. Post your videos!
Replies
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Amrit Sharma
Love this idea. Nice work, @nealrs. Thoughts: 1) I understand the desire to have recurring revenue, but do you also have the option for a one-time-payment for a lifetime license? 2) Will a license key work on only one laptop? I have two primary devices that I use for work and I'm hoping I don't need two subscriptions. 3) Have you considered adding an option to add music to the videos? I'm curious to hear your thoughts around not including it or whether it's next on your roadmap. 4) I'm curious to see whether your face on every free video will be a dealbreaker for most users and deter from uploading videos created for free. I'd have been happy with a logo or something. And that text next to the face is distracting. Remove or clean it up a bit? That's all. All the best!
Neal Shyam
@amrit_sharma Thanks for your feedback Amrit! 1. Not right now. SS is currently built as a freemium subscription product. I might consider other options in the future. 2. Nope. Your license key will work on multiple devices :) 3. I did consider adding procedurally generated music or a "bring your own soundtrack" option, but decided against it. I really dislike unexpected audio on the web and in apps. 4. Haha, I'll admit the icon / water mark could be better. My illustration skills are limited. Perhaps I'll change it and add some more translucency in the next update.
Amrit Sharma
@nealrs Thanks for the reply, Neal. Some more questions: 1. With the Premium Pass, can I put a logo and/or text where your face is currently? 2. My use case involves creating videos from multiple URLs and every so often, without necessarily posting them anywhere. Is there a way to automate Story Scroll? API? 3. How many paid users do you have currently? (if you'd like to share) 4. What's your product roadmap looking like? 5. Can you upload a video to this PH page with a demo of what a video built with the Premium option looks like? I don't know what the CTA Intro, CTA Text and CTA Preview look like in a video. Great work. Thanks!
Neal Shyam
@amrit_sharma Amrit, 1. No, the watermark (my face) sits in a fixed location & only appears in free videos. However, the Premium Pass CTA appears at the end of your video and is fully configurable -- it's just HTML. 2. There's no API and it's not really on my roadmap right now. But I haven't ruled it out entirely. The app saves videos to your desktop, so there's nothing preventing you from doing them in bulk / earlier. My personal workflow is to write a blog post, StoryScroll it, airdrop the videos to my phone, and then post them later when the spirit moves me. 3. I've made some sales :) 4. Better documentation, faster encoding, and smaller file sizes. Basically, ease of use & stability. 5. There are several links on the main page to finished videos with a CTA under the "How it Works" header: - Here's a square post on IG (3rd video has the CTA) => https://www.instagram.com/p/BzPG... - Full-length square video (the third type of video SS creates) that I posted on LinkedIn => https://www.linkedin.com/feed/up... - My Career Advice Story Highlight on IG => https://www.instagram.com/storie...
Neal Shyam
BTW, the first 20 people to use this discount code will get 50% off a monthly Premium Pass => https://gumroad.com/l/nealrs/5k7...
Derek Shanahan
@nealrs How's one get support? Not working on a wordpress blog - I've tried every relevant selector and it's just grabbing the title of the post.
Neal Shyam
@dshan Hey Derek - email me nealrs@gmail.com w/ the config (url, selectors, etc.) and I'll take a look.
Neal Shyam
You can't post links on Instagram unless you're verified or have a business profile with over 10,000 followers. And even then, every link is a road block on the way to conversion. Writers, bloggers, and content marketers are at a disadvantage on social media, because these platforms prioritize video and advertisements. StoryScroll turns your long form content into auto-scrolling videos. No clicks, no distracting sound, no friction. Just a clean, lean-back, and engaging experience. Your videos will look great on Instagram Stories, as posts, and on any social media that supports video. YES, IT'S FREE - Download the app and make unlimited awesome videos all day, every day. I'd love to get your feedback & make StoryScroll the best it can be. P.S. Infinite scroll is very hard to deal with & you'll need to install Chrome if you haven't already. (This is mainly to keep filesize down) P. P.S. If you like StoryScroll, you might also dig my newsletter of actionable & non-patronizing career advice for software developers => http://nealshyam.com/advice
Neal Shyam
Hey party people, I just released a WINDOWS BETA @ https://neal.rs/app -- it's experimental AF (just like the new adblocker feature) but I hope you try it out and send me your feedback!! cc @fabrizzio_moral
John Cooper
I get black screen and error messages on my ig stories tried multiple times and no go :( sounds like a rad thing if it worked out of the box
Neal Shyam
@john_cooper2 Hi John, IG Stories is a little fussy sometimes with multi-part uploads. I'd suggest posting each clip individually, so IG splits it into 15s chunks automatically. And if you give it a minute & then tap back to the story and click retry, it will upload. I've also heard that switching accounts helps (if you have 2) Traditional, square IG posts should go up no problem. Thanks for trying the app!!
John Cooper
@nealrs Also noticed it runs SUPER slow on older macs. I have a 2011 macbook pro and its about 10 minutes in and its still chugging away. New mbp at work is pretty quick. Plans to optimize? Just bought the premium and bumming on the lagtime.
Neal Shyam
@john_cooper2 John, yeah - the app uses ffmpeg under the hood, so it'll definitely spin your fans a bit. I'll look into the ffmpeg docs more and see what I can do to bring down file size & run time. Thanks for putting this on my radar! That said, 10+ minutes seems like a long time, email me the link / params you're using and I'll take a look.
Dan Dan
Isn't the whole point of Instagram to keep things short?
Neal Shyam
@tostartafire I think it depends. I follow brands / people that post a TON of stuff to their stories, including long videos. I probably wouldn't post a 5000 word NYT feature via StoryScroll, but my latest blog post? Definitely.
Lachlan Kirkwood
Great tool for creating more engaging content! Looking forward to using it đź‘Ť
Neal Shyam
Alan Long
This is exactly what I've been looking for to create smooth scrolling videos - but the Mac App is showing an alerts: "StoryScroll" can’t be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software.
Fabrizzio Moral
Nice job!!! Have you thought on releasing a windows version?
Neal Shyam
@fabrizzio_moral yes! I need to find a windows machine or setup a VM.
Rachel Crocker
This is so awesome!
Neal Shyam
@rtc123 Thanks Rachel!