UPDATE: as of 8/29/20, I decided NOT to do this. Read more.

Howdy folks. Just some site news for ya. I've decided over the coming months to move my videos all over to YouTube and use them as a server and storage platform. I've had tons of videos online on YouTube since 2006, and they are a very reliable, dependable, and quality platform.

I'm currently hosting my web site on GoDaddy, but they don't allow you to host videos or large ZIP files on their site. I got yelled at this before when I didn't know their rules. So I've been paying for additional space on Amazon (AWS) to host files and videos, and of course, this ain't cheap. My storage and bandwith costs have gone way up since I decided to start recording in HD, and I've got lots more video coming down the pipe. YouTube storage is free. So, that's another reason I decided to make the move.

Another reason is that YouTube automatically provides closed captions for videos that I upload. So my students that are hearing impaired can get that service for free too, and I don't have to do any additional work.

So over the coming months, I'm going to be slowly uploading my videos to YouTube instead of my old server at AWS.

Nothing will change on my end as far as your customer accounts, billing, and all that go. I'm NOT moving everything over to YouTube memberships. Learning Connection, MYOLP, and my Order System will all still remain exactly the same. You will still purchase videos from me, not YouTube. The videos will still all be displayed here on my site. You won't have to go over to YouTube's web site. It's only that YouTube will be the back-end server that stores and serves them using private links for my paid videos. In fact, I've been posting my TechHelp and Tips videos on YouTube and linking them here for the past few years. Works well. You can see one of them HERE. That's what the new classes will look like. 

I am depreciating the old Theater though. So as I upload courses to YouTube, they will be slowly removed from the Theater. You'll have to watch them using the new format that I introduced with Access Developer 14, which I think is far superior to the old Theater.

One drawback is that I will no longer be offering downloads. You will have to watch all of my courses online. It's a major pain in my behind to prepare ZIP files, and it's a lot of additional storage on the server, plus bandwidth to download them. As far as I can tell, only a couple of you actually still download the lesson ZIP files anyways. For those of you who want to be able to watch the classes offline (like if you're going on a plane trip) the YouTube Android App has a feature that lets you download videos for offline viewing. I use it all the time. Not sure about the Apple app (Alex?). I know there are third party YouTube "downloader" apps for PC, but I have never used any of them.

As far as YouTube memberships go, the only think I'm using them for right now is my TechHelp Extended Cut videos. They're longer help videos that I've been posting that go into more detail with the day's questions. I've been kind of using it as a video podcast, and I've been having a lot of fun with them. I'd like to make more of these. Silver Membership to my channel is currently only $5.99 per month (less than a cup of coffee) and you get access to ALL of the TechHelp Extended Cut videos. Right now there are only nine of them, but there's almost 4 hours of video total. I tend to rant a little, but I cover a lot of good stuff. My goal is to add a new one every day or two. The more members I get there, the more time I'll spend on them. I just started this 2 weeks ago and I'm up to 13 members. You're welcome to join in the fun. You can join my YouTube channel here. 

OK, that's it. I welcome your comments and suggestions, as always. I don't think this is going to impact many people negatively - and it's a BIG positive for me. Lower costs, ease of use (it's SO much easier to upload stuff to YouTube than to set it up on my server), and of course the captioning.

What do you think?