Someone made a comment on one of my YouTube videos a day or two ago, but I was travelling and figured I'd respond when I got home. However that person seems to have deleted their comment because I can't find it now. It had to do with the fact that I don't give ALL of my videos to people who pay to become Silver/Gold members. I should "be more like Netflix" and charge one low monthly rate for everything instead of trying to "upsell" more videos.

Some other people have also commented on how I have any paid videos in the first place. Why don't I just make everything free? Well, allow me to address this item first. If I made all of my videos free, then I wouldn't be able to pay my bills. I would then have to go get a regular job, or go back to database consulting, which I don't really want to do. I like making videos. I enjoy it. But if I had a real job, then I wouldn't have any time to make free videos at all, and you'd get nothing. So, the paid videos and the memberships allow me to earn a living, which then allows me to make free videos for all of you to enjoy. 

Now, I've been doing this for almost 20 years. This September, in fact, will be 20 years since I registered my domain name 599cd.com. I have 20 years worth of videos, thousands upon thousands of hours of lessons. I'm not simply just going to give them all away for free, or make them available for a $5.99/month membership. It wouldn't bring in anywhere near what I'd need to make to live. Sure, I get a tiny amount of money from ads that YouTube plays on my videos, but it's a fraction of my living expenses. My channel doesn't get millions of viewers like celebrities or stupid cat videos do. Let's be honest, Microsoft Access (which is 95% of my material) is a very small, niche market. I love it, and I will continue to make mostly Access videos, but I have to charge enough from my paid videos to support myself and my family.

My business model is simple: I make as many free videos as I can. From those, I attract a small number of people willing to become members to get Extended Cut videos, or buy some of my paid lessons. I have a lot of other advanced Developer lessons, Seminars, and more, on my website. A smaller set of people even yet will buy those. That's how I pay my bills. I can't simply "be like Netflix" and charge $9.99 a month for everything. The pool of Access users just isn't that big. 

I'm almost up to 200,000 (free) subscribers to my YouTube channel. I just hit 700 paid members (the vast majority of which are Silver, the lowest tier). If you're doing the math, that's about 1/3rd of 1%, so a small number indeed. A small percentage of those people buy more advanced lessons. I can't give away the store to everyone for what I charge Silver members. I do have a "get everything for one monthly price" plan available on my web site. It's called my "Developer Plus!" membership, and it's $2,999 / year. With the vast library of lessons I have available on my website, I fell like the cost is more than justified. MYOLP

I try to put as much value as I can into the free videos I have on my YouTube channel. You can learn a LOT about Access with just the free videos. From there, members get access to the Extended Cut videos where I go into a lot more depth, VBA programming, and related topics. From there, if you want to learn even more, I've got additional lessons and seminars available on my web site. While I am thankful to every one of my members for allowing me the opportunity to do what I love doing, if you feel like your $5.99 / month Silver membership isn't worth that, then please BY ALL MEANS cancel your membership. 

I'm here because I love Microsoft Access, and I love helping people. But, I also have to make a living. I have to charge enough to make it worth my time. If money were no object, and we lived in the futuristic society of Star Trek, then I wouldn't have to charge anything, and I could just do this because I enjoyed it (and I would). Sadly, that's not the case. You have to earn a living too, right? What do you do? Oh, you're a plumber? Sweet. Are you going to come over to my house and unclog my toilet when it jams up FOR FREE? I didn't think so.

So I hope this helps to explain to everyone WHY I charge what I do. If you're here for the free videos only, great. I hope you enjoy them. If you want a little more learnin' then become a Silver member and you'll get the Extended Cut videos (and there are a LOT of them now - over 200 - so that's plenty of stuff to watch). If you want to go beyond that, I've got lots of other classes, seminars, templates, and fun stuff on my web site for an additional cost. And yes, I will use the free videos to promote the Extended Cuts, and those will promote other lessons. Shameless self-promotion? Yep. Sorry. Not sorry.

If you feel like you're getting your money's worth from your membership, AWESOME. I'm thankful for you, and I'm grateful for the opportunity you give me to do what I love for a living. If you don't feel like you're getting your money's worth - and the videos I post aren't worth at least the cost of a cup of coffee once a month - then please cancel your membership today. I don't want anyone here to doesn't love my stuff. 

Thanks for reading. Thanks for watching my videos. Thanks for your continued support.

Richard

P.S. I seem to have caught a little cold on my trip, so no new videos today. Sorry. We'll see how I feel tomorrow.

P.P.S. I lied. Feeling a little better. Pushed thru and recorded a video. Love you guys!