Catching Up...

Missed a daily blog post yesterday :-(

Perhaps I shouldn't have mentioned it and you may not have noticed.

Busy, busy month last month with the ScreenCastsOnline new members promotion that finished on the 30th November. The promotion generated a ton of interest and I'm happy to say, a ton of new members. With that success though comes additional pressures of administering a significant number of members.

The backend tool (aMember) coped admirably as well as the PayPal and eSellerate integration. With Barbara now taking on the bulk of the administration tasks iro the members it's a big help, but invariably, there are always some "funnies" that need to be worked through.

We could not cope without Mail Act-On for keyboard filing of emails, MailTags for email organisation, IMAP for sharing an email account,  and the grand daddy of email productivity - TextExpander! We'd be dead in the water without these amazing tools.

Spent most of yesterday sorting out and setting up a new system for ScreenCastsOnline members to "Gift" a membership to friends. colleagues of family, at a 50% discount. On the face of it a fairly trivial task....

• Setup a special landing page on the Extra Members website
• Install the latest PayLoom plugin in Rapidweaver
• Configure the "Product" in PayLoom
• Test
• Setup an alternate payment method/product in eSellerate
• Add to Extra Members webstore in eSellerate
• Create eSellerate instructions page
• Create multiple purchase link and instructions page
• Test
• Upload changes to the website
• Test
• Create new URL to divert to new store page
• Create and edit introduction video clip
• Generate 4 resolutions for members feeds 
• Upload via FTP
• Update test members feeds
• Download and test
• Update live members feeds

Just realised, I didn't send out an update via the ScreenCastsOnline newsletter - must do that after this blog post.

I'll include a link to the video clip to see how it turned out, although if you're not a member, you won't be able to access the URL as mentioned in the clip. If you can and you're not a member, please let me know!

All unplanned and unscheduled, so instead of recording two shows this week I've only left myself with time for only one.

All good fun though!

YTC005 - Cyber Monday

Breaking My Own Rules...

One of the problems with Twitter is that it's a very transient data stream. By that I mean that unless you're logged in and monitoring the stream, things can pass you by very easily. Add in the fact that it's real time and global...

I've established that most of my Twitter followers like the fact that I publish links to the content I produce. I think it's fair to say also, that a lot of people are starting to become more reliant on Twitter instead of RSS feeds, I know I am.

The problem is that if I post a link now, here in the UK (like I just did re my Pixelmator clips on YouTube a short while ago) it gets seen by my UK peeps (logged on to Twitter anyway) but for other timezones it's not really a time when parts of the world are likely to be monitoring twitter i.e.

Los Angeles - 5:00AM, Saturday
Milwaukee - 7:00AM, Saturday
New York - 8:00AM, Saturday
London - 1:00PM, Saturday
Perth - 9:00PM, Saturday
Hobart - 12:00AM, Sunday

The last two were for Jane and Rose :-)

OK, so my content isn't of any major importance or significance, but I'd still like to make sure that my twitter followers,  who might be interested in this stuff, at least get a chance to receive the link at a reasonable time when they might actually be able to use it!

So I've decided to go against one of my original Twitter rules and use an automated Tweet!!!

Shock horror!!!

Ok, so there are no Twitter rules but I don't like the abuse of automated tweets. You know, like when someone fills up a tool with various random statement or links that you just know they are not actually sending out live. I absolutely hate that!

What I'm proposing is just to duplicate the very few tweets I send out with links to my own stuff, at times when people in other timezones might actually receive them in real time, and have a chance to catch the links.

Reasonable?

In order to prevent too much irritation, I'll send them out with the hashtag #sco_repost that way, you can filter them out if necessary.

How would this work then?

Well, if I send out a reposted tweet at 7pm UK time, most of the UK peeps who monitor Twitter during the day will miss it but the US peeps will see it in their Twitter stream at:

Los Angeles - 11:00AM
Milwaukee - 1:00PM
New York - 2:00PM
London - 7:00PM

Then if I resend it at 3:00am UK time, the UK and US peeps will miss it but Jane and Rose (OK, and anyone else in Aus) will receive them at:

London - 3:00AM, Sunday
Perth - 11:00AM, Sunday
Hobart - 2:00PM, Sunday

As I said, this will only be for Tweets with links in to my stuff and they will be tagged with #sco_repost.

If it hasn't got #sco_repost, it's a live tweet and it's me sending it in real time - honest!

Works for you?

:-)

YTVC004 - Snow Leopard Server

Another of my video comments, this time, a few words about this weeks show.

As an experiment, I uploaded this in 1080p to see how YouTube handled it. The muppet clip I mention in the clip, has a selectable streaming resolution of either 720p or 1080p although this clip doesn't? Perhaps it takes them a bit long to process the 1080p version?

To see the higher quality version of the file, you need to click through to YouTube by clicking on the YouTube symbol - bottom right.

Boo Hoo...

Well my masterplan to become a YouTube partner didn't quite work out as planned. 

As you may be aware, I've started up a new-fangled YouTube ScreenCastsOnline channel  which is going fantastically well and I've received some great feedback. I'm posting some video comments and various miniclips in several playlists, all in glorious HD.

The plan was to try and get up to 600+ subscribers and then register my interest in becoming a YouTube partner. That brings along with it a slew of new tools and features that would allow me to post some longer videos, customise my YouTube page and allow me to select any frame for the videos to act as a thumbnail.

The guidance for the YouTube Partner acceptance is a bit vague:

 Applications are reviewed for a variety of criteria, including but not limited to the size of your audience, country of residence, quality of content, and consistency with our Community Guidelines and Terms of Use.

But I'd heard that 600 - 1000 subscribers is a good benchmark.

Well, thanks to the support of my ScreenCastsOnline viewers and Twitter followers, I'd reached 700+ in just a few short weeks.

Throwing caution to the wind, I thought I'd chance my hand and apply.

The process involves and automated review of your channel, but that didn't look hopeful as it came back with a negative comment. Regardless, you can still apply so I thought I'd press on and completed the application.

A couple of days later, the judgement was passed:

Thank you for your interest in the YouTube Partner Program. Our goal is to extend invitations to as many partners as we can. Unfortunately we are unable to accept your application at this time. The current level of viewership of your account has not met our threshold for acceptance.

D'oh!

Ah well, I'll just have to continue posting content to YouTube and try and push up the views of the videos. 

I'm really not too disheartened to be honest, it's early days as far as YouTube is concerned and I'll press on. The unfortunate thing is I can't re-apply for Partner status another two months so you'll just have to put up with the thumbnails of me in random poses and facial expressions for a little bit longer. You only get a choice of 3 frames from the video as a non-partner, so it's a bit hit and miss!