Premium Content

[all_repair]

Difficult to say, but depend on the subject, need and pricing, most likely not: too little time chasing after too many good content.  Even among the good free video, some have to be skipped, and many queueing up.

I think the demand for your power supply is quite high, and you can have different type of pricing for that, and package some with your T-shirt, etc

One other way is you can be a web-front for many embedded engineers in your forum to sell their gears, and you could take a cut for providing the reach.

[rr100]

There are a few companies that will host subscription and/or pay-per-view video, but I'm simply unsure which model I would chose if I were to go that route.

I think it's very hard to find something with the same penetration as youtube; if you write some reference book maybe you can do it with kindle store but for video I don't know. Maybe some itunes/android app?
One unusual way out of this is just donations toward a specific project. This will also cap the income and has some other problems but will solve both the piracy and the distribution issue.
Also one idea, although not completely on Dave's street (but touching what was already mentioned in this thread), would be to publish some work in such a form that can be bought by companies, like a reference book. Prices can be in triple digit range and if people like it and need it they'll find a way to make their employer pay for it.

[Bored@Work]

Also one idea, although not completely on Dave's street (but touching what was already mentioned in this thread), would be to publish some work in such a form that can be bought by companies, like a reference book. Prices can be in triple digit range and if people like it and need it they'll find a way to make their employer pay for it.

I only know of two variants that seem to occasionally work.

1) You call yourself something like The Australian Think Tank Institute for Strategic Studies, Business Analysis, Research and Consulting. Or some equally pompous name. Then you write reports, targeting managers. You give the reports titles like Opportunities and Challenges in the Global Power Supply Market Space until the Year 2020 or Business Transformation in the Light of New Sourcing.

Then you look for gullible managers, those who have no clue how they should do their job, and sell them that junk at upper four digit USD cost.

2) You give courses or lectures. And part of selling these courses is exclusive course material for the participants only, which is include in the cost of the courses. Then you ask for lower four digits USD / day + expenses. Max. 20 persons/course. Three days/course minimum, max. 5 days/course. Only first class travel, first class accommodation.

[TheBrick]

Not read the entire thread but I'll through my vote in for some in-depth tutorial / mini courses e.t.c. If any tutorial / course covers several videos it would be good to be able to buy them separately. Sometimes if a subjects has section x, y and z you may only be interested in y or already have a good grounding in the prerequisite of x. Also it allow people to taste test a tutorial series rather than but the entire series of 10.

[TheBrick]

Also as others have mentioned there is always the corprate short course route. Like Scott Meyers, he started of teaching C++ before the book(s).

[ondreji]

some estimates: http://socialblade.com/youtube/user/EEVblog/

10 million views in another 150 days, can't wait!
BTW, I can tell you that that their upper estimate is way over-estimated.

You have made it! On 4 February 2013 which was in another 135 days only

[cthree]

Dave was asking on Twitter whether people would pay for premium content.  Initially I thought I would be then I thought about it and realised I would probably never bother as there are lots of free, easy things to entertain me for a few minutes without having to log in and pay...  Also a two tier channel my go against what appeals to people about the blog.  I like the presenter's honesty and the blog being presented as things happen.  To keep some content away from me, a viewer, would almost feel exclusive.

So by my having taken this "free information" route, you are saying that I am now forever locked in to having to give away every piece of video content I ever create? And am doomed to having to make a living from other spin-off aspects?

What is the difference between say me writing a book and selling it, or producing say a DVD tutorial series and selling that?

BTW, I'm not really talking about a "premium content" or "two tier" subscription only channel etc. I'm talking about occasional one-off extra in-depth videos that I would never do otherwise on the blog. I'd be spending extra time and effort on this over and above my usual blog content, something I would not normally do unless there was a financial return in it for me. This is time I'd ordinarily spend enjoying life and my family, and I'd be a fool to do this extra work and simply give it away. Just like I would spend a year writing a book and giving that away. Or designing and making kits and selling them at cost.
What if I decided to spend 6 months compiling a 20 part in-depth PCB design or some other video tutorial, over and above my regular blog content. I'm expected to just give that away?

Dave.

I would pay for premium content above and beyond what is normally posted on the blog. This I think is my first post here but I happen to know a thing or two about forums since I owned and ran one as my full time job for almost 10 years. I had a membership/loyalty program which offered "member status" ie. nothing tangible, for $20US a year. For $50/year you got Gold Status, ie. also nothing but a gold star. Let me just say that my PayPal account was never empty for long, I made over $50K a year with that program alone, pure cashflow porn. It was strictly voluntary but people paid anyway and were happy to do so. Ran it for years and the only complaints I got were when people had trouble paying with PayPal. Word of advice, maybe offer a one-time, limited time "gift" for early signups but dont attempt anything recurring like a membership card or package. It's a waste of time and money. People want flare. Give them that and they will be very happy.

I lied just now, membership allowed posting classified ads free of charge which was very popular. I would think that you could run a classifieds system on this site as well no problem, test gear, parts, you name it. I'm always on ebay buying stuff, I could be on eevblog instead. Because it was member posting only, fraud didn't exist.

Anyway, offer something simple and people will support you, I will. Just don't try to get fancy. I'll point you to my (former) forum out of band if you like.

Your videos allow me to learn a digestible chunk of knowledge which I can turn around and immediately use in my designs. It saves me weeks of frustrating hair pulling and thousands of dollars in engineering consultation fees. I've been able to whack together a whole bunch of snazzy wireless home automation gadget prototypes, learn schematic and pcb design and equip my home lab from essentially nothing in only a couple of months. I've already designed 2 products which I hope to get funding to complete and mass manufacture and I just finished the PCB layout of a functional prototype of a 3rd.

All the engineers in your group probably don't derive the same benefits that beginner hackers like I do. You feed my brain and it gives me ideas and makes me come up with cool things I want to build and sell and I can't believe people get paid to do this for a living, so how much is that worth?

Give me a drop dead easy and impulsive (very important) way to contribute and I will without hesitation. See above. The number one rule of making money online (from my experience) is don't get in the way of people giving you money.

Keep up the great work and more building block tutorials please. There are no bite-sized electronics tutorials sites out there like there are for software. I'd pay an annual subscription for access to a library of tutorial videos.