The Dangers of Free Video Hosting

I’ve long warned people about the risks involved with relying…exclusively…on free services to host your web videos.  By free services, I mean video sharing and syndication sites.

The reason there is so much risk is because these services rely on advertising to pay their bills.  And to date, very few (if any) of these sites have figured out a way to turn a profit from this business model.

For you, that means at any time, these services may run out of money and close their doors…leaving you scrambling to find another host for your videos.

Well, I didn’t follow my own advice.

You see, last Friday night, I received an email from Podango.com.  Podango is a free podcasting service that I use to host my video podcasts.  And the email said…basically…that they were closing their doors on January 1st due to financial reasons and I needed to make arrangements to get my videos hosted elsewhere (if you’re keeping score, that’s exactly 5 days warning).

Why did this happen?  I have no idea.  Maybe their investors pulled the plug, maybe it was poor management, maybe it was something else entirely…maybe it was all of the above or none of the above.

Whatever the reason, I spent my weekend executing Plan B.  Except I really didn’t have a Plan B.  But what I did know was that I didn’t want another surprise like this again.  So I decided to simply self-host my video podcast.

For me, doing this is really no big deal.  But for most people, it would be a nightmare; video podcasts are a little more complex than regular web video…there are XML feeds and formats and distribution you need to worry about (thus the allure of free podcasting services who do all of this for you).

Anyway, my lesson has been learned.  My “re-configured” video podcast is up and running fine.  You can see it here: http://webvideouniversity.com/podcast/ (most regular viewers won’t notice much of a difference).

And…I hope you learned something from my mistake.  I hope you’ve learned what I’ve always said (but didn’t follow myself); that there is risk and danger in relying on free video hosting.

It can also lead to a lot of headaches and ruined weekend too 🙂