FreeColorado.com (originally co-freedom.com) was founded near the end of the 20th Century, before the term “blog” was even coined. (I just switched the page over to a blog format last year; before that I hand-coded everything with help from my “HTML For Dummies” book.)
I figured it was time to join the 21st Century.
I now have a FaceBook page for “Free Colorado.” So now there are two ways to track what’s going on here (in addition to just checking the web page regularly): you can join the e-mail list (run through MailChimp — see the link at right), or you can join the FaceBook group. (You can join both, though I plan to send basically the same material through both channels.)
Until this week, I’d uploaded all my photos and audio files straight to my server. The problem is that my server limits my disk space as well as my bandwidth. So I’ve been checking out alternative ways to host the bigger files.
I decided to set up a Flickr account for photos. I figured that this Yahoo-owned service would stick around.
Any audio recording under ten minutes can be turned into a YouTube video with stills: earlier in the week I posted four interviews this way.
I still don’t have a good option for longer, straight mp3 files. Perhaps iTunes could handle them. I discovered VuloMedia.com, but a friend suggested that these small hosters might not stick around.
I contacted Jason Steele of SecretAgentBob.com about VuloMedia, and here’s what he had to say:
Hey Ari,
I currently have no plans to earn money with VuloMedia. It doesn’t cost much to host the site, and in order to make any sort of decent revenue I would have to add so many advertisements that the usability of the service would take a hit. Which is what made me launch the site in the first place – the file hosts I had been using became frustrating to deal with. I consider it a public service of sorts.
The site has been running for about three years now, and I plan on keeping it running as long as I can, hopefully for many many years to come.
As for your final question, yes, you retain full ownership of everything you upload.
– Jason
I did host one audio file through Vulo, though I left a copy with my server, too. Vulo, at least, is very easy to use and scores big points for elegance.
The rapid advances of computers and the internet are revolutionizing the ways that we record and share information. It has been deeply exciting to see the progress from my 300 baud modem connected to the kitchen phone jack by strings of wire running through the hall to my modern setup.
Perhaps this dinosaur can learn to sprout a few feathers.