Five Million Views on YouTube

Five Million Views on YouTube

I know I am not the first person on YouTube to get Five Million Views, however I am still proud that someone in deep East Texas could get that many views. Think about, I'm in a town with a population with about 30,000 people, not Hollywood, not New York City, I'm in Deep East Texas!

Years ago before streaming media sites like YouTube, I hosted a few short videos on my web site, www.herbertmidgley.com. Now almost no one has a web site and everyone can post videos online. Amazing how fast technology changes.

At first I used Google Video and Stupid Videos. On Stupid Videos, my song, "I'm a Nerd" got my first million views, this was my first brush with internet fame on the web. Then I heard about YouTube on a podcast, remember when podcast were popular? I tried YouTube for the first time within six months of it going live, it was fast and worked well even if I thought the name was stupid at the time. Well it is still a dumb name when you think about it, we are just used to hearing it everyday when someone has a stupid video for us to view.

Back then I believe the upload limit was 100 megs, and you could have videos as long as you wanted. So I could post hour lectures of me teaching. Sadly people were bootlegging TV shows ans movies and YouTube reduce the limit of videos down to ten minutes pretty quick. For me, since I do some long educational videos this was a downer, however most of my work was under ten minutes, so I stayed with the YouTube.


YouTube realized that there are people like me that could create all of their own content, and they started the Director Account. I applied, showed them my educational videos as well as my short films and I got a Director's Account, so now I was one of the few that could upload videos longer than ten minutes. Sadly the Director's Account is gone, I'm grandfathered in, you have to become a Partner to post videos longer than 15 minutes today.

A few years back I was challenged by a friend if I could post a video on YouTube everyday for a year, I looked at my friend and thought about it and said I could. I don't think my friend believed that anyone could do that, so about three years later I am still at it, I post a video everyday to the YouTube.

YouTube always had the notice when you uploaded a video that you had permission and own all of the copyright to every video you submitted. I took this every seriously, I guess most did not. If I didn't have 100% copyright ownership, I would not upload that video. I may not have the most videos on the web, however I bet I have the most videos that I hold 100% of the copyrights to. As of today, I have 1,761 videos on YouTube. Another one is coming later today.

So will I stop posting a videos everyday once I hit 2,000 videos? I'm not sure. It has been an interesting ride so far to see what I can do. A challenge to figure out something cool to watch with out repeating myself, which I am sure I have done.


Since I can make a short film so fast, write a song quickly too or talk about something since I'm a teacher, I can always make a video to post on the YouTube. Perhaps I should take a day off once I get over five million views and have 2,000 videos on YouTube. You can count on the Ironman of YouTube, Herbert Midgley, the Internet Legend, to always Take Out the Trash!

Here is looking towards another five million views, thank you for watching and helping me create a new art form, the Internet Video. Andy Warhol was right about the 15 minutes of fame, now it's not just the minutes of fame, on the web your fame could last as long as the there is an internet. I'm proud to be The Internet Legend!


Here are a few of my favorite videos so far:
"I Am A Robot" Music Video
How to Pump Gas
How to Make a Quarter Worth More
"I'm a Nerd" - Where Buddy Holly Recorded at
"Buddy and Herb" Documentary
"I'm a Nerd" Live at Nacstock 11-8-2008
Taking Out The Trash Part 16 - Slow Motion
Hippie Chick Girl (Music Video)
"Your Crime, My Crime" 400th Music Video
4:40 - (Avant-garde Art Film)
Wicked Cool Super Fast Bike Stop by the Internet Legend
Things That Control Us (Art Movie) Black & White Version
How to Eat an Apple
Cooking With Herb (Peanut Butter - Cereal - Kool-Aid Meal Episode)
How to Speak Klingon - Qapla' - Success
The Timetorians (Final Cut)
Prank Call
Thief