Note the site is powered by VHX.tv so I think they might have beat you to the punch here.

If memory serves me well that team is ex-Boxee.

It seems like youtube or vimeo is missing a really big opportunity here.

Why should a comedian have to submit to a behemoth like writers do? To get on iPad or Kindle or Nook, you have to go through their stores and risk rejection or wind up giving them 30% (a fee I do not think is in any way justified just for hosting; they damn well can't market anything, just provide one listing out of jillions).

I say more power to the comedians. Submit to no one, share with no one. I wish writers could do the same.

Writers can do that.

There's no requirement for a writer to submit content to Apple (iTunes store) or Amazon (Kindle store). A writer can format documents in .mobi, .epub and .pdf files and sell them through any digital storefront (either home brewed or something like leanpub among many others)

If a writer wants the exposure from being on the Kindle Store or iTunes Store, that's another matter. But there's no requirement that a writer sign up for such a distributor.

>>>There's no requirement for a writer to submit content to Apple (iTunes store) or Amazon (Kindle store).

Maybe I wasn't clear. Sure, any writer can set up a site, but then you cannot give buyers the convenience they expect with automagic downloads to a Kindle, Nook, or Kobo device. (I exclude iPad. Apple made competing eBook apps download via browser. Which is not something eInk devices can do.)

That automagical download and convenience you're talking about is one of the things you pay that 30% for. It's your call whether you want to go through that channel or not - no one's forcing you.

>>>That automagical download and convenience you're talking about is one of the things you pay that 30% for.

Ah, thank you, sincerely. I hadn't considered that.

If you set your video to unlisted on youtube (only those with links can see it), then setup a paypal/google wallet account that automatically mails the link when someone pays you. Then all you'll be paying for is the paypal/google wallet fee.

Wouldn't have a sexy landing page. But would also save ~ $200k (how much Loius CK said he payed for his website).

Louis CK spent $30,000 on the website. $200,000 was the total for production + the website.

He explains this here: https://buy.louisck.net/news

But once that link is online, anyone can reach to it. Even the people who didn't pay for it. Correct me if I'm wrong. They need a link generator for every payment. Or have the video show up in my not yet developed "Paid Videos" section on my youtube profile.

I would need to share my link with someone else. Just like I can share the non DRM video I downloaded from Loius CK. The whole concept is that people will rather pay for it even if they can get it for free, if they think it's worth it. And it has been working so far.

So you shoulnd't need to create artificial blocks to try to stop people from pirating. I mean, look at the humble bundle, you can just click that you don't want to pay for and download the games. But people pay anyway and they make millions off it. So why would you create artificial blocks that pisses people off?

http://www.humblebundle.com/

This is explicitly against YouTube's terms of service.

For the same reasons independent developers publish their apps on the iTunes and Play stores.

And I agree, Youtube is missing big opportunities with this sort of stuff.

The odds of being rejected from Amazon's Kindle store are fairly slim. Your writing can be pretty bad; the important thing is that it's not someone else's material.

You have not paid attention to what Amazon has done. There was one furious weekend a year or so ago involving books with homosexuality in them. And Amazon recently delisted a bunch of books for content it didn't like in the Romance genre. Amazon does have a mention of "content guidelines" in their submission TOS. But good luck getting anything specific about what those "guidelines" are.

Actually, I have a business that helps people format and convert their books for Amazon, LiberWriter.com.

And, while a lot of people write pretty good books, there is also material that is ... uh... not so great. And it gets in without problems.

So, yes, Amazon certainly has the power to keep books out, but so far really hasn't utilized it nearly as much as they could.

I always thought this would be a perfect fit for https://gumroad.com/ .

That's the one people linked to before. But it forces you to pay by typing in your credit card, which has too much friction and most people will avoid. So it's not a good solution.