So, what is all this about?
Well, I have been publishing blogs and videos online for more years than I care to remember. In fact, I had a blog before there were blogs and I had videos online before YouTube came on the scene.
My blogs have been on a range of subjects including, pubs, skiing, travel, science, tech, programming, teaching... plus some I have no doubt forgotten.
I have also produced a lot of science videos, mainly on what I call 'science maths' - moles, molarity, dilutions, etc. - that explain to students how to do certain calculations in the lab.
I have written a number of ebooks (on 'science maths'), online courses (you guessed it, more 'science maths') and websites, and I have written programs for Macs, iPhones and iPads.
My most recent venture has been to produce a fairly comprehensive website that allows science students to test their understanding of 'science maths' - see Maths4Biosciences. The website not only allows the students to test their science maths but also gives them a lot of feedback that explains how the calculations can be done.
All this work has been supported by donations - 'shareware' (remember that term?) for the software and advertising and donations for the websites and the ebooks. And the online courses have not made much money as students are not 'cash rich' and don't tend to have much disposable income for online courses.
Some of my videos on YouTube have had 1000s of views, but as my 'speciality' is fairly niche it is not something to which people tend to subscribe - entertainment channels on YouTube, yes, channels on 'science maths', not so much. So I have never met the YouTube threshold for 'monetisation' - the YouTube Partner Programme - and so no income.
Well, then I can across 'Buy me a coffee' and so I thought I would give it a go and over the last few days, I have been busy adding links on my YouTube Channel and on my science maths website.
So, let's see what happens....
Thanks for taking the time to read this!