Over a decade ago I left the corporate world to join another company and start teaching developers about SharePoint.
A year after that I left the world of full-time employment to be a contract instructor doing the same thing: teaching developers.
Then two years later I joined up with a good friend and co-founded a SharePoint training company, that I co-owned & co-operated from 2009-2013.
I continued to teach as a contract instructor but also published on-demand video courses through a popular training platform.
Notice a trend? I did…
I realized two things about myself over the last decade:
- I have a passion for learning new things
- I have a passion for helping others learn new things
After exploring various opportunities over the last few years, I came to the conclusion that I want to focus primarily on my passion: technical training. I enjoy the process of learning, building training materials, presenting / recording and producing courses. That’s what I enjoy, have a knack for & should focus on.
Introducing Voitanos - OnDemand Video Technical Training
Today I am launching a new site, voitanos.io, where I will self-host my on-demand video training courses to bring them direct to you. These courses will contain videos, code samples, downloads, text-based steps and other resources that you can level up your skillset to get the job done faster, better and easier. By self-hosting my courses and bringing them directly to you, I can get closer to students who subscribe to the courses finding out what their experiences are like and constantly work to improve my courses.
Take a look at the video on the Voitanos site and listen to me explain why I’m doing this and what Voitanos is all about.
You might ask yourself "But didn’t you publish courses in other platforms / catalogs?".
Yes, you are correct I did. You can learn a little more about my thinking from an interview I did on a podcast last year: Startups for the Rest of Us - Episode 236: Making a Full-Time Income with Online Training. I explain the thought process in publishing through someone else vs. doing it yourself. Well… I’m doing it myself so you can see where my mind is.
What’s Different about Voitanos?
What’s different about Voitanos from other catalogs where I have previously published my courses?
Early Access
I have recorded & published video courses as well as written books. These mediums share characteristics: most publishers only publish courses in their entirety. That means if it takes 2 months to record the course (or write a book), but the first module / chapter only takes one week, you still have to wait two months for the first module / chapter.
Not on Voitanos. I’ll release modules as they are complete, not when the entire course is complete. Those who signup for early access to the course will get a exclusive promotional discount to the course that will include access to the entire course once it is complete.
Evergreen Courses, Constantly Updated
But are technical courses ever really complete? I say no! Technology changes, we learn new techniques, new versions come out, patches are developed. In most software / service models, do you pay for patches or updates to software? Usually no! When you buy it, you get the current version which includes the first release + all updates since then. When a patch comes out, you that’s not an extra charge.
When you watch a course, you want to know you are getting the current version. When you subscribe to a course on Voitanos, you are subscribing to an evergreen course that will be constantly updated.
Today you can use analytics to see what areas of a course are more popular than others. Sometimes your customers find one area much more interesting than other areas. Watching these usage patterns I can build up that section, adding more details, background or tips and tricks. This helps not only current subscribers but benefits future subscribers as well!
So What’s Next?
My ask of you is to head over to the site, watch the videos and signup for my mailing list. This way you can get the latest updates. I will offer special exclusive deals for subscribers… so what’s to lose?
The first course for Voitanos is Mastering the SharePoint Framework.
Here is a sample of what you can expect to see in this course:
- 10 minutes from nothing to awesome
- Set up the SharePoint Framework (SPFx) for Windows
- Set up the SharePoint Framework (SPFx) for MacOS
- Building & deploying your first client-side web part
- Download, install & and configure your Windows development environment for the SharePoint Framework (SPFx)
- Download, install & and configure your MacOS development environment for the SharePoint Framework (SPFx)
- Create your first client-side web part with SPFx
- Use the SharePoint Workbench to test web parts without deploying to SharePoint
- Leveraging external & internal libraries (JS & CSS) in client-side web parts
- Deploying apps to CDNs
- Creating custom property panes for client-side web parts
- Adding mock data to your client-side web parts
- Automated unit testing of client-side web parts
I’m currently working on this course and will have something to share in December 2016. Sign up to the mailing list to get early access and exclusive promotions ahead of its release.
That’s all for now! As I said in the video above, I need to get back to developing, recording & producing this course!
