Video and Audio files on your site can be problematic. Not only are they big (taking up server space) but they can slow down your site as they are played to visitors who are watching them.

Amazon.com has a solution. They have very inexpensive service called S3 (Simple Storage Solution). You to store any files (up to 5GB each file, an unlimited number of files) on THEIR servers.

For between .15 to .20 cents per Gigabyte, you can use Amazon's servers to store your video, audio or any other computer files you want. You can also control whether they are public or just for your own personal use.

One great use is if you have a high traffic web page where people are watching a video.

Instead of storing and streaming the video from your own web site, the video itself will be sent from Amazon's own servers. Your site isn't bogging down with the strain of downloading these huge files.

How I Use Amazon S3

A real world example is my Membership Site Bootcamp launch last year.

In a period of 3 weeks, we had over 900,000 views of the videos that we had put up for the launch. Almost a million views is A LOT of bandwidth that could have definitely effected a normal server's performance.

Amazon's S3 handled it without any problems.

One reason is that they will "load balance" the demand and stream the video from one of their servers closest to whomever is requesting to watch it.

So my total bill for nearly 1 million people watching several 5 minute long videos? A couple hundred dollars. Trust me, the return on the investment was well worth it.

There is one catch to using them however...

The "Problem" With S3

One issue with S3 is that it is not the most intuitive or easy to use for a beginner. It takes some effort to get use to using their basic functions.

Not anymore.

Recently a new service at www.ez-s3.com has been rolled out, as in "S3 made easy". It it implies it removes any of the difficulties of using S3.

The EZ-S3 service not only completely simplifies the process but it adds many new functionality to the Amazon S3 service as well.

Take a look at the control panel at www.ez-s3.com - it is very straight forward.

Amazon S3 (Simple Storage System) made simple with this control panel from EZS3

You can easily upload your files, create folders or browse through your files on Amazon S3.

CREATE PLAYERS - Even better though is that you can create players for video, audio even PDF files that you have uploaded there.

If you had a video file, you would upload it, then choose the file type on the control panel to create a player for the video.

Here is a screen capture of the edit screen for the MP3 player.

Easily create a multimedia player for Amazon S3 files

PROTECT THE FILES - The players not only hide the true location of the files but also allows the player to only be played from the site that you specify. No worries about someone copying the code and putting it on their site to steal your videos or audio.

TRACK VIEWS - The site will provide viewing stats on how many times the file has been viewed or listened to.

SUPPORT FORUM - If you have any questions about how to use the service or have recommendations for enhancement, there is a support forum on the site as well.

EZ-S3 offers a 14 day trial for $1 so you can fully get a taste for what it has to offer for you.

This is a very impressive "app on tap"!