(PRIVATE) Challenge: Gatekeeper

These are the last three Challenge Lock videos and I am only making them available to LockLab supporters. The "Challenge Lock" series has come to an end. Not only am I out of the "Whipped" PacLocks, but there were many other things that I took into consideration.

1.  Cost.  Every day I was receiving between 5-10 locks from around the world.  I had to return most of them to the owner, which was a SIGNIFICANT expense - always more than $500/month but sometimes approaching $1000.  What little I receive in viewer support was quickly consumed in return postage.  I was spending several hundred dollars of my own money every month just to return locks.

2.  Quality.  Some locks were well designed and contained some unique innovations, but they were few and far between. Most "challenge locks" were threaded chambers with serrated pins built on old,beaten up Kwikset cores.  The number of trap pins and super springs has continued to increase as copycats realized this might be a way to get a "Whipped" PacLock - meaning I was breaking and bending more expensive picks.  I found this very discouraging.

3.  Time.  Unpacking, picking, disassembling, repacking, answering emails, etc.  Each challenge lock took a lot of time to figure out and then return - even if I did not make a video of it.  I was spending most of my time setting up and videoing locks that turned out to be copycats of other people's ideas - meaning I could not post the video for fear of viewers saying "WHAT? Another Kwikset with threaded chambers?"

4.  Viewer Interest.  My goal with LockLab was to remain "New Picker Friendly" and attract new members to LockSport, but LockLab was quickly becoming the "Challenge Lock Channel", interesting to only a limited number of people with advanced skills.  Every time I posted a challenge lock video people complained and unsubscribed to the channel.  New pickers were overwhelmed by the complexity of challenge locks and became discouraged. My analytics were very clear on this:  If I want to lose subscribers all I needed to do was post a challenge lock video.

5.  Channel growth.  The LockLab's growth was stagnating and I needed to change something before it was too late.  Since I stopped doing challenge locks the number of subscribers has increased, the number of comments increased, "likes" went up, and the channel has grown.

So, yes.  I stopped making challenge lock videos.  It was not an easy decision but I could not afford to continue doing it for all of these reasons.  The money saved from NOT returning challenge locks I am now spending on locks - and have been doing so for the past month or two.  I cannot tell you how refreshing it is to return to picking real-world locks in a wide variety.  It is good for me (mentally), as well as good for LockLab.

bill