How YouTube’s Shifting Algorithms Hurt Independent Media
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Re: How YouTube’s Shifting Algorithms Hurt Independent Media
#2I know at times I may sound like a shill for Patreon, but I have no connection to them whatsoever beyond "normal customer", and don't care if you use a competitive service to them or whatever. But if you are in the position of finding yourself with a growing show like this, I implore you to set up some sort of voluntary subscription revenue as soon as possible, before you embed into the very foundation of your content a dependency on ad dollars. Even if you use it as an augment to ad revenue, it's so much better for you. It's more stable against Youtube deciding to tweak an algorithm one day. It's more stable month-to-month. It's even more socially stable since it releases you from having to chase ad dollars by keeping advertisers happy instead of your "actual" customers. If your primary money base is subscriptions rather than ads, you could even completely shift video services if you need to without crashing your income.
My interest in pitching this so often is my desire to play my little part in sticking a stake in the idea that getting advertising money is the default path to monetization. I'd rather move to a world where it's either merely one option among many, or even, dare I dream, a last resort considered vaguely déclassé.
Oh, and I would also implore you, let your patrons download video directly somehow. I'd love to not even have to go through YouTube at all. Of course, I'm a crazy Linux user for whom YouTube isn't as convenient as it could be, but it's another way to detach your patrons from a particular video service.
Re: How YouTube’s Shifting Algorithms Hurt Independent Media
#3It's funny because the NYT pushed an entire beat about companies needing to limit their digital advertising to only respected outlets...you know, like the NYT.
In hindsight it was easy for them to play up the "offensive content" straw man, get a few execs riled up, and convince google to kill their upstart competitors.
Re: How YouTube’s Shifting Algorithms Hurt Independent Media
#4I know at times I may sound like a shill for Patreon, but I have no connection to them whatsoever beyond "normal customer", and don't care if you use a competitive service to them or whatever. But if you are in the position of finding yourself with a growing show like this, I implore you to set up some sort of voluntary subscription revenue as soon as possible, before you embed into the very foundation of your conten…
Fellow crazy linux user here. I follow many youtube channels but, as a canadian, am not allowed to support them with cash. (Red and all the other premium schemes never include us.) I too have trouble with youtube's interface and am often on a sat connection which makes everything more frustrating. Instead i use a combination of tools to download the vids directly, which denies my favorite channels even basic ad revenues. Youtube is the choke point.
Re: How YouTube’s Shifting Algorithms Hurt Independent Media
#5It's funny because the NYT pushed an entire beat about companies needing to limit their digital advertising to only respected outlets...you know, like the NYT. In hindsight it was easy for them to play up the "offensive content" straw man, get a few execs riled up, and convince google to kill their upstart competitors.
Precisely. It's not "YouTube's shifting algorithms" that are killing independent media, it's the wave of bad publicity in publications like the New York Times that lead to advertisers pulling out and made allowing ads on anything even vaguely political or controversial an existential danger to YouTube. The algorithms didn't do this by itself. And the clear-cut line between "videos that espoused extremism and hate speech" and "video makers who bear no resemblance to terrorist sympathizers and racists" that the NYT is attacking YouTube for not recognising doesn't exist. There are definitely loud, vocal, media-connected groups who classify The David Pakman Show under the former category, for example, because of his choice of guests.
Re: How YouTube’s Shifting Algorithms Hurt Independent Media
#6It's funny because the NYT pushed an entire beat about companies needing to limit their digital advertising to only respected outlets...you know, like the NYT. In hindsight it was easy for them to play up the "offensive content" straw man, get a few execs riled up, and convince google to kill their upstart competitors.
Media plays both sides of the coin because they don't care about what happens to other media sources, they care about the ad revenue from clicks to their site. Playing both sides of the coin only increases clicks since both perspectives are engaged.
Re: How YouTube’s Shifting Algorithms Hurt Independent Media
#7Well. I guess that the NYT, WaPo and WSJ can be proud of their accomplishment.
They managed to hurt the independent media on its revenue, but to their vein it seems like most youtubers actually have a passion for what they do and their subscribers are also smart enough to see through all this bullshit and support their favorite content creators through other means than watching ads.
Re: How YouTube’s Shifting Algorithms Hurt Independent Media
#8I know at times I may sound like a shill for Patreon, but I have no connection to them whatsoever beyond "normal customer", and don't care if you use a competitive service to them or whatever. But if you are in the position of finding yourself with a growing show like this, I implore you to set up some sort of voluntary subscription revenue as soon as possible, before you embed into the very foundation of your conten…
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Re: How YouTube’s Shifting Algorithms Hurt Independent Media
#9I know at times I may sound like a shill for Patreon, but I have no connection to them whatsoever beyond "normal customer", and don't care if you use a competitive service to them or whatever. But if you are in the position of finding yourself with a growing show like this, I implore you to set up some sort of voluntary subscription revenue as soon as possible, before you embed into the very foundation of your conten…
The flipside to this is that there are people who will never ever pay money for your content, and ad revenue is the only way to directly capitalize on your popularity among those people.
This also means that when your ad revenue disappears, you will NEVER get that revenue back. Your only recourse is to get more popular, as your supporters are already buying your merchandise and donating.
It's going to become much more difficult to support yourself via creating content if step 1 becomes "be famous".
Re: How YouTube’s Shifting Algorithms Hurt Independent Media
#10I know at times I may sound like a shill for Patreon, but I have no connection to them whatsoever beyond "normal customer", and don't care if you use a competitive service to them or whatever. But if you are in the position of finding yourself with a growing show like this, I implore you to set up some sort of voluntary subscription revenue as soon as possible, before you embed into the very foundation of your conten…
If the channels I enjoy were all setup through the same service, whatever it may be, it would be easy for me support new media while tracking my budget better. I can be forgetful, and it feels like some subscriptions are built around attaching themselves to your credit card and staying under your radar. But I need to do a better job of supporting these channels I spend so much time on.