The creator economy can't rely on Patreon
joanwestenberg.com
The creator economy can't rely on Patreon
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Re: The creator economy can't rely on Patreon
#2I’m a full-time content creator. I feel like patreon/newsletters/paid communities are more hassle than anything.
When I look at the pros and cons of every single revenue strategy, sponsorships has the highest gain and least cons (for me).
Sponsors pay at least 10x what ad revenue pays, I don’t have to ask my community for money and the audience are likely to skip the ad anyway if they didn’t want to watch it.
Patreon is great in theory, but as soon as sponsors start inquiring, you realize Patreon is a lot more work for less revenue.
Re: The creator economy can't rely on Patreon
#3I’m a full-time content creator. I feel like patreon/newsletters/paid communities are more hassle than anything. When I look at the pros and cons of every single revenue strategy, sponsorships has the highest gain and least cons (for me). Sponsors pay at least 10x what ad revenue pays, I don’t have to ask my community for money and the audience are likely to skip the ad anyway if they didn’t want to watch it. Patreon…
What does the typical sponsorship pay, and what factors does it scale with?
Re: The creator economy can't rely on Patreon
#4What creators need is a better youtube algorithm. Is it just me, or has youtube recommendations become almost unusable by now? Some years ago when I spent "an hour watching YouTube" I'd watch a huge majority of videos recommended by the algorithm based on my current subs. Today it is 1%. Why? I'll give you an example.
I have varied interests, I sub and regularly watch a number if channels in each of my hobbies, but fixing cars is not one. However, one day I searched youtube how to change a bulb in a specific model of a car. This was a week ago. My youtube feed is still full of car repair howto videos. The people I'm subscribed to have produced new videos, but they don't show up.
Also I used to get recommended channels similar to ones I sub. No more. It looks 100% random now. I get recommended a random channel with 10 subs, but somehow I manage to miss one of the biggest channels in one of my hobbies for months.
Re: The creator economy can't rely on Patreon
#5I’m a full-time content creator. I feel like patreon/newsletters/paid communities are more hassle than anything. When I look at the pros and cons of every single revenue strategy, sponsorships has the highest gain and least cons (for me). Sponsors pay at least 10x what ad revenue pays, I don’t have to ask my community for money and the audience are likely to skip the ad anyway if they didn’t want to watch it. Patreon…
Personally YouTube is ruined for me because of sponsorships. It just became advertisement packaged as content.
I understand from an economical perspective why people do it, but I can't shake the feeling that the content is just an excuse and the ad is the meat of the content.
Re: The creator economy can't rely on Patreon
#6The TL;DR of this is basically there are too many people creating content.
Best thing that creators could do is tell other creators to quit. The author doesn't say this part but really that is what it comes down to.
Instead she offers a generic advice about diversifying the medium of delivery.
Re: The creator economy can't rely on Patreon
#7I’m a full-time content creator. I feel like patreon/newsletters/paid communities are more hassle than anything. When I look at the pros and cons of every single revenue strategy, sponsorships has the highest gain and least cons (for me). Sponsors pay at least 10x what ad revenue pays, I don’t have to ask my community for money and the audience are likely to skip the ad anyway if they didn’t want to watch it. Patreon…
I see the same few sponsorships constantly: Skillshare, Brilliant, Nebula, Hello Fresh, BetterHelp, Raid: Shadow Legends. I like to guess which one it's going to be when the creator starts telling a made-up story that leads into the sponsorship segment. The fact that it's the same ones, over and over again, across a wide spectrum of channels, makes me think that sponsorship is not yet a proven reliable source of income in the long term. A seemingly small number of companies are trying it out and it seems like they could easily pull out at any time. Patreon may be harder but it feels like a more dependable source of income than sponsorships.
Re: The creator economy can't rely on Patreon
#8I’m a full-time content creator. I feel like patreon/newsletters/paid communities are more hassle than anything. When I look at the pros and cons of every single revenue strategy, sponsorships has the highest gain and least cons (for me). Sponsors pay at least 10x what ad revenue pays, I don’t have to ask my community for money and the audience are likely to skip the ad anyway if they didn’t want to watch it. Patreon…
I see the same few sponsorships constantly: Skillshare, Brilliant, Nebula, Hello Fresh, BetterHelp, Raid: Shadow Legends. I like to guess which one it's going to be when the creator starts telling a made-up story that leads into the sponsorship segment. The fact that it's the same ones, over and over again, across a wide spectrum of channels, makes me think that sponsorship is not yet a proven reliable source of inco…
Nebula is bit weird on that list as my understanding is that it is somehow creator owned and controlled, but rest yeah... I also wonder how long this model will operate, the advertising spend on these products must be significant and I wonder if it is sustainable in long run. Specially with these interest rates or in possible recession...
Re: The creator economy can't rely on Patreon
#9A lot of creators have to realize that Patreon is a stepping stone to sponsors.
I run Casting Call Club, which is basically where amateur Patreon creators go to collaborate on projects and ideas. Many of the CCC members will only stay until they either A) fail, or B) get big enough to have sponsors.
Re: The creator economy can't rely on Patreon
#10What creators need is a better youtube algorithm. Is it just me, or has youtube recommendations become almost unusable by now? Some years ago when I spent "an hour watching YouTube" I'd watch a huge majority of videos recommended by the algorithm based on my current subs. Today it is 1%. Why? I'll give you an example. I have varied interests, I sub and regularly watch a number if channels in each of my hobbies, but f…
I agree that the algorithm is weird.
To start with, it feels like 30% of the videos are videos I’ve already watched.
The rest tends to be a very naive list of things related to the last ten videos I’ve watched including many that were recommended before that I didn’t watch and never will. Often I pull down to refresh and it alternates between two lists and that’s it.
I know recommendations are a complex problem but the results seem very far off from what I’d expect.