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The True Costs of Being on YouTube

carlalallimusic.substack.com

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Re: The True Costs of Being on YouTube

#2
While I appreciate her being so open about the financial side, one has to wonder:

> If we roll with the average Adsense income, here’s the bottom line: $14k going out. $4k coming in. Net loss, month over month: TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS. That’s a lot to sink into a channel that is barely moving book sales and not getting me a TV deal. Simply put, it’s completely unsustainable from a business perspective.

Why carry on doing that for so long?

Re: The True Costs of Being on YouTube

#3
> It costs $29 per thousand to run an ad in my videos, and I get $10 per thousand. Where does the other $19 go? To YouTube, of course. That’s a 2:1 split in favor of the platform. Lord, give me strength.

I thought the split was something like 55-45 for Youtube vs the creator. This sounds more like 66-33, is this typical for other creators / influencers as well?

Re: The True Costs of Being on YouTube

#4
post #2

While I appreciate her being so open about the financial side, one has to wonder: > If we roll with the average Adsense income, here’s the bottom line: $14k going out. $4k coming in. Net loss, month over month: TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS. That’s a lot to sink into a channel that is barely moving book sales and not getting me a TV deal. Simply put, it’s completely unsustainable from a business perspective. Why carry on doin…

Not only why did she continue losing $10k/month, but how? That's a lot of money to sink in

Re: The True Costs of Being on YouTube

#5
post #2

While I appreciate her being so open about the financial side, one has to wonder: > If we roll with the average Adsense income, here’s the bottom line: $14k going out. $4k coming in. Net loss, month over month: TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS. That’s a lot to sink into a channel that is barely moving book sales and not getting me a TV deal. Simply put, it’s completely unsustainable from a business perspective. Why carry on doin…

Agreed. Why not make videos within budget instead?

Re: The True Costs of Being on YouTube

#7
Can’t help but think the expenses were overboard. $3500 spent per video, including a producer, DP, food stylist, and editor?

Surely videos of very similar quality could be made with a fraction of that budget if the fat was trimmed and it was approached more bootstrap-y instead of a full production.

Re: The True Costs of Being on YouTube

#8
post #2

While I appreciate her being so open about the financial side, one has to wonder: > If we roll with the average Adsense income, here’s the bottom line: $14k going out. $4k coming in. Net loss, month over month: TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS. That’s a lot to sink into a channel that is barely moving book sales and not getting me a TV deal. Simply put, it’s completely unsustainable from a business perspective. Why carry on doin…

Or why not start with a more modest production budget? It takes longer to shoot, but with the right equipment, you can shoot this stuff yourself. Watch one of Mend It Mark's videos (1). He does the whole thing all by himself and it looks absolutely fantastic. Then, if you get a couple million subscribers, hire some people and go big time. Because you can afford to.

(1) https://www.youtube.com/@MendItMark/videos

Re: The True Costs of Being on YouTube

#9
post #2

While I appreciate her being so open about the financial side, one has to wonder: > If we roll with the average Adsense income, here’s the bottom line: $14k going out. $4k coming in. Net loss, month over month: TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS. That’s a lot to sink into a channel that is barely moving book sales and not getting me a TV deal. Simply put, it’s completely unsustainable from a business perspective. Why carry on doin…

>Why carry on doing that for so long?

Because her publisher told her to! "It's important for authors to have a social media presence!" "You can't have unprofessional videos, viewers won't like that!" ...and other falsehoods.

Re: The True Costs of Being on YouTube

#10
post #2

While I appreciate her being so open about the financial side, one has to wonder: > If we roll with the average Adsense income, here’s the bottom line: $14k going out. $4k coming in. Net loss, month over month: TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS. That’s a lot to sink into a channel that is barely moving book sales and not getting me a TV deal. Simply put, it’s completely unsustainable from a business perspective. Why carry on doin…

I don't know her or her content, but the theme that comes up over and over in that post is the elusive 'big deal' from a streamer or network. I get the impression that she thought this production approach would lend itself to that kind of transition. Her background seems more 'traditional media' than 'DIY native', and I would guess that framed her perception of what a production looked like.

In contrast, somebody like Maangchi took the opposite approach. Her earliest videos are still up and you can see the truly homemade approach. Granted, she was in early and it is surely massively more competitive now.

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