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Doug B":3t04wsov said:
Can i ask why you bother Peter? I presume you work for yourself & £16 K a year is a lot to lose in a business sense or can you write this off as an expense?
I for a short time years ago wrote for a couple of magazines, whilst nice for the ego the recompense was so little as to not be financially worthwhile so rather than lose money I stopped.
There’s a few reasons; firstly, I enjoy it - it’s re-kindled an interest in ‘visual arts’ (photography/imaging/video) that I haven’t had since I called it a day on the photographic business best part of 20 years ago. Secondly, it’s something I can do tolerably well, and as retirement beckons I’m spending the rest of this year ‘probing the envelope’ finding out if it has potential to be a little retirement business, or if it stays resolutely a hobby.

It’s worth noting perhaps that I didn’t ‘monetise’ (lovely word) at all in the first year, so while costs were not insignificant, the second year in, it did generate some income. As I say, this third year is the one where I assess if it has legs as anything other than a vanity project.

Cheers, Peter
 
craigsalisbury":1r22jzrz said:
petermillard":1r22jzrz said:
Prominent British youtuber Keith Brown did a recent ‘how much money do I make’ vid. and although he included all sales and commercial work, he’s only making minimum wage.

https://youtu.be/1BdB-c4Cv40

And snce we’re venting, here my pet YouTube hate; all the whingeing moaners who think channels should exist for them, and them alone, because the world revolves around them :D

So, fun thread, let’s see if I can offer some insight...

The Intro > jingle > content is a strategy shown to be effective in grabbing and keeping attention; this is important because most viewers have an attention span of less than ten seconds before they click away to the thumbnail of the girl in a bikini. Fact of life #1: the whingers who complain about this make up an insignificant percentage of viewers. And they thought they were sooooo special...

WRT the call to subscribe - repetition works. The channels will know via analytics what the subscribed/not subscribed viewership is, and anyone with even a passing acquaintance with marketing will know the power of a ‘call to action’ e.g. share/like/subscribe. Fact of life #2; subscribers are becoming a. harder to come by and b. arguably less relevant, since the changes to the algorithm that pushes content into your feed.

YouTube ads vs Sponsor reads; if a channel ‘monetises’ through ads that are shown, they receive a tiny percentage of the revenue generated - but only if the ad plays fully; skip that ad and the channel receives nothing. Channels have no control over the ads shown, occasionally they’re relevant, frequently not. As an aside, US ad views pay a *lot* more than UK ones, hence the ‘Americanisation’ of a lot of videos... Sponsor reads OTOH are arrangements that the individual or channel has made with a company, and are usually as part of the agreement, the channel owner/operator/ proprietor reading a prepared/agreed script to their audience for a fee. On ‘maker’ channels (seriously, what else would you call them??) this can lead to some odd situations e.g. a lot of blokes with beards pushing shaving products. Fact of life #3; it costs a lot of money to run a YouTube channel, especially so if you make stuff, rather than, say, just sitting in front of a camera for an hour on a Saturday morning chatting about toys. My first year on YouTube cost me £16K and it hasn’t got any cheaper since...

And so to Patreon. Patreon is big in the ‘maker’ space (seriously, what else would you.. oh never mind) less so in other areas. It’s a way for individuals to support the channels and creators whose work they enjoy - a bit like a magazine subscription (if you remember magazines) but for video. In return most creators will offer extra goodies for their Patreon supporters - exclusive content, behind the scenes videos, giveaways, plans etc.. etc.. Patreon BTW is American, and refuses to acknowledge any currencies other than $ and € so if you happen to work in £ you can kiss goodbye to ~20% of funds donated through fees and exchange rates. Patreon engagement levels are extremely low for makers (literally a handful with more than 1% of their subscriber base actively engaged) and are typically around the ~0.5% mark, generating $2 or less per Patreon supporter. Fact of life #4; some folks are extremely generous with their support, both financially and in offering advice, but some seem to expect the moon on a stick just because they’ve pledged to throw $1 in the pot.

Affiliate income is a kind of ‘introduction / referral fee’ where you can receive a small fee if someone makes a purchase through a link you provide. Amazon is the big dog here, but obviously it’s not always the most appropriate place for folks to buy from, and Amazon operates (as many others do) as separate companies in the UK, US, France, Germany, Netherlands etc.. etc.. so if you have an international audience and want to generate affiliate income you need an affiliate account with each different company (Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.fr etc...) and set up unique links for each individual product. Depending on where you are and where your audience is, this can rapidly become a lot of effort for very little return. Fact of life #5; each Amazon company only pays affiliate income in local currency, to a national bank account ie Amazon.com will only pay out to a US bank in $US. So if you’re not in the US you get paid in $US Gift Cards - which are only redeemable at Amazon.com...

So there we are, I hope you’ve enjoyed this ‘mini-rant in reply’, I hope you found it useful. Don’t forget that the best way not to miss one of my mini-rants is to subscribe, and if you do subscribe don’t forget to hit that bell, then you’ll be notified whenever I rant something new. I’d like to take a minute just to thank all of my Patreon supporters, without whom I’d be ranting in the dark as their continued support really helps to keep the lights on here, but that it for this rant, thanks so much for reading, and I’ll see you next time.

Take care...

I also respect your right to counter moan....thats coming up next... :D :D :D :D :D

[FACE WITH TEARS OF JOY][THUMBS UP SIGN][THUMBS UP SIGN]
 
petermillard":2dq7mmvf said:
transatlantic":2dq7mmvf said:
Another one of my pet hates. Youtube content creators who can't take critisism! (or trolling as they prefer to refer to it)
Was that criticism, lol! I took it to be a few grumpy old guys moaning about things on YouTube they didn’t like or were confused about, so I thought I’d help by explaining, as simply as I could, why the things they don’t like happen. You’re welcome.

It's comments like that, that will always make you a bit of a pillock in my book. I do follow your channel and have seen several of your belittling comments when people ask decent questions.

The content is good. Shame about the guy behind it.
 
transatlantic":1peddztc said:
It's comments like that, that will always make you a bit of a pillock in my book...
That's a refreshingly honest opinion that you're perfectly entitled to hold - a little judgemental, perhaps, us never having exchanged a word. And wrong, of course, but...

I do follow your channel and have seen several of your belittling comments when people ask decent questions.

...this I take exception to. I have never done any such thing, on the contrary I go out of my way to not only respond to the vast majority of comments, but to do so in a helpful and measured way, even when I suspect the commenters are taking the Mick; please cite examples.

And since were being honest and all - was this you I discussed in this thread?

post1251831.html#p1251831
 
petermillard":1ubw0g16 said:
sammy.se":1ubw0g16 said:
Let's keep it friendly guys :)
Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

To which I can only say - what did I do??
To be honest, it was mostly transatlantic's comment i was referring to :)

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petermillard":1qpdfvoz said:
Secondly, it’s something I can do tolerably well, and as retirement beckons I’m spending the rest of this year ‘probing the envelope’ finding out if it has potential to be a little retirement business, or if it stays resolutely a hobby.

I do really like the idea of the older craftsmen picking it up and passing on their knowledge. There are people who have spent their whole lives in the trades and are beginning to slow down as they can't work as hard as they used to and it would be a real shame not to pass on the information they've accumulated over the years, It's how we've lost so much knowledge of the old ways of doing things and all that there is left is whatever was written down. There's a couple of guys like that such as Essential Craftsman, Next Level Carpentry and Skillbuilder which have accepted that they can't work as hard as they could 20 years ago and have gotten into youtube to pass on information and mentor the next generation.
 
There's actually a YouTube strategy called YouTube spaces, where they provide professional studio facilities (for free) to content creators if they meet certain thresholds in subs and views. I don't think wood working has the magnitude of viewership that YouTube Spaces targets, but I think that service is interesting...



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Trevanion":rlv9hrbg said:
petermillard":rlv9hrbg said:
Secondly, it’s something I can do tolerably well, and as retirement beckons I’m spending the rest of this year ‘probing the envelope’ finding out if it has potential to be a little retirement business, or if it stays resolutely a hobby.

I do really like the idea of the older craftsmen picking it up and passing on their knowledge.... There's a couple of guys like that such as Essential Craftsman, Next Level Carpentry and Skillbuilder which have accepted that they can't work as hard as they could 20 years ago and have gotten into youtube to pass on information and mentor the next generation.

Yes, skillbuilder are doing really well, and I’ve chatted with Matt Jackson at Next Level Carpentry for a while; don’t know Essential Craftsman, I’ll take a look, thanks for the rec.

It’s something we chat about in the next podcast, albeit in the context of the difficulties & impediments wrt one-man-band carpenter/cabinetmaker businesses at the most basic of levels (eg covenants in new builds that restrict parking of commercial vehicles) that will drive guys out of the industry - so eventually, who will we have capable of doing the work?

Best. P
 
sammy.se":2b09xqry said:
There's actually a YouTube strategy called YouTube spaces, where they provide professional studio facilities (for free) to content creators if they meet certain thresholds in subs and views. I don't think wood working has the magnitude of viewership that YouTube Spaces targets, but I think that service is interesting...

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

I had a tour of the YouTube spaces in Chelsea Market when I was in New York last year, and it’s such a fantastic resource - provided you’re a vlogger! Completely unsuited to anything remotely wanker-ish... sorry, maker-ish - I’m still getting those confused after this thread - they have kitchens for cookery-type vids but nothing remotely workshop-like. Missed opportunity.

Cheers, P
 
I love watching YouTube videos, especially of woodworkers. I work away from home a fair bit and keep unusual hours and I don't own a TV so its my main source of visual entertainment. I subscribe to around 300 channels, I guess maybe 200 are woodworking related. I like all aspects of woodworking but particular like Woodturning as its something I'm passionate about.

I like a few Brits.
Woodworks & Coracles is one of the best product level turners I've seen. He can turn a blank into a platter in about 4 minutes. He has the whole process down to muscle memory and is what I aspire to as a turner. Very good, watch a few! He sells his products in shops.
Rag n Bone Brown, the salvaged wood videos are my favourites as so much of my wood is from skips!
Badger Workshop, before he moved he had a good flow of videos on all sorts of stuff which was great but lately he's been setting up a workshop so mostly it's been shop stuff which I'm not too fussed about.
Matt Estlea, he used to do alot more handtool work which was fascinating and I really like his Turning Tuesday. Don't get me wrong he's great at turning and keeps trying different things but I do see alot of mistakes I made when I started which he often points out and correct, great stuff.
Gosforth Handyman, I really liked his videos where he went to work and took his camera with him and talked about how he'd fix stuff. I'm not too bothered about the Testing videos he does but some of it is fascinating.
Peter Millard does have some great stuff, sometimes abit beyond me but I can appreciate and envy the planning and mental gymnastics that goes into building a cabinet and then installing it. I've done some work on my house and took some pointers from his videos about floating shelves.
Kris Harbour, he's a great chap living in the woods in Wales. He built a house out of logs and does the whole off grid thing to such a technical and inviting level its a great to see. It's been great to watch over the years as he has developed his land into a great place, mostly by himself and on a tiny budget!
Way Out West Blow in Blog, abit of a mouthful I know. These are two people in Ireland on a smallholding, the chaps videos are great as he's abit of an engineer and built a sawmill which was a great series. Not strictly woodworking but it's nice to have abit of variety.
The Small Wood Workshop, this is a pretty small channel but he's a guy just making stuff in his shed. Sometimes the music is too loud and I can't hear him. It's nice seeing a progression in skill over time.
Woodslee Summercraft, a Brit living in Canada. He does alot of turning but does use some british products like Hampshire Sheen and Yorkshire Grit on his stuff which is nice.
Martin Saban Smith, a great turner who does alot of tutorials. I think he used to do I.T but now does great work teaching turning and produces Hampshire Sheen. Funny how many woodworkers used to do I.T jobs?
West Cork Woodworker, not strictly from the U.K but has some great small project videos.
Stephen's 8x6 Workshop, worth it just to see this guys fantastically set up small workshop that he can make all sorts out of.

For non brits you have to mention Frank Howarth, the voice equivalent of a relaxing hot bath.


As for stuff I'm not keen on, I used to like Alec Steele's videos alot but in the run up to his move and since the move the videos have become abit boring. Theres only so many times you can watch a guy make a weapon (plus the comments section varies between racist and homophobic). I like Torbjörn Åhman as he makes mostly practical stuff, doesn't have long slow motion bits with annoying music and rarely talks.
 
transatlantic":1fs5vqcm said:
petermillard":1fs5vqcm said:
transatlantic":1fs5vqcm said:
Another one of my pet hates. Youtube content creators who can't take critisism! (or trolling as they prefer to refer to it)
Was that criticism, lol! I took it to be a few grumpy old guys moaning about things on YouTube they didn’t like or were confused about, so I thought I’d help by explaining, as simply as I could, why the things they don’t like happen. You’re welcome.

It's comments like that, that will always make you a bit of a pillock in my book. I do follow your channel and have seen several of your belittling comments when people ask decent questions.

The content is good. Shame about the guy behind it.
Wow. No need for that.

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Have to say I agree.
I don't see the need for abuse, name calling, whatever.
It's a you tube channel.
 
[/quote]Wow. No need for that.

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+1 it's nothing but abusive and inappropriate.
 
There's an odd, and thankfully rare, aspect to this forum that always baffles me: the need to stand up, contrary to the general good nature of a discussion and shout "why am I forced to watch something on the net I don't like" or something similar.
I first saw it some years ago when there was a typical thread about visiting and meeting up at a WW show. Lots of posts about what day various folk are going, what stands to visit etc and somebody posts something like "I'm not going, will be away and it's a boring show anyway". What was the point of posting a comment like that? I took exception to the post.
My point is, why post something like this?:

transatlantic wrote:
It's comments like that, that will always make you a bit of a pillock in my book. I do follow your channel and have seen several of your belittling comments when people ask decent questions.

The content is good. Shame about the guy behind it.

If you have a problem with a YT channel why watch it? Have you some weird need to do something that gets your goat up? You don't like a channel for whatever reason, don't watch it. If you don't watch it, guess what? It won't annoy you.

Furthermore personally insulting a fellow member is not on and won't be tolerated.
 
Noel":3bhs9rex said:
.........Furthermore personally insulting a fellow member is not on and won't be tolerated.

In what way is it not tolerated? The insulting post hasn't been removed. Transatlantic, despite having form, doesn't appear to have been punished in any way. Some guy called me a sphincter (to get around the auto-censor) a couple of days ago. I reported it. Nothing happened. It seems to me that "not being tolerated" equals "being tolerated".
 
MikeG.":r4lf3g4m said:
Noel":r4lf3g4m said:
.........Furthermore personally insulting a fellow member is not on and won't be tolerated.

In what way is it not tolerated? The insulting post hasn't been removed. Transatlantic, despite having form, doesn't appear to have been punished in any way. Some guy called me a sphincter (to get around the auto-censor) a couple of days ago. I reported it. Nothing happened. It seems to me that "not being tolerated" equals "being tolerated".
I reported both incidents.

I think the moderating leaves a lot to be desired.

I reported stuff on the blind woodworker thread which was way out of line and the moderator actually came to the defense of the offensive stuff.

It needs a rethink, for sure.



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