Wednesday, February 7, 2018

YouTube!

If you've been reading this blog for awhile or following my YouTube Channel, it's no secret that at the end of 2017 I made a push to "grow" both this blog and the channel.  Mostly, I just made sure to use both a bit more, let people know I was doing that and hoped a few people would care.

Well, not enough people cared about the YouTube channel.  At least, not according to YouTube.  You see, even in a world where anyone can make shows and videos and put them out for public consumption, ratings matter.  Now more than ever, because I can't even monetize a video ( or won't be able to, rather) unless I have 1000 subscribers and a specific number of  viewed minutes from the preceding 365 days.   What does this mean?  If I'm not really making money now, what do I lose?  A few bucks?  Think about it a minute. If I happen to hit the viral video jackpot, I lose the opportunity to make the money from those first few hundreds of thousands of views.  Sure, it's like buying  lottery ticket, but if you won the lottery wouldn't you want it to pay off?

Also, there's a slight matter of respect.  My channel has been in good standing on YouTube for YEARS.  Sure, it didn't earn me much, which means it didn't earn them much, but part of that was because I avoided breaking a lot of laws that maybe would have boosted the channel's traffic.  I mean, a lot of people show up to a job that doesn't pay well, but if that job suddenly said, "Hey, we'd like you to keep doing the same work, but aren't going to pay you at all anymore", that would be rude, right?

Maybe I should look at it as being fired.  Or my show was cancelled. Put on my "big boy pants" and suck it up. The real question is, why did YouTube suddenly decide that channels not earning a certain amount aren't worth having around?  They were always glad to have the small drops filling their bucket before. I can't speak for them, but with the way the "Not suitable for all advertisers" label was handled, I have my suspicions.  Smaller channels don't produce enough to be as profitable now that they also have to be policed manually by YouTube.  Paying people costs money.  What I find offensive is that the policing of content is being dropped for small providers instead of large channels that have broken the rules in the past.



If I post violent content, lie about it and try to get advertisers under false pretenses, fine.  Take away my partner privileges, but to punish my little channel because other channels  have broken the rules is disrespectful.  There is no loyalty in business anymore.

I'm ranting about YouTube on this blog and the revenue for this comes from the same ads as they did on YouTube.  It's one of the major problems with monopolies.  They're very difficult to boycott.

Will I stop giving YouTube content and growing the channel because I'm insulted?  Probably not.  At least, not until a viable competitor comes along.  I think I mentioned this in another blog.  It's a still a decent place to promote movies and the easiest place to host stuff that I can then embed on my website (also ad supported).

Sorry if this is a repetitive blog.  I've been editing a lot lately and don't have a lot of new stuff to talk about here at the moment, but I want to keep up with writing in this space.  Also, YouTube sent out a survey asking creators for opinions and it sort of dredged all of this up again.

Let me know below if there's anything specific  you'd like to hear about.

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