3 ms·

This also a repeated lesson to never trust 100% of your business to some platform you don’t control. YouTube, Adsense, PayPal, eBay... the list is long and sto

by gesman 8y ago

This also a repeated lesson to never trust 100% of your business to some platform you don’t control. YouTube, Adsense, PayPal, eBay... the list is long and stories are plenty. Use platform for what it’s good for and have plan B always ready and active

gpm 8y ago
I think youtube is actually one of the best demonstrations of why that attitude is incorrect. Obviously it's better if you haven't trusted 100% of your business to a platform you don't control. But for some businesses (such as many youtubers) the choice is either do that or don't have a business (since that's the only place with a large enough audience). In such a case it can make sense to do so.
- gesman 8y ago
  Many YouTube publishers also maintain their own successful portal with paid subscriptions, memberships, product affiliations etc... There is always plan B. Google of course prefer 100% dependence on their platforms.
  - gpm 8y ago
    It depends on the youtuber of course, a few of them have an audience that legitimately allows for a plan b. For most of them there isn't. They might have seperate portals which they earn money from, but the business still goes poof fast if they get banned from youtube. Without publishing on youtube they won't reach enough of an audience to have a sustainable business. Twitch alleviates this somewhat for some youtubers. But we don't have to go far back in time to consider an era before that existed.
    - yowlingcat 8y ago
      Not sure I agree with this. Beyond a certain level, subscriptions to a given creator are to that creator, not via the platform. It's true that a lot of consumers won't take the effort to follow the brand off platform, but that's not always the case. I think the recent development of the influencer marketing industry as a whole is proof of this. Of course, how you ever get remotely famous or established in the first place if the content you create is remotely vulnerable to false copyright claims is another question entirely...
    - wongarsu 8y ago
      Patreon and similar platforms make your income stream independent of YouTube and give you a second channel of communication to your most dedicated fans that also allows new content even while your YouTube channel is down.
- warp_factor 8y ago
  I would suggest to those creators to continue posting on Youtube, but link as much as possible to their own platform. Patreon unfortunately can also not be trusted as they will dedcided privately what they accept and what they shutdown. The solution is videos hosted on a service that the artist controls, with a donation option that the creator also controls directly.
zaroth 8y ago
There is no viable plan B. If you want to do business in syndicated video on the Internet, you will depend on YouTube to get eyeballs.
- nraynaud 8y ago
  no, but you get some kind of insurance when youtube screws you over, and also even if you get the eyeballs there, you don't get the money there, which is still a bit of protection.
belorn 8y ago
There was this story recently about Youtube maker Naomi Wu who first got had her Adsense blocked on Youtube, moved to Patreon, got blocked there, moved to subscribestar and it got nuked. She has her own site but because she is a Chinese resident it makes, according to her, payment services scared and difficult to work with. In the end she returned to doing programming work for hire to pay the bills, and making/video creation as a hobby, even if she has a large enough community that could support her creative work. It is a hard problem to solve. I would not know what for example Jim Sterling would do if he got blocked on patreon, as all his videos has multiple false copyright claims to them. I know Linus tech tips (an other large youtube creator) has created their own platform as a massive Plan B, but that relies on payment services which could at any time destroy that option.
- jake_the_third 8y ago
  I'm surprised she didn't use bitcoin or some other type of cryptocurrency. This is the exact type of scenario they are designed to address. If her fans are willing to use third-party services like patreon to support her, I can't imagine getting their hands on some bitcoin being too much of a barrier.

by gesman 8y ago

gpm 8y ago

I think youtube is actually one of the best demonstrations of why that attitude is incorrect. Obviously it's better if you haven't trusted 100% of your business to a platform you don't control. But for some businesses (such as many youtubers) the choice is either do that or don't have a business (since that's the only place with a large enough audience). In such a case it can make sense to do so.

gesman 8y ago
Many YouTube publishers also maintain their own successful portal with paid subscriptions, memberships, product affiliations etc... There is always plan B. Google of course prefer 100% dependence on their platforms.
- gpm 8y ago
  It depends on the youtuber of course, a few of them have an audience that legitimately allows for a plan b. For most of them there isn't. They might have seperate portals which they earn money from, but the business still goes poof fast if they get banned from youtube. Without publishing on youtube they won't reach enough of an audience to have a sustainable business. Twitch alleviates this somewhat for some youtubers. But we don't have to go far back in time to consider an era before that existed.
  - yowlingcat 8y ago
    Not sure I agree with this. Beyond a certain level, subscriptions to a given creator are to that creator, not via the platform. It's true that a lot of consumers won't take the effort to follow the brand off platform, but that's not always the case. I think the recent development of the influencer marketing industry as a whole is proof of this. Of course, how you ever get remotely famous or established in the first place if the content you create is remotely vulnerable to false copyright claims is another question entirely...
  - wongarsu 8y ago
    Patreon and similar platforms make your income stream independent of YouTube and give you a second channel of communication to your most dedicated fans that also allows new content even while your YouTube channel is down.
warp_factor 8y ago
I would suggest to those creators to continue posting on Youtube, but link as much as possible to their own platform. Patreon unfortunately can also not be trusted as they will dedcided privately what they accept and what they shutdown. The solution is videos hosted on a service that the artist controls, with a donation option that the creator also controls directly.

zaroth 8y ago

There is no viable plan B. If you want to do business in syndicated video on the Internet, you will depend on YouTube to get eyeballs.

nraynaud 8y ago
no, but you get some kind of insurance when youtube screws you over, and also even if you get the eyeballs there, you don't get the money there, which is still a bit of protection.

belorn 8y ago

There was this story recently about Youtube maker Naomi Wu who first got had her Adsense blocked on Youtube, moved to Patreon, got blocked there, moved to subscribestar and it got nuked. She has her own site but because she is a Chinese resident it makes, according to her, payment services scared and difficult to work with. In the end she returned to doing programming work for hire to pay the bills, and making/video creation as a hobby, even if she has a large enough community that could support her creative work. It is a hard problem to solve. I would not know what for example Jim Sterling would do if he got blocked on patreon, as all his videos has multiple false copyright claims to them. I know Linus tech tips (an other large youtube creator) has created their own platform as a massive Plan B, but that relies on payment services which could at any time destroy that option.

jake_the_third 8y ago
I'm surprised she didn't use bitcoin or some other type of cryptocurrency. This is the exact type of scenario they are designed to address. If her fans are willing to use third-party services like patreon to support her, I can't imagine getting their hands on some bitcoin being too much of a barrier.