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I’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 sing
by lewismenelaws 3y ago
I’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.
- JoshTriplett 3y agoWhat does the typical sponsorship pay, and what factors does it scale with?
- lewismenelaws 3y agoIt depends. I have a large following across short form platforms like TikTok and Instagram too. Usually for an integration (basically 1-2 minute ad) it ranges between 8-14k. For a short form video usually around the same.
- i-sam 3y agoPersonally 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.
- rainbowzootsuit 3y agoYou are one of today's 10,000. https://sponsor.ajay.app/ https://sponsor.ajay.app/ And if you have android: https://github.com/polymorphicshade/Tubular https://github.com/polymorphicshade/Tubular
- mvdtnz 3y agoExtensions like sponsor block don't help when entire videos are centered around promoting a product. A very popular mountain bike channel I used to follow, GMBN, for example, pretty much only makes videos in order to promote sponsors. The sponsors drive the very content we're here for, it's not just 30 second spots.
- Diti 3y agoSponsorBlock can also tag entire videos of the kind you cited! It won’t block them by default, but the choice of what to do when you find out will be yours.
- mathieuh 3y agoI do notice that the GMBN and GCN videos that are just advertorials do have "AD" in the top corner when you look at the video thumbnail. I'm assuming this is an EU or UK thing, because there are a lot of other channels that do exactly the same thing but there's no such "AD" callout. https://imgur.com/iorhrD7 https://imgur.com/iorhrD7 These videos take away from the channel's integrity for me but at least they're clearly marked as ads
- rainbowzootsuit 3y agoFair point there. That channel would just have to drop for me if the "review" videos got excessive, and find a replacement or no replacement. I'm looking to skip the embedded ad-read sponsorships, credits, the "thanks for subscribing," and "thanks for our patreons" stuff and sponsorblock does that in spades.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- a_wild_dandan 3y agoInstall SponsorBlock! With YT Premium and that, my video experience is completely ad-free.
- thaumasiotes 3y agoInstall an ordinary ad blocker and your video experience will be completely ad-free without needing YT Premium.
- Pet_Ant 3y agoSorry, but an ordinary ad blocker will not block the ads embedded in the video. Apparently "SponsorBlock" actually solves that. Haven't of it before, but the description is promising. >>> SponsorBlock lets you skip over sponsors, intros, outros, subscription reminders, and other annoying parts of YouTube videos. SponsorBlock is a crowdsourced browser extension that lets anyone submit the start and end times of sponsored segments and other segments of YouTube videos. Once one person submits this information, everyone else with this extension will skip right over the sponsored segment. https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/sponsorblock-for-youtube/mnjggcdmjocbbbhaepdhchncahnbgone https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/sponsorblock-for-yo...
- thaumasiotes 3y ago> Sorry, but an ordinary ad blocker will not block the ads embedded in the video. Yes, that's why I called it a replacement for YT Premium and not a replacement for SponsorBlock.
- phone8675309 3y agoWith YT Premium the people you watch actually get paid even if you skip the ads.
- extraduder_ire 3y agoThey would get paid slightly less though, since the premium revenue split is based on watchtime IIRC.
- barrysteve 3y agoYeah it changed mid-2020. Youtube was a nice place to go. Cheap entertainment is getting boring.
- electroly 3y agoI 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.
- Ekaros 3y agoNebula 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...
- ehnto 3y agoI don't exactly know how it works but creators tend to call it "my streaming platform" and that feels a little bit like a marketing angle. For the longest time I thought Adam Neely had literally funded and built Nebula.
- sickofparadox 3y agoIt is a marketing angle, Wendover Productions is the actual creator of the service and has a video about how they bootstrapped the service and got it to the size it is currently. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Alqt6RCEWdM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Alqt6RCEWdM
- vintermann 3y agoAlso PCBWay (mostly for "maker" videos) and VPN providers. Paradox Interactive's relationship with the comedy sketch group Door Monster is also pretty nice to see. It seems clear that's not strictly a business relationship, but also someone at Paradox being genuine fans. I think there's actually a bit of a sliding scale between personal patronage and corporate patronage. Local businesses sponsoring local plays, concerts or sports events is another example of sponsorship which isn't likely income-generating.
- xxs 3y agoDepending on the type of content, there is always a chance the sponsorship deals affecting integrity.
- lewismenelaws 3y agoVery true. I’m not a review type channel, so this isn’t something I have to worry about.
- kalleboo 3y agoThat interesting since several YouTube creators I follow on Patreon (ok, so it's a self-selecting group) say the opposite. They've done sponsors a few times, but the sponsors are so much work to collaborate with (they take too long to approve videos, they want pointless changes done, etc) that they gave up on it and rely on Patreon instead where they can just create the videos they want to on their own schedule without interference.
- lewismenelaws 3y agoI’ve done sponsorships for a while now, we have contracts specifying that any changes they make is minor at most. Business sense is really important when dealing with this.
- bombcar 3y agoSame with all the various things - you have to balance the effort vs the reward. One trick is to not do too much on Patreon to start, do the bare minimum so that you don't get overwhelmed later. E.g, give early access instead of a custom special show each week/month, etc.
- mrguyorama 3y agoOkay, but I don't want to watch businesspeople, I want to watch what this person is making/doing/writing/etc! That's the whole point! Patreon means I can just give them dollars for doing a good job, and they don't have to go get an associates degree in marketing to realize that sponsorships are lowballing them entire magnitudes. I consider this infinitely better to a creator selling my attention, for pennies on the dollar compared to what a company would spend for equivalent advertising from a less exploitable cadre, to companies that are morally grey at BEST, often false advertising or literal scams like Established Titles in the norm.
- lewismenelaws 3y agoYou're right! Creators often get short changed from deals like this. All I am saying is that my background has made this career decision for me easy to transition into while making sponsors sustainable. I know lots of creators who get completely screwed on this front. I am sure the same could happen on Patreon.
- _v7gu 3y agoHow much extra work is Patreon if you don't offer any extras to people who sponsor on there? Most sponsored content is either completely orthogonal to the channel and its contents which is quite iffy if the creator is positioning themselves a someone with judgement their audience can trust (non-gaming channels advertising Raid: Shadow Legends, or non-tech channels advertising NordVPN), or actively make me lose respect for the creator (gaming channels advertising Raid: Shadow Legends, tech channels advertising NordVPN, or anyone with BetterHelp after all the shit they pulled). Of course there are exceptions, like content creators posting on Nebula being sponsored by them or anything Josh Strife Hayes does.
- lewismenelaws 3y agoI’m sure none but then I would feel guilt taking money from my audience. I know it might be silly, but sponsors makes everything free for everyone.
- MomoXenosaga 3y agoSponsors want something in return. Reminds me of Rembrandt who got into trouble because he didn't beautify his clients enough and went for art instead...
- monkey_monkey 3y agoI took a look at your YouTube channel and it was exactly what I expected it to be.
- tomcam 3y agoWhat did you expect it to be?
- incrudible 3y agoExactly what it was.
- mdorazio 3y agoWhite dude making coding videos with the usual modern algorithm-inspired cringe thumbnails and titles. It definitely seems to be working, though - over 500k subs is impressive.
- lewismenelaws 3y agoHahaha! Love this comment. Long form and short form content has been significant for the growth.
- monkey_monkey 3y ago500k subs and a very low level of actual views...
- lewismenelaws 3y agoLong form has been expirementation to see what works the last year or so. Shorts is how we grew a lot, long form still needs work but getting there!
- lizknope 3y agoWhen you say sponsor do you mean a 1 minute advertisement in a 10 minute video where you say "Today's video is sponsored by ABC Corporation, they make this useful product to do XYZ" or do you mean a video where you got a free product and paid money to do a promotional video about the product? I've seen both and I don't mine the advertisement style but when someone makes an entire video about a product that they got for free they seem like a shill. Usually their enthusiasm level is off and the whole things seems fake and I don't like watching them. As for Patreon being a lot more work, I am wondering how? Every month Patreon charges me $12 for the various creators I support. Some of them create videos full time but many have full time jobs. The Patreon money lets them buy old computers, toys, or games to review. I'm nostalgic about my 1980's childhood. Patreon seems really easy when they say for 10 seconds "If you would like please contribute to my Patreon account"
- LegitShady 3y agogetting a product for free translates to $0 in your bank account. It's not sponsored, its just been given or lent to you. You can't feed your family with free items.
- lizknope 3y agoIn my first paragraph I said: "got a free product and paid money to do a promotional video about the product?" It's not just a free product but also money to promote the product.
- lewismenelaws 3y agoIt’s different for everyone, but for me, it’s similar to the 1 minute section like you mentioned. I integrate it within my video. Not sure if this is what you’re referring to, but if someone doesn’t disclaim that something was sent to them or paid to say it. Highly illegal. Reason I say Patreon is a lot more work is because usually you need to build an incentive with Patreon as well (community, BTS, extra content).
- dotnet00 3y ago