4 ms·

I wonder if monetization with a low subscriber base isn't as hard as we imagine. Afterall, you just need to net like 80K in a non HCOL city to live very comfort

I wonder if monetization with a low subscriber base isn't as hard as we imagine. Afterall, you just need to net like 80K in a non HCOL city to live very comfortably. (assuming no employees, or office rent, or expensive production)

xetplan 3y ago
It is hysterical to me people think this. It is just because you are not accounting for all the people trying this and failing. By definition, no one is watching all the youtube videos that only get 50 views per episode of a podcast. It isn't hard if you use a massive selection bias towards the winners and just assume you will also be a winner. May as well just say it is easy to make a living in the restaurant business. Just open a successful restaurant!
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
sct202 3y ago
To monetize a small subscriber base you have to pull a sizable $x per active user that almost requires you to become a little scummy at best. I've seen a lot of personal finance influencers (FIRE especially) pull sizeable amounts of money because their niches are pretty favorable, but they end up pushing weird financial products and courses for $Xk on how to make money blogging/real estate/some other business.
- bombcar 3y ago
  That's the big problem - let's say you have 50 to 100 viewers who like you, to the point of kicking in about $70 a week (what you need to get to $80k) - that's pretty high. At that point, you have 100 pretty loyal people (more loyal than the average church-goer, for example) and the temptation to milk them could be quite strong.
- pompino 3y ago
  A low sub base liking/commenting will keep your video somewhat relevant to the algo for recommendation. So you'll have a chunk of subs that stay the same, and a percentage of new viewers. Granted that will also cap your total views in some way, but I wonder what the threshold is. Like maybe 100k or 50k of subs is sufficient to keep you buoyant.

xetplan 3y ago

It is hysterical to me people think this. It is just because you are not accounting for all the people trying this and failing. By definition, no one is watching all the youtube videos that only get 50 views per episode of a podcast. It isn't hard if you use a massive selection bias towards the winners and just assume you will also be a winner. May as well just say it is easy to make a living in the restaurant business. Just open a successful restaurant!

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

sct202 3y ago

To monetize a small subscriber base you have to pull a sizable $x per active user that almost requires you to become a little scummy at best. I've seen a lot of personal finance influencers (FIRE especially) pull sizeable amounts of money because their niches are pretty favorable, but they end up pushing weird financial products and courses for $Xk on how to make money blogging/real estate/some other business.

bombcar 3y ago
That's the big problem - let's say you have 50 to 100 viewers who like you, to the point of kicking in about $70 a week (what you need to get to $80k) - that's pretty high. At that point, you have 100 pretty loyal people (more loyal than the average church-goer, for example) and the temptation to milk them could be quite strong.
pompino 3y ago
A low sub base liking/commenting will keep your video somewhat relevant to the algo for recommendation. So you'll have a chunk of subs that stay the same, and a percentage of new viewers. Granted that will also cap your total views in some way, but I wonder what the threshold is. Like maybe 100k or 50k of subs is sufficient to keep you buoyant.