I'm man enough to admit when I'm wrong. I also don't want other Fastlaners to repeat my stupid mistakes. So gather round kiddos, it's story time.
Those of you on the inside know I'm trying to make YouTube videos as part of my fastlane. Right away when I scoped this out, I knew there'd be some problems, but I thought I could overlook everyone else's warnings them when I reached nearly 75,000 channel views in two weeks. Unfortunately, the problems have really stacked up. Here were of the initial warning signs that I ignored:
1. Until you get 15,000 hours of viewing time, you can't contact YT for technical support, disputes, clarification, or anything else. Not like, you can't call them directly and have to use an email, but rather, you have absolutely no means whatsoever of making any form of contact with someone who works there.
2. YouTube recently implemented a new policy (12/13) that frequently places your video "under review" for monitization after upload even if there isn't the remotest chance in hell that any part of it could be copyrighted, like a video of your cat on your couch with no music or any brand names or logos in any of the footage. You don't know when this will strike, so you might make money off it for two days and then have it come under review, or it might never come under review. When it does, new revenue is prevented because your ads are removed from the video during the process, and all ad revenue can be lost as a result. Some people report this process taking weeks to complete. YT's lame a$$ suggestion is to upload the video as private and monitize 2-4 weeks before "release" to make sure their buggy a$$ automated system won't cut you off at the knees. Who has time for that? Add to this the fact that a very popular video (100,000 views) might be earning just $50 in ad revenue, and you're in for a bad time.
3. The lowest sum of money that Google will pay out from Yt through Adsense is $100. That means you'll need several very popular videos before you see a penny back, at the time when most startups need cash the most (the early days).
4. Google's support for content producers whenever there's a question about monitization in general is a total shitshow, analogous to Paypal's support for sellers when there's a payment dispute. Additionally, things that should be agonizingly simple, like moving a video between channels you own or re-uploading a video and keeping the view and like count, can't even be considered as options. For the majority of problems, there's no help at all.
Here's the takeaways:
1. Do you HAVE to deal with SUCKS customer service from a large, uncontrollable corporation in order to reach your target market (YouTube, Paypal, etc.)? If the people who are supposed to "serve" you are actually your employers, not the other way around, your plan isn't CENTS.
2. Can anyone else remove your source of revenue remotely, or by accident? If so, your plan isn't CENTS.
3. Are you working your butt off for beer money and straining the limits of your ingenuity to get your hands on a few dollars? If so, your plan isn't CENTS. Worse still, spending hours working on a remedial task just to get 60 dollars is called a job.
Fortunately, I have had other stuff in play since the beginning to get me out of this situation (YouTube was just a spinoff anyway), and the thread earlier this week by Likwid kicked my a$$ into pursuing those things at full speed. I'll discuss it more on the inside, but keep your wits about you. If you're really meeting needs well, the only person who should get to decided how you're compensated for that is you.
Those of you on the inside know I'm trying to make YouTube videos as part of my fastlane. Right away when I scoped this out, I knew there'd be some problems, but I thought I could overlook everyone else's warnings them when I reached nearly 75,000 channel views in two weeks. Unfortunately, the problems have really stacked up. Here were of the initial warning signs that I ignored:
1. Until you get 15,000 hours of viewing time, you can't contact YT for technical support, disputes, clarification, or anything else. Not like, you can't call them directly and have to use an email, but rather, you have absolutely no means whatsoever of making any form of contact with someone who works there.
2. YouTube recently implemented a new policy (12/13) that frequently places your video "under review" for monitization after upload even if there isn't the remotest chance in hell that any part of it could be copyrighted, like a video of your cat on your couch with no music or any brand names or logos in any of the footage. You don't know when this will strike, so you might make money off it for two days and then have it come under review, or it might never come under review. When it does, new revenue is prevented because your ads are removed from the video during the process, and all ad revenue can be lost as a result. Some people report this process taking weeks to complete. YT's lame a$$ suggestion is to upload the video as private and monitize 2-4 weeks before "release" to make sure their buggy a$$ automated system won't cut you off at the knees. Who has time for that? Add to this the fact that a very popular video (100,000 views) might be earning just $50 in ad revenue, and you're in for a bad time.
3. The lowest sum of money that Google will pay out from Yt through Adsense is $100. That means you'll need several very popular videos before you see a penny back, at the time when most startups need cash the most (the early days).
4. Google's support for content producers whenever there's a question about monitization in general is a total shitshow, analogous to Paypal's support for sellers when there's a payment dispute. Additionally, things that should be agonizingly simple, like moving a video between channels you own or re-uploading a video and keeping the view and like count, can't even be considered as options. For the majority of problems, there's no help at all.
Here's the takeaways:
1. Do you HAVE to deal with SUCKS customer service from a large, uncontrollable corporation in order to reach your target market (YouTube, Paypal, etc.)? If the people who are supposed to "serve" you are actually your employers, not the other way around, your plan isn't CENTS.
2. Can anyone else remove your source of revenue remotely, or by accident? If so, your plan isn't CENTS.
3. Are you working your butt off for beer money and straining the limits of your ingenuity to get your hands on a few dollars? If so, your plan isn't CENTS. Worse still, spending hours working on a remedial task just to get 60 dollars is called a job.
Fortunately, I have had other stuff in play since the beginning to get me out of this situation (YouTube was just a spinoff anyway), and the thread earlier this week by Likwid kicked my a$$ into pursuing those things at full speed. I'll discuss it more on the inside, but keep your wits about you. If you're really meeting needs well, the only person who should get to decided how you're compensated for that is you.
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