<story><title>How YouTube’s Shifting Algorithms Hurt Independent Media</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/17/arts/youtube-broadcasters-algorithm-ads.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jerf</author><text>I know at times I may sound like a shill for Patreon, but I have no connection to them whatsoever beyond &amp;quot;normal customer&amp;quot;, and don&amp;#x27;t care if you use a competitive service to them or whatever. But if you are in the position of finding yourself with a growing show like this, I implore you to set up some sort of voluntary subscription revenue as soon as possible, before you embed into the very foundation of your content a dependency on ad dollars. Even if you use it as an augment to ad revenue, it&amp;#x27;s so much better for you. It&amp;#x27;s more stable against Youtube deciding to tweak an algorithm one day. It&amp;#x27;s more stable month-to-month. It&amp;#x27;s even more socially stable since it releases you from having to chase ad dollars by keeping advertisers happy instead of your &amp;quot;actual&amp;quot; customers. If your primary money base is subscriptions rather than ads, you could even completely shift video services if you need to without crashing your income.&lt;p&gt;My interest in pitching this so often is my desire to play my little part in sticking a stake in the idea that getting advertising money is the default path to monetization. I&amp;#x27;d rather move to a world where it&amp;#x27;s either merely one option among many, or even, dare I dream, a last resort considered vaguely déclassé.&lt;p&gt;Oh, and I would also implore you, let your patrons download video directly somehow. I&amp;#x27;d love to not even have to go through YouTube at all. Of course, I&amp;#x27;m a crazy Linux user for whom YouTube isn&amp;#x27;t as convenient as it could be, but it&amp;#x27;s another way to detach your patrons from a particular video service.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>stcredzero</author><text>&lt;i&gt;My interest in pitching this so often is my desire to play my little part in sticking a stake in the idea that getting advertising money is the default path to monetization.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;If Google and Facebook are The Internet (and for some large number of people, this is likely more than half true, in an empirical time-measurement sense) then The Internet is driven by advertisement. It&amp;#x27;s just become Cable TV 2.0.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;I&amp;#x27;d rather move to a world where it&amp;#x27;s either merely one option among many, or even, dare I dream, a last resort considered vaguely déclassé.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;This was presaged by Scott McCloud. &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;scottmccloud.com&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;scottmccloud.com&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.scottmccloud.com&amp;#x2F;3-home&amp;#x2F;essays&amp;#x2F;2003-09-micros&amp;#x2F;micros.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.scottmccloud.com&amp;#x2F;3-home&amp;#x2F;essays&amp;#x2F;2003-09-micros&amp;#x2F;mic...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;And it was rejected by the mainstream, led by those with a vested interest in the new status quo. &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.penny-arcade.com&amp;#x2F;comic&amp;#x2F;2001&amp;#x2F;06&amp;#x2F;22&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.penny-arcade.com&amp;#x2F;comic&amp;#x2F;2001&amp;#x2F;06&amp;#x2F;22&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>How YouTube’s Shifting Algorithms Hurt Independent Media</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/17/arts/youtube-broadcasters-algorithm-ads.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jerf</author><text>I know at times I may sound like a shill for Patreon, but I have no connection to them whatsoever beyond &amp;quot;normal customer&amp;quot;, and don&amp;#x27;t care if you use a competitive service to them or whatever. But if you are in the position of finding yourself with a growing show like this, I implore you to set up some sort of voluntary subscription revenue as soon as possible, before you embed into the very foundation of your content a dependency on ad dollars. Even if you use it as an augment to ad revenue, it&amp;#x27;s so much better for you. It&amp;#x27;s more stable against Youtube deciding to tweak an algorithm one day. It&amp;#x27;s more stable month-to-month. It&amp;#x27;s even more socially stable since it releases you from having to chase ad dollars by keeping advertisers happy instead of your &amp;quot;actual&amp;quot; customers. If your primary money base is subscriptions rather than ads, you could even completely shift video services if you need to without crashing your income.&lt;p&gt;My interest in pitching this so often is my desire to play my little part in sticking a stake in the idea that getting advertising money is the default path to monetization. I&amp;#x27;d rather move to a world where it&amp;#x27;s either merely one option among many, or even, dare I dream, a last resort considered vaguely déclassé.&lt;p&gt;Oh, and I would also implore you, let your patrons download video directly somehow. I&amp;#x27;d love to not even have to go through YouTube at all. Of course, I&amp;#x27;m a crazy Linux user for whom YouTube isn&amp;#x27;t as convenient as it could be, but it&amp;#x27;s another way to detach your patrons from a particular video service.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>sandworm101</author><text>Fellow crazy linux user here.  I follow many youtube channels but, as a canadian, am not allowed to support them with cash. (Red and all the other premium schemes never include us.)  I too have trouble with youtube&amp;#x27;s interface and am often on a sat connection which makes everything more frustrating.  Instead i use a combination of tools to download the vids directly, which denies my favorite channels even basic ad revenues.  Youtube is the choke point.</text></comment>