Realistic YouTubers?

[ditchcrawler]

3 hours ago, Tony1 said:

 

I watch a lot of youtube, and I felt I had to go premium to avoid those endless ads.

I now skim past the ads that the presenters put into the fabric of the video itself, in the form of 'reviews'. 

Apparently the bigger channels are paid maybe 5 or 10k to include a positive review for a given product (aka an advert)- so for a creator who gets say 100k views, that can become a major source of income.

A year or two ago, there was an endless stream of canal and vanlife vloggers reviewing clever batteries by companies like Jackery.  I got heartily sick of seeing these things being talked about by vloggers,

More recently it was something athletic greens (which of course all of the youtube presenters were suddenly lifelong fans of).

The big US channels are rife with these sorts of ads, and I suspect it is google removing their old-style ad revenue that encourages them to basically sell out and become full-on advertisers.

 

Think "power stations" a lithium battery in a box with an inverter. Which Youtube boater didn't have one?

 

[Tony1]

2 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

YouTube is owned by Google. I don't think we have to worry about them going broke.

 

True, they won't be going bust, but if they mismanage YT really badly, they could eventually lose an awful lot of viewers, and thus a lot of ad revenue.

If something like vimeo gets a real hold in terms of viewing numbers, I honestly think they could nick the lions share of the creators, and viewers, and YT could become the new Vimeo. 

 

 

7 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

Think "power stations" a lithium battery in a box with an inverter. Which Youtube boater didn't have one?

 

 

I'm expecting the next thing to be ebike reviews (and then it'll be escooters when they are finally legalised).

 

[Guest]

25 minutes ago, Tony1 said:

 

True, they won't be going bust, but if they mismanage YT really badly, they could eventually lose an awful lot of viewers, and thus a lot of ad revenue.

If something like vimeo gets a real hold in terms of viewing numbers, I honestly think they could nick the lions share of the creators, and viewers, and YT could become the new Vimeo. 

 

 

 

I'm expecting the next thing to be ebike reviews (and then it'll be escooters when they are finally legalised).

 

 

Ebike reviews have been doing the rounds for months on YouTube. A load were sent out to you tubers a while ago.

[Arthur Marshall]

1 hour ago, Tony1 said:

 

True, they won't be going bust, but if they mismanage YT really badly, they could eventually lose an awful lot of viewers, and thus a lot of ad revenue.

If something like vimeo gets a real hold in terms of viewing numbers, I honestly think they could nick the lions share of the creators, and viewers, and YT could become the new Vimeo.

 

Exactly what's happening to Facebook. Six ads to scroll through between every vaguely interesting post, most of them scams. Users opting out in droves. YT will go the same way idc.

[Tony1]

2 hours ago, Arthur Marshall said:

Exactly what's happening to Facebook. Six ads to scroll through between every vaguely interesting post, most of them scams. Users opting out in droves. YT will go the same way idc.

 

My guess would be that if the ads have become more frequent, its partly because the revenue per ad is reducing.

I watched a pretty successful political youtuber recently discuss how his youtube earnings had varied over the years, and he said this year was the worst he'd ever seen for ad revenue.

His view was that the failing ad campaigns are due to a failing economy, and ever-increasing levels of poverty.

I.e. the people who might historically respond to these ads are increasingly becoming skint, so most of the ads are achieving far less. 

 

So I would guess that since YT and FB are making less money per ad played, they are trying to force ever more ads down people's throats, in an effort to compensate for lost income.

I was tempted to joke about too many ads being a first world problem, but I don't feel it would be accurate, because some aspects of our society and our services (eg the NHS, and childhood poverty/malnutrition levels) are no longer truly of first-world standard.

 

 

3 hours ago, MJG said:

 

Ebike reviews have been doing the rounds for months on YouTube. A load were sent out to you tubers a while ago.

 

To be honest, as long as its not the exact same model of bike in all the reviews, I'll be ok with it personally.

I use my ebike almost daily, and I'm a massive fan of the things. They turn you into a bit of a lazy bugger tbh, but I just cant help my ebike infatuation. 

As a caravanner yourself, I reckon a brace of legal escooters (after they've been legalised of course) ) could be just the job to effortlessly get you around local towns, visit restaurants or places of interest- and without getting too hot and sweaty in the summer, etc.  

 

ETA- apologies for that nonsense. I was of course forgetting that you have a vehicle that tows the caravan, and can get you around local towns quite well! 

 

Edited December 27, 2023 by Tony1

[Arthur Marshall]

1 hour ago, Tony1 said:

 

My guess would be that if the ads have become more frequent, its partly because the revenue per ad is reducing.

I watched a pretty successful political youtuber recently discuss how his youtube earnings had varied over the years, and he said this year was the worst he'd ever seen for ad revenue.

His view was that the failing ad campaigns are due to a failing economy, and ever-increasing levels of poverty.

I.e. the people who might historically respond to these ads are increasingly becoming skint, so most of the ads are achieving far less. 

 

So I would guess that since YT and FB are making less money per ad played, they are trying to force ever more ads down people's throats, in an effort to compensate for lost income.

I was tempted to joke about too many ads being a first world problem, but I don't feel it would be accurate, because some aspects of our society and our services (eg the NHS, and childhood poverty/malnutrition levels) are no longer truly of first-world standard.

 

 

 

To be honest, as long as its not the exact same model of bike in all the reviews, I'll be ok with it personally.

I use my ebike almost daily, and I'm a massive fan of the things. They turn you into a bit of a lazy bugger tbh, but I just cant help my ebike infatuation. 

As a caravanner yourself, I reckon a brace of legal escooters (after they've been legalised of course) ) could be just the job to effortlessly get you around local towns, visit restaurants or places of interest- and without getting too hot and sweaty in the summer, etc.  

 

ETA- apologies for that nonsense. I was of course forgetting that you have a vehicle that tows the caravan, and can get you around local towns quite well! 

 

It's also that the ads put you off watching. YouTube used to only show ads if the content supplier signed up for them. Now, because they are selling an ad-free paid for version, they want to make the free version as unfriendly as possible, which impinges on the relatively lower followed content provider - and, of course, works to make it harder for them to get more followers and so on. It's called killing the goose wot lays the golden eggs, but it works in the short term.

[Mike Hurley]

Does no one here use an ad blocker? i never see ads on you tube.

[MtB]

5 minutes ago, Mike Hurley said:

Does no one here use an ad blocker? i never see ads on you tube.

 

 

Funny you should say that. For the last few weeks since YT started inserting shitty ads at the start of all videos I've used YT less and less.

 

But now, I see an an ad start loading for a second or so then the screen skips the ad and goes straight to the video. I'm guessing this is the recent update of AdBlocker including a YT ad blocker now. 

 

I must bung them some money again as their service makes the net actually useable. 

 

[Tony1]

8 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

It's also that the ads put you off watching. YouTube used to only show ads if the content supplier signed up for them. Now, because they are selling an ad-free paid for version, they want to make the free version as unfriendly as possible, which impinges on the relatively lower followed content provider - and, of course, works to make it harder for them to get more followers and so on. It's called killing the goose wot lays the golden eggs, but it works in the short term.

 

Exactly right- YTs dream scenario probably involves more than 50% of all users paying for the premium service, thus guaranteeing them a huge base income, free from the  variability of relying on product advertisers. 

The way YT are heading, I think you're right that the non-premium viewers will end up getting a really crappy experience, with ads every couple of minutes in the videos.

I think it's the way a destructively-greedy corporation sometimes works. In the end, the greed causes strategies that kill the company itself. 

 

Too many ads would just drive the non-premium users away from youtube to a large extent- they would only watch very specific things, perhaps recommended by friends or whatever. 

I know at the moment there are ways around the ads, such as brave browser etc, but YT and google are really going to war on these workarounds, and on ad block software in general. In fact, I believe one of their future tactics will be to threaten that if you use an ad blocker when watching YT, they will ban your google account altogether from watching YT.

They might even try to stop YT working on any browsers other than Chrome.

And for many people, YT has become their primary source of video content- more so than netflix, sky or amazon, etc. So a YT ban will really hurt, and that threat will deter many from trying an ad blocker. 

 

It's hard to say where YT's greed will end up going, but if they make the non-premium experience bad enough, viewers will migrate to Vimeo and elsewhere. I know for a fact that if premium was not available and I had to sit through ads, I would not watch half the amount of videos that I do now.

And once the viewer numbers on vimeo reach a critical mass, it will be become the new de facto platform for creators.  

YT will kill its golden goose at some point- I feel that its greedy practices make that inevitable. 

 

[MtB]

3 minutes ago, Tony1 said:

I know at the moment there are ways around the ads, such as brave browser etc,

 

I've been mistrustful of Brave ever since this:

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_(web_browser)

 

Insertion of referral codes[edit]

On 6 June 2020, a Twitter user pointed out that Brave inserts affiliate referral codes when users navigate to Binance.^[47][48] Further research revealed that Brave also redirected the URLs of other cryptocurrency exchange websites. In response to the backlash from the users, Brave's CEO apologized and called it a "mistake" and said "we're correcting". He remarked that Brave seeks affiliate revenue while trying to build a viable business, adding that "This includes bringing new users to Binance & other exchanges via opt-in trading widgets/other UX that preserves privacy prior to opt-in. It includes search revenue deals, as all major browsers do."^[49][50]

Two days later, Brave released a new version which they said made auto-completion to partner links opt-in,^[51] followed by a blog post explaining the issue and apologizing.^[52][53]

[Tony1]

6 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

I've been mistrustful of Brave ever since this:

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_(web_browser)

 

Insertion of referral codes[edit]

On 6 June 2020, a Twitter user pointed out that Brave inserts affiliate referral codes when users navigate to Binance.^[47][48] Further research revealed that Brave also redirected the URLs of other cryptocurrency exchange websites. In response to the backlash from the users, Brave's CEO apologized and called it a "mistake" and said "we're correcting". He remarked that Brave seeks affiliate revenue while trying to build a viable business, adding that "This includes bringing new users to Binance & other exchanges via opt-in trading widgets/other UX that preserves privacy prior to opt-in. It includes search revenue deals, as all major browsers do."^[49][50]

Two days later, Brave released a new version which they said made auto-completion to partner links opt-in,^[51] followed by a blog post explaining the issue and apologizing.^[52][53]

 

Well that's certainly worth knowing, thanks.

But then I think about how much 'referring' google do when I use Chrome, and I bet it makes the binance thing look fairly minor. 

I think it might be worth having a play around with brave browser.

My worry is that YT are going to increase the price of the premium service before too long, and I'm going to get more interested in alternative ways of stopping ads. They'll do it it in small increments but I definitely think they'll do it, and its worth having an option ready for when the price gets unfairly high. And knowing YT, that is a 'when', rather than an 'if'.

 

 

 

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Tony1 said:

 

My guess would be that if the ads have become more frequent, its partly because the revenue per ad is reducing.

I watched a pretty successful political youtuber recently discuss how his youtube earnings had varied over the years, and he said this year was the worst he'd ever seen for ad revenue.

His view was that the failing ad campaigns are due to a failing economy, and ever-increasing levels of poverty.

I.e. the people who might historically respond to these ads are increasingly becoming skint, so most of the ads are achieving far less. 

 

So I would guess that since YT and FB are making less money per ad played, they are trying to force ever more ads down people's throats, in an effort to compensate for lost income.

I was tempted to joke about too many ads being a first world problem, but I don't feel it would be accurate, because some aspects of our society and our services (eg the NHS, and childhood poverty/malnutrition levels) are no longer truly of first-world standard.

 

 

 

To be honest, as long as its not the exact same model of bike in all the reviews, I'll be ok with it personally.

I use my ebike almost daily, and I'm a massive fan of the things. They turn you into a bit of a lazy bugger tbh, but I just cant help my ebike infatuation. 

As a caravanner yourself, I reckon a brace of legal escooters (after they've been legalised of course) ) could be just the job to effortlessly get you around local towns, visit restaurants or places of interest- and without getting too hot and sweaty in the summer, etc.  

 

ETA- apologies for that nonsense. I was of course forgetting that you have a vehicle that tows the caravan, and can get you around local towns quite well! 

 

 

That was the thing, the bike was the same across the various YouTubers I subscribed to. They had obviously all been sent them at similar times.

[magnetman]

9 hours ago, mshakeshaft said:

There are ways of filtering out ads. It depends on which device or browser you are using. The easiest is to  download the 'Brave Browser' this is based on Google Chrome, but is a lot more secure and blocks YT adds and a lot of cookies (that share info about your browsing habits). It completely changes the YT experience.

Thanks for that. Brave browser is now on my phone. I watched an old snooker match and a free zombie film and there was not a single advert from start to finish. Usually this kind of content does have ads. 

 

Thumbs up from me ! 

I don't know how they do it but no ads were shown. I'm not signed in with an account. 

🤩

[manxmike]

I have to admit the advert from some American guy using god knows what to create endless electricity free (never pay an electricity bill again) looks super - I could convert all my vehicles to electric and never pay anything, electric narrow boats would become realistic. No need for lots of solar panels or generators. I can only assume these ads are like the old religeous broadcasts we used to get on late night radio - "Marinatha sons and daughters of God, send ten dollars as the pastor needs a new lear jet" - would you believe there were enough idiots/believers out there who would stump up the dosh.

My local station used to broadcast these, including the Martyrs Memorial Free Presbeterian Church, Belfast, the Minister was the Rev Ian Paisley who harangued his listeners with the most biased and prejudiced rhetoric (my opinion - yours may differ).

Even on TV we tend to record ITV and C4 so we can watch later binning the ads.