YouTube questions

Factual Questions
1

Why do people want me to subscribe to their channels?

I can understand giving the thumbs up or down, and perhaps a comment if someone wants feedback on how to improve the video, but I doubt this is it. One video I clicked on the guy was celebrating his 1000th subscriber. I am guessing this has something to do with advertising and revenues, but I couldnt find anything on YouTube.

So, do people get paid for putting out video on YouTube? I did hear recently that the famous “Charlie bit my finger” video generated a check for the parents of either $50k or $500k ( I can’t remember the number,sorry).

This was for the massive amounts of hits the video generated, and page views equal ad revenue.

So, what’s the straight dope on this? Can I make money making you tube videos that generate a following?

2

I don’t know the specifics on how people make money through YouTube (other than advertising, duh), but I do know that in the section of the site where I can get an overview of the videos I have uploaded, there is a prominent blue bar at the top asking me if I want to make money off my videos. I clicked on it once a while back and don’t remember the specifics, but I would assume having people subscribed to you at the very least will grant you a larger amount of exposure, since your videos will show up in people’s “subscriptions” page and a percentage of said people will watch your video on a whim and so on.

3

I think it’s changed over time but I know at one point, uploaders who had a certain number of subscribers could become Partners and get some amount of money on a regular basis. I believe several of the higher profile vloggers like Shane Dawson, Hannah Harto and Charlie McDonnell live pretty much off of their youtube fame.

4

Just curious, but why would anyone not want to do this? Why would they need your permission if your video is already posted out there? Don’t you lose control on who can see the video?

Or is there some negative aspect of this I’m missing?

A follow up question is how much can some one make? Based on Inner Stickler’s comment, some people have made a living off their YouTube posts. But I wonder what the formula is?

5

Not want to do what? Who needs what permission? Sorry, I’m slow.

6

Sorry. I should have quoted your post. You mention a blue bar that appears asking if you want to make money from your video. My answer was why wouldnt you? Also, I wondered if you already posted your video, you have given up your right to privacy, so they Could do what they wanted with your video. If it made money, you’d get paid, and everyone is happy.

I guess i still don’t understand what kind of money can be made, and are there payoffs for different levels of subscribers.

7

“Want to make money” translates to “want to include extra ads.” It may even mean including ads at all–i’m not sure since I’m Adblocking all Google products out of protest, even though I trust them to not give me rogue ads.

8

Okay here’s what the blue bar says:

Then I click on a “Get started” link which brings up a window type thing that is titled “Enable Your Account for Monetization” and below that is a bunch of legalese, which I have copied if you’d like a copy.

Then below the legalese are three boxes I have to check to proceed.

[ul]
[li]I have read and agree to the terms above.[/li][li]I agree that I will not click on the Google ads that I’m serving through Google’s products and services in order to fraudulently increase income.[/li][li]I will not opt-in any content for monetization for which I do not possess sufficient rights.[/ul][/li]The next window is “Ad Formats” with more check boxes for me to choose how I want things to be shown.

[list]
[li]Overlay in-video ads[/li][li]TrueView in-stream ads[/li][li]Videos contain a product placement[/li]
After that I clicked “skip” because I didn’t read the legalese and don’t want to get into something without reading such stuff.

The next window contains instructions on how to monetize each specific video, “Monetize videos by clicking the $ icon or by selecting ‘Monetize’ from the Actions dropdown menu. For more information visit Monetization in your Account Settings.”

The only option for me at this point is “Got it”.

After this I went to the Monetization section of my account and you can enable/disable monetization and there is a Guidelines and Information section. The various links unfortunately do not provide any information that answer the brunt of your OP.

The closest is the answer for “How much will my videos earn?” Which is “Earnings will depend on a number of factors. the two key factors are the type of ads and the pricing of ads appering with your videos.”

Also, there is a question “How will I be paid?”, to which the answer “Payments are managed through a Google AdSense account. You must associate an AdSense account to your YouTube account in order to be paid.”

I went to the relevant link contained in the answer and apparently you only get paid when you reach a “payment threshold”. Upon further research, the payment threshold for USD is $100. So every time your video reaches the 100 threshold, you'll get paid, the specifics on /view or click through isn’t specified.

In short, I have no real answer to your question. :stuck_out_tongue:

9

This website estimates how much any given channel makes based on how much ads pay given one’s viewcount.

10

I don’t have anything intelligent to add, but Stink Fish Pot, I wish you’d consider a name change. Not only because I believe you’re a more intelligent person than that name describes, but also because every time I see it, I get the “rotten belches”. :p:)

I also take Omega Oil every day.:slight_smile:

Thanks

Quasi

11

Thanks for the compliment. And let me apologize for your rotten belches. That must be very disconcerting.

Do you have any suggestions for a new name? I never have appeared on the boards at a regular pace, so I went for something that might cause someone to remember me if they see my posts from time to time. But I really don’t have a following that I know of, and you are the first person to actually mention my name so I doubt people notice it much anyway.

If you have some good suggestions, feel free to PM me. I don’t want this to become a public debate or a “name this poster” contest because it could get ugly. Who knows what kind of reactions people may have to my name? I hope there aren’t many suffering such as yourself.

Personally, I like yours. But, I can’t take it since you have quite a history on this board and your reputation is intact. I need something memorable and relatively plesant. Hmmm. I’m at a loss. I guess that’s how I came to use stink fish pot in the first place. :p:D. And to tell the truth, it has grown on me. I’m the only stink fish pot on any message board I sign up for! I can’t believe it, either.:cool:

12

Sent you a pm, but really, it’s a personal thing and you need not even consider me or my suggestion if that name has “grown” on you. I would respect you and your opinions just as much, I promise.

To be honest, in my old age I’ve begun to see my friends here in a superlative way, and every time I see a post/thread by them, I then connect them with that name. Am I making sense?

In your case, of course the point is now moot, isn’t it? You and I have connected, and if you choose to remain Stink Fish Pot, I would be honored to consider you my friend and follow your writings here.

And I must admit, the “rotten belches” comment was me being satirical but at the same time hopeful you’d choose a name more befitting of what you write.

In closing, if your nick is a reflection of what you think of yourself, then stop it and let’s think of a better name.

Quasi

13

I looked up some of my subs and their lowball estimates on that site make me want to quit my job and LP video games all day! I wonder how accurate those numbers really are?

14

If you don’t own all of the content of the video (a lot of videos on youtube are not original works)

If you don’t want your videos to include intrusive ads

If you don’t want the hassle of filing a tax return - I’ve just had to start doing this for my Google revenue (previously, my income tax was all done by my employer)

15

I’ve seen these people celebrating the number of followers they have too. Probably because they get the same joy out of having a lot of subscribers as some people get from having a lot of facebook friends or twitter followers.

16

from the website:

17

Fair enough. Makes perfect sense.

[hijack]
I guess this obsession with facebook (like me on facebook!) by companies is similarly tied to revenue?

Christ, I hate facebook. I will start another thread on that sometime, since I have similar questions about them, but what I really find amazing is how they are becoming the defacto portal for everything and everybody. They are everywhere.

[/end hijack]

18

For what it’s worth, I’ve made ~$250 from ~420,000 video views. Not much, but better than I was expecting given that I pretty much only upload videos for my own amusement, and I haven’t bothered to promote them at all.

19

Probably. About two-thirds of the web seems obsessed with driving traffic to its sites solely for the purposes of generating ad revenue - they just want clicks - don’t care about content, and because they don’t care, their content will be vapid, reposted or downright plagiarised.