Recently one of my favorite YouTube content creators David Di Franco started an Indiegogo campaign to purchase a new Mac Pro in order to upgrade his aging 2006 model. He gave the campaign 60 days to achieve his $3500 goal. However he reached his goal in less than 1 day.
Although David enjoyed strong support from a large number of his 100,000 subscribers, he also received more than his share of hostility from the audience. This prompted me to make a response video on YouTube, the link for it is below. My video received over 1,400 views in just a couple of days, and I picked up a number of subscribers as well.
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Below are my list of supporting your favorite content creators, whether YouTubers. Podcasters, Bloggers, Actors, Live Streamers or others who work hard to create great content for us.
1: Creating content is seriously hard work. Between research, writing, creating audio and video, editing, and marketing the content. There is a large commitment in time and resources involved.
2: Although more and more advertising dollars are being spent on internet content, so is the expectation of ever increasing quality of the content. This puts even greater demands on creators to improve the production quality of their content. This can lead to increased expense.
3: Increased competition for those advertising dollars can mean lower earnings from greater efforts. For example YouTube AdSense revenue is shrinking based on the number of thousands of views (CPM) for many creators.
4. Far too many people believe that all content on the internet should be free. Even though they pay for things like Cable TV, and support programming they may not care for! When creators attempt to seek donations, or in some way monetize their content, they are labeled sell outs. I challenge them to give a valid reason why anyone should work for free.
5: Some people believe that bloggers, podcasters, and YouTubers , as well as live streamers are using hobbyist platforms to attempt to make money. These are people who with large audiences have demonstrated they bring value to the table. These platforms are about discovery. Why else would fortune 500 companies invest in these platforms if they were truly hobbyist in nature?
6: By donating directly to your favorite content creators, you the content consumer have a voice in the kind and quality of the content you experience. This is opposite of conventional media, where others decide what should be written, aired, syndicated and so forth.
7: If you can’t afford financial support, at least offer moral support. We content creators love to hear from our listeners, and get solid feedback. We love it when you share our content with others. You can demonstrate your support by subscribing to our podcasts, reading and commenting on our blogs, leaving comments and likes on YouTube.
8: Understand that podcasts, blogs, and videos are just as much as a product as anything else. Yes the internet is full of “amateur hour” entertainment, it is also full of great work from highly skilled crafts people who see the power of internet distribution.
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