Saturday, April 05, 2014

Ad-block and Sponsoring YouTube Channels

The issue of YouTube 'monetization' has been on my mind for some time.  I use Ad-block which gives me a quality internet experience... without that, frankly I would rather wash dishes for a job and have a completely internet-free existence. 

Of course I understand that YouTubers have a dependency on ad-revenue to make the quality content I enjoy.
  • Some science channels use Hank Greeen's "Subbable" system for users to contribute, but becoming a Subbable subscriber requires selling my soul to Google... I already exclude myself from YouTube comments through being unwilling to do that.
  • Henry Reich in MinutePhysics has tried Gittip, although it's clear he's getting almost no takers for it.  I tried for a while with $1 per week, but it's not an altruistic cause for me (my altruism projects are elsewhere).  After waiting weeks betwween videos on that channel I reduced to 25 cents, and then eventually stopped... my internal "value-for-money analyser" seems to demand at least 1 good video per US$, and undergoes cognitive dissonance with the need for constant re-evaluation of subscription level.
Derek Muller from Veritasium is an intellectual giant who uses monetization.  He has courageously intervened in such controversies as Facebook Likes, but has so far been silent on monetization, and curiously doesn't participate in Subbable or similar user-funding.  The 'right' mechanism would certainly make a dependable donor of me to several channels.  Maybe this is the most potentially sustainable revenue source, but aside from my own quoibles, it doesn't seem to be working very effectively in general at the moment. 

Every YouTube Video has a "Thumbs-up" button.  Wouldn't it be great if it had a 'donate' button, where we could make a micro-donation we preset with every video we enjoyed.  If that were combined with no "Google+" subscription requirement and had realistic "middleman" admin fees, I'd certainly be game to try it!

Any good ideas, anyone?