JenXChick wrote:
> Maybe you don't know how YouTube monetization works, but
> essentially views = $$$. All you really have to do is gain enough
> views per video and you can make a decent living. PewDiePie makes
> millions of dollars a year just off YouTube videos alone, and this
> was when he had around 20 million subscribers. He now approaches
> 80 million subscribers...and even though YouTube reconfigured the
> monetization formula to lower how much they pay out, people still
> make a decent living with far fewer views than the top YouTubers.
> The key component to being a successful YouTuber is consistency of
> quality video output. Quality is hard to gauge, of course, but
> the best way to define it is, "Content that people want to watch."
> There are all kinds of audiences out there. All it takes is
> finding the right way to present this material in order to attract
> the audience that will be willing to consume it. The best way to
> do this would be to use a lot of graphics and animations, throw in
> some humor, have interviews with interesting guests, and yes, this
> optimal way of doing things would be incredibly time consuming and
> require a large initial investment, neither of which I'm willing
> to do as I already have a great career.
> What I can do is bring up the concept to friends who are both
> interested in the creative aspect of this sort of thing as well as
> the general concepts of GD (I discuss it with all my friends, and
> you're right, most aren't open to the ideas and try to debunk
> them, but some are open minded enough to accept it as a
> possibility). I'll let you know if anyone wants to run a
> Generational Dynamics YouTube channel.
Wikipedia: "Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg, known online as PewDiePie, is a
Swedish YouTuber, comedian and video game commentator, best known for
his YouTube video content, which has mainly consisted of Let's Play
commentaries, vlogs, and comedic formatted shows."
I know you can make millions from Youtube videos, but you have to have
viral subject matter, as PewDiePie does. As you say, one needs
"Content that people want to watch." But what I do is "anti-viral" --
people who tell their friends about it get shunned themselves. This
is the Cassandra curse.
Look, I'm skeptical, and the project you're describing is well outside
of my comfort zone and skill set, but I'm certainly open-minded about
it, and if you can find someone who wants to take responsibility for
the whole project, pull everything together and manage it, then I'm
in.
But there are many things that I don't know how to do even if I had
the skill set. Where would I get the graphics and animations?
There's plenty of stuff available on news sites like the BBC and
al-Jazeera, but that stuff is all copyrighted.
And what would be the topics of the videos? Today's article is on
Myanmar, yesterday's was on the South China Sea, the day before was on
Kenya. Would those be the topics of three videos? How would those
videos get done, and who would even want to watch them?
I write about geopolitics and international events, and we live in a
world where most people under 60 couldn't find China on a map. The
only thing that people are interested in are politics -- the
impeachment, the shutdown, and the border wall. Or in the UK, Brexit,
brexit, brexit.
So I just don't see how this would work, although if someone else can,
then I'm in.
[..... Long intermission .....]
As I was typing the above, something did occur to me that might sell
and makes sense to me.
It would be like a tv talking heads panel format. I'd report the news
item, including a generational analysis. Then there would be two
people giving political commentary. Both of them would be young and
pretty/sexy. One would be left-wing, and the other would be
right-wing. The opinions could be gleaned from the comments to my
Breitbart article or elsewhere. I would stay above the fray, and
moderate the discussion. I think that Bret Baer on Fox evening news
would be a good example, except that I would say something if a
political opinion violated the Generational Dynamics analysis.
Once again, getting all this set up and producing these videos would
be waaaaaaaaay outside my skill set. But if you know someone who can
take responsibility for the whole thing and manage it, then it might
work.