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Artbellfan1
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I used to listen to a show called Effedup stories on Youtube. When Youtube changed the payment model, they decided to stop. It was a really good show, a lot of other people also stopped for the same reason. They stated their listener numbers plummeted, so there was no path forward. It was a real shame.
Fortunately for me the listener numbers hasn't dwindled but there really hasn't been a great sustainable way to monetize listenership. We're talking about a Paranormal show where advertisers rarely want anything to do with, and hundreds of low quality new shows pop up every year. And that's fine but it devalues the product.
YouTube offered me a way to allow the show to pay for itself.
From April 2015-March 2017 the YouTube channel was bringing in an average of four figures per month.
There were times it was less, much less, because of YouTube disputes and dumb-ass former guests wanting to claim copyright over the episode they appeared in. But overall YouTube was a great resource for the show.
I've also had the great privilege of having sponsors but—again because it is a Paranormal podcast— at a value less than a mainstream podcast would have been able to procure. K&N Filters is the largest sponsor to want to be part of my program and even then I had to broker a deal in their favor which equaled less revenue in my pocket.
The show began here on this forum as an idea being tossed back and forth between great friends as a possible solution to keep the place alive after Art left Dark Matter in 2013. What it became was a dream come true, many times over. I love my listeners and they in turn love me and the show. But sometimes—as the song goes— love isn't enough...especially when half the people you have on are obvious fraudsters out to make a buck with nothing genuinely interesting about them or their story.
A good interviewer will grow tired of this.
As Art Bell did.
I understand it now.
It's pretty simple in that many of us YouTubers failed to diversify our product in terms of financial sustainability and instead heavily relied on revenue from our YouTube advertisements. Going forward not only will I be diversifying the revenue stream but also diversifying the actual product that is being made public.
YouTube allowed people to monetize their channel with nothing more than the press of an "I Agree" button with little to no quality control. That allowed low quality shows, channels that were guaranteed to have a low following, and hate groups to monetize their message. Be it cursing up a storm, spreading hate filled messages, fake news, or otherwise offering nothing of actual value to YouTube's advertisers.
Advertisers could choose to spend their money on certain channels or have it widespread across YouTube based off of focused Keywords. Sometimes YouTube's own ad serving methods were questionable. So WSJ wrote a piece detailing how somebody who demonstrated—on his channel —that bullet proof vests worn by officers aren't exactly knife proof, and some hate filled, pro terrorism channels, all had advertisements from places like Coca-Cola, Walmart...etc.
Word got out, and the big name advertisers pulled out of the YouTube market.
Instead of recognizing they themselves were responsible, YouTube decided to pull ads from all channels that were even remotely controversial or offensive. It's a huge "F" You to all creators and free speech.
April will suck for many creators because we either won't be paid or will make 60%-90% less. Diversification is now key for those of us WHO can survive.
Podcasting is great and free. Created out of passion.
BUT some of us quit our day jobs because we were able to live out our dream and make more doing it than working a full time job.
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Artbellfan1
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The podcast that I know are successful were not relying a Youtube. That was a huge mistake for anyone doing that. I am sure the free hosting was good, but it was a poor decision to rely on an outside company. There are plenty of podcast that are profitable based solely off donations, others have a subscription model. I am a big fan of the Nosleep podcast and I subscribe. I really like their model as well.
With nearly 100,000 listeners, I consider my (former) show to be very successful in that regards and landed a huge sponsor in K&N Filters. But there comes a time to stop because of the three ring circus perspective of the Paranormal.
Art Bell quit because Paranormal shows are a penny a dozen now days and they all have the same guests. Few of those shows offer anything new or different from the hundreds, perhaps thousands of other similar type shows. NoSleep is a storytelling podcast and as such does not fall into a true Paranormal interview format themed show. People love stories.
Artbellfan1
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I agree the guest making the paranormal circuit are tired. A lot of these guys have been re-hashing their stories for 20 years. Art (actually Ramona) did a lot of work to find new wackos to put on the air. Art also covered a lot of other topics than paranormal so the show did get so repetitive.
True crime shows seem to be the hot fad right now. I think a show needs to be able to have a niche to be successful.
My favorite podcast right now is Revolutions/ History of Rome. The show survives solely of donations. The guy also does some history tours. He has an interesting model for a podcaster.
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There has been a blog written about this whole disaster featuring Mysterious Matters and Bob Bain as an example. This is a good read, and explains what our podcasters are up against right now. BTW, Bob doesn't know this writer.
http://www.starmythworld.com/mathisencorollary/2017/4/20/bd2b086ufbbkb8lfy0pletdtuwocwa
I've previously posted about my belief in the importance of regularly tuning in to independent or alternative media sources, as well as providing support (if possible) to alternative media that you find valuable. See for example this post from November, 2016, entitled "Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past" (a title taken from a line in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four).
Above is a short message from Bob Bain, host of the Mysterious Matters podcast (you can listen to the message via iTunes by following this link and looking for the "Future of Mysterious Matters message posted on April 14, 2017).
In it, Bob describes the devastating financial impact on content creators who rely on ad revenues sold by Google-Alphabet against YouTube videos that the content creators post, due to Google-Alphabet's response to complaints from some corporate ad buyers about totally unrelated content, which led to ads being pulled (by Google) from all kinds of other content creators (such as Mysterious Matters) deemed to be "on the fringe" in any way.
Content creators such as Bob, whose Mysterious Matters podcast has tens of thousands of followers, can generate ad revenues by allowing Google's YouTube to sell ads against that content. Those paying for the ads don't know what content their ads will be sold against, and those providing the content (such as Bob) don't know what ads will be placed on their videos. Therefore, when some corporations paying for ads told Google's YouTube that they were unhappy about the content (videos) that some of their ads appeared against, Google responded by pulling ads from a wide swath of content creators -- including Mysterious Matters.
Apparently, hosting interviews with guests who discuss techniques for inducing lucid dreaming, or the relative merits of various "ancient alien" theories, or paranormal encounters from the state of Tennessee, is now categorized as being as "potentially objectionable" as incendiary, racist, or misogynistic content. I certainly have not listened to every interview Bob Bain has ever done, but those I have listened to are enough for me to feel safe in saying that he does not deserve categorization as "objectionable content" -- and in fact he does not even curse on his show (except very rarely and reluctantly and when he is really upset about something) and most of his podcasts are rated as "clean" in iTunes.
The fact is that there has been a sudden and fairly massive push to identify everything that is an "alternative" to the dominant neoliberal and neoconservative paradigm or worldview advanced by the corporate-sponsored media outlets as being racist or incendiary or misogynistic -- a weaponization of the term "alternative" which recalls the deliberate weaponization of the terms "conspiracy theory" as a way of stifling the proliferation of dissenting voices in the united states in the wake of the Warren Commission that was supposed to investigate the John Kennedy assassination.
Threats to the economic viability and survivability of alternative sources of information is a very serious subject, as discussed in the blog post linked above whose title comes from an Orwell quotation. The need to have avenues and sources of information that are beyond the tremendous monetary influence of massive corporate interests should be a concern of everyone who values the open investigation of explanations for the evidence we see in the world around us which might not be popular or which might not serve the interests of certain industries (or which might in fact expose wrongdoing by certain powerful persons or business interests).
Ultimately, the ability to construct a "narrative" or a "paradigm" to "excuse or to (supposedly) "justify" certain practices is an essential aspect of getting away with fraudulent, oppressive, or criminal behavior -- and thus everyone who opposes oppression should recognize the importance of investigating and "trying on" alternative paradigms and frameworks that might better explain the events of the past -- and the present.
If fewer people can find a way to provide independent platforms for independent voices to be heard, the result is unquestionably negative and detrimental to open discourse and critical thinking -- and open discourse and critical thinking are vital to democratic society (and anathema to oppressive regimes, as Orwell demonstrated so memorably in his writing).
There are other ways to support such independent media sources besides the ad-based model, of course -- as Bob says in the address above, he made the mistake of relying on ads sold against his many YouTube views, and he won't make that mistake again. In the meantime, he notes that any donations to help replace the sudden loss of ad revenues are appreciated. I would urge anyone who listens to his show to try to do so, if possible)
Kudos to Bob for explaining what is going on and the impact it is having in such a clear and concise way -- I myself don't have any ad-based revenue and so I was unaware of the impact of this recent development.
Full story at site.
http://www.starmythworld.com/mathisencorollary/2017/4/20/bd2b086ufbbkb8lfy0pletdtuwocwa
I've previously posted about my belief in the importance of regularly tuning in to independent or alternative media sources, as well as providing support (if possible) to alternative media that you find valuable. See for example this post from November, 2016, entitled "Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past" (a title taken from a line in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four).
Above is a short message from Bob Bain, host of the Mysterious Matters podcast (you can listen to the message via iTunes by following this link and looking for the "Future of Mysterious Matters message posted on April 14, 2017).
In it, Bob describes the devastating financial impact on content creators who rely on ad revenues sold by Google-Alphabet against YouTube videos that the content creators post, due to Google-Alphabet's response to complaints from some corporate ad buyers about totally unrelated content, which led to ads being pulled (by Google) from all kinds of other content creators (such as Mysterious Matters) deemed to be "on the fringe" in any way.
Content creators such as Bob, whose Mysterious Matters podcast has tens of thousands of followers, can generate ad revenues by allowing Google's YouTube to sell ads against that content. Those paying for the ads don't know what content their ads will be sold against, and those providing the content (such as Bob) don't know what ads will be placed on their videos. Therefore, when some corporations paying for ads told Google's YouTube that they were unhappy about the content (videos) that some of their ads appeared against, Google responded by pulling ads from a wide swath of content creators -- including Mysterious Matters.
Apparently, hosting interviews with guests who discuss techniques for inducing lucid dreaming, or the relative merits of various "ancient alien" theories, or paranormal encounters from the state of Tennessee, is now categorized as being as "potentially objectionable" as incendiary, racist, or misogynistic content. I certainly have not listened to every interview Bob Bain has ever done, but those I have listened to are enough for me to feel safe in saying that he does not deserve categorization as "objectionable content" -- and in fact he does not even curse on his show (except very rarely and reluctantly and when he is really upset about something) and most of his podcasts are rated as "clean" in iTunes.
The fact is that there has been a sudden and fairly massive push to identify everything that is an "alternative" to the dominant neoliberal and neoconservative paradigm or worldview advanced by the corporate-sponsored media outlets as being racist or incendiary or misogynistic -- a weaponization of the term "alternative" which recalls the deliberate weaponization of the terms "conspiracy theory" as a way of stifling the proliferation of dissenting voices in the united states in the wake of the Warren Commission that was supposed to investigate the John Kennedy assassination.
Threats to the economic viability and survivability of alternative sources of information is a very serious subject, as discussed in the blog post linked above whose title comes from an Orwell quotation. The need to have avenues and sources of information that are beyond the tremendous monetary influence of massive corporate interests should be a concern of everyone who values the open investigation of explanations for the evidence we see in the world around us which might not be popular or which might not serve the interests of certain industries (or which might in fact expose wrongdoing by certain powerful persons or business interests).
Ultimately, the ability to construct a "narrative" or a "paradigm" to "excuse or to (supposedly) "justify" certain practices is an essential aspect of getting away with fraudulent, oppressive, or criminal behavior -- and thus everyone who opposes oppression should recognize the importance of investigating and "trying on" alternative paradigms and frameworks that might better explain the events of the past -- and the present.
If fewer people can find a way to provide independent platforms for independent voices to be heard, the result is unquestionably negative and detrimental to open discourse and critical thinking -- and open discourse and critical thinking are vital to democratic society (and anathema to oppressive regimes, as Orwell demonstrated so memorably in his writing).
There are other ways to support such independent media sources besides the ad-based model, of course -- as Bob says in the address above, he made the mistake of relying on ads sold against his many YouTube views, and he won't make that mistake again. In the meantime, he notes that any donations to help replace the sudden loss of ad revenues are appreciated. I would urge anyone who listens to his show to try to do so, if possible)
Kudos to Bob for explaining what is going on and the impact it is having in such a clear and concise way -- I myself don't have any ad-based revenue and so I was unaware of the impact of this recent development.
Full story at site.
Artbellfan1
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So Bob did you have to go back to your old job? or are you hoping to continue making a living with podcast, tweeking how it is delivered?
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Bob's off forum for a bit working on his newest. He's going more private platform and going for a new format with Insight, debuting soon.
