MSE News: 'I made £6,375 from YouTube videos last year'

Flyonthewall

gadgetmind wrote: »

Well, there you go. We're all different, which is why we have different flavours of ice cream. I'm actually a very patient person, but find advertising so irritating that I will actively avoid it.

You seem to go to a lot of effort to avoid ads. By the time you've realised an ad is playing and clicked away you could have just clicked skip and watched the video. In 5 seconds you're not even going to know what half the ads are to get annoyed by them.

Maybe, but I get to know that I enriching the world (in my own small way) without actively trivialising it with adverts.

I watch a fair few youtube videos. Couldn't tell you what a single ad is that plays before them or surrounds them. I don't pay attention to the ads for them to bother me and I then get to watch the content I want to watch and enjoy watching. You probably think far more about the ads than I do in trying to avoid seeing them.

Which is great, consume all the advertising that you want, and maybe have my helping too!

However, as I use browser ad blockers, javascript and flash filters, and a daily hosts file update to block sites known to peddle advertising, etc., I'm exposed to close to zero adverts anyway.

As above, I don't pay attention to it lol. Plus I probably have a faster browser as I don't have a load of ad blockers and filters slowing it down.

gadgetmind

Flyonthewall wrote: »

You seem to go to a lot of effort to avoid ads.

Perhaps, but I'm a tech guy so it doesn't take long to set these things up and everyone using my DNS then benefits from a fair few of them.

By the time you've realised an ad is playing and clicked away you could have just clicked skip and watched the video.

Backspace or Ctrl-W, job done.

Plus I probably have a faster browser as I don't have a load of ad blockers and filters slowing it down.

No, blocking flash (until you deliberately click on it) massively accelerates things, and you don't get loads of silly animations running.

Flyonthewall

gadgetmind wrote: »

Perhaps, but I'm a tech guy so it doesn't take long to set these things up and everyone using my DNS then benefits from a fair few of them.

Still time and effort though and to avoid something that doesn't really seem worth avoiding.

Backspace or Ctrl-W, job done.

Yeah and despite how quick and easy it is the ad will still have finished playing by the time you've done it. They're probably still making money from it too.

No, blocking flash (until you deliberately click on it) massively accelerates things, and you don't get loads of silly animations running.

It's still more software running on your browser. I suppose overall the speed would depend on which sites you go on. Flash heavy sites would perhaps load faster because it is displaying very little but a site with barely any flash wouldn't because you have software slowing it down and not having any real effect on the site.

Although it would bug me to constantly be unblocking flash. The things I want to view that are flashed based are higher than the few flash adverts that may annoy me. Can't say that I see many flash ads/animations that I don't want to, but perhaps I just don't pay attention to them.

Personally I use ads to my benefit. On Youtube and a blog I have adsense and on survey sites I get paid for ads to play and to do offers. The benefit certainly far outweighs the negative. For the rest of the ads on the internet, I pay no attention to them and they don't bother me.

Companies are going to advertise regardless and wherever you go there's advertising (TV, radio, games, films, walking down the street, shops etc.). Ads can be really annoying and I couldn't care less about what they're advertising, but I'd rather be able to say I'm better off because of them than spend time and effort tying to avoid the impossible and not gain a thing.

Your choice, of course, and that's fine. Just it seems to me that the advertisers are winning. I don't think I know anyone who likes ads, but can't say I've ever met anyone quite so against them lol.

I feel we've probably gone a bit off topic here Anyway, while smaller youtubers rely on ads the bigger youtubers tend to make money in other ways too.

PasturesNew

I've never made a video, but then I also don't use Youtube as my PC/Internet connection aren't good enough for watching any form of video content.

Yes, some people have made money - like all things. But you still need the kit and to have something interesting to say/show in the video.

Videoing, with my cameraphone, the rain falling on my patio, won't cut the mustard.

Flyonthewall

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've never made a video, but then I also don't use Youtube as my PC/Internet connection aren't good enough for watching any form of video content.

Yes, some people have made money - like all things. But you still need the kit and to have something interesting to say/show in the video.

Videoing, with my cameraphone, the rain falling on my patio, won't cut the mustard.

Most youtubers have started off with an old video camera or webcam and free video editing software. As they've gained money they've saved up for better equipment.

Also, if you became a popular youtuber you may well get away with filming rain falling and get money for it. There's a video of Charlieissoboredlike (Charlieissocoollike is his main channel) of him eating cereal for 10 minutes and it has over 400,000 views. Although you never know, you may get views on it because people will watch it expecting something to happen lol.

If you look back at Charlies old videos and other youtubers like Zoella, Pointlessblog, Itswaypastmybedtime, nigahiga etc. You can see that overtime the quality has improved but they all started out with next to nothing and just did random sketches or filmed their thoughts on something. Just because you don't think it's interesting doesn't mean people won't want to watch it.

It is harder starting out now then it was 5 or 6 years ago, but any youtuber will tell you the same. Grab a camera, doesn't matter what camera, and just start talking. You never know.

Tropez

Flyonthewall wrote: »

It's still more software running on your browser. I suppose overall the speed would depend on which sites you go on. Flash heavy sites would perhaps load faster because it is displaying very little but a site with barely any flash wouldn't because you have software slowing it down and not having any real effect on the site.

Adblocking addons running in your browser have very little effect on the overall performance you get while browsing. Your Internet connection speed and quality and even your computer specifications will determine how fast or slow the browsing experience is because some of the addons functions will be handled at a local level.

A browser simply renders content. Adblockers and other such filters tell the browser not to render certain types of content and/or to not permit content to be displayed from a list of domain names/ad hosts. While a site is being downloaded for display, the system uses the parameters of the addon and nixes any content the addon says shouldn't be downloaded. It is a very simple process that requires very little extra processing to complete.

Browsers themselves are so light-weight now that you can add a substantial number of plugins and customisations without feeling any noticeable performance hit. One of my systems is an i7-4790k with 16GB RAM and an SSD, another is an i5-3230M with 8GB RAM and a 5400RPM HDD... they have the same addons and the browsing experience is near identical. The only obvious thing that differs is that the initial launch of the browser is faster on the former because of the SSD.

I run Firefox on all my systems and it does have Adblock Plus installed. It also has some other filters for a few things and a couple of other addons, one of which, for example, automatically sets YouTube videos to 1080p (or the next highest available resolution if 1080p is unavailable). Videos still load up in the same amount of time as they did without the addon installed.

As for ads on Youtube videos, I don't see them. The only way ads show up on Youtube for me is if the person creating the video is the one actually doing the advertising as part of the video (such as Linus Tech Tips).

The five seconds and skip ads are removed entirely by my addon and I much prefer it that way - and I prefer it that way not because I'm trying to flip off advertisers or even to save those five seconds but because it got to the point where every time I tried to watch a Youtube video, some only a few seconds long, I was hit by advertising that often bore no resemblance to the video in question and sometimes was grossly inappropriate. Hard-hearted as it may make me sound, I don't click on a comedy video wanting to see graphic images of malnourished children as part of a charitable campaign. I do give to such charities anyway but there's a time and a place for that kind of 'awareness' campaigning.

Television advertising annoys me for the same reason. The only programming I tend to watch live now is sports and when the adverts come on it's usually my cue to go make a coffee, grab a snack, let the dog out etc. TV programmes I almost exclusively watch on-demand, where adverts are largely removed.

Advertising created as part of the video, such as in the case of the aforementioned Linus, doesn't bother me so much. He hosts a tech-related channel, sponsored by tech companies and he advertises tech-related equipment. Perfect. I might not necessarily care for the piece of tech he's advertising at the given moment but at least it is relevant to what I'm viewing. I've no issue with non-obtrusive and relevant advertising.

Completely random ads picked from a pool that likely bear no relation to a video you want to watch is not for me. And websites that laden themselves with all sorts of silly ads are massively obtrusive to me and I block them as well. And autoplaying video ads on websites, they're extremely annoying but are now all blocked.

Flyonthewall

Tropez wrote: »

Adblocking addons running in your browser have very little effect on the overall performance you get while browsing. Your Internet connection speed and quality and even your computer specifications will determine how fast or slow the browsing experience is because some of the addons functions will be handled at a local level.

A browser simply renders content. Adblockers and other such filters tell the browser not to render certain types of content and/or to not permit content to be displayed from a list of domain names/ad hosts. While a site is being downloaded for display, the system uses the parameters of the addon and nixes any content the addon says shouldn't be downloaded. It is a very simple process that requires very little extra processing to complete.

Browsers themselves are so light-weight now that you can add a substantial number of plugins and customisations without feeling any noticeable performance hit. One of my systems is an i7-4790k with 16GB RAM and an SSD, another is an i5-3230M with 8GB RAM and a 5400RPM HDD... they have the same addons and the browsing experience is near identical. The only obvious thing that differs is that the initial launch of the browser is faster on the former because of the SSD.

I run Firefox on all my systems and it does have Adblock Plus installed. It also has some other filters for a few things and a couple of other addons, one of which, for example, automatically sets YouTube videos to 1080p (or the next highest available resolution if 1080p is unavailable). Videos still load up in the same amount of time as they did without the addon installed.

As for ads on Youtube videos, I don't see them. The only way ads show up on Youtube for me is if the person creating the video is the one actually doing the advertising as part of the video (such as Linus Tech Tips).

The five seconds and skip ads are removed entirely by my addon and I much prefer it that way - and I prefer it that way not because I'm trying to flip off advertisers or even to save those five seconds but because it got to the point where every time I tried to watch a Youtube video, some only a few seconds long, I was hit by advertising that often bore no resemblance to the video in question and sometimes was grossly inappropriate. Hard-hearted as it may make me sound, I don't click on a comedy video wanting to see graphic images of malnourished children as part of a charitable campaign. I do give to such charities anyway but there's a time and a place for that kind of 'awareness' campaigning.

Television advertising annoys me for the same reason. The only programming I tend to watch live now is sports and when the adverts come on it's usually my cue to go make a coffee, grab a snack, let the dog out etc. TV programmes I almost exclusively watch on-demand, where adverts are largely removed.

Advertising created as part of the video, such as in the case of the aforementioned Linus, doesn't bother me so much. He hosts a tech-related channel, sponsored by tech companies and he advertises tech-related equipment. Perfect. I might not necessarily care for the piece of tech he's advertising at the given moment but at least it is relevant to what I'm viewing. I've no issue with non-obtrusive and relevant advertising.

Completely random ads picked from a pool that likely bear no relation to a video you want to watch is not for me. And websites that laden themselves with all sorts of silly ads are massively obtrusive to me and I block them as well. And autoplaying video ads on websites, they're extremely annoying but are now all blocked.

Despite good spec PCs, latest browser and good Internet I notice when I have a few plugins on my browser.

I also used to have an ad-blocker, one of the top rated ones. It never blocked everything and was more hassle trying to make sure things were blocked than it was to just ignore things.

I know the ads often aren't related to the videos but like I say, I ignore them so it doesn't bother me.

Far as I'm concerned, software can glitch and cause issues whereas ignoring ads is easy and hassle free lol.

Tropez

Flyonthewall wrote: »

Despite good spec PCs, latest browser and good Internet I notice when I have a few plugins on my browser.

I also used to have an ad-blocker, one of the top rated ones. It never blocked everything and was more hassle trying to make sure things were blocked than it was to just ignore things.

I know the ads often aren't related to the videos but like I say, I ignore them so it doesn't bother me.

Far as I'm concerned, software can glitch and cause issues whereas ignoring ads is easy and hassle free lol.

I'd say your PC is in need of some maintenance then since it really shouldn't be noticeable, although you may just be running some poorly optimised plugins by lazy developers that are resource-hogging or have memory leaks.

I've not noticed ads in a long, long time so I can't say I consider it to be a hassle to install an adblocker and then just leave it running.

I sync my Firefox setup between PCs so there isn't even any extra configuration to do on a new system or fresh install. It's about as hassle-free as it can get, and then I can browse without seeing ads I don't want to see, without seeing ridiculous numbers of ads on over-eager blog sites, without annoying ads autoplaying videos on websites (usually at maximum volume too) and without the security holes that virtually all major ad-platforms have, at one time or another, left consumers vulnerable to.

If you prefer to ignore ads then that's fair enough but there's no reason to argue that it is a hassle to block them when it really isn't.

Flyonthewall

Tropez wrote: »

I'd say your PC is in need of some maintenance then since it really shouldn't be noticeable, although you may just be running some poorly optimised plugins by lazy developers that are resource-hogging or have memory leaks.

I've not noticed ads in a long, long time so I can't say I consider it to be a hassle to install an adblocker and then just leave it running.

I sync my Firefox setup between PCs so there isn't even any extra configuration to do on a new system or fresh install. It's about as hassle-free as it can get, and then I can browse without seeing ads I don't want to see, without seeing ridiculous numbers of ads on over-eager blog sites, without annoying ads autoplaying videos on websites (usually at maximum volume too) and without the security holes that virtually all major ad-platforms have, at one time or another, left consumers vulnerable to.

If you prefer to ignore ads then that's fair enough but there's no reason to argue that it is a hassle to block them when it really isn't.

I've noticed it on new computers. No maintence needed. I've used various plugins over the years, some worse than others.

I'm not arguing, just stating my opinion. Although it is more hassle to find a plugin, install it, set up as you want and to possibly update it and change settings every so often than it is to just do nothing at all. Having to do something is obviously more hassle than not doing it.

And while we may find it easy enough to install the plugin others would find it a massive hassle to do so.

Tropez

Flyonthewall wrote: »

I've noticed it on new computers. No maintence needed. I've used various plugins over the years, some worse than others.

I'm not arguing, just stating my opinion. Although it is more hassle to find a plugin, install it, set up as you want and to possibly update it and change settings every so often than it is to just do nothing at all. Having to do something is obviously more hassle than not doing it.

And while we may find it easy enough to install the plugin others would find it a massive hassle to do so.

To argue is to give reasons or cite evidence in support of a theory, idea or action. That is what you're doing and that is what I'm doing. It's not a condemnation to use the word 'argue' in this context.

Adblock Plus requires a few button presses to install. It requires no extra setup unless you want to block all ads (by default, it permits advertising from certain groups who adhere to its own policy on responsible advertising). Updates are handled automatically and there's no under-the-hood tinkering required.

Yes, people who don't know what on earth they're doing with computers might have difficulties, but we're not talking about people who don't know what they're doing. I'm discussing this subject from my point of view, I've explained why I've done it and I've countered your assertions that it degrades my system's performance (it doesn't and it shouldn't degrade yours either) and that it was a hassle (it's not).

Therefore, if you argue that doing something is more hassle than doing nothing, I'll argue that "ignoring" adverts, including the ones that I've already decried as being overly obtrusive and inappropriate is more hassle for me than a few button presses and ridding my browsing experience of them for good.