YouTube Introduces Sponsors, Amazing OR Total Rip-off?
I waited 4 years
For this feature and now that it's here should I be happy or disappointed? Short intro: I own the YouTube Channel: PGN Piano with over 200K subs. This means that I am in touch with youtube partner support and youtube supervisors from google's Amsterdam HQ. I therefore know a lot of stuff about youtube before it is being announced publicly. I've been begging them for a direct payment option for 4 years! Now it is here, but it's not exactly what I expected.
Sponsorship
YouTubers can now offer the option for their fans to sponsor them. (this option is currently only available to channels with over 100K subs, in certain countries, that don't have too many violation strikes on youtube).
Here's how it works: Subscribers and general fans can 'sponsor' a youtube by donating $4.95 to the channel every month via youtube's payment system. They can cancel anytime, so there is no membership with a minimum term. In return creators can reward sponsors for doing so.
Pros
Let's start with the positives. First of all, it is amazing that fans can now finally support creators directly on YouTube. Creators can in turn reward sponsors for doing so by offering exclusive live stream events or exclusive posts. Sponsors also obtain badges based on how long they have been sponsoring a channel. This badge appears next to their comments on videos or replies on that specific youtube channel. There is also the option for creators to design channel specific emoticons which can be used in live chat. This finally allows creators to get a direct stream of income. I'm truly excited about this. Roll-out is across a fair amount of countries, and VAT is arranged by youtube so income will be VAT free, and can be reported for tax as a 'normal income source'.
Cons
Okay here we go. First again, I'm really loving the fact it finally happened, but there are many things I don't like. The biggest thing I really don't like (so far) and I haven't been able to 100% confirm this, so I hope I'm wrong:
No blocked videos
The only way to offer content to sponsors only, is by creating a LIVE video, or by creating a post in the 'community tab'. This means it is not possible to block 'normal videos' from non-sponsors and thus not being able to provide exclusive content to sponsors directly on youtube. (I have heard that you can delay release of videos to 'the public' with 24hrs so sponsors get to watch first, that is neat). The solution for youtube is to post links in the 'community tab'. There are more problems here: nobody every uses that tab, it is very much unknown in the youtube community. Apart from that, sponsor only posts do not even show for non-sponsors which means they do not know what they are going to receive in return for sponsorship.
30% goes to YouTube!
Okay this one is just ridiculous. Yes, I understand youtube has to set this up and credit card fees will apply. However 30% of a DONATION goes to youtube? That's way too much in my opinion. I would be more comfortable with 10%-15% at the most. However, to be fair, it's better to earn 70% of something than 100% of nothing.
Perks are non-existent
Yes it is cool you get channel dedicated emoticons from your favourite creators in live chat, but is that really worth paying $4.95 a month? The badge next to your name indicating how long you've been a sponsor for may be an incentive to keep sponsorship up but is it really that big a deal? And mainly the other perks can all be offered via the community tab, which again is not the most visited place on youtube. Just sharing a link there now and then is really not that beneficial. People can simply sign up for 1 day, copy all links and all your high-value content has been ripped just like that. Also there is no real search function in the community tab, which makes it kind of like steemits blog post. If you posted about something 2 years ago, new sponsors will have a hard time tracking that down. Also the price is fixed, so you cannot offer different levels like at for instance patreon. I'm again also missing the content locker from patreon to entice people to sign up.
| Pro | Con |
|---|---|
| Direct Income | $4.95 is fixed |
| Excl Badges | Not possible to block videos |
| Excl Emoticons | no content blocker |
| Excl Live Stream | 30/70 split on donations! |
| Excl Community Posts | Community tab is hard to search |
| x | Sponsor content easy to rip |
| x | perks are hardly incentive to sponsor |
Conclusion
For me personally having this option is amazing news. I finally have a way for my 216K subs to support me directly and I'm pretty sure a lot of people who had doubts or reservations about sponsoring me via a third-party website like patreon or my own website for that matter trust the youtube payment system way more. I mean for a lot of people entering credit card details is still a big step, and to do that on youtube must feel a lot safer than on my own website which they may not trust, even though my payments run through PayPal and stripe.
The fact the button is quite visible and people do not have to leave the platform to pay for quality content is amazing to me, I've been wanting this for years. The fact that the perks aren't that cool is something I'm gonna have to deal with, I would have loved to be able to block videos. Yes the 24 hour delay is cool, but I don't feel that is enough. The exclusive live streams are cool, but I hardly ever do lives so I'm quite biased on that :)
The 30/70 split is something that upsets me not so much for myself, but mainly for other creators. I know that for my niche and target group it's way more beneficial to have someone being able to pay me directly, and I think it will be more profitable for me to have this as an extra offer. It just seems like such an unfair amount which is upsetting me.
All and all I'm really happy with this update, yet I hope they will makes adaptions soon :)
Please let me know how you feel about sponsorship on youtube, what about the 30/70 split? What about the option to block lives and not all videos. And what about the badges and emoticons, would that be enough for you to consider supporting me? Or would you want to sponsor or support your favourite creators nonetheless, even if there is no rewards?
OK...now... HOW DO WE GET DTUBE TO DOMINATE THIS right out of the gate as another selling feature of our superior platforms?
@mepatriot well the problem is that DTUBE is also taking a 25-75 split and most people don't even know that because they are not transparent about it. I feel that when it comes to donations platforms cannot take more than 15% that's just too much. :)
I agree! We need to get that hardforked down to 10% and corner the market!
Yes it is one of the reasons I stopped using DTUBE because they also take 25% of every up vote you get on your post on steemit. So not just the own platform but every up vote your post gets 25% goes to DTUBe and the rest is being split again between curators and authors..
Yea...lots of changes still needed here for the rewards systems to be less "top heavy."
Yes! Ow well things will sort themselves out in the future I hope :)
As long as altruism and long-term thinking overcomes greed and short-term gains.
Well I saw that quote lately, about:
"People believing in infinite growth on a physically finite planet" ;)
I don't understand why the sponsorship feature is only available for channels with > 100k subs. What if a viewer wants to contribute to a smaller channel and help it grow?
@nathan-rokus well in that case they have to do that via another platform than youtube because they only support the channels of the big boys now.
They do this more often to beta-test a feature and see how it is going before rolling it out to more users. Also, the big users will most likely get the largest amount of contributions so from an investment point of view it makes sense.
They will probably roll it out to users with at least 1K subs in the future :)
However below that they won't because they want to verify the content is legit before granting specific options to channels. (in general that is).
That 70/30 business is bullshit - they should adjust the numbers on ad rev for people getting subscriptions and take it out of that - if that money was donated to you it should be yours - that being said - I don't think it will last once ppl learn that YouTube takes that bit of a cut - what does Patreon take? That's an already established system. Any who thanks for sharing. All the best.
thanks @emwalker patreon actually changed their policy lately. they are now adding their charges to donations. So if someone donates $1 they actually have to pay $1.38 However on larger donations the fees go down. So $10 would be around $10.50 Keep in mind though you always loose traffic diverting people to another platform...
the ad share is 45-55 percent at the moment, which makes sense because they actually have to do a lot of work to find companies and places the ads. But indeed, donations should go almost entirely to the creators, even a 80-20 split would have been way more appreciated I feel because of the way it makes you feel you know. Basically youtube is just holding up their hand and collecting almost a third of your donations...
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Cool! @cnaranha :) thanks for letting me know!
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