“About to reach 1,000 subs,” ObviouslyBenHughes writes on Twitter. “It’s a number, but I’m so happy!”
This is one of the most pervasive paradoxes surrounding online video. When it comes to numbers – be they subscribers or views – they somehow mean everything and nothing, simultaneously. We don’t ‘care’ about them, we aren’t motivated by them, though, oddly enough, we are happy when they go up.
Reubnick is a familiar voice in the Will Video For Food backrow. It is easy to feel discouraged when you feel like you’re producing great stuff online and the response is less than ethusiastic. (Though we might be reminded of Nalts’ comments about the the curse of subscriber self-worth. It’s a bottomless pit, folks!) Clearly disappointed in the views he was receiving for his most recent video, I thought I would try to put it into some perspective. I noted that his video got more views over night than mine had over several days (and I had more subscribers than him).
“Wait a minute!” he objects. “I thought you were a partner and all that! How is that all you got?”
There’s a lot of rhetoric and mystery around YouTube partners. Snarkdetriomphe once described the situation as the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots.’ Though I really think the distinction is much more illusory than most people are prepared to accept. Google might have a commercial interest in presenting a video that has an ad beside it. It’s true that such videos will often show up in ‘related video’ lists and keyword searches. But ultimately the viewer is still king; they still choose what they want to watch and who they subscribe to.
Infact some people refuse to watch or subscribe to YouTube partners on purely ‘moral’ grounds. While the estimates vary on precisely how much, there is consensus on the fact that YouTube is losing a lot of money. I guess people who adopt this stance are looking for a ‘good time’ on YouTube, though perhaps not a long time.
But what interests me the most are the attitudes and beliefs people have about YouTube partnership, especially to the extent that I’ve been on either side of that imagined fence. When I spoke to Karpadiem on the JOJCAST he confessed, “It became very much a status symbol at the time. You know to have autoplay meant you had arrived, as annoying as it was for so many at the time.”
You’ll even see non-partners express an interest in becoming part of the program but they’ll often couch that desire with conditions like “I’m only doing it for the banners” and “but of course I won’t put ads on any of my videos.”
Perhaps even more telling is when ObviouslyBenHughes (again on Twitter) wrote, “You’ll always be JayOhJay the non-partner to me!”
I think Ben is awesome and I wish him every success in the world. But I have to ask the question… Is being a partner such an offensive thing that it is better to pretend your friends aren’t one? I guess for a lot of people the answer is a resounding ‘yes.’
Look, I like to think I’m resourceful enough to take advantage of all the opportunities afforded to me, and that my videos live or die on their own merits. (I’m sure mostly they die – but even this doesn’t phase as much as it did when I first started.) Either they’re for you or they’re not. The idea that the video I made as a non-partner is a completely different animal to the one I make as a partner confuses me. The inference (from some corners) that I went from being a happy-go-lucky community minded YouTuber one day to a money-grubbing sell out the next is equally perplexing. But perhaps you know something about me that I do not…
Now go watch the videos of ObviouslyBenHughes, Reubnick and Karpadiem on YouTube. They all have very different styles, but they all work hard to produce good things online and I truly believe they are worth your time.
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Fantastic post, John. It all seems to make sense. I jut hope that my comment wasn’t taken the wrong way – I didn’t mean “non-partner” as a dig. I didn’t mean to infer that your content isn’t partner-worthy. On the contrary, I think you have some of the most genuine videos on the site. I meant that statement to show that I’ve been watching you since you were being talked of by Snark, etc, back when you weren’t a partner.
And, uhh, who’s calling you a sellout? I’m sorry, but that’s… well, perplexing. Just like you said.
Thanks for the linkage as well. Very much appreciated – and now I have Karpadiem to watch! Yay, new flavor for my sub-box. :]
Here comes a novel in response:
This was a great post. You hit the nail right on the head with so many different points. As Karpadiem said, becoming a partner was very much a status symbol. Getting flashy banners, auto (in your face!) play and certain boxes, links & features others didn’t get was a big thumbs up bonus. The videos I made after becoming a partner were, as you put it, somehow completely different from the videos I did before, and even more so as time went on – although I think much of that is attributed to getting new equipment and experience that comes with time.
Now, literally years later (wow, it’s really been that long?) I look at my videos, my “accomplishments” and non-accomplishments, videos with 200,000 plus views (and really, those were only 2girl 1cup videos, nothing that’s a real achievement) and videos I thought were really good that only have a few hundred views. I feel completely different than I did at the beginning of my journey on Youtube, which is different than how I felt during my early times of my partnership, which is yet again completely different than how I feel now.
I look at people like Ben and see his success and growth. I watch his videos and see what a natural vlogger he is – I would love to have that skill. I’m decent at editing myself down but a straight 5 min vlog that’s engaging, not so much. He’s so completely true & genuine. He’s a good person in every sense of the word.
I guess when it comes down to it, unless you’re very good at the videos you make, extremely driven and ready to use methods that others find somewhat unsavory tactics, and post very frequently – you really don’t stand a chance at making it “big” and living off of the income generated by YT. Those that say we’re money hungry partners and “sell outs” would be eating their words if they saw our checks because 85% of us aren’t making much at all. It just supports my coffee habit. :p
True about those elusive numbers. I am close to 1000, but it really does not matter. I just like doing the videos. I put them up quite regularly now. BUT i have noticed that “Featured” videos are no longer about what is about community or Good or up and coming. It is about What is going to make Google/YouTube more Money. Because the videos have already made good money, why not make more… what’s the definition of that? Greed?
I put up a few of videos a few weeks ago to a couple months ago and my views were surprisingly lower than I expected. picked up a few more subscribers, but views still lower. I put in the help forum discussion that a couple subs noted that my vids did not show up in their line up until a few days later. Someone mentioned that it could be that people were not on youtube as much, being off the computer. BUT these videos when up during the Snowstorms. a couple of them were done in the snow! Well maybe they were out shoveling. lol
Someone had put up a video they think that lesser partners are trying to be pushed off YT. That Google/YT, were purposefully were limiting lesser partners because we weren’t making enough money for them. I don’t remember who it was and I don;t know if it is true. BUT it sure seems like it. The Popular are getting More popular?? Sound too much like high school?
I think I might do a Statistical count of Featured videos on the Home page. Like Who it is, what the views are, # of Subscribers at the time. Refreshed every so some period of time. What do you think?? Not sure what it will prove, but it will show something.
Remember Battle of the YouTube Stars/Non-Stars by DiGiTiLsOuL & JenLuv37 ?? Someone has brought it back! Check out Users SubscriberSURVIVOR. trying to get it featured, but I doubt it will.
It’s a little frustrating & Disappointing, but I Keep on YouTubin!
That was really good. I’m going to try to say how I feel about the whole partner/non-partner thing right here, and I hope it makes sense. It’s still pretty early in the morning, so we’ll see where it goes.
The thing about being a partner is that it really sort of IS a status symbol, at least to me. On youtube, that seems to mean that you are legit, and that you aren’t just some amateur making stupid videos. People take you seriously once you are a partner, and it means that you have “made it”. Plus, there is such a ridiculously large and growing gap between youtube partners and non-partners as far as privileges and benefits go. It’s really quite a catch-22, and a rich-get-richer situation. Once you have partnered, your videos go to the top of search results, you get the banners, the special boxes, the ability to change your video thumbnails, youtube finally listens to you since you are making them money, and so much more. All of those things put you over the edge even more as far as getting exposure and subscribers and viewers, and in most situations I’ve seen, things really, REALLY snowball from there. For guys like me, though, I am always left feeling completely ignored by youtube like I’m some sort of lower class who missed the boat and isn’t worth their time, and it’s SUCH AN UNDERSTATEMENT to call that completely frustrating. I put so much work and effort and time into my videos, and I am always left feeling like it’s all for nothing. On many, many occasions I’ve considered giving it up, because I’d imagine it’s not healthy to be so constantly disappointed and discouraged, and since Youtube has become my biggest (and pretty much only) hobby over the past 4 years, I’m wondering if I’m wasting my time. Obviously, I’m too attached to youtube and making videos to ever give it up, but it really is an unfullfilling and almost depressing thing a lot of the time, when you spend so much time and never see your numbers go up. It’s especially bad to watch people, who admittedly do have as much talent as you, go from a ton less subscribers than you to many more subscribers than you. It tears me apart to see that, because although I am very happy for those people, I desperately wish I was rising the charts right with them instead of plateauing at .5K subscribers.
So, I think a lot of the hostility you have seen directed at Partners is due in part to a lot of jealousy. I’ll admit, I am completely jealous and envious of partners, and I want so badly to be one. Because, after all, in my opinion (Not trying to sound pretentious here), I think I should have what it takes. I’m consistent, I’m involved with the inner community of youtube, I think I have rather unique and original videos and ideas, I follow the rules, I don’t stir the pot much and cause trouble, and even if my videos aren’t very good, either are Fred’s, and look where that little idiot is. Of course, I won’t boycott other partners because they have genuinely and successfully earned it like I’m trying to do, and most of them also “had what it takes”
I’m honestly convinced that I would be perfectly happy if I had a thousand subscribers and a partnership, and I could also say that I’m HONESTLY not after the money, either. That would just make me feel successful, and I’d also feel like I’m being taken seriously, instead of chasing some pipe-dream. For right now, though, it just gets really upsetting to write scripts, spend hours filming, spend hours editing, and spend hours overseeing the uploading and filling in the information and all that, only for you to get less than 10 comments, most of which are from people I know or go to school with. I’m after, largely, interaction, but I also want to be able to say that I am actually a legitimate, real-deal youtuber, instead of some scrawny little teenager with “too much time on my hands.” I’d say above all, once you are a partner, you no longer have “too much time on your hands”, and you officially have “talent.”
and that’s that from ol’ Reubnick. I’ll get off my soapbox now.