The State of the Nation

“The time has come,” the Walrus said, “To talk of many things: Of shoes and ships and sealing-wax, of cabbages and kings”.

The amount of money I received from YouTube for April is disappointingly low, but this is just part of a trend that has been noticeable since April 2013.

Prior to April 2013 YouTube would put its advertising on certain channels known as Partner Channels. I was fortunate enough to be one of those channels and found myself able to make enough money to pay the household bills. In April 2013 that all changed.

YouTube changed its policy and started putting adverts on just about all channels. Great for YouTube as they now had vastly more advertising space to sell. Great for people who were not partners because suddenly they could earn a little cash for posting endless videos of cats and babies. Not good for the Partner Channels who suddenly experienced a 30% drop in the amount they were getting from YouTube each month.

Over the last two years the number of videos on YouTube has exploded. The amount of cash that YouTube generates through advertising has also grown, but that cash is spread ever and ever thinner over the people who upload to YouTube.

Another noticeable phenomenon is the percentage of channel subscribers who bother to watch new uploads. I used to get about 15-20% of subscribers watching my new uploads. Now it’s about 5% and I know I’m not alone. For example, one YouTuber with a similar channel to mine has two-and-a-half times the number of subscribers I have but gets less that two-and-a-half times the number of views I get for a new upload.

It’s got to the point now where I need to make a choice. I can either persevere in the hope that “things will pick up” or I need to make a change. Looking around I don’t see any reason for optimism unless I start making 7 cake videos a week. That’s not going to happen. Nor is uploading more frequently the answer – most of my revenue comes from my older videos.

So I need to supplement my income in other ways. That’s my plan. The implications are obvious for my YouTube channels. Videos will be “as and when” rather than regular uploads. Some weeks it will be as though nothing has changed. Some weeks there may be no videos at all. The website will continue and the Facebook page will continue.

Times have changed.

“O Oysters,” said the Carpenter, “You’ve had a pleasant run! Shall we be trotting home again?” But answer came there none.