Make a living on Youtube (or die trying) - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 21, 2013, 08:02:39 am
content: Here is my talk from the 10th Ignite Sydney conference.Huge thanks to Hunting with Pixels for the filming and video editing.I’ll probably do another text blog post on this in due course talking about what went into, and the not-so-polished rehearsal video!

author: Bloch
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 21, 2013, 08:51:31 am
content: Dave you kick ass

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 21, 2013, 09:08:43 am
content: The other 14 videos on the night for those interested.I closed out the first group of 5 presenters.https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNCkBYNm9NxlbpgGqr7u7UxfamDkYw60w

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 21, 2013, 09:17:32 am
content: BTW, that was my first time ever on stage giving a prepared speech/presentation.

author: ju1ce
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 21, 2013, 09:45:45 am
content: Your statement about cats was a bit uncomfortable. I know it was a joke, but I think the cat lovers in the audience started to hate you at that very moment

author: ecat
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 21, 2013, 09:47:02 am
content: That was informative and fun thanks for the link.Quote from: EEVblog on April 21, 2013, 09:17:32 amDoubly impressive then, you looked quite natural - if natural can be judged from the EEVVBlog videos.Do you think your past experience talking to camera helped? Conversely did you take anything away from your, err, public exposure that you feel would help in your videos?

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 21, 2013, 09:50:44 am
content: Quote from: ju1ce on April 21, 2013, 09:45:45 amThat was the intention, it's called riling up the audience

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 21, 2013, 09:53:59 am
content: Quote from: ecat on April 21, 2013, 09:47:02 amI don't think so.Entirely different ball game.QuoteOnce again, not really. Off-the-cuff videos shot in private are entirely different to "performing" in front of a large live audience with a very strict 15 second time limit per slide.

author: digsys
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 21, 2013, 10:02:24 am
content: My new company motto ... " I would hit you with a tea spoon till you die ... " LOVE IT :-)

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 21, 2013, 10:19:46 am
content: Wonder if the post office will deliver you a few dozen kittens...................... Just have to figure out how to get them there without the parcel dripping cat pee.Very nice presentation there, well done and you got it down pat.

author: dcel
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 21, 2013, 10:42:47 am
content: Great video/presentation Dave! I thought you did very well given how nervous you looked at the start.Never knew you where that funny.Thanks for the videos.Chris

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 21, 2013, 10:51:07 am
content: Quote from: dcel on April 21, 2013, 10:42:47 amYes, quite nervous at the start (but not before I walked on) until I got to the 2nd slide and knew I was in the rhythm.

author: Lightages
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 21, 2013, 07:08:21 pm
content: I have a question? When do you ever see your audience?!Great presentation Dave!

author: hairykiwi
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: April 23, 2013, 01:17:07 pm
content: Fantastic presentation Dave! Sounds like you built good rapport with the audience really quickly.Good to see all the numbers to put ad based online-income generation in perspective too.Look forward to seeing more video of you at live events - hacker days, etc.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 23, 2013, 02:27:12 pm
content: Quote from: digsys on April 21, 2013, 10:02:24 amIt was very impressive insult, I must admit!

author: Memphis
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: April 23, 2013, 02:43:04 pm
content: ...The know how video. Thanx for the statistics. It means really lot of work and knowledge to make some money on youtube.I think the biggest problem is AdBlock plugins, which drops the advertisements out and the video is still playing. That means that no money is going from the video.I dont know how is it in your country, but in my region, I calculated that 1000 views generates 1$ to your pocket. Means if you wanna live and dont wanna die you need at least 2000-3000$ so a 2-3M views/month. This can be done only with viral videos (without any sense, even cats cant help). And thats the problem too, normal, educational video will never get such numbers.Or am I wrong?Anyway, love the work you are doing. Still learning so much...

author: jmc2000
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: April 23, 2013, 03:11:08 pm
content: Dave, you have a very colourful, creative personality which adds strings to your blog. I hope your blog goes the same way as Tom's Hardware in starting out as a hobby, and being sold off for millions

author: nitro2k01
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 23, 2013, 03:35:26 pm
content: I don't think the problem is educational per se, but the level of the education. Let's take a look at Dave's video sorted by popularity:https://www.youtube.com/user/EEVblog/videos?view=0&flow=grid&sort=pSoldering tutorialSoldering tutorialWorld's most expensive hard drive teardown (Viral type video)Soldering tutorial (Notice a pattern?)PCB design tutorialAmazon Kindle 3 teardown (Viral type video)How to set up an electronics labPICkit 3 reviewExploding capacitorsThe DS1052 video (actually expected it to be higher up in the list)$50 multimeter shootoutPIC vs AVRIt's easy to see the pattern. People (the masses) want simple topics they can understand. Preferably things they search for naturally, such as soldering tutorials. The more technical audience, or core audience is much smaller. Now, a real challenge for Dave would be to continuously make videos that apeal to a larger audience, without pissing off the core audience. ANother thing that might generate a tiny bit of revenue might be to add annotation links to other "popular" videos in the end of popular videos. Say, a link to the exploding capacitor video, as well as "how to set up an electronics lab" and the PCB design tutorial, in the end of the soldering tutorial videos. Might at least make give you another video view here and there.

author: Bored@Work
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 23, 2013, 10:39:03 pm
content: Quote from: Memphis on April 23, 2013, 02:43:04 pmYou don't have your videos going viral. You "only" have to have simpler topics for another kind of audience. Best would be absolutely content free, short, no longer than a few minutes videos, likehttps://www.youtube.com/user/JennaMarbles/videos?view=0(don't ask how I learned about this one ...), becoming a role model for your audience.Dave, can you find someone to hit you over the head with a rubber mallet, until you are ready to do videos like this?

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 23, 2013, 10:56:52 pm
content: Quote from: nitro2k01 on April 23, 2013, 03:35:26 pmSearch is actually the key there.The only reason those videos are popular is because they have magically filtered their way to the top of Youtube's search term ranking system, and soldering is a very popular "how to" search term. A couple of other soldering videos have over a million views each.This took quite some time to happen, and doesn't happen with all videos or search terms of course.You can't just do a new soldering video and expect it to get a 100K views, it takes a long time and a lot luck wiht Google magic algorithm.I wanted to talk about this in my talk, but it got the chop along with a lot of stuff.QuoteA lot of people won't even get to the end of my lengthy soldering videos!

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 23, 2013, 10:58:56 pm
content: Quote from: Bored@Work on April 23, 2013, 10:39:03 pmI know a guy with a tea spoon

author: The_Penguin
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 24, 2013, 06:43:45 pm
content: Quote from: hammy on April 23, 2013, 03:20:17 pmNo way! EEVBlogISDave. It just wouldn't be the same without "Aaaahh Hopeless!!" and "Half a Bee's-dick"

author: vk3yedotcom
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 24, 2013, 09:52:52 pm
content: Quote from: nitro2k01 on April 23, 2013, 03:35:26 pmI sort of agree (and Bored@work has a good point too).I'm in a smaller niche than EEVBlog and only 1/20 as popular. I find the following themes work:* Super simple that's sometimes not much more than connecting two wires together. In radio that's the old topics of Morse keys and antennas, etc even though its' been described many times before by others. Everyone needs them, they're simple and building's still cheaper than buying. In electronics it may be very basic circuits, which merges in with below.* The old classics. Simple projects many started off as a kid. In radio it's crystal sets and regenerative receivers. In general electronics it would probably be simple 555 timer circuits, 2 transistor multivibrators and Science Fair electronics sets.* Newish stuff that the crowd is doing (or is thinking about). Eg software defined radio in radio. Especially if it's cheaper/simpler than others and uses basic parts despite the performance trade-offs. In general electronics I'd suppose Arduino and Raspberry Pi would be in that category.These 3 sorts of videos are timeless traffic generators - eg still popular despite being out there for 3 years or more.There's differences between viewership and comments. 'Crazy' videos, eg destruction/abuse of electronics, tripping over, April fool spoofs get lots of comments but are only moderate in attracting long-term views. Ditto for stray dogs knocking something over and silly public comments eg talking to aliens (the local beach being a common backdrop). Although having said that these videos still attract more than more worthy educational content on circuits, etc.It's also no secret that frequency of posting is critical (like blogs). 1 x 5 min video per week beats 1 x 20 min video per month. People are attracted to your channel and sniff around for other stuff. And there's 4 times as much exposure for advertisers so it's in their interests as well.