HelsinkiZim Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 i just finished watching the first 2 episodes of Louis C.K.’s new web series. It took a few minutes to adjust to the lower production values and the theater-esque set pieces. But after a while, I was blown away by the powerful acting and at times it was really funny, laugh out loud funny - but also very thought provoking. We throw these accolades around in our industry and he didn’t come up with Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, but Louis C.K. is a bit of a genius. However, what I think that is important about this show is the business model. Its not new, but I argue it is the most high profile shunning of the establishment thus far in TV. 1. He is filming it week by week. 2. He is paying for it out of his own pocket. 3. He is delivering the content solely on his website in a very simple manner. We all forget that movies don’t have to be ‘hosted’ and ‘streamed’ by some holy authority. We were all wrapping videos in QuickTime containers in 2007, and our only concern was bandwidth, which is dead cheap now. Put up a paywall like any other low cost digital product and voila! You have your very own netfilx. But you have all the power... for niche products... i'll explain: Over Christmas I became convinced that I see no reason why a filmmaker cannot successfully create a film or web series and distribute it themselves for a small profit with consistent Roi. By successful, I mean recoup the funds of production and make a modest profit. But the more I talked to people, I was given multiple reasons why this would not work. Mostly it was about the difficulty in building a fan base. Louis has a fan base, so he may not need to aggressively market. but I know a lot of internet marketers that have developed fanbases (mailing lists, facebook fans, etc) out of thin air in a couple of weeks/ months - selling MLM garbage. But I read this article on why most online video distribution companies will fail, and it stresses that filmmakers do not think like IMers and internet marketers do not think like filmmakers. http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2015/02/08/why-most-online-video-companies-will-fail/ I carried on turning it over in my mind and I am still convinced this would work. I really think that if you took a step away from your project as a creative and put on the cap of an (aggressive) internet marketer, you could build an audience cheaply and effectively. What if creativity is everything, but a well executed sales campaign is just as important. But not a Hollywood campaign, with thumping trailers and mass distribution, but a down and dirty online marketing campaign that only some of you that have tried affiliate/ digital product marketing and SEO over the past 10 years can understand. If you think about it from the audiences perspective, video content is becoming a commodity product and audiences do not care where it comes from as long as it trends to free. First I would make a web series/ film that targeted a specific niche where people spend money on digital products (the list is endless for niches but something like weight loss, horse racing, swing dancing, get rich quick, etrading... looking at amazon kindle bestsellers in specific subjects is a good way to research niches - go to google adwords and see how many people look up those keywords per month etc). One theme or more would play heavily in the script in the form of a character, cinematic universe or plot device. Then I would market the show to that niche traffic (audience) that would lead them into a ‘sales funnel’ that would be unique to the project, but traditional in the IM marketing methods. The funnel would include landing pages to capture emails and I would split testing everything - video content, headers, titles, banners, logos, calls to actions, copy, etc. I would then create a automated email campaign that would build everyone joining the list into a frenzy (behind the scenes stuff, ‘virtual’ emails from the characters, solicited reviews… whatever gets people involved - the goal is to wear both hats as filmmaker and salesman). Apart form the usual social marketing (accounts, posts, free pr releases, blog, articles, seo) I would buy mobile ad views for apps and mobile sites related to the niche, banner ads on related forums and blogs. Split testing all the time, building the list of subscribers who get sent into the email funnel. I would also play a bit with Facebook ads and Adwords to see how they perform. You would think this all costs a lot, but I ran these kind of campaigns and if they are targeted the costs are minimal, for example, as compared to hiring a Red or Arri kit for 2 days. You can test every platform (with maybe a couple of angles) for under 500 bucks on mobile, adwords and facebook to see whats working in different continents, countries, cities... testing tweaking and rolling with angles that stick. Then I would release the episodes over time, keeping people on my list updated and interested, or have a big release day with the usual 24/ 48/ 72 hours until offer disappears stuff (with timer). I would host everything myself, no need to split costs with anyone else but the merchant service provider - put the stream or download link behind a paywall or email it out as a direct link. Some IM guys with a loyal list that they promote actual junk to can close on 10% of their list if they have a good funnel. If its an extremely targeted list, even more. Sooo, if you built a small list of 200 loyal subscribers worldwide, and 20 (10%) people of that bought your film/ series for 10 bucks - thats 4 000 bucks you could count on. I imagine you would have probably spent at most a 1 000 in getting impressions or clicks in that niche, so you make 3 000. That is being conservative, it should not be a problem to build at least 10 000 subscribers in a large and popular niche spending around 3 000 in impressions and clicks. I don’t think this method would ever make tons of money, but why wouldn’t it be possible to make 100 000 with a viral series that is marketed well COMPLETELY BY YOURSELF, or perhaps even with a few top affiliates who know what they are doing. Sorry for the long post but it is an exciting thought for me from a business perspective and I hope some of you actually give me your 2 cents and tell me if the notion is ridiculous or worth being tested out. I don't create narrative content so I can't try it, but I would definitely invest my own money to promote someones video if it fit the criteria. It would be a safer bet than most other stuff I spend money on when it comes to gear and Roi. Anyways, I know most ideas are nothing without effective execution, and most of my business ideas suffer from all kinds of biases - but I was wondering if anyone has tried this out yet? How did it go? If not, what's stopping you? Nikkor 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mercer Posted February 10, 2016 Share Posted February 10, 2016 Yes, this is very interesting. I have a couple ideas for horror web series that a model like this would be perfect for. A friend of mine told me a about a site (I can't remember the name) where you advertise and possibly host your series and you can leverage episode frequencies with how many views you receive. So if you get a loyal fan base of 25 people. For episode 3 (or whatever) you announce you will not air episode 4 until you get 50 views. Due to the way the site works, the new views has to be from different people. Obviously, the idea is that you want to use word of mouth of fans to help generate more fans. By holding back episodes until you get more views, you can essentially get a bigger fan base and the loyal viewers are more than happy to help. Interesting stuff this world wide webs. HelsinkiZim 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HelsinkiZim Posted February 10, 2016 Author Share Posted February 10, 2016 14 hours ago, mercer said: Yes, this is very interesting. I have a couple ideas for horror web series that a model like this would be perfect for. A friend of mine told me a about a site (I can't remember the name) where you advertise and possibly host your series and you can leverage episode frequencies with how many views you receive. So if you get a loyal fan base of 25 people. For episode 3 (or whatever) you announce you will not air episode 4 until you get 50 views. Due to the way the site works, the new views has to be from different people. Obviously, the idea is that you want to use word of mouth of fans to help generate more fans. By holding back episodes until you get more views, you can essentially get a bigger fan base and the loyal viewers are more than happy to help. Interesting stuff this world wide webs. Someone on Quora pointed me to this site https://www.vhx.tv/ maybe its the one you are talking about? But I still think you would be better off self publishing. I just saw this article today about ebook self publishing and think it holds true to video http://www.bbc.com/news/business-35482345 mercer 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sanveer Posted February 10, 2016 Share Posted February 10, 2016 19 hours ago, HelsinkiZim said: i just finished watching the first 2 episodes of Louis C.K.’s new web series. It took a few minutes to adjust to the lower production values and the theater-esque set pieces. But after a while, I was blown away by the powerful acting and at times it was really funny, laugh out loud funny - but also very thought provoking. We throw these accolades around in our industry and he didn’t come up with Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, but Louis C.K. is a bit of a genius. However, what I think that is important about this show is the business model. Its not new, but I argue it is the most high profile shunning of the establishment thus far in TV. 1. He is filming it week by week. 2. He is paying for it out of his own pocket. 3. He is delivering the content solely on his website in a very simple manner. We all forget that movies don’t have to be ‘hosted’ and ‘streamed’ by some holy authority. We were all wrapping videos in QuickTime containers in 2007, and our only concern was bandwidth, which is dead cheap now. Put up a paywall like any other low cost digital product and voila! You have your very own netfilx. But you have all the power... for niche products... i'll explain: Over Christmas I became convinced that I see no reason why a filmmaker cannot successfully create a film or web series and distribute it themselves for a small profit with consistent Roi. By successful, I mean recoup the funds of production and make a modest profit. But the more I talked to people, I was given multiple reasons why this would not work. Mostly it was about the difficulty in building a fan base. Louis has a fan base, so he may not need to aggressively market. but I know a lot of internet marketers that have developed fanbases (mailing lists, facebook fans, etc) out of thin air in a couple of weeks/ months - selling MLM garbage. But I read this article on why most online video distribution companies will fail, and it stresses that filmmakers do not think like IMers and internet marketers do not think like filmmakers. http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2015/02/08/why-most-online-video-companies-will-fail/ I carried on turning it over in my mind and I am still convinced this would work. I really think that if you took a step away from your project as a creative and put on the cap of an (aggressive) internet marketer, you could build an audience cheaply and effectively. What if creativity is everything, but a well executed sales campaign is just as important. But not a Hollywood campaign, with thumping trailers and mass distribution, but a down and dirty online marketing campaign that only some of you that have tried affiliate/ digital product marketing and SEO over the past 10 years can understand. If you think about it from the audiences perspective, video content is becoming a commodity product and audiences do not care where it comes from as long as it trends to free. First I would make a web series/ film that targeted a specific niche where people spend money on digital products (the list is endless for niches but something like weight loss, horse racing, swing dancing, get rich quick, etrading... looking at amazon kindle bestsellers in specific subjects is a good way to research niches - go to google adwords and see how many people look up those keywords per month etc). One theme or more would play heavily in the script in the form of a character, cinematic universe or plot device. Then I would market the show to that niche traffic (audience) that would lead them into a ‘sales funnel’ that would be unique to the project, but traditional in the IM marketing methods. The funnel would include landing pages to capture emails and I would split testing everything - video content, headers, titles, banners, logos, calls to actions, copy, etc. I would then create a automated email campaign that would build everyone joining the list into a frenzy (behind the scenes stuff, ‘virtual’ emails from the characters, solicited reviews… whatever gets people involved - the goal is to wear both hats as filmmaker and salesman). Apart form the usual social marketing (accounts, posts, free pr releases, blog, articles, seo) I would buy mobile ad views for apps and mobile sites related to the niche, banner ads on related forums and blogs. Split testing all the time, building the list of subscribers who get sent into the email funnel. I would also play a bit with Facebook ads and Adwords to see how they perform. You would think this all costs a lot, but I ran these kind of campaigns and if they are targeted the costs are minimal, for example, as compared to hiring a Red or Arri kit for 2 days. You can test every platform (with maybe a couple of angles) for under 500 bucks on mobile, adwords and facebook to see whats working in different continents, countries, cities... testing tweaking and rolling with angles that stick. Then I would release the episodes over time, keeping people on my list updated and interested, or have a big release day with the usual 24/ 48/ 72 hours until offer disappears stuff (with timer). I would host everything myself, no need to split costs with anyone else but the merchant service provider - put the stream or download link behind a paywall or email it out as a direct link. Some IM guys with a loyal list that they promote actual junk to can close on 10% of their list if they have a good funnel. If its an extremely targeted list, even more. Sooo, if you built a small list of 200 loyal subscribers worldwide, and 20 (10%) people of that bought your film/ series for 10 bucks - thats 4 000 bucks you could count on. I imagine you would have probably spent at most a 1 000 in getting impressions or clicks in that niche, so you make 3 000. That is being conservative, it should not be a problem to build at least 10 000 subscribers in a large and popular niche spending around 3 000 in impressions and clicks. I don’t think this method would ever make tons of money, but why wouldn’t it be possible to make 100 000 with a viral series that is marketed well COMPLETELY BY YOURSELF, or perhaps even with a few top affiliates who know what they are doing. Sorry for the long post but it is an exciting thought for me from a business perspective and I hope some of you actually give me your 2 cents and tell me if the notion is ridiculous or worth being tested out. I don't create narrative content so I can't try it, but I would definitely invest my own money to promote someones video if it fit the criteria. It would be a safer bet than most other stuff I spend money on when it comes to gear and Roi. Anyways, I know most ideas are nothing without effective execution, and most of my business ideas suffer from all kinds of biases - but I was wondering if anyone has tried this out yet? How did it go? If not, what's stopping you? Extremely long and a little cryptic too. But, interesting. A few of my friends make some good decent from Google AdSense on their sites. Youtube channels are doing pretty well, and I guess, if people are able to advertise well, and More Importantly to keep the budget low, there is no reason why they can't make money from them. I feel, people should explore revenues beyond AdSense or even FB and try getting in-branding partners and paid advertisers for spots too. These ADs could be embedded at the start, or somewhere else. I think Webseries will be huge in less than 5 years. In most places around the world. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonesy Jones Posted February 10, 2016 Share Posted February 10, 2016 I believe that if you want to monetize from filmmaking, you will either need to sell yourself to someone with a lot more money than you have, or spend time (years probably) building an audience. An audience costs time or money, or both. Make great content. Give it away and promote the heck out of it. Then you'll have an audience, and a chance to create something that may be profitable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HelsinkiZim Posted February 11, 2016 Author Share Posted February 11, 2016 7 hours ago, sanveer said: 7 hours ago, sanveer said: Extremely long and a little cryptic too. But, interesting. Sorry folks, I should have posted it in the creative section of the site but only realised after I posted:/ It probably seems cryptic because I was in that industry as a hobby for too long and filming seminars for 'gurus' who were selling the DVDs. The marketing BS speak sticks with you unfortunately. Whether methods actually work is a crap shoot. 2 hours ago, Jonesy Jones said: I believe that if you want to monetize from filmmaking, you will either need to sell yourself to someone with a lot more money than you have, or spend time (years probably) building an audience. An audience costs time or money, or both. Make great content. Give it away and promote the heck out of it. Then you'll have an audience, and a chance to create something that may be profitable. I agree that the way you mention is most likely the only true and tested way to find success, as it has been since the industry began. But I just remember there were always niche distributors for horror, blaxplotation, etc that targeted the straight to video market. I was wondering if everyone is focusing on the larger picture and ignoring niche opportunities that can be marketed in a more affordable way than trying to reach the mainstream. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fuzzynormal Posted February 11, 2016 Share Posted February 11, 2016 I do think the model will change (is changing), but let's not forget that Louis C.K. earned the luxury of being able to thrive on the vanguard of this new model simply because he established his credentials in the old model. On the other hand, it's proven that mass media is possible with youtube. HelsinkiZim, Liam and sanveer 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrgl Posted February 11, 2016 Share Posted February 11, 2016 I've managed to build secondary income from YouTube. If I continue to grow at the same rate, I'll out earn my day job in a few years. It's taken over two years (started in Jan 2014.) Managed to do it without running a single ad on my channel. Is it what I originally set out to do? Nope. But I learned to pivot and "sell out". My first few ideas were idealistic. But they had no market. Totally unviable projects. You have pander, especially to your strengths. I realized an opportunity and exploited it for gain. The experience has made me humble to be honest. When I hear or read someone's idea, I hope they succeed. There's nothing like grinding out a win. That said, my experience has made me shrewd. I am very critical of my own ideas. I very rarely entertain things that I'm interested in. Instead, I consider projects that know I can outcompete others at. I still expect to fail, but everything I do is so thought out. The work isn't fun, earning the revenue is what I like now. Business income is damn sweet too. Camera gear, computer hardware and other things can be written off. The money is burning a hole in my bank account, if I don't spend it, I hit a higher tax bracket. --- As an aside, I started out in video doing real estate spots. High end stuff. Know a few realtors. I shot HDR style for a unique look. Also aped some strobe-like compositing with a motorized slider and head. Was able to do multiple takes and stitch the video together. I burned out after a year of working whenever I had spare time. Used the earned cash to start a studio. Hit YouTube with a sorta of video pinup girl channel. Stupidly used big IP. Quickly got slapped with a C&D notice. (Don't fuck with big corps, especially if your selling your take on their TDs.) Sulked. Raged. Considered selling my gear. Learned about monetization. Did some research and found an epic opportunity. Spent a lot of cash up front and slooowly began to earn. Cinegain, Liam, Jonesy Jones and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonesy Jones Posted February 11, 2016 Share Posted February 11, 2016 54 minutes ago, andrgl said: I've managed to build secondary income from YouTube. If I continue to grow at the same rate, I'll out earn my day job in a few years. It's taken over two years (started in Jan 2014.) Managed to do it without running a single ad on my channel. Is it what I originally set out to do? Nope. But I learned to pivot and "sell out". My first few ideas were idealistic. But they had no market. Totally unviable projects. You have pander, especially to your strengths. I realized an opportunity and exploited it for gain. The experience has made me humble to be honest. When I hear or read someone's idea, I hope they succeed. There's nothing like grinding out a win. That said, my experience has made me shrewd. I am very critical of my own ideas. I very rarely entertain things that I'm interested in. Instead, I consider projects that know I can outcompete others at. I still expect to fail, but everything I do is so thought out. The work isn't fun, earning the revenue is what I like now. Business income is damn sweet too. Camera gear, computer hardware and other things can be written off. The money is burning a hole in my bank account, if I don't spend it, I hit a higher tax bracket. --- As an aside, I started out in video doing real estate spots. High end stuff. Know a few realtors. I shot HDR style for a unique look. Also aped some strobe-like compositing with a motorized slider and head. Was able to do multiple takes and stitch the video together. I burned out after a year of working whenever I had spare time. Used the earned cash to start a studio. Hit YouTube with a sorta of video pinup girl channel. Stupidly used big IP. Quickly got slapped with a C&D notice. (Don't fuck with big corps, especially if your selling your take on their TDs.) Sulked. Raged. Considered selling my gear. Learned about monetization. Did some research and found an epic opportunity. Spent a lot of cash up front and slooowly began to earn. I would love to know more. $pecifics are what would be most helpful, but I can understand if your not comfortable sharing too much. But anything would be great. What you've found that works. What doesn't. How long it takes to begin earning something substantial, more than pennies. Do you market or advertise? Is your audience growing? Are you present on other platforms? I'd love anything you have time for. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrgl Posted February 11, 2016 Share Posted February 11, 2016 12 hours ago, Jonesy Jones said: I would love to know more. $pecifics are what would be most helpful, but I can understand if your not comfortable sharing too much. But anything would be great. What you've found that works. What doesn't. How long it takes to begin earning something substantial, more than pennies. Do you market or advertise? Is your audience growing? Are you present on other platforms? I'd love anything you have time for. Thanks. Yeah, sharing the channel and the exact idea with this forum, scares the shit out of me. I used to be like that IRL, but realized how much time and effort it took to get where I was. That said, I bet a lot of people are skilled enough here to beat out my work. I don't mind sharing my train of thought, how I worked out what might be successful. Basically: there's only so many ways to earn revenue on the net. I don't want to sell a product or service. And I don't want to rely on AdSense***. That left a few avenues open. (Seriously, research it: it's a list of 5 or 6 things you can do.) I spent months researching the perfect storm of audience, easy competition and highest return on investment. My first year I dropped 20k on the business without earning a cent. Looking back now it's no big deal. Back then I was going to bed every night thinking I was wasting my time and money. Fortunately I love my day job and earn a decent salary. The sacrifice was huge; I ended up losing touch with friends and family, and a serious relationship I was in imploded. Every free moment I had was spent on the idea. And sometimes when I completely burned out, I'd just lie in bed, regretting starting and wish I could wind back the clock. Now it's on autopilot. I could sit back and stop creating content and earn for a few years. But I can produce videos in only about 3 days (fortunately I work 4 days/10 hr weeks.) The pressure in my life is to come up with the next idea. Fortunately I cleared the: what if my next idea bombs? Should I just invest my money? -- hump. ***Relying on AdSense is definitely doable. The only problem here is you need to hit mass appeal, and have to be attractive to advertisers. My bet is that most of the "niches" are occupied. I'm thinking shit like, fashion, make-up, motive, firearms, sports... and who knows. There's a lot of room here. Originally I tried to cash in on doing "canon" stuff from large IP. It culminated into scantily clad women, doing Star Wars, Star Trek, Mirror's Edge, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Fallout, etc... this actually excluded me pretty hard from AdSense, (cellphone gaming apps LOVED to advertise on my stuff tho.) So I thought I could sell tie-in products. Biiiig mistake. The last thing you want in your mail is correspondence from a big law firm. To be honest, this is the way to go if you want to do creative stuff with no other monetization tie-ins. Find out how to uniquely entertain the largest pool of eyeballs, with content advertisers will be fighting over to play their material on. Then when you hit enough viewers, start creating even higher quality material and put it behind a paywall. What exactly is the niche here? That's for someone to figure out. The shitty thing, is when you realize what people want to watch and can earn you money, isn't your creative idea. It more than likely won't even be something that personally interests you. You have to harness that enthusiasm for success and funnel it into what generates revenue. Exercise your creativity there and you'll mop the floor. I liken it to Wedding events. I'd wager most people wouldn't want to do wedding gigs for their job. That said, if you approach the work with the same level of enthusiasm and creativity you would your personal project, you'll have a damn good chance at success. Selling Out is the smartest thing I ever did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HelsinkiZim Posted February 12, 2016 Author Share Posted February 12, 2016 On 2/11/2016 at 9:50 PM, andrgl said: What exactly is the niche here? That's for someone to figure out. I'll play! I say something in the toddler zone. Am I warm or way off? My kid is 2 and I am constantly amazed at the ingenuity of some of you youtubers when it comes to kids videos. A video of a person opening surprise eggs to reveal toys has 223,181,749 views in less than one year. Anyways, thank you for your response. I think it sheds light on some other areas of video that people sometimes feel intimidated to explore. For some its easier to imagine making a creative short as creatives are naturally introverted and prefer to work without criticism until final delivery. that kind of continual dialogue with your audience, with comments, instant view counts to measure success and such would shut most people down. But it actuality may be even harder to crack the mainstream path than 'selling out' by following the whims of the audience. kaylee 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HelsinkiZim Posted February 12, 2016 Author Share Posted February 12, 2016 On 2/11/2016 at 9:50 PM, andrgl said: Yeah, sharing the channel and the exact idea with this forum, scares the shit out of me. I used to be like that IRL, but realized how much time and effort it took to get where I was. That said, I bet a lot of people are skilled enough here to beat out my work. You should seriously consider creating a course. There are probably a lot of young people that would pay to learn the secrets of youtube success. A lot of the training currently given is regarding how to emulate hollywood productions, from Tom Antos for example. But a down and dirty youtube 'sell out' course I haven't seen. I have seen courses for how to use video to sell other products, rank video etc. But not for how to create bespoke videos purely for views and ad bucks. Then again, this would take time and effort and the rewards would be once off, but you should consider it if/when your niche starts to die down. And you have already learnt the first rule of fight club; don't reveal your niche. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fuzzynormal Posted February 13, 2016 Share Posted February 13, 2016 47 minutes ago, HelsinkiZim said: And you have already learnt the first rule of fight club; don't reveal your niche. It's N scale model trains. I just know it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonesy Jones Posted February 13, 2016 Share Posted February 13, 2016 On February 11, 2016 at 11:50 AM, andrgl said: Yeah, sharing the channel and the exact idea with this forum, scares the shit out of me. I used to be like that IRL, but realized how much time and effort it took to get where I was. That said, I bet a lot of people are skilled enough here to beat out my work. I don't mind sharing my train of thought, how I worked out what might be successful. Basically: there's only so many ways to earn revenue on the net. I don't want to sell a product or service. And I don't want to rely on AdSense***. That left a few avenues open. (Seriously, research it: it's a list of 5 or 6 things you can do.) I spent months researching the perfect storm of audience, easy competition and highest return on investment. My first year I dropped 20k on the business without earning a cent. Looking back now it's no big deal. Back then I was going to bed every night thinking I was wasting my time and money. Fortunately I love my day job and earn a decent salary. The sacrifice was huge; I ended up losing touch with friends and family, and a serious relationship I was in imploded. Every free moment I had was spent on the idea. And sometimes when I completely burned out, I'd just lie in bed, regretting starting and wish I could wind back the clock. Now it's on autopilot. I could sit back and stop creating content and earn for a few years. But I can produce videos in only about 3 days (fortunately I work 4 days/10 hr weeks.) The pressure in my life is to come up with the next idea. Fortunately I cleared the: what if my next idea bombs? Should I just invest my money? -- hump. ***Relying on AdSense is definitely doable. The only problem here is you need to hit mass appeal, and have to be attractive to advertisers. My bet is that most of the "niches" are occupied. I'm thinking shit like, fashion, make-up, motive, firearms, sports... and who knows. There's a lot of room here. Originally I tried to cash in on doing "canon" stuff from large IP. It culminated into scantily clad women, doing Star Wars, Star Trek, Mirror's Edge, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Fallout, etc... this actually excluded me pretty hard from AdSense, (cellphone gaming apps LOVED to advertise on my stuff tho.) So I thought I could sell tie-in products. Biiiig mistake. The last thing you want in your mail is correspondence from a big law firm. To be honest, this is the way to go if you want to do creative stuff with no other monetization tie-ins. Find out how to uniquely entertain the largest pool of eyeballs, with content advertisers will be fighting over to play their material on. Then when you hit enough viewers, start creating even higher quality material and put it behind a paywall. What exactly is the niche here? That's for someone to figure out. The shitty thing, is when you realize what people want to watch and can earn you money, isn't your creative idea. It more than likely won't even be something that personally interests you. You have to harness that enthusiasm for success and funnel it into what generates revenue. Exercise your creativity there and you'll mop the floor. I liken it to Wedding events. I'd wager most people wouldn't want to do wedding gigs for their job. That said, if you approach the work with the same level of enthusiasm and creativity you would your personal project, you'll have a damn good chance at success. Selling Out is the smartest thing I ever did. Sorry the late reply. Been really really busy. Thanks for the info. Much appreciated. Thoughts all my tired mind can say. Good night. 4 hours ago, fuzzynormal said: It's N scale model trains. I just know it. I'm guessing porn. I hope not, but I suspect. I really hope I'm wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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