Proliferation of YouTube spam, stolen and BS camera videos

[SuperSet]

This is a rant...

I don't know if you guys have noticed but there are a ton of bullshit camera related videos on YouTube now. 

If you want to see what I'm talking about, search 'Fuji XT2' and sort by Upload Date.  You'll be rewarded with a metric ton of computer generated slide shows, slide shows with computer-generated audio, low rez versions of copied videos from reputable YouTubers like Max Yuryev, DPReview, The Camera Store's or the Northrop's channel. 

When did it get this bad!?

[Mat Mayer]

Youtube has always been full of spam. At least for the past 8 years. There are bots set up to rank crappy slideshows for certain phrases, then affiliate links added. They don't seem to care about the duplicate content thing (stolen videos) either. Instead it is up to the maker e.g. Max to go and find all these stolen videos, then create copyright disputes. Youtube then automatically let Max monetize or remove the videos with their own bots. Humans are rarely involved so if Max is new to it and doesn't file the dispute correctly he may lose, plus there is a rather threatening warning that if you claim wrong your channel is at risk.

Youtube has zero customer support. I managed to get an ignorant sentence from an unnamed customer services rep recently. You need to be earning them a lot of money otherwise they arent interested. Even though we have a video with 2.3 million views, no response regarding monetizing it. Vimeo support is excellent, its just a shame they fell so far behind. 

We have the number 1 type of video for a certain thing and a hundred more. Youtube has been great as a free advertising platform and free video hosting. But despite 4.5 million views on the channel they are not prepared to let me call, or email me to discuss making money with them with a premium channel. Its crazy, they must of lost massive amounts from us and now we want to go 50-50 on a premium subscription channel they don't care. So we have to make SMART TV apps instead and will continue using them for free promotion and hosting. Sorry my rant went a bit sideways there 

[Cary Knoop]

2 hours ago, Mat Mayer said:

Even though we have a video with 2.3 million views, no response regarding monetizing it.

That's at least 2 thousand bucks!

What is the link to the video and who is making the claim?  Did you dispute it?

 

[andrgl]

11 hours ago, Mat Mayer said:

We have the number 1 type of video for a certain thing and a hundred more. Youtube has been great as a free advertising platform and free video hosting. But despite 4.5 million views on the channel they are not prepared to let me call, or email me to discuss making money with them with a premium channel.

Sorry to be shitty but that's not a lot of views. I did over 1.2 million this year with just 6 videos. (I'm not counting the views my channel accumulated over the last 12 months from videos that were released prior to 2016.) No ad monetization, made a little under 40k USD.

Didn't spend a single cent on hosting costs. I have garbage SERP on Google. All my traffic comes internally.

SEO-wise, all I did, besides make awesome content I know will convert, was to ad subtitles so my videos ranked faster.

Anyway, long story short: YouTube is awesome, yes there are spammers, keep your head down, produce great videos AND (most importantly) target a segment you know spends money and is low competition.

 

 

That said, sorry for your troubles this year. Getting bogus DMCA claims is awful.

[Liszon]

Youtube ads? I didn't even know they exist until I got a smartphone a few years ago, been blocking the shit out of ads on my PC.

So if you don't monetize with ads where did the 40k come from? I am not being funny, don't worry, I am genuinely interested.

So if 1.2 mil can make that much, the guys over at Screen Junkies must be making loads more. They have videos with like 2.5 mil views per year.

[Cary Knoop]

1 hour ago, andrgl said:

Sorry to be shitty but that's not a lot of views. I did over 1.2 million this year with just 6 videos. (I'm not counting the views my channel accumulated over the last 12 months from videos that were released prior to 2016.) No ad monetization, made a little under 40k USD.

You made 40k without monetization on a 1.2 million viewcount? 

Sure we believe it..........

[Stanley]

 

2 hours ago, andrgl said:

Sorry to be shitty but that's not a lot of views. I did over 1.2 million this year with just 6 videos. (I'm not counting the views my channel accumulated over the last 12 months from videos that were released prior to 2016.) No ad monetization, made a little under 40k USD.

 

At that rate I hate to think what Casey Neistat earns in a good week!

 

[webrunner5]

26 minutes ago, Stanley said:

 

At that rate I hate to think what Casey Neistat earns in a good week!

 

He earns at least 2 to 3 million a year, well at least he did! I have heard as much a 50k a week. Depends on how good blogs were. Not a set fee. Well it is, how many hits. The more the Merrier, and how long they are on it watching, ergo get to see even more adds.. It is someting like YouTube's CPM is reported to be on average $7.60, that means you get paid $7.60 for each 1,000 views. Depends who you are. Casey got more than that trust me per 1,000.

[Davey]

4 hours ago, webrunner5 said:

He earns at least 2 to 3 million a year, well at least he did! I have heard as much a 50k a week. Depends on how good blogs were. Not a set fee. Well it is, how many hits. The more the Merrier, and how long they are on it watching, ergo get to see even more adds.. It is someting like YouTube's CPM is reported to be on average $7.60, that means you get paid $7.60 for each 1,000 views. Depends who you are. Casey got more than that trust me per 1,000.

I average $1 per 1000 views and have yet to earn $250 in two years lol. It is good to be monetised, though, just in case you film something extraordinary that gets a few hundred million views in a short time whereby advertisers fall over themselves to pay the top rate for a few months.

My biggest gripe are the spammy companies offering to license your video and offer you 60% - how generous of them.

To be a top earner on YouTube you generally have to appeal to the lowest common denominator; which is to have wild hair, a whacky disposition, be stunningly good looking, have a knack for tapping into the brains of the near dead, master the art of false humility and get people to feel sorry for you, be a big fat show off or any combination of those listed. There are many seriously talented folk on YouTube who get nowhere in terms of hitting a million subscribers (or even a thousand in many cases) but then that is not why they are there in the first place.

Philip Bloom has around 125,000 subscribers

Casey Neistat has around 6,125,000 subscribers

That tells you all you need to know about this world.

[Stanley]

2 hours ago, Davey said:

I average $1 per 1000 views and have yet to earn $250 in two years lol. It is good to be monetised, though, just in case you film something extraordinary that gets a few hundred million views in a short time whereby advertisers fall over themselves to pay the top rate for a few months.

My biggest gripe are the spammy companies offering to license your video and offer you 60% - how generous of them.

To be a top earner on YouTube you generally have to appeal to the lowest common denominator; which is to have wild hair, a whacky disposition, be stunningly good looking, have a knack for tapping into the brains of the near dead, master the art of false humility and get people to feel sorry for you, be a big fat show off or any combination of those listed. There are many seriously talented folk on YouTube who get nowhere in terms of hitting a million subscribers (or even a thousand in many cases) but then that is not why they are there in the first place.

Philip Bloom has around 125,000 subscribers

Casey Neistat has around 6,125,000 subscribers

That tells you all you need to know about this world.

Cool info thanks. The most interesting thing I've shot and posted on YouTube has had about 60 views in the past 20 months, when do you think I can expect a comfotable income?

[bigfoot]

Philip bloom is also a very cynical OP with depression and a very big self-esteem. Rub a lot of people the wrong way...

Kaiman Wong went easily over Philip in the "first month" (off DRTV) being on youtube, is always very sarcastic but at least he's funny and understand a bit more the youtube market.

 

You have to understand who is the major viewer on youtube; young geeks. Look at Pewdiepie market.... 50 millions sub

[Davey]

4 hours ago, bigfoot said:

Philip bloom is also a very cynical OP with depression and a very big self-esteem. Rub a lot of people the wrong way...

Kaiman Wong went easily over Philip in the "first month" (off DRTV) being on youtube, is always very sarcastic but at least he's funny and understand a bit more the youtube market.

 

You have to understand who is the major viewer on youtube; young geeks. Look at Pewdiepie market.... 50 millions sub

Bloom is likeable if you get British humour, which can be purposely angry and dark - though I could imagine him being a nightmare to work with until such time you are comfortable to give some back. Kai is simply likeable and one of the few big YouTube personalities that I enjoy watching. He has not produced one piece of art in his life (that I am aware of) but I doubt that he clubs stray dogs to death when off camera.

[bigfoot]

Don't get me wrong, I really like Bloom stuff... especially is new instagram account : https://www.instagram.com/unmotivateme/

Just not as accessible as other youtubers ... it's not the platform where he will shine at best. 

[Mat Mayer]

On 29/12/2016 at 5:41 PM, Cary Knoop said:

That's at least 2 thousand bucks!

What is the link to the video and who is making the claim?  Did you dispute it?

 

That video is one of the few that hasn't had a false copyright claim against it. I have won 100% of the 50-80 copyright disputes I have had to go through. I just wanted to contact someone at Youtube for reassurance that I won't have to go through all that again when I spend 5k or whatever it will cost on a PC that can blast out versions which can be monetized on a premium channel (I made one recently on my average laptop and it took 170 hours or something). We ruin our current videos with ad text to encourage paid downloads. So instead we are spending the money on SMART TV apps and will continue to use Youtube for free advertising. Their loss and it saves me a ridonculous amount of time and effort. So no reason to be bitter really 

[Cary Knoop]

30 minutes ago, Mat Mayer said:

That video is one of the few that hasn't had a false copyright claim against it. I have won 100% of the 50-80 copyright disputes I have had to go through. I just wanted to contact someone at Youtube for reassurance that I won't have to go through all that again when I spend 5k or whatever it will cost on a PC that can blast out versions which can be monetized on a premium channel (I made one recently on my average laptop and it took 170 hours or something). We ruin our current videos with ad text to encourage paid downloads. So instead we are spending the money on SMART TV apps and will continue to use Youtube for free advertising. Their loss and it saves me a ridonculous amount of time and effort. So no reason to be bitter really 

I have pressed Skip Ad about 30 times today. Time to check out those ad blockers  Anyone people recommend for Android?

I suppose I do not understand. 

If you did not get a false copyright claim against that video you can monetize it, why you would need a 5k PC for that I don't understand.

 

30 minutes ago, Mat Mayer said:

I have pressed Skip Ad about 30 times today. Time to check out those ad blockers  Anyone people recommend for Android?

Let me get this right you find ads annoying so you want to block them but at the same time you use ads in your videos?

 

[Davey]

6 minutes ago, Cary Knoop said:

I suppose I do not understand. 

If you did not get a false copyright claim against that video you can monetize it, why you would need a 5k PC for that I don't understand.

I suppose I do not understand. 

Let me get this right you find ads annoying so you want to block them but at the same time you use ads in your videos?

 

Completely lost me, as well.

[kidzrevil]

Phillip Bloom blocked me on social media after I asked him whether he prefers the Panasonicc gh4 or the sony a7s right after his a7s review. He replied "what the hell do you think ?" And blocked me. The guy is overrated anyway...I consistently see better quality stuff on this forum. Anyway I think what we are witnessing as far as the multitudes of Max Yurev clones and copy cat videos are people simply looking to be the next big household name of camera reviews. The market is changing and soon those youtube bloggers will have to find a new format to satisfy these new and emerging audiences

[Mat Mayer]

1 hour ago, Cary Knoop said:

I suppose I do not understand. 

If you did not get a false copyright claim against that video you can monetize it, why you would need a 5k PC for that I don't understand.

 

Let me get this right you find ads annoying so you want to block them but at the same time you use ads in your videos?

 

Sorry for not being clear. The only point that matters is that Youtube is full of spam and has a terrible system in place for protecting video creators. I do not use Youtube ads in videos and have no intention of ever doing so. I wanted to create a subscription channel which would offer long videos ad free, they take a long time to render so I would need a powerful PC. 

Just tried an Android ad blocker, doesn't work for Youtube, but will keep searching. I am a big MMA fan and there was an event last night, tonight and tomorrow. The number of ripped off interviews and fights is enormous. Half of the stuff I have been watching all day is stolen content with ads, so I have no qualms about blockings ads on pirated content.

For reviews I just watch David Thorpe for a down to earth, simple, practical opinion from a guy who has been in the business forever (plus he just sticks to M43), and indepth reviews like Andrew does on this site. Plus look at the comparisson sites like Imaging Resource. Bloom blabbers on too much and makes promises he doesn't keep, whereas Thorpe gives me the jist in few minutes, then I known whether to come somewhere like this blog for some more in-depth opinion and samples.

The Hong Kong guys are likeable but useless for reviews imo. I like their different stuff like getting someone like Bloom to use a barbie doll toy camera. That series is fun to watch and get some unique perspectives. Their reviews infuriate me as they are more concered with acting stupid. At least the top photographers using the worst cams in the world is a cool concept which forces them to show us some creativity.

[SuperSet]

A while back, FaceBook was working on a video algorithm that identifies your video through certain unique signatures. Once you upload it to your main FB page, anytime someone uploaded something with a similar one, they'd be flagged for your attention.  AFAIK, it's still in beta.

This is a much better solution than relying on content creators to find and individually flag videos for YT to take it down. 

YT could solve this problem if they wanted to do it.

[Mat Mayer]

1 hour ago, SuperSet said:

YT could solve this problem if they wanted to do it.

They dont want to because they take more than 50% of the reveune from the ads which are pasted immediately on disputed videos. When the disputes fail they keep 100% of the ad revenue. Basically its a scam. It is their easiest source of income as they are getting all the money from ads. They have billions in the bank and have no reason to stop the scam until some lawyers get on their ass and they get some bad press.