 With the recent moves from #Twitter, #Reddit, and even #Youtube, I think it’s becoming clear that ads are not a sustainable business model in the long run (and yes, I know I run a YouTube channel funded by ads 😅) I took a look at a few examples, at how this decline is also making the web worse for everyone, at alternative platforms, and tried to imagine what an internet without ads to fund content creation and big platforms could look like: 47 comments
@julianfairfax As far as I know, they have to invite you to join Nebula, you can’t sign up just like on YouTube! @thelinuxEXP I believe there is an approval process, but you can most likely contact them and ask to join. I also told @sr this, since I'd definitely like to see you both on a privacy-respecting platform that also makes you money! The reason for this system is because the platform is partly owned by each creator. I don't know how this works legally, but presumably they want to be careful who is let on then. And they have a focus on content with educational value.  @thelinuxEXP @julianfairfax Ofc from my cheapskate/poor person perspective, Nebula is basicallya shill factory. There are no good answers once money is in the picture.
@thelinuxEXP @karbuziran Yeah, but like I say in the video, if I only had Peertube, I couldn’t make as many videos, at least not as a day job. With a “real job” instead, I’d make maybe 1 video per week tops :/ @thelinuxEXP But, as the saying goes:  @thelinuxEXP I don't understand why Ad providers are so much fixated to show personalized Ads... @thelinuxEXP Qu'est que tu as comme montre ? Avec toute cette gesticulation, on voit pas. T'as du sang italien 😂😂 En tout cas le bracelet nato à l'air vraiment sympa 👍 @supersarma Haha ouais mes (anciennes) racines resurgissent 😂 C’est une Tudor Ranger ! @thelinuxEXP Having ads on sites pushes visitors away thus making it a horrible experience and with adblockers being killed off slowly I agree with your thoughts totally mon cher ami.. @thelinuxEXP @pH3ra Meta is losing tons of profit since privacy laws were voted, and since Apple basically blocked tracking in iOS apps. They’re still making money, but their business has taken a big dive! I think they have a critical size that allows them to make it work, but for how long? @thelinuxEXP@mastodon.social @pH3ra@mastodon.uno Just wanted to point out that Apple also has a huge ads business their trying to push. Apple is often shown by many "a-list" journalists as a hero, but Apple also wants to make money @thelinuxEXP Seems legit. So do you think Meta opening yet another social network (Threads) is more like a gamble for more profit rather than a well thought financial move? @pH3ra I don’t think they have a plan apart from « once people use it we’ll sell ads in there », since they collect enormous amounts of data from Threads! @thelinuxEXP Being real, I just miss when profanity and music were things that weren't up to question. It has an effect no one really acknowledges critically because most have sort of just resigned with a "it is what it is". At worst it's basically gutted the quality of some shows on YouTube. And all in the name of ads!  @thelinuxEXP This is a good video and I mostly agree with the three outcomes. One minor point is that I believe the loss of professional media could exacerbate the disinformation/misinformation system as bad actors in that space are not operating for profit and they would then have free reign to spread their message without a strong and professional response/debunking. @reflex Institutional or governmental propaganda would definitely thrive, yeah @thelinuxEXP I'd add conspiratorial organizations like anti-vaxx orgs would do well also, they don't raise their money on subscriptions or advertising. Edit: Please don't misread me, the corporate run internet is a dumpster fire and does a bad job with those things as well. I'm not saying we are better off today, only that getting rid of them does not necessarily solve those problems. @thelinuxEXP is it that ad revenue isn't sufficient, or is it this new era of insatiable corporate profit? No amount seems to be enough at the moment, even if these platforms only showed adverts it would continue to spiral. @ramblingsteve I think maybe both: ads don’t pay as much, and investors just want eternal growth, no matter what! @thelinuxEXP@mastodon.social With the drastic measures these companies have pulled just so that consumers can buy advertised trash, I personally do not care if adblocking is considered "piracy" at all. That is not an ethical way to earn money. Go earn money through other means. @thelinuxEXP Those ads you run are definitely small fish compared to other revenue streams. Makes sense that ads are dying and subscriber sponsorship and federated social media is growing in its place @thelinuxEXP Well, the Youtube auto-ads that is 👀 I think there's something to be said about how people aren't necessarily against advertising (for better or worse). When it's intrusive and untargeted (with targeting necessarily meaning invasion of privacy) people aren't interested. But running a sponsored segment in your video gives YOU directly more money (and not a dodgy revenue share scheme) and directly targets a product to an audience that'll be receptive to it. @thelinuxEXP There are a lot of interesting comments here. But hey: Stop talking and head over to https://www.patreon.com/thelinuxexperiment/posts if you want to see that kind of content in the future :yayblob: @thelinuxEXP haven’t watched it yet, but someone on Mastodon told me about this kind of money through views thing that never really got anywhere. @thelinuxEXP There’s a distinction to be made between ads. There’s the ads that people (like you) get in direct sponsorship, because they’re in the video/podcast/etc, and there’s the “ad tech” ads stapled on to websites, videos, or podcasts by clever machines. I think the latter is what’s under actual threat. The former will only grow, because people like you are incentivized to make ads that don’t drive away their viewers. I pay for YT Premium, but I still see your ads.  @thelinuxEXP I think (hope?) that in the future the content creators will cut the middleman and start doing the distribution themselves so they will be dealing with advertisers/sponsors directly. So in your case, you'd be getting "your own" Peertube and your revenue could come from insertions instead of pre-rolls, or "gated" content for subscribers. I also hope that we will see an easy way for consumers to set a monthly budget and just split among all those creators that we want to support. You mentioned Odysee (which I think is crap) but one project that I think could do this was Brave and their BAT token. With the Brave model, users get a share of the revenue from ads, and they could (theoretically) pay it forward to the content creators. Because the first revenue is in USD, the price of the token doesn't really matter. It's interesting to see how the #adRevenue system works better in our collective imagination than in reality. That reminds me that system rests on #surveillance #capitalism. If you haven't read it yet: "Surveillance Capitalism" by Soshana #Zuboff @thelinuxEXP That said, I also look forward to people finding a new revenue model. One that isn't privacy invasive or obtrusive. Maybe sponsorships will get more popular, maybe subscriptions will get more popular. Hell maybe something entirely new may also come up. @thelinuxEXP Honestly that’s sadly been the case for a while. I think YouTube and Reddit will start charging fees just to access sites, due to the exclusive mountain of info they have.  |
Gregory's Server
@thelinuxEXP sorry for not watching the video before asking, but, did you look into nebula.tv ? I think it's a great option. It respects your privacy, gives users access to videos without ads, and gives creators more revenue and the freedom to post whatever content they want without worrying about demonetisation.