To monetize or not to monetize (and if so, when?)

[MrSlippery]

I am in the process of getting ready to launch my channel, and I had a question about monetization.

I wasn't planning on monetizing my videos, but after reading about it, I thought that it might not be such a bad idea.

My channel is basically a series of videos to advertise a textbook I have written and is for sale on Amazon. So, in a way, my videos are a commercial for my book. I'm not sure if adding commercials to what are already essentially commercials would be a good idea.

I've read different opinions, and some people think it's better to monetize right away, as opposed to doing it later, to avoid being called a 'sell-out.' On the other hand, in the beginning it may be more difficult to get subscribers if people are turned off by the ads.

Certainly, I don't have any pie-in-the-sky dreams of becoming rich off of my videos (I'm hoping my book sales do that...), but I honestly think I have made high-quality videos that people will definitely enjoy, and I could possibly get some money from them, considering the videos will, for all intents and purposes, be up "forever."

What are your guys' opinions on this? What did you do? And if you were in my shoes, what would you do?

Monetize right away, wait before monetizing, not monetize at all?

Thanks!

 

[RiffRaff]

Honestly I don't any point in not monetising, people are completely used to the ads on YouTube by now. They'll skip the ad 9/10. I've not had any negative feedback because of ads either. Maybe others have had a different experience.

 

[PositivelyBrainwashed]

First anyone who calls you a sell-out has a negative sales mentality. You are exchanging value for their time/money. Now I would agree that most users don't mind the ads, but I personally took ads off after 1 month. It's very possible that 1/10 viewer who shut off my video could have become a loyal subscriber or someone I could network with. The few extra dollars in exchange for those extra views and subscribers that can help me rank better and be found more in the long run is not worth it for me at the early stage. What I might do in the future is only turn ads on for specific videos that have reached a certain amount of views that gets searched often.

 

[Tyhd]

"First anyone who calls you a sell-out has a negative sales mentality."
Or you're a sellout...

 

[PositivelyBrainwashed]

"First anyone who calls you a sell-out has a negative sales mentality."
Or you're a sellout...

The point I'm making is if you're a sell-out, then so what? If you're providing value for people that's so exceptional and you start increasing the price, or start putting ads or something, what matters is if you're still providing an overall positive experience for people.

 

[Tyhd]

The point I'm making is if you're a sell-out, then so what? If you're providing value for people that's so exceptional and you start increasing the price, or start putting ads or something, what matters is if you're still providing an overall positive experience for people.

Thats not what a sell-out is. If you put ads on your video it doesn't make you a sell out.

 

[PositivelyBrainwashed]

Thats not what a sell-out is. If you put ads on your video it doesn't make you a sell out.

Words have many meanings. I'm using the 4th definition of Sellout listed here

So if you go from not using ads to putting ads, you just changed your play style to make more money

 

[Tyhd]

Words have many meanings. I'm using the 4th definition of Sellout listed here

So if you go from not using ads to putting ads, you just changed your play style to make more money

No. If an 'Artist' changes their play style that would be like a YouTuber changing their content to make more money, which could easily be done by creating click-baity content that most do not like but gets views and therefore gets money. If you 'add ads' you essentially change nothing to your channel but it now becomes a stream of revenue. If you had no ads in the beginning you weren't making money anyway, therefore if you changed your content from what it is to view-whory videos (ie. Vine Compilations etc.) and turned on ads yes you would be considered a sellout, but if you make the same type content as before, with or without ads, I don't think anyone will view you as a sellout.

PS. Sorry for all the typos, kind of tired atm

 

[ChrisLegend]

I wouldn't put any ads on your videos when starting out. You will probably be making like $1 a year and the chance that people turn off a video right away when an ad appears on a video that isn't that popular is pretty high. The more people are pulled into your videos the more of a gateway it is to your book sales which is the important part!

 

[subversiveasset]

Words have many meanings. I'm using the 4th definition of Sellout listed here

So if you go from not using ads to putting ads, you just changed your play style to make more money

I don't want to quibble too much, because I actually don't disagree with your overall position, but I would not read the decision to enable ads as selling out.

I would say that this definition is more getting at changing content, genre, or style to appeal to more marketable niches. In other words, instead of doing indie music, they move to a more mainstream genre.

In a YouTube context, I think of things like putting content behind a paywall (e.g., if someone used to post all of their stuff on their channel, but then they get a patreon, and rather than use that for bonus content, they take stuff that used to be available on the channel and put it behind the patreon.) I mean, I don't really begrudge youtubers who do this -- being compensated for your content is a good thing -- but I would probably think of something like that as being more of a sellout position. (I'm not knocking patreon though. I just personally think there's a more tasteful way to go about that...extra content, rather than silo-ing off the normal channel content.)

Normally, I'd suggest that there is nothing wrong with advertising right away. For the topic creator of this topic, though, I don't really think it matters either way -- ad revenue probably will pale in comparison to book sales revenue.