YouTube is becoming my Family Photo Album

[OldManMirage]

Its all good ! And just to be clear on the money front - I would indeed like to make money from it if I could. My point being that IF it was possible, I would certainly take whatever I could get. I am not in an income bracket that allows me to turn away money.

And I don't have a problem with YouTube putting in their commercials either. They have the right to make money too, and since they are the ones putting up the "tools" for me, how can I begrudge them their "pound of flesh" ? It's just business, that's how it goes.

I think if you pay for their Premium Service, you may not have to put up with as many commercials, and you have access to other stuff. But I am unsure about that.

I see what concerns Mike too, but I just don't feel like there's anything to be had from what I put up. Now, take some of the music that was in my last video. That came from people who put it on YouTube for others to use royalty free. That is really nice of them, but if I had some original music that was as good as some of what I used, I don't know that I'd want to give it away. Still, there's so much of it out there, just getting noticed is enough for some people. I guess it all depends on your perspective and what it is you're trying to do.

Me ? I'm just having fun ! Look Ma, no hands !

[David B]

Originally Posted by leboyd

Why have you monitized your channel if you’re not planning to make any money from it and are doing it more for you and your family (and helping others out a little)? If I watch a YT video and it looks and feels really homemade, if they monitized their account I don’t go back. If it’s not monitized (like mine), then I’ll watch more.

There’s nothing wrong with monitizing your account just be a little more honest that you do want to make some money off it.

These days, YouTube monetise what they want to - even if you don't. Ours has become so, but we don't even qualify for monetisation even if we wanted to.

[David B]

Originally Posted by OldManMirage

This was being discussed on another Sailing forum, and I thought I'd throw it out here.

So yeah, I have a YouTube channel. It's nothing much, I don't expect to be the next YouTube star or anything remotely like that. I seriously doubt it will EVER make money. Again, not why I started it. It has morphed a bit from where it began because of changes in my own life. But I think the most interesting thing is what it is becoming.

And that is a way to preserve memories. Partly because of my own fault I really have no old movies of my parents that have sound. And that is rather sad to me. So when I started doing my channel I had in mind that my kids would have more and better ways to remember me/us when we are gone. It started a bit solo, but fortunately has become more of a family thing. And I expect that to get even better as time goes by. And the videos will be there for the future, without any effort on my part to try and preserve them. That is rather nice too.

Just like here in the forum, some of my stuff is meant to be helpful, and it is quite gratifying when it does so. My most popular video is about why I like my Andersen hitch for my camper. And apparently it has helped a few make a decision about their own rig. That is cool ! And if someone gets inspired by what I'm doing, that is a nice feeling too.

I know some people don't like YouTube - for whatever reason - but I have also found it to be an immense resource for learning to do things. I'm sure I have saved 1000's of dollars over the years by fixing things myself that I would not have tried if I hadn't been able to watch someone explain it to me.

So, I hope this discussion might bring out ideas of ways to use YouTube. What have you found ?

Yes, well I guess that applies to us also - just there for us and friends. If for some reason, others like what we do, then that's even better.

Raw video is pretty boring, and the effort that goes into producing it should be worth more than just us.

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by thomm225

Plus CD's only hold about 700 megabytes whereas a DVD's storage capacity is 4.7 GB.

Thumb drives are cheap and can hold 256 GB and more.....

We went with a couple of portable hard drives (try to store them separately). 2-4TB is pretty cheap. We back up the computer hard drive (our personal files) every month or so (at least when I'm staying up on it).

But yeah, a website losing your stuff happens, so keeping your own copy makes a lot of sense. Plus CD/DVDs are becoming less common. At some point, it will be like the old floppy disks that I finally threw out because it wasn't practical to get disk drive.

Honestly, not that worried about google using my pictures or videos. There is so much stuff on the web the odds of them being interested in my stuff is negligible.