Hi all. I whiffed on a few things from yesterday’s two newsletters. And they are pretty important. So I wanted to address them now. Also, I want to celebrate a milestone that I’ve been working hard to hit!
Techsploder Patreon Link: CORRECTION!
Mark, a subscriber, emailed me to let me know that the Techsploder Patreon link in yesterday’s Techsploder newsletter was 404ing. Sure enough, it was. That’s because I got the URL completely wrong! The REAL Techsploder Patreon link is:
http://www.patreon.com/JasonHowell
So many details, y’all! Hard to keep it straight! Anyway, that’s the place. Apologies for the confusion. I was so confident I stuck the landing! I hope to see you there!
This Week in Tech #976: Serial Churners
Man, how could I have missed including Sunday’s TWiT in my weekly roundup newsletter yesterday? I know how: I WAS VERY TIRED when I wrote that.
This was such a special episode of This Week in Tech. My first return to TWiT’s biggest show since the layoff in December, the last (or so I’m told) episode with a live studio audience, and an all-in-studio panel. The energy in the room was electric! It reminded me of how enjoyable doing live podcasts in front of people with pulses can be. We used to do so many of these live shows at TWiT back in the day but then, you know, COVID HAPPENED. Anyway, it was purely enjoyable and I met and talked with some really great people.
I sat at the table with Leo Laporte, Mikah Sargent, and the fabulous Abrar Al-Heeti from CNET. We covered a lot of ground in 2hrs 27min: The court ruling on the forced use of a thumbprint to unlock a suspect’s phone in the US, the inevitability of a TikTok ban, I get sort of called out for being a serial churner (I mean, it’s the title of the episode!), and we go nutso over the update to Boston Dynamics’ Atlas humanoid robot! OH, and Leo calls me “The Techsploder” which took me by surprise but was also very awesome.
YouTube Monetization
I want to take a second and celebrate that I have officially passed the first of two important milestones on the Techsploder YouTube channel!
Along with 500 channel subs which I passed two months ago (I’m now at 2,071 subs for anyone who cares about that stuff), this morning I officially passed 3000 watch hours. Both of those metrics together qualify my channel for the FIRST STAGE of monetization. Yay!
This means that my account can now support:
Channel memberships (not sure I’ll implement that, I already have the Patreon. Though I’m open to feedback from you all about it.)
Shopping (my own products… Again, the Patreon has merch perks built into it and for now, I don’t have that merch for sale on its own.)
Super Chat (viewers can donate during a live stream for their chat to be SPECIAL. Part of that money comes to me!)
Super Stickers (A donation similar to Super Chats except it’s an animated image that appears in the chat.)
Super Thanks (A donation once again that is meant to show appreciation by highlighting your comment in a special color and playing an animation above the video.)
It is important to keep this in mind: YouTube does take a portion of any money donated through these methods. My understanding is that YouTube takes 30%. It’s the platform tax! For without YouTube, I wouldn’t be doing this in quite the same way. I think a lot of users don’t realize this is the case, so I’m letting you know now!
My next goal is equally important: 4000 watch hours and 1000 subscribers. Obviously, I have the subscriber goal nailed. But once I get 4000 watch hours, I qualify for ad sense rev-share. And every YouTuber I talk with says that’s a big moment. My goal is to hit that within the next 30 days. Let’s see if we can get there!
OK, that’s all. THANK YOU!
Really good pointers about youtube monetization. Will keep in mind.