The YouTube Coin Community

YouTube allows users to create videos and upload them for the world to see.  For the Coin Collecting hobby, this is an invaluable treasure.  You can show off your collection, chat with viewers, produce a regular show (such as my Coin Class), teach, talk, trade, and sell.  Coins have a rich history which is well suited to story telling and video production.  What's more, creators have been able to monetize their videos.  Those short ads at the start...youtube pays the creator a piece of the ad revenue generated.  All by itself this is a tremendous opportunity for someone to develop a long term, residual income stream:  make the video, get paid for months.  I strongly urge you to consider starting and developing a channel of your own.  I earned $103 last month.  It's a nice shot in the arm.

There's nothing you can't do.  As soon as you believe that, it becomes true.

Recent changes in YouTube policies and practices are having a profound impact on the content creators.  Raffles and live auctions are forbidden.  In order to monetize, a channel is required to have 1000 subscribers and maintain 4000 hours of total view time over the previous 12 months.  Previously, these requirements were not in place.  The addition of these minimums serve to prevent copyright violations which expose the website to tremendous liability.  While this is good for YouTube, it has the effect of disenfranchising a great many small channels, including my own.

Have Fun With It

Whats happening right now is a scramble by thousands of people to reach these threshholds.  Livestreams are popping up with the sole intention of serving as a meeting place for content creators to subscribe to one another.  "Sub Me, I'll Sub Back" is the rally call.  "Sub4Sub" seems to be every third comment.  Unfortunately, such efforts are being thwarted by YouTube.  The channels are not being credited for the ad revenue generated by such streams and the subscribers don't always follow through with their promises.  I'm seeing hundreds of videos devoid of quality content.  I looked at one where the creator was streaming a video of his fishtank with a sign taped on it "Thanks for Watching".

That dog don't hunt.

The entire point of the website is to offer a platform on which people can develop a following (and INCOME) by offering quality content of their own creation.  These recent developments will mush things up for a bit.  Hopefully the site will not implode as a result of their need for self-preservation, but I fear a number of content creators will throw in the towel.  It takes months of continuous effort to establish a dedicated audience.  It takes time, energy, planning, often an investment in equipment, and a bit of luck helps.  God knows, every little bit helps.  I've produced around 150 videos in the past couple years.  While the viewership statistics are improving, it will be a few months before I regain the ability to monetize my videos.  I've been running a couple shows each week that are not suitable for the website and must come to and end.  This leaves me with an audience but no content to offer unless I can quickly adapt.  We must rise to meet the challenge or move on to something else.  Indeed, there is a cast community of tens of thousands of people who will be flipping through the channels to find nothing on as small creators throw in the towel.  If the task is just plain out of reach in a reasonable time frame, there will be channels that quit, viewers that go somewhere else, and advertisers that will move on to other venues, further stranding those producers who decide to tough it out.

One of the general themes of my blog as well as my YouTube channel has been the opportunity the coin hobby presents.  You don't need a college degree, or a huge investment, or Wall Street contacts, or bank loans, or even a brick and mortar store to earn additional income.  More than anything else, you need knowledge.   This is where YouTube SHINES.  If you have the knowledge, you can share it.  If you are looking for knowledge, you can find it, so much of it in fact it can seem like drinking from a firehouse.  If you want to create content the hobby offers an endless variety of subjects to explore.  Touch upon it lightly or take it all the way to a documentary, there are viewers who will enjoy your content and keep coming back for more.

I tend to develop ideas and explore all the permutations that can arise from a single spark of insight.  While this means I tend to digress, it also means I come up with some interesting possibilities.  While exploring ideas and having a discussion with viewers about how to replace The BIG Show, it was decided that a facebook group specific to the youtube coin community would be pretty darn handy.  The livestream chats can be somewhat limiting-as of today, external links posted in comments no longer work if they go off the website.  I've long been a proponent of a combined web presence: Video, blog, and social media.  I think it would be a benefit to the community to develop a social media outlet specific to that end.

So...a facebook group has been created:  YouTube Coin Community.

Content creators and viewers can join the group.  The idea is to continue the fellowship found in livestream chats.  The problem of the livestream ending and the chat ending along with it is addressed by having a more permanent virtual stomping ground.  The text limits of youtube comments is circumvented.  Group members can post links, photos, videos, files, tell dumb jokes and continue discussions without interruption.

The group was created a couple hours ago.  What it will eventually become is anyone's guess.  Does it jump the gap between what YouTube was and what it is becoming?  Will it endure to become a vital resource for which it has the potential?  Will we be able to organize ourselves just enough to take things to the next level, and what exactly IS the next level?
Time will tell, for now...join the group.