Producing YOUR content without subjecting your audience to ads.
We have all had those moments watching Television where we jump from one channel to another simply to miss commercials. Recently we have started paying higher rates for services that don’t interrupt the content we want to view with ads that we are not specifically interested in.
People are moving away from the intrusion of Ads anywhere they can. One relatively new sight rejects the intrusive nature of ads entirely.
Patreon is a site that allows “pledges” or monetary supporters to donate to certain creators and artist that they like and view their content without any interference from ads. The other great benefit from this service for content producers is that outside influences like big business or industry leaders do not have the leverage to change your content to work for their benefit. Looking at the current model if a channel is being sponsored by Google, but do not necessarily agree with certain specific requirements of Google ads, they really cannot address that without jeopardizing their sponsorship. That kind of relationship can augment the original vision of the content because of their financial leveraging. Another example that I have seen is with Youtubers in the gaming community. Industry leaders to promote their products sometimes sponsor them.
They are at odds with their sponsors when they have issues with those products or just don’t use them.
Typically viewers have subscribed to these Youtubers for their content, not to be “sold” by sponsors and ads. As such, we often want to find a platform that allows us to monetize, but not lose integrity. Patreon might be that solution for several Artists and content producers.
However, noticed that with this kind of viewer-based support is dependent on an audience or consumers trained in apathy. The fact that their active monetary support is necessary for content to be developed must be handled with care. We also have a society that looks down on the idea of handouts.
Donations and subscriptions can be unfairly lumped together with that ideology and cause issues for people honestly trying to create. Now, there has been an increase in the public appeal of crowd funding for these smaller online businesses. But, for each new producer/creator the question of funding is an ever present…
-H00k Out
