(04-17-2024 06:09 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  It really is amazing when you think about it that the best way to make money in realignment is pretending to have inside info and/or mindless speculation. Basically, everything you’re taught not to do in journalism school. People have turned those two things (pretending to have inside info, mindless speculation) into full-time incomes.

It goes to show how much demand exists for 'information' during those stretches where there's no new information.

People who like tabloid stories often say 'They give you the stories no one else does!' Uh, yeah. They do.

(04-17-2024 08:27 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  

(04-17-2024 06:36 PM)unalions Wrote:  I loved being the Gulf South Conference blogger on D2Football.com for several seasons before UNA reclassified. But, that's a bit different. It was a labor or love for a very niche audience who really appreciated the effort and most of whom I'd known on that message board for years.

Since then, I've become a music YouTuber. I'm a singer and voice teacher who became a sports superfan as a band nerd back in the day. My YouTube channel exploded right off the bat and it's been a wild ride the past 4.5 years. In that time, I've made over $100K just from the YouTube Partner Program not including sponsorships and reposting to other platforms. I have almost reached 600K subscribers and have over 84M views most of it by luck. But, I have learned a lot (mostly the hard way).

I feature a very random assortment of international artists usually dictated by what my subscribers suggest in the comments. So, y'all won't know half of the folks I review on my channel probably but feel free to check it out.

My Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@MasterofVoice

Starting a sports channel on YouTube is very popular but it takes a certain personality type for it or some type of different hook to compete with all the existing channels. I've definitely thought about it but it's a lot of work to keep it up consistently.

This is amazing! Love that you’ve been able to turn a passion into a successful YouTube channel!

When I’ve analyzed it before, I thought that if I could move what had been my blog audience to YouTube, that could conceivably be a material income stream. It has been more the motivation over the last few years with this stage of life with my kids and the frequency that I’d need to post to make it viable.

By the way, I’ve always told people that I really stumbled on conference realignment and the college sports business as a blog focus by accident. Before that, I just wrote about totally random stuff - Chicago sports, Illini game recaps, politics, pop culture stuff, etc. In relation to your YouTube channel, one of my old schticks was a breakdown of a Classic Music Video of the Week. Of course, I wasn’t breaking it down like a voice teacher like you, but rather commenting on the types of Starter jerseys the artists were wearing or how Journey was playing air instruments in the Separate Ways video.

To your point, it wasn’t until I ended up with a more focused hook that the blog audience grew. With so many options out there, you definitely need a “sizable niche” to break through the clutter.

In any event, congrats on your success on your YouTube channel. Great stuff!

Thanks so much and to all of you others who sent kind words in the rep comments!

The consistency is a big deal on YT and I don't do as well now as I did when I first started. The good part about reviewing classic performances is that they stay evergreen for repeated views more than something recent that might get lost in the shuffle after said event (like an awards show) is over. Very similar in the sports world. Evergreen content is almost non-existent in the hour-to-hour news cycle but that's why your hook of mentioning older sports-related things in classic videos was cool!

What about blogging about conference realignment? I also have thought about doing youtube, but do not have the face for tv.

If you're going to be a sports blogger, you have to say 'that said' a lot.

'Everyone knows college football makes more TV money than college basketball. That said...'

'Sandra Slamdunk is regarded as a once-in-a-generation WBB talent. That said...'

'Boise State is famous for its blue turf. That said..'

(04-18-2024 03:24 PM)edscollects@gmail.com Wrote:  What about blogging about conference realignment? I also have thought about doing youtube, but do not have the face for tv.

If it interests you, go for it.

(04-17-2024 05:33 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  

(04-17-2024 04:36 PM)Hokie Mark Wrote:  "Retired or want a second income?"

If that is your goal then get a job at Taco Bell -- you'll make more in a week than the my blog makes in a year!

(I'd like to think mine is typical, and not that Google is cheating me out of thousands of dollars... right?)

Oh yeah - not that I wrote my blog for money, but the economics are simply not there for the written word on a non-subscription basis on the Internet. Doesn’t matter if it’s blogs or newspapers. I got a fair amount of traffic and it was essentially pocket change - it’s effectively impossible for anyone to make a living at it if you’re solely depending on views.

Essentially, you need to be able to sell subscriptions to make any decent amount of money (see Matt Brown’s paid newsletter). If you’re depending on views/impressions, you’re better off hitting it big in the YouTube and/or podcasting space and even then it’s going to require being at the 99.999th percentile compared to all of the other millions and millions of content creators spanning all genres.

Yeah, that's mostly the reality. You *can* potentially make a full time living running a free blog IF you sell all the ads yourself. That's very, very time consuming, but if your audience is concentrated in a particular market, or if they're part of very valuable niche demographics, you can earn ad revenues far beyond of what GoogleAds might produce. But there's no way anybody can make a real living, or honestly, even a real PT living, from just programmatic advertising. The bot traffic is too high, the payouts are too low, and the marketplace dominated by two companies who do not give a %#*)$# about publishers.

The best way to earn a living is from selling subscriptions to a niche audience. It is what I do, and honestly, I make more money running Extra Points than I ever did working full time at Vox (and WAY more than I made in newspapers). But I'm also able to do that because I can a) sell institutional subscriptions to universities and b) can rely on commissioners, ADs, collective operators and other high-income industry people to pay for subscriptions at a high rate. I'll probably change my product offerings this summer as well to chase more high-dollar customers.

Honestly, YouTube used to be the best place for independent publishers/creators to make money, but that gravy train is just about over now. Podcasts are starting to face the same data integrity problems that plague text publishing.

If the only people who paid for Extra Points were my regular fan readers...I wouldn't make enough to justify spending my full-time job on it.

I dont actually think any of the realignment-rumor professionals online make a full-time income from their hustle, although I bet they make enough part time money to certainly make it worth their time.

It's a tough hustle, that's for sure. Way, way harder than it was at the start of my career, and I imagine with the way the internet is going, it'll only get worse.

(04-17-2024 04:36 PM)Hokie Mark Wrote:  "Retired or want a second income?"

If that is your goal then get a job at Taco Bell -- you'll make more in a week than the my blog makes in a year!

(I'd like to think mine is typical, and not that Google is cheating me out of thousands of dollars... right?)

Seriously :cogs:though...been there, done that. Even with high profile interviews on my site, I couldn't make any money.

Hard pass!

(04-17-2024 04:36 PM)Hokie Mark Wrote:  (I'd like to think mine is typical, and not that Google is cheating me out of thousands of dollars... right?)

You have to post your blog entry links to Reddit, Quora and social media sites. This is what I did to get around Google's algorithms, which began in 2011. It's not much more money but it helps. Google's algorithms killed the golden age of the Internet.

(04-17-2024 06:36 PM)unalions Wrote:  I loved being the Gulf South Conference blogger on D2Football.com for several seasons before UNA reclassified. But, that's a bit different. It was a labor or love for a very niche audience who really appreciated the effort and most of whom I'd known on that message board for years.

Since then, I've become a music YouTuber. I'm a singer and voice teacher who became a sports superfan as a band nerd back in the day. My YouTube channel exploded right off the bat and it's been a wild ride the past 4.5 years. In that time, I've made over $100K just from the YouTube Partner Program not including sponsorships and reposting to other platforms. I have almost reached 600K subscribers and have over 84M views most of it by luck. But, I have learned a lot (mostly the hard way).

I feature a very random assortment of international artists usually dictated by what my subscribers suggest in the comments. So, y'all won't know half of the folks I review on my channel probably but feel free to check it out.

My Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@MasterofVoice

Starting a sports channel on YouTube is very popular but it takes a certain personality type for it or some type of different hook to compete with all the existing channels. I've definitely thought about it but it's a lot of work to keep it up consistently.

You need to do a reaction video to Ronnie James Dio singing Stargazer from when he was in Rainbow.

(04-22-2024 01:27 PM)GreenBison Wrote:  

(04-17-2024 06:36 PM)unalions Wrote:  I loved being the Gulf South Conference blogger on D2Football.com for several seasons before UNA reclassified. But, that's a bit different. It was a labor or love for a very niche audience who really appreciated the effort and most of whom I'd known on that message board for years.

Since then, I've become a music YouTuber. I'm a singer and voice teacher who became a sports superfan as a band nerd back in the day. My YouTube channel exploded right off the bat and it's been a wild ride the past 4.5 years. In that time, I've made over $100K just from the YouTube Partner Program not including sponsorships and reposting to other platforms. I have almost reached 600K subscribers and have over 84M views most of it by luck. But, I have learned a lot (mostly the hard way).

I feature a very random assortment of international artists usually dictated by what my subscribers suggest in the comments. So, y'all won't know half of the folks I review on my channel probably but feel free to check it out.

My Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@MasterofVoice

Starting a sports channel on YouTube is very popular but it takes a certain personality type for it or some type of different hook to compete with all the existing channels. I've definitely thought about it but it's a lot of work to keep it up consistently.

You need to do a reaction video to Ronnie James Dio singing Stargazer from when he was in Rainbow.

I just took a peek at it. Wow! Cool! Thanks!!

(04-19-2024 11:28 AM)Gitanole Wrote:  If you're going to be a sports blogger, you have to say 'that said' a lot.

'Everyone knows college football makes more TV money than college basketball. That said...'

'Sandra Slamdunk is regarded as a once-in-a-generation WBB talent. That said...'

'Boise State is famous for its blue turf. That said..'

"Boise State is famous for its blue turf. That said, SUNY-Morrisville is the current "coolest turf" Title Holder. Perhaps they can settle it on the field in 2024!?"