Ads Ads and More Ads

I know, It is insanely annoying to see ads everywhere you go. We usually assume someone is trying to get rich, and in some cases that is true of course. There are many more that are just trying to survive. I am not much different than you, I like to block and skip as many ads as possible, however recently over the past few years I have become more tolerable to these intrusions.

What Happened?

I discovered the cost of “free help”. You see free help is not free at all. It is costing someone, Take a small site like this, Not counting the thousands of hours it takes to learn how to build a website (however unprofessional it is), gathering the information, and learning how to present it in a usable way, there is also a significant actual monetary layout to bring this information for “free”. Not only are their monthly hosting fees, software fees, Seo fees, there is also hardware. Streamers need to purchase equipment, and although this does not have to be super expensive it all ads up, Cameras, Mics, More software for editing, and in the case of gaming, the games themselves. Sure big streamers might get their games given to them in exchange for a video or a plug, but most people have this additional expense out of their own pocket. On this site for example, I paid for all but 4 games in the reviewed section (out of 112) with 114 Still sitting in my wishlist. Even on sale, that is a ton of money, and some (Many) of those games I would have definitely passed on if I didn’t have the need to review them.

Show Me the Money!

Bah, you are making a mountain out of a mole hill, these streamers are making a ton of money on ads! Well, did you know that to get any chance of being monetized on YouTube you must have 4k hours of watch time along with 1k subscribers. If you fall below that either of those numbers in any 365 day rolling period YouTube keeps that money, and the creator gets nothing. If there is a copy write claim, the money stops, if the creator does anything that the YouTube algorithm doesn’t like, the money stops and more time has to be spent trying to get the issue corrected. 4k hours may not sound like a lot but that is 11 hours a day, so during 1/2 of a 24 hour period someone has to be watching your videos just to qualify to get monetized. Then it takes many multiples of those stats to make enough money to even cover your costs, much less provide extra for other things.

But Wait There is MORE!

These things don’t even take into consideration, if they provide free help in discord. Take the ASA Server Manager Forum, Or WindowsGSM in discord, both of those channels offer free software AND help to people, through volunteers, and even the creators themselves. That is even more time that is unpaid.

Why Do it Then?

Of course I cannot speak for everyone’s motivation, but I can speak to mine. I enjoy the subject matter, found a problem that needed solving, (Like where can I find a list of survival games in one place), and enjoy helping people. This is defiantly not a woe is me article, as I am very blessed to have the ability to do what I have done so far. I enjoy helping people, and I still HATE having ads on my site. I am not alone in this, and would just like this consideration be made when consuming content, help, and software but feeling you must block ad’s. That block could cause the content you love, or just tolerate but still use, to disappear.