YouTube is the Future for Cartoons

[largento]

Interesting article at Mashable...

[zandoriastudios]

Good points in the article...It looks like animators that join the network take a 70% share of the ad revenue--which sounds reasonable for the extra exposure....So should I join channel Frederator with TAR?

 

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[robcat2075]

I got an email from Frederator about two months ago

 

to:robcat2075

 

Hello robcat2075,

 

I stumbled upon your SURRENDER GOLATT and it's awesome! Your videos are really good. If you're interested, I would love to work with you!

 

I work for Frederator Studios. We produce cartoons for film, television, and the Internet, including The Fairly OddParents, Adventure Time, and Bravest Warriors. Now we're looking for new animators to work with.

 

We've created the Channel Frederator Network to help mentor and promote upcoming talent like you. Let me know if this sounds interesting, and I'd be happy to follow up with more specifics and continue the conversation. You can also access our website by going here (www.channelfrederatornetwork.com) to view some of our current members and to find more detailed information about our network.

 

All the best,

The Channel Frederator Network Team

 

 

 

 

Now here's the video that supposedly caught their eye.

 

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If that's what they are recruiting... It's hard for me to take their serious ambitions seriously. I think they're just trying to scoop up anything that moves and get a percentage of it in case it catches on but i doubt that anyone will be better off on their channel.

[zandoriastudios]

Maybe if they had mentioned "Heavy Push" instead?

[fae_alba]

I'm more inclined to starting my own channel. While it's true that more exposure might by garnered faster if piggy backing off of Frederator's network, I'd rather go my own route, and if any revenue is earned, it's all mine (bwa hahahah). Seriously, a youtube channel, coupled with a good social media (website/blog, facebook, google+, twitter, etc.) has a good chance of getting some attention. It would take a lot of work managing all of the social media, but it would be worth it in the end.

[largento]

It almost seems a little like a pyramid scheme. The channel operator's are basically selling ad space on a bunch of videos and they collect a little from a lot of video views, while the individual collects a larger portion of little video views. 70% of a dollar ain't worth near as much as 30% of thousands of dollars.

 

It's only a year-long contract, though, so presumably, you could take advantage of any push they give you to develop an audience and then try to take that audience with you after the contract is up.

 

Personally, I'm in that space where I'm physically and mentally drained from working day in and day out to complete The Wobbling Dead, that I keep wondering why I'm killing myself. A best-case scenario is that I might sell a few DVDs and maybe get a few hundred dollars. I find myself up at 4am in the morning, working on a shot and seriously questioning my sanity. :-)

 

Quality doesn't really seem to be valued anymore. We live in a disposable culture where zero-attention-span people are only interested in the quick fix and toss it aside before they're finished with it.

 

A Google for the most viewed YouTube videos of all time, show the top 30 overwhelmingly dominated by music videos for pop acts aimed at youth audience (Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, etc.) The only non-musical one was "Charlie Bit My Finger."

 

Which supports the point that narrative videos get much less views, because they don't get many repeat views. Music videos and "incident" videos do get watched over and over again. Your six minute animated story may be considered great, but since it won't get as many page views as a guy dropping a sledgehammer on his foot, you won't get as much ad revenue.

[jakerupert]

...but theres also the hardcore fans that have seen star treck or starwars or lord of rings a thousand times and know every miniscule detail of it.

Since the potential of you tube is so huge, even if you would just generate 1 percent of the sledgehammerguy, it would be wortwhile. You have nothing to loose in trying it, i guess...

[fae_alba]

Personally, I'm in that space where I'm physically and mentally drained from working day in and day out to complete The Wobbling Dead, that I keep wondering why I'm killing myself. A best-case scenario is that I might sell a few DVDs and maybe get a few hundred dollars. I find myself up at 4am in the morning, working on a shot and seriously questioning my sanity. :-)

 

Quality doesn't really seem to be valued anymore. We live in a disposable culture where zero-attention-span people are only interested in the quick fix and toss it aside before they're finished with it.

 

A Google for the most viewed YouTube videos of all time, show the top 30 overwhelmingly dominated by music videos for pop acts aimed at youth audience (Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, etc.) The only non-musical one was "Charlie Bit My Finger."

 

Which supports the point that narrative videos get much less views, because they don't get many repeat views. Music videos and "incident" videos do get watched over and over again. Your six minute animated story may be considered great, but since it won't get as many page views as a guy dropping a sledgehammer on his foot, you won't get as much ad revenue.

 

I do it for the love of the chase, really. Yeah we could put out crap animation, much like is being aired on the boob-tube now, even the Disney channel which I find quite distressing, but I'd rather question my own sanity and put out something that I'd be proud of. Wobbling Dead is a short that, really, has the potential of taking off in the youtube space, since the series that you are parodying has such a large following. The trick is to promote it properly, in social media, so that it goes viral. It has the same potential as the dingbat with the sledgehammer.

 

My dream, is to create a YouTube channel around Papa Bear, and stage it as a throw back to the Saturday morning cartoons, it's a long way off sine I'm still struggling to get him properly rigged, but that's the dream. I see no reason why there can't be more Frederator-esque YouTube networks out there to take advantage of the rising wave. It is the future, let's take advantage of it.

[zandoriastudios]

Doing a little more digging...If you just change your YouTube channel to a "partner" you can easily monetize your videos yourself! It looks like you can make about $1 per 1000 views. Granted, that's not much--my channel has only 18,000+ views, which means that I would've only made around $18....

 

But if you had something that people really liked and shared, then those numbers could be a lot different!

I am nearly done with the first episode of TAR, so I'm going to start a playlist with it--hoping that I can find some fans

 

Mark--you might consider monetizing your own channel, and putting the Paunk Show out there...

[largento]

I actually do have it set to monetize. Although, it's with specific videos. For instance, the Christmas video I did used a karaoke song and *they* get the money from the ads, not me. (ggrrr.)

 

So, I just checked and for the lifetime of my account (going back to August of 2008 to now) and after 11,390 views, my total estimated earning is $5.00. :-) $4.00 of that was earned by The Wobbling Dead video I have on there. The Paunk Show pilot has made 12 cents, the Stalled Trek trailer 52 cents and the full movie 35 cents. So, just looking at The Wobbling Dead, that's $4 for 4,986 views. And it's taken more than a year to get to that many views. :-)

 

I believe you have to reach a minimum of $100 or something like that before you can get the money. Which means, that if you spend your whole life doing this and only make $99, you never get a cent. :-)

 

Since, I would assume that the vast majority of Youtube users never reach that threshold, it's essentially smoke and mirrors. Google keeps it all. :-)

[robcat2075]

So, I just checked and for the lifetime of my account (going back to August of 2008 to now) and after 11,390 views, my total estimated earning is $5.00. :-) $4.00 of that was earned by The Wobbling Dead video I have on there. The Paunk Show pilot has made 12 cents, the Stalled Trek trailer 52 cents and the full movie 35 cents. So, just looking at The Wobbling Dead, that's $4 for 4,986 views. And it's taken more than a year to get to that many views. :-)

 

 

I think that's a good case for NOT putting your shows on Youtube. Trailers, yes, but you should keep the real stuff as physical DVD that you can sell at shows as you have done.

 

Your profit on one DVD sale is more than all you've gotten from Youtube, right?

[largento]

Yeah, by far. Well, as long as you pretend like all the work you did on the film was "free." :-)

 

I only put Stalled Trek up as an attempt to get some positive feedback to get me out of the funk I was in. Sadly, it kind of only reinforced that, since it didn't generate much attention.

 

I think I'll set it to private since it really didn't do what I hoped it would.

 

I don't think it's a good idea to put up something that's 15 + minutes long. It's too long for the web.

[Mechadelphia]

Yeah, by far. Well, as long as you pretend like all the work you did on the film was "free." :-)

 

I only put Stalled Trek up as an attempt to get some positive feedback to get me out of the funk I was in. Sadly, it kind of only reinforced that, since it didn't generate much attention.

 

I think I'll set it to private since it really didn't do what I hoped it would.

 

I don't think it's a good idea to put up something that's 15 + minutes long. It's too long for the web.

 

I think that you should keep it public if you have not already made it private. It's a good show and oftentimes it takes awhile for good work to go noticed in a way that you might like.

 

If you make it private then there is a very good chance that the attention that you are hoping for will never come.

 

After you finish with the Wobbling Dead more people may look into what you have done before and discover Stalled Trek and your other projects that they may not have noticed before. At that point things may look a little better for you as far as exposure is concerned.

 

Keep at it Mark (you too William Sutton). Don't get discouraged. You are doing great work and I think that more people will see that as well. It may not happen as quickly as you would like but if you keep going with it you'll make it.

[Roger]

I actually do have it set to monetize. Although, it's with specific videos. For instance, the Christmas video I did used a karaoke song and *they* get the money from the ads, not me. (ggrrr.)

 

So, I just checked and for the lifetime of my account (going back to August of 2008 to now) and after 11,390 views, my total estimated earning is $5.00. :-) $4.00 of that was earned by The Wobbling Dead video I have on there. The Paunk Show pilot has made 12 cents, the Stalled Trek trailer 52 cents and the full movie 35 cents. So, just looking at The Wobbling Dead, that's $4 for 4,986 views. And it's taken more than a year to get to that many views. :-)

 

I believe you have to reach a minimum of $100 or something like that before you can get the money. Which means, that if you spend your whole life doing this and only make $99, you never get a cent. :-)

 

Since, I would assume that the vast majority of Youtube users never reach that threshold, it's essentially smoke and mirrors. Google keeps it all. :-)

 

Largento,

 

I really think you just haven't caught the right eyes. Chris Hardwick does a show called Talking Dead (where they discuss the weekly Walking Dead episode), I think if you could get Wobbling Dead across his desk (couldn't be too hard, the guy has a pretty substantial web presence, among other things he also has a show/podcast called The Nerdist). I just think if you got some type of exposure there it would blow up.

[largento]

Thanks, guys. I'll see how it goes.

 

I'll see how it goes at the ComicCon. I just got my table assignment for the Con and the tiny table I am at is a little dot in the 200K+ sq/ft exhibitor's hall. :-)

 

I think continuing as a hobby is a given for me, but after five years, I've really got no choice but to look for a paying job again.

[largento]

So, I was just listening/watching the Triangulation podcast on the TWIT network and they had on Pomplamoose. For those who don't know, they're a musical duo/couple that had an interesting gimmick when they first started making YouTube videos, in that they would video all the performances that went into a song and put them on screen, so that you could visually see all the instruments and layered vocals. More than that, they made clever arrangements and there is a general sense of playfulness that comes through in their music.

 

Anyway, they were asked about how they made their money and it was assumed that it mostly came from YouTube ads, but they said they actually made very little money in that regard. Since much of their work is covers of existing songs, the copyright holders are able to put ads on their videos and they make the money, not Pomplamoose. Pomplamoose makes their money by selling the songs on iTunes. A mechanical license to sell the songs runs them 10 cents a download. So, out of a 99 cent sale, they get like 57 cents. However, one half of the group, Jack Conte, gave an example of money made through YouTube's Adsense. He said that for a month, his channel (which had an accumulation of 1 Million views) earned him $249.

 

It would be very hard to get a million views a month and $249 a month ain't gonna' make you rich.

[robcat2075]

Did they reveal how many 57¢ units they do sell?

[largento]

They said enough for them to buy a house. But I'm sure that also included the TV commercial they did and whatever touring they've done.

 

They also credited SEO with their success. They put up their covers at times when people would be searching for that song. So, the day after a big thing like the VMAs, they would have a Beyoncé song.

 

The oddity is that their most bought song is a cover of The Chordettes' Mr. Sandman.