Competition on YouTube (Patreon)

Something I think a lot of people have a misconception about is the nature of the relationship  between content creators. It's natural to think that YouTubers who create similar videos, or cover similar topics, would be "in competition" with each other for views and ad revenue. 

From my perspective, that certainly isn't the case. If anything, I see other YouTubers as colleagues. The simple reason why is because there's no *need* for us to compete -- if two YouTubers create videos about the same topic, it doesn't have to be an either-or kind of decision for viewers. It's not a limited resource, where one has to "pick a side" out of necessity. You can watch both.

I'll admit it's sometimes hard to keep this mentality, and on occasion some strategy is necessary. For example, I've been planning on doing a video in my Retro Tech series about Sony's MiniDisc. The script was written over the winter and clocks in at over half an hour. I have a lot of filming and, more importantly, research for appropriate media, yet to do. But I've put the project on the back burner for now, and for a simple reason: Another YouTuber I've followed for a long time, Techmoan, recently released his own retrospective on the topic.

Of course there's plenty of room for two videos. No doubt mine would have a different visual style and narrative than his. But his channel is an order of magnitude bigger, and his video got a decent amount of coverage in various tech blogs. Had I released mine when I originally planned to -- right around the time, coincidentally, that he released his -- it wouldn't have gotten as much attention (or the possibility for as much attention, I should say) as his did. I found out he was working on the video around January and simply decided it wasn't worth the risk. The story would always be there, and I could take the time to make the video I really want to make, rather than rush something out to beat a deadline.

So, why the concern about views and coverage? For some YouTubers, it simply comes down to ad revenue. This has been a big issue of late for larger channels as YouTube has adjusted its search and suggestion algorithms (remember PewDiePie's hissyfit about supposedly deleting his channel?). Views = ad revenue = paying bills. In my case, it's not about money -- I just want to get my message, whatever it happens to be that week, out there -- to help, to inspire, to prompt critical thinking or to stir creativity.

As always, thanks for watching.