About ads (Patreon)

Hey patrons, I'm going to try enabling YouTube's ads on the videos. I've got a big post written up about it which I will copy and paste below, but I want to write something specifically to all of you. Thank you so much for supporting me on here. Some of you chose to even support me after I announced I was dropping the daily schedule, I still can't believe that and am so grateful. I have done my best to send a personal message to every single person who has ever pledged to this Patreon, I think I got everyone but it's possible I missed a few along the way, I had it set up so that every new join would email me directly to notify me, so I feel like I got you all. You may not believe it, but I actually also refused to copy and paste my Patreon thank you DMs. Every single one was hand typed, even though I kinda said the same thing in all of them, I believed that if someone was gonna be kind enough to donate, I should address them directly and personally, no matter how many of them there were.

And so, to many of you I have already said this, but there is never any pressure to keep your pledge going. That is true now more than ever. There are so many creators out there who probably need the help more than I do, and if this ads thing actually works, then I will be just fine even if this Patreon drops to 0. I guess if this ads thing doesn't work I'll be kinda fucked, but that's a risk I have to accept if I'm going to make this decision, and it's not a risk that is in any way your burden to think about. No matter how much we've chatted, no matter how much you love my videos, hell some of you on here are just straight up my friends - ALL of you, I am serious, should feel free and comfortable to drop your pledge at this point. I am not checking names on who leaves, I never have. The full explanation for this decision is in the main post which I am pasting below, but to those of you who have supported this Patreon specifically, whether you leave or not, thank you so, so much. Thank you.

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Hey, I'm gonna try enabling ads on the videos on YouTube. I'm going to be overly thorough about this because it's not a choice I make lightly, so I'm sorry for how long this goes on, but I feel I need to at least explain where I am coming from. First of all, I don't want you to worry about me, I'm not in dire straits, this isn't me breaking emergency glass for some financial crisis, I need to be upfront about that. I'm so thankful, because I am lucky enough to be living my dream of getting by as a voice actor. But that's the thing, I'm only just getting by. I'm not making enough to make any progress, to afford VO upgrades that some studios expect, to save up for a move, to really build a life. I can't continue to look at a switch I can flip at any time, a switch which won't even effect most people, which could change my life, and not at least try it. I've lost too much sleep wondering how much I could better my VO setup, try to move to a place where there's any VO work, how much I could help my mom, be a better husband and give my wife a more secure future, deal with some old debts, how maybe I could finally take a trip or think about doing conventions one day, if I had just wiggled that toggle the other way.

I've been avoiding this for a couple years now. I've always known that I *could* because the stuff I post is transformative and parody and whatnot, many creators who do the same kind of stuff I do also run ads, but I didn't do it because I just personally don't like ads, they feel weird to me, I think it's not a method of monetization I'm entirely comfortable with. At best I find them annoying, but on the other hand, I personally just use YouTube Premium so that creators I watch still get paid. It's like I'm a hypocrite against my own best interests. But over time, I've had more and more folks reaching out and telling me reasons why I should, especially fellow creators. "Because YouTube will run ads whether or not you enable yourself to benefit from it." "Because as a popular person it normalizes that other creators should not take care of themselves." "Because it's just more money that YouTube gets to keep instead of giving anything to someone who makes stuff on their platform."

What really sold me on this is all the fans who have reached out and told me they think it's ridiculous that for all the millions and millions of views those videos get, I don't just do the ads and get myself set up right. That they personally would rather close an ad, or use YouTube Premium, or just use adblock if it meant I was doing better. I know a lot of people will think lowly of this choice, but also, I see more and more, so many fans of creators SUPPORT them trying to build themselves up. I see some folks I really respect be open and honest about this kind of thing, and their fans going "Hell yeah I don't care man, secure the bag lmao". It inspires me to try. I gotta try because man, I'm coming up on 30, and I'm starting to feel really stupid for all the times I didn't do things that would have changed my life for the better just because I wanted some imaginary "cool points" for not doing it. This really feels like a BIG one of those times. I'm dumb. It's not cool to not look out for yourself. It's not cool to trade financial security in exchange for avoiding some insulting comments on the internet. Especially since honestly I think we all know you get insulting comments no matter what you do on the internet these days. It's not worth it.

This is all the stuff that I always tell fellow creators when they talk to me about monetizing their own stuff or trying to take care of themselves. We're all so terrified of looking like sellouts. I try to get everyone to do this kind of stuff because I want to see them grow and have a stable and healthy future. Then they go "Yeah, that makes sense Gianni... how come you're not doing it?" and I kinda just awkwardly shift away from the conversation because I don't have a good answer. I guess it's just been stupidity and cowardice. I've been doing these memes for a couple years now, and I think my videos' "heyday" has kinda come and gone (which is fine by me I'm amazed so many people ever watched them at all) but still, it's been a little over 2 years. I can't let this question haunt me for the next 5, 10 years of these videos existing online (and let's be honest I am addicted to shitposting so I will probably always keep making these kinds of videos when I can).

So, ALL that being said... I'm not going too crazy here, let's talk details. This change actually won't effect most of my videos, I am not sure how much I'll even make from trying this, because almost all of my videos are in the "Shorts" format which is inherently unable to do ads in the first place for now. Really shot myself in the foot with that one I guess. A while back I stopped doing Shorts because a lot of people just hate the format, but for most of my most popular videos, they are still Shorts. If they ever change it so I can un-Shorts something or Shorts can do ads, I probably will try to enable ads for those too, just to warn you now, but who knows if that day will ever come, I feel like YouTube seems really committed to Shorts, but I don't know. Maybe if they're so committed they could make browsing them on Desktop suck less. I honestly regret having all my videos be Shorts, I wanted to try it but I shouldn't have stuck so firmly to it, I won't get into that tangent now since this is already too much text. I'm totally cool with you using adblock or whatever service or app stops ads for you, I probably am not supposed to say that but I think I'm glad people who are like "Fuck That" just have an option right there. Also all of my videos can still be viewed without ads on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Patreon... Let's talk about the Patreon.

I am going to keep the Patreon open to the public with all the posts available like how it has been, not because I expect people to still support it after this change, but rather because it is now just a really good library of all my videos and all their voice files. It's an easy place for me to pop the files over to every time there's a new one and continue growing a publicly available library of all these. I know most Patreon supporters were supporting BECAUSE the videos don't run monetization, so I completely understand not pledging there now. I am so thankful for all the support I got on there, because it really did help me get by just through the power of shitposting. But I need to try this, to see if I can make a life where I'm doing more than just getting by.

I don't want to do unskippable video ads because I do short memes and the idea of waiting a minute for a 10 second video is insane. But I think I'm going to try the skippable ones, because whenever I browse logged out and get them, I really don't find them too troublesome, I don't even think about them before I hit skip on them. I'll try the ads that go on the webpage next to the video because that's super unintrusive, and I think I'll try the stuff where it's a little thing to close on the video. Those last two don't even effect mobile users I think. Like I said, I'm pretty dumb for doing this so late, and I think the amount of traffic those videos even get now and going forward is pretty slim, so I don't expect this to actually impact too many people. I also may end up turning off or tweaking some of these methods, I'm going to experiment with it and see, I'm really new to this so I've gotta figure out what works in what ways. Uh, this might go without saying but I'm not selling upload slots or doing sponsored videos or any stuff like that. It'll still be all the same videos as always.

If this makes you think less of me, I am sorry to disappoint you. I'm not being sarcastic. I am genuinely apologizing if you feel this lets you down. I actually don't even know if this is the right choice or not. I might even switch it back off, this is me *trying* it. I'm not sure how people are going to react at large. I've tried talking to a lot of people about this through the years and everyone just keeps telling me I'm stupid for even worrying about it. I do care what fans think about me, because it's all this incredible support which has already given me so much over the past couple years. I'm terrified of making people think I'm ungrateful or just greedily trying to get as much as I can. I'm sure as hell not out to get rich or I wouldn't have picked voice acting as my career. But it hurts too much to keep passing this up without ever even having tried. I lay awake at night trying to plan my future, knowing that this little button could change everything, I can't do it anymore where I try to just ignore it. I hope with what I've written here, people can understand this choice. Thank you for reading, and thank you all so much for all the support I have already gotten. I mean it. It's why I can never stop myself from writing so many god damn words, because I really genuinely mean it with every fiber of my being. Thank you.

*TL;DR: Trying ads, I care what people think, but I also want to build a future.*