Early Access becomes Extended too (Patreon)

Starting with the Hannibal reaction series, the Early Access videos that Patrons receive on Saturdays will now feature (much) more content than the reactions uploaded to Youtube. 

I've mentioned in other posts how I avoid putting content behind a paywall whenever I possibly can. Well, thanks to Youtube I can't completely avoid that option anymore. Here's why:

These days, getting somewhere on Youtube depends on a channel's Watch Time (ie: how long people watch your videos). Views and comments still count for something, but Youtube and its algorithm has been significantly focused on Watch Time for a couple years now. This tactic makes sense--they want to push the content that makes people stay on their site for as long as possible, to watch and click on ads. If you want Youtube to put your video in front as many eyes as possible, that video better be able to hold people's attention.

This presents a channel like mine with a very specific problem. When it came to The Untamed, I (gleefully) avoided Youtube's copyright bullshit by uploading a short video to Youtube that directed the viewer offsite to Vidyard, where the 'real' video was waiting. But because the short video is the one actually posted to Youtube, my average Watch Time for an Untamed video is thirty seconds, when in reality it should be around ten minutes. As a result, Youtube doesn't push those videos in front of potential viewers and my opportunity for growth is significantly hindered. This means I need to put reactions directly onto Youtube, which means I need to comply with copyright, which means they need to contain 9-12 minutes of copyrighted material max. (In the case of Untamed even nine minutes didn't appease the copyright gods. If that problem ever arises again, I'll use the same solution.)

Okay, so why don't I upload the 9-12 minutes versions onto Youtube and link to a freely accessible extended version? Because once people realize the 'real' video is always in a link down below, they will navigate off of Youtube within thirty seconds of landing on my video. Then we're back at square one, with a Watch Time average of thirty seconds. Therefore, extended versions cannot be readily available to the public. 

Yet I still want extended versions to be available somewhere, since they're in demand and I personally prefer them to a more hacked up, abbreviated 9-12 minutes. So here we are.

TL;DR - Putting extended reactions behind a paywall will enable the Youtube growth I should be experiencing but won't if I keep uploading the way I did with The Untamed.

This isn't the sexiest of posts, but I'm extremely pro-transparency and feel an audience deserves to know the details behind material changes (especially ones that involve money).