As a creator of truck videos, what's my motivation for posting content? YouTube is a steady revenue stream for me. Any new site is going to be more work for less reward.
As a viewer, I can already get that via YouTube search and algorithm and I don't have to sign up for anything, remember to sign into anything and deal with low budget apps and buggy websites. I subscribe to Motortrend, but their app for the Apple TV (the only place I watch stuff) is terrible. And I forget to even check it for months at a time. Additionally, any new site is going to be mostly full of content from smaller creators who can't find an audience on YouTube, or who have yet to find an audience on YouTube. As they grow, they follow the money and the audience back to YouTube.
Unless you're talking about one person, or an affiliated group who has an outsized following already creating content on a particular website I think it's a loosing proposition. Over the last 15 years all the smaller niche video sites have disappeared or sunken into obscurity as viewers are drawn to the larger content pool of YouTube. If any new video platform is going to succeed, they're going to have to use their venture capital to pay creators for their efforts from the start.
The one thing that WILL draw users to a niche site is community. You have community here. I'd say incorporate Video into this forum.
-M
Glad you asked. Thanks for the well thought out post.
Some incentives to use the site:
— Easier to be seen as a smaller creator
— Easier to be seen in general because the niche is specific. The audience chose to come to the site for content like yours. Whereas with YouTube, your videos are mixed into a sea of billions of other videos. I watch thousands of truck related videos on YouTube, but have I ever come across your channel? Probably not. (This is not directed at you specifically.)
About the buggy websites:
Every website has bugs, YouTube included. Instagram (the app), too. They’re annoying but they usually get fixed.
About a new site mostly being filled with newer creators that can’t get traction on YouTube:
I think this is actually a good thing. Kind of similar to how TW is much bigger than T3G but a lot of people prefer T3G to TW because of this.
About those new creators gaining traction on the new site and moving back to YouTube to follow the money:
That seems fine. It’s completely understandable if they choose that route. Personally though, I like my hobbies to stay hobbies. Nowadays, it’s rare to find people doing something solely from passion without trying to milk it for money.
The new site would probably consist of people not looking to make money, at least from the site itself. Hypothetically, they could get popular enough that brands are wanting to sponsor them anyway? Idk.
For me though, I prefer genuine content. Most of my favorite channels from years ago are completely sold out now and impossible to watch without feeling like I’m watching a robot that’s programmed to “review” something and sell it to you at the same time.
This is why I have turned down so many paid advertisement requests on the T3G forum and Instagram account. I hate that stuff and I’m not looking for the money from it, so it won’t be on my website(s).
About the community stuff:
For me, this is exactly it. I’m a community driven enthusiast — not an affiliate / marketing / social status type. We have tight community here. As I said earlier, we’re a fraction of the size of TW yet there are people that choose to use this forum because of its community and also its niche — 3rd Gen. instead of all Tacomas.
If that formula could be carried over to a video site, it might have potential. If it had a tight, respectful, knowledgeable, and inviting atmosphere, plus the specific niche of truck stuff, people might be interested?
About putting videos here:
I was actually looking into that first. While you can already upload videos here, and you can view them in our media gallery (
Media), and I could add many more categories to make it better, there’s one big problem: uploading videos here does not transcode them to lightweight / fast loading / cross-compatible files, the way a dedicated video hosting site would.
A few other thoughts:
Both this site currently, and the hypothetical new site, would be able to automatically embed your already uploaded videos from YouTube by just pasting the link. It would then appear like an uploaded video on the other sites but it would actually be your YouTube video and count the analytics on YouTube. This is an option.
Some reasons why I get frustrated with YouTube:
— I CAN’T STAND all of the clickbait titles and thumbnails
— I don’t like how most of the popular channels feel like one big advertisement
— I don’t like all the ads but I use an ad blocker anyway
— I have trouble finding videos. There’s just so many. And I don’t think the algorithm is that good anymore. YouTube wants me to watch crap I have no interest in. But when I try to dig deep about, say, rock crawling, I’ll get through the top 15 videos or so and then it starts to get hard to find the quality content that is hidden away on smaller channels
That said, the new site would ideally be very organized with useful categories and video tags, completely free of ads like T3G, reporting clickbait would be encouraged, all content would have to be original and not just re-uploads of 240p videos from 2003, etc.
This is just an idea. You guys probably know by now that I get a lot of “good” ideas that don’t last more than a week.
