Yes, those extra literal pennies from ad clicks are really gonna put them ove the top. 
Yeah, I don’t think most understand. There’s no such thing as ‘double-dipping’. It’s all part of making it financially viable to be a publisher. Sometimes a publisher is some big company, but most of the times it’s not. And it becomes not, when people don’t support the smaller publishers (such as by blocking ads while concurrently not directly supporting in some other manner). That’s how and why smaller publishers get acquired by bigger ones. Sure, there’s sometimes a paycheck there (and in some publishers cases, to save their employees from being laid off) - but in many cases, it’s not financially viable any other way.
In the same way that no smart business in any segment puts their eggs in a singular basket - publishers aim to distribute revenue in different buckets.
Ultimately, at the end of the day, if folks are blocking ads, that’s simply reducing the revenue and financial viability of the site you’re reading - or the YouTube creator you’re watching. I don’t really understand how someone can complain about consolidation in the publishing industry, complain about having to block ads, and then complain about subscription services - all while then concurrently complaining that sites are going out of business.
It’s not ‘sticking it to the man’ - in most cases, it’s sticking it to the little guy. Either indirectly or directly. Unfortunately, it’s as simple as that.
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This right here.
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If I pay to subscribe to your channel would I see ads before your videos or not?
Edit, I’ve just realised you don’t have a paid subscriber option. I’m guessing you rely solely ad revenue?
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It’s complicated. For me, there are two platforms.
For YouTube, I don’t run any membership aspect there. However, YouTube does have their YouTube program that clears all ads. Whether you’re part of that, or not, I get revenue for every video view. The exact amount varies on countless factors - but mostly tied to how valuable YT thinks you are as a viewer (to serve ads to). That roughly aligns to content type and geographies+demographics. Sports tech is in the middle of the road. Finance on the high end, and I’m not sure what’s at the low end.
No matter, YT pays me when an ad is served or when a YT Premium member watches a video (and doesn’t see ads), and for each ad in things like mid-video ads. To be clear, we’re literally taking on the scale of pennies here at the individual level. Roughly speaking, napkin math is 100,000 views is $1,000. But again, it varies massively based on topic.
The key thing to remember is that I still make videos I know will tank (due to lack of interest in a product), because I think it’s important to have diversity. Thus, if I spend 10hrs on a video and it nets me $72, then…yeah. Inversely, I can help @GPLama shoot a silly 4 minute video on a whim, and it somehow gets 6.2m views. You just never know.
For the site side of things, it’s far more linear. Also, I do have a membership piece there. That gets rid of the ads for people, and they also get a roughly every 1-2 week behind the scenes 30-45 minute video covering everything that happened. In terms of ads, it’s largely all fulfilled by big networks like Google that simply pay low values - well under a penny per view. Because I block all of the sports tech companies from advertising on the site, that dramatically reduces the ads revenue potential.
There’s other revenue streams of course, and ads aren’t the biggest ones for me, but they are part of a diversified diet.
Point being, while it’s easy to run ad blockers or such, the simple reality is eventually the content will go away, or go behind other paywalls or such.
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@dcrainmaker Thanks for everything you do by the way. You’ve been the main source of information for all my cycling tech purchases over the last few years (including chosing to use trainerroad!) Is there a way to send you one off payments or do you only take regular subscriptions? You’re a legend!
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It’s not ‘sticking it to the man’ - in most cases, it’s sticking it to the little guy. Either indirectly or directly. Unfortunately, it’s as simple as that.
A similar kind of thing happens in the ‘music industry’. A friend was in several bands, and was always getting offers to do gigs for ‘exposure’. Not getting paid at all. That doesn’t put food on the table, and doesn’t help the many struggling musicians across the world. I also saw people buy their CDs and offer to share them with their friends. A CD where the band is making less than a dollar on each one, selling them for 5 to 8 bucks, and that’s too expensive to pay for supporting an act you liked? I was shocked. What is wrong with people who can’t see what’s happening. But it’s happening in so many industries/areas. Local restaurants, stores, etc… Sigh…
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I paid for continued access to Cycling Weekly when they put up a paywall recently, I use it all the time hence I felt it reasonably fair however I have to say I am disappointed by the amount of ads that are present despite paying for access…