Creative ways to make money as a YouTuber

[unable to retrieve full-text content]And while the competition is pretty tough, there is certainly room for newcomers who want to make money on YouTube ... some value in order to bring in views. Plenty of channels rely on going ...

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YouTube TV raises price to $50, adds Discovery channels and HGTV

David Katzmaier / CNET

YouTube TV, a live TV streaming service designed to replace a traditional cable TV package, will raise its monthly price from $40 to $50. Subscribers billed through Apple will have to pay $55.

The Google-owned service, not to be confused with the free version of YouTube, also announced that it's adding Discovery channels including Discovery Channel, HGTV, Food Network, TLC, Investigation Discovery, Animal Planet, Travel Channel, and MotorTrend. Oprah's OWN Network is coming later this year as well, and the service will now allow subscribers to add EPIX for an extra $6 per month. The service now offer more than 70 channels all told.

YouTube TV is one of a handful of new subscription options aimed at cable TV cord cutters who want to stream live TV channels such as ESPN, TNT and CNN, as well as local channels including ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC. Its competition includes Sling TV, Hulu with Live TV, PlayStation Vue and DirecTV Now, each with different channel packages and pricing.

The move to raise prices comes as no surprise. DirecTV Now raised its price to $50 in March, Hulu increased its live TV plan price to $45 in January and 20 18 had its share of price hikes too. In explaining its price hike from $20 to $25 last year, Sling TV cited the rising cost of programming -- the money Sling has to pay content providers like Disney, which owns ESPN. YouTube TV did not explain the reason for its $10 increase in its blog post.

This is also the first such service to charge Apple subscribers more. CNET asked a YouTube representative why the price went up in general and for Apple subscribers in particular, but the rep didn't provide any additional information.

Apple takes a 30 percent share of subscription revenue made through iOS apps or iTunes, with that cut dropping to 15 percent if the app holds onto the member for subsequent years. Companies like Netflix are exploring ways to skirt the fee.

YouTube TV's official twitter feed says current subscribers will see the increase in the first billing cycle after May 13. Unlike DirecTV Now, which allows subscribers to keep the older, lower pricing if t hey don't cancel service, there's no so-called grandfathered pricing with YouTube TV.

Now playing: Watch this: How to cut the cord like a pro

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Originally published April 10, 12:50 p.m. ET.Update, 2:41 p.m.: Adds response from YouTube TV representative.

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Greensburg’s SummerSounds raising money to book Russian Chicago cover band

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How to Use YouTube Ads to Boost Your Traffic

If you're considering venturing into YouTube ads to grow your business, it's a wise move. There are a whole lot of potential customers on the platform as it's the most extensive video network in the world with 1.5 billion people using it every month and 400 hours of new content uploaded every minute.

Unfortunately, it isn't as simple as uploading an ad and waiting for the views and money to roll in. If there isn't a solid strategy in place for how you plan to use your ads to drive traffic, it'll be difficult to achieve that goal. Every step you take — right up to publishing your ads to the world — makes a difference in how your ads perform in front of viewers.

Want to know how to use YouTube ads to boost your traffic? Here's how to get started.

Target your audience

Without a clear idea of who you're targeting, it'll be challenging to drive traffic through your ad campaign because all the wrong people will see your content. That's a waste of time and money that could be spent elsewhere growing your business.

The easiest way to map out your target audience is by creating buyer personas, which are detailed profiles of your audience including their demographics, interests, buying behaviors, and more. Make sure you have the who, what, when, where, and why covered.

There are many ways to gather the information you need about your audience. If you have existing customers, email them a survey or questionnaire to find out more about them. Research other businesses in your industry and take a good look at their target market. Scour social media and find burning questions people in your industry are asking. You could be the one to give them the solutions they need.

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Choose the right ad format

Depending on how your audience consumes content, there may be different ways ads influence their decision to click through. The best way is by utilizing A/B split testing and determining which ad types perform best with your viewers. This will allow you to optimize your conversion strategy as well as present ads to your audience effectively.

There are three main types of ad formats to choose from.

TrueView In-stream

A TrueView ad is one that viewers can choose to skip if they want to and can increase your views by 500 percent according to Google. You only pay for the ad if viewers watch for at least 30 seconds or the ad is clicked on.

An in-stream ad is shown to viewers the second they click on your ad. After a mandatory five-second waiting period, they can choose to continue watching or skip the ad and move ahead to their intended video.

TrueView Discovery

This type of ad pops up on the homepage, under related or recommended videos, or in YouTube search. Viewers who watch at least 30 seconds of TrueView ads are 23 times likelier to visit or subscribe to a brand channel and engage with its content. You pay for it when viewers click on your ad and watch your video.

This is an excellent method to boost traffic because it presents your video in front of new viewers who may be attracted to your content or when they're searching for similar videos.

Bumper

Bumper ads are only six seconds or shorter and unskippable. It can play before, during, or after a video. Because they're so short, these ads are great for mobile users who consume lots of content at a quick rate. You pay when your ad is shown 1000 times.

Create engaging ads

Your ad content has to be captivating enough to convince viewers to click through to the offer. If the ads you're creating match your target market's interests and compel them with engaging content, it'll persuade them to check out your advertisement.

Here are some of the best ways to create ads that provoke action or clicks:

A/B test different components of your ads to see what works best.

Captivate your audience from the very first second by capturing their attention as soon as your ad plays.

Use YouTube's interactive elements to drive user engagement, including and especially CTAs.

Use only the best content to show viewers. If you're going to invest in ads, they have to be worth your while.

Conclusion

When executed properly, YouTube ads can be a great way to drive traffic to your website and earn money. They're proven to increase engagement and they put your content in front of new people who could potentially turn into loyal customers. If you aren't taking advantage of advertising on YouTube, you're missing out on a golden opportunity to grow your business.

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Liza Koshy Returns From Yearlong YouTube Hiatus With an Ode to the 'Dollar Store' in Parody Music Video

Liza Koshy is officially back from her yearlong YouTube hiatus. The Houston, Texas, native unveiled a brand-new music video for her parody song "Dollar Store With Liza" on Wednesday.

The 22-year-old's comeback parody reinterprets Frank Sinatra's classic "New York, New York" as she gives an ode to the Dollar Store -- which then evolves into an upbeat electro-dance tune. "Start saving to lose/ I'm spending today/ Pay one small price for all of it/ The dollar store/ These other stores lose/ My money today/ But who can empty my pockets?/ The dollar store," she impressively sings the opening lyrics.

Koshy dances throughout the aisles with fellow money-saving shoppers as they build up to the four-minute-long video's grand finale of Liza leading a group of glittering Rockette-like dancers.

The video has already earned 2 million views since it was posted. The YouTube sensation thanked her 16 million subscribers for watching and waiting in the description box. "Thank you for watching, thank you for waiting. Honey... I'm home," she wrote. "EVERY OUNCE OF MY LOVE AND GRATITUDE GOES TO A LONG LIST OF WONDERFUL PEOPLE."

Koshy added that she wrote the song and created the video with UX Entertainment Group. "Dollar Store With Liza" was directed by Jason Bergh, produced by Andrew Molina and Coutney Carter and choreographed by Sarah Mitchell, with music production by Bruce Wiegner.

Watch Koshy's "Dollar Store With Liza" music video below.

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Comments on Congress' white nationalism hearing stream were so racist YouTube had to shut them down

YouTube shut down comments on a live stream of the House Judiciary Committee's stream of a hearing on white nationalism because the comments became too hateful.

While YouTube pulled comments from the House Judiciary Committee's stream of the hearing, users simply moved their comments to other streams.

A Google representative attended the hearing to justify the company's policies around removing hate speech.

© Provided by CNBC LLC Susan Wojcicki

YouTube shut down the chat feature on a live stream of the House Judiciary Committee's hearing on white nationalism Tuesday after it was inundated with hateful comments.

Just around the time that a representative from YouTube parent company Google spoke about the company's content moderation efforts, some noticed the live chat function had already been disabled. But commenters simply seemed to move to other streams of the video on YouTube's platform, enraged by the company's attempt to block their posts.

"Look at Google deciding for us what we can't see!" one commenter wrote on Fox Business channel's YouTube stream of the hearing.

Google confirmed to CNBC that the feature was disabled "Due to the presence of hateful comments."

"Hate speech has no place on YouTube. We've invested heavily in teams and technology dedicated to removing hateful comments and videos and we take action on them when flagged by our users," the company said in a statement.

The incident is a microcosm of the problem YouTube and other social media platforms have faced when it comes to removing hate speech. The House Judiciary Committee called for Tuesday's hearing to discuss tech's role in the spread of white nationalism and possible solutions, but the comments on its own stream underscores the complexity of that issue.

As YouTube apparently worked to disable the chat function on the House's official live stream, Alexandria Walden, a Google counsel for free expression and human rights, told congress that users are bound to the company's community guidelines.

"I want to state clearly that every Google product that hosts user content prohibits incitement of violence and hate speech against individuals or groups based on specified attributes," Walden said in her opening statement. "We view both as grave social ills, so our policies go beyond what the U.S. requires."

Walden explained YouTube's system for flagging and removing content it deems harmful, which involves both human and machine intervention. But as recently as last month, these systems were tested following the shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand that left 50 dead. Copies of a video of one of the shootings proliferated across the platform, with YouTube unable to keep up with the pace of uploads.

YouTube's decision to shut down comments on the House's stream did not prevent users from finding other ways to share their views on the topic, whether by commenting on other streams or sharing their own. One channel called Red Ice TV, which is run by people who the Anti-Defamation League describe as white supremacists, hosted its own stream of the hearing overlaid with its own commentary.

Google did not immediately respond to questions about why comments on other streams of the hearing are still active or whether they will be removed.

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Austrian White Nationalist Accused of Ties to NZ Mosque Shooter Is Making Money off Youtube

This article originally appeared on VICE News in the US.

Austrian white nationalist Martin Sellner, who is under investigation for possible ties to the New Zealand mosque shooter, has been earning money through YouTube’s “Super Chat” function.

Super Chat, which was introduced in 2017, allows viewers of YouTube live streams to promote their comments by making donations larger than $5. YouTube receives a 30 percent cut of the donations.

Just this week, Sellner, 30, raked in €545 (or about $611) from Super Chat donations during a 45-minute press conference live-streamed on Youtube, according to social media intelligence agency Storyful and confirmed by VICE News. He gave the presser to defend himself against allegations that he had ties to the mosque shooter, who killed 50 people after open firing on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, earlier this month.

Sellner confirmed on Tuesday that the shooter had donated about €1,500 (or about $1,682) to his group, the “Identitarian Movement Austria” (IBÖ), which the Austrian government is currently deciding whether to label as a terrorist organization. Sellner called the amount “disproportionately high.”

Individual payments on Sellner’s live presser ranged between €5 and €100 in Euros, Swedish Krona, Danish Krona, and Swiss Francs. And the more someone donates on Super Chat, the longer their comment on that particular video stays promoted. One viewer on Sellner’s presser, for example, contributed €20 to promote his comment, which was written in German and translated roughly to “Support continues from Neuruppin [a town in Germany]. Keep going like that, Martin.”

YouTube did not respond to a request for comment, but the company’s policy on Super Chats says that comments could be moderated â€" but won’t necessarily be moderated: “If a Super Chat is moderated and removed for violating our policies, YouTube will donate our portion of revenue to charity.” YouTube’s policies don’t address what happens to a broadcaster’s portion of the earnings if a comment is removed for violations.

YouTube policies also say it doesn’t allow hate speech on its platform and that it removes content promoting violence or hatred against individuals or groups based on attributes like race, religion, gender, age, nationality, and more. The company also flags some videos “as sensitive,” that, in its view, don’t rise to the level of hate speech.

But those policies have been repeatedly scrutinized in recent years. In particular, experts have pointed to what they call the “rabbit hole effect” that they say YouTube’s recommendation algorithm enables and can contribute to online radicalization. That function automatically suggests videos similar to what someone had just watched. For example, users might be shown a series of video clips that become increasingly extremist and removed from the mainstream.

Earlier this week, Facebook and Instagram announced that they were banning white nationalism and white separatism from its platforms. Now, when users on those platforms try to post content that advocates those ideas, they’ll be redirected to Life After Hate, an organization that helps deradicalize far-right extremists. Youtube, however, kept quiet.

In an interview with The New York Times on Friday, YouTube’s Chief Product Officer Neil Mohan denied the idea that the platform’s algorithm drives users to extremist content. Mohan also stressed that it was difficult to strike a balance between upholding free speech and clamping down on extremism.

Austrian authorities raided Sellner’s house on Monday in search of evidence that could link him to the New Zealand shooter. By Thursday, Sellner said the U.S. denied him a travel permit. “Any connection between the Christchurch attacker and members of the Identitarians in Austria needs to be comprehensively and ruthlessly investigated,” Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz had tweeted.

The day before the mosque attacks, the New Zealand shooter, who is Australian, published a lengthy online manifesto, which demonstrated his deep familiarity with ideas promoted by far-right activists like Sellner, who call themselves “Identitarians.” The shooter, during an extended trip through Europe and Asia, visited Austria between Nov. 27 and Dec. 4 last year.

Like others in the growing, global network of so-called “Identitarians,” Sellner has cultivated a preppy image and uses carefully chosen language to promote hateful, xenaphobic ideas that, at their core, are no different than those held by hardline neo-Nazis. He blogs about Muslim immigration and the need to protect “European” or “traditional” values. Sellner did not respond to a request for comment.

Joe LoCascio contributed to this report.

Cover image: Martin Sellner, leader of the right-wing populist Identitarian movement of Austria is seen giving an interview in Berlin, Germany, 05 November 2016. (Photo by: Paul Zinken/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images)

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Parents are exploiting their children on YouTube for fame and easy money

© AP 'In the case of the most popular and successful channels, these kids are in essence child actors unprotected by labour laws, making their parents sizeable incomes.'

When my twins were babies, I caught a short episode of them on video in which one leaned over and snatched the pacifier from the other one's mouth and, for a second, I dreamed of putting it on YouTube and scoring one of those baby-does-hilarious-thing hits, in which the ad revenue rolls in while you sleep and you are rewarded simply for being alive.

Related: YouTube child stars allegedly abused and forced to perform by adoptive mother

I didn't upload the video in the end, for the same reason I didn't do anything much in that period beyond running round my apartment in concentric circles, picking things up and then putting them down again. But the memory of that temptation – the gold-rush sense that there was easy money to be made if one could only capture a moment of "spontaneous" fun involving one's children – remained, and like most gold rushes, its pull is a vortex.

This week in the US a mother was arrested for allegedly abusing her seven children in the process of making "hilarious" madcap videos of them for her popular YouTube channel, Fantastic Adventures. It is the most extreme case to date of a spectrum that includes adults feeding their toddlers age-inappropriate lines and generally manipulating them for online ad revenue.

In 2017, a family was investigated over the making of YouTube videos on its channel DaddyOFive (175m views), in which the parents "pranked" their kids by screaming in their faces and making them cry hysterically. And another family was charged with child endangerment for putting their eight-year-old and his nanny in the bed of a pickup truck and haring around a small town in southern California (1 million people watched the video).

This week, when welfare officers in Arizona visited the house of the woman who runs Fantastic Adventures, a channel that has racked up more than 250m views, they found a household of traumatised children who alleged they had been pepper-sprayed and locked in cupboards for forgetting their lines. Online, meanwhile, they were shown doing endlessly jolly things and performing like ponies.

Related: Is it safe to turn your children into YouTube stars?

The mystery is why so many people watch this stuff. Even the benign child videos have a vague Baby June sense of snuff about them, or the desperate air of They Shoot Horses, Don't They?. In the case of the most popular and successful channels, these kids are in essence child actors unprotected by labour laws, making their parents sizeable incomes.

There are more pressing regulatory issues around YouTube, and the child exploitation racket, unless there is provable abuse, is probably impossible to curtail, not least because it is the natural end point to the universal dynamic that we are all content providers now. The lie, of course, is that it is easy money or that these productions are just slightly massaged versions of Candid Camera home videos. As scripted content, the cost to the child is one of time and effort, but more than that, perhaps, one of perception. Most of these children are young – barely out of toddlerhood – when to perform an idea of cuteness and be made aware of its currency is to usher in early a plague of the age: self-consciousness.

• Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist

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