Another Clouds Time-Lapse

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With clouds in the valley before dawn, I set up a time-lapse camera to capture the cloud movement throughout the morning.

I don’t know about you, but I absolutely love time-lapse movies. They make it possible for us to see movement that is normally too slow to perceive.

On October 31, 2024, there were thick clouds in the valley below my home. I know from experience that our winter thermal inversions can put on a good cloud show and those inversions are happening earlier and earlier every year. I set up a GoPro in Hyperlapse mode and let it run all day. Here’s the first few hours of the cloud show, sped up with the hyperlapse as well as a 400% increase in speed in video editing. The result is a smooth, high-speed look at what the clouds did that morning.

Enjoy!

Why There are So Many Ads on YouTube

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It’s a money grab, plain and simple, and YouTube encourages creators to maximize the number of ads per video.

I’ve been a YouTube content creator for about 15 years now, starting my channels as a way to share videos of things going on in my not-quite-average life. I had the good fortune to create a video that went viral — 12.5 million views so far — and has not only earned me thousands of dollars since I put it on YouTube, but was the driving force to get my subscriber count on the FlyingMAir YouTube channel up to nearly 80,000.

My History as a Content Creator

It’s nice to earn money on content you create or, technically, intellectual property (IP). From 1990, when I left my last full-time job to become a freelance writer and computer consultant, to around 2012, I earned the vast majority of my income as what I insist on calling a content creator. (For some reason, many creators are opposed to that term. I’m not sure why.) I wrote books and articles and made videos for various publishers. I even did a little self publishing of books. I created the content that people wanted to consume. What else would you call that?

During that time, I was able to not only fund the training and asset acquisition for my next career as a helicopter pilot, but I also socked away enough money to retire* at age 62.

My YouTube channels — including the one for Flying M Air which I no longer create videos for — continue to earn me money with a direct deposit into my checking account every month. How is that money earned? Through advertising.

YouTube Ad Revenue

Love YouTube but don’t like ads?

Do what I did: become a YouTube Premium subscriber. (Sign up on the Web and not through your Apple device and you can save $5/month.) Although I was skeptical until I got a free trial, I’m now convinced that it’s worth every single penny. You’ll still have to fast-forward through the sponsorship crap, though.

If you watch YouTube, you know how annoying the ads can be. There are pre-roll ads and post-roll ads and mid-roll ads. You can skip some of them after a few seconds but are forced to sit through others. Most of them are short, but when you have three or four in a row, they take up (too much) time.

For a new channel that cannot be monetized by its creator, the creator has absolutely no control over the ads and doesn’t make a single penny from them. So if you’re watching videos on a channel with 567 subscribers, remember that 100% of the revenue for the ads you see go right to Google. (If that channel creator has a tip jar of any sort and you like the videos, consider sending a few dollars their way to motivate/reward them for hard work.)

Once a channel can be monetized through a share of advertising revenue, creators get a tiny portion — literally just pennies sometimes — on every thousand views. So yeah: unless a video has a lot of views and a lot of ads, you’re not going to make very much. I could go on and on about how some creators game the system to fool people into clicking on their content with misleading titles and thumbnails, but I’ll save that for another day. This post is about the ad revenue.

If you can’t control the number of views a video gets — and new channels usually have a steep hill to climb to get regular viewers — you can still control the number of ads that appear with your content. Again, there are three types: pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll. Google isn’t shy about letting you know that the more kinds of ads you allow in your content, the more likely they are to push your content out on viewer Home pages.

Mid-Roll Ad Idea
Google does what it can to get you to maximize shared revenue.

And that brings me to what triggered today’s posts: the “idea” that appeared on my YouTube Studio dashboard for my MariaLanger channel, which just reached the point where I can monetize ads. When I set up ads for my existing videos, I specified pre-roll and post-roll ads, but turned off mid-roll ads. Why? Well, the main reason is that I hate them and I don’t want to torture my viewers by forcing them to watch them. I try to make my content smooth and continuous and breaking it up with tacky, annoying ads in the middle of it is, well, tacky and annoying. I respect my viewers.

(That’s not to say I might not change my mind in the future. On very long videos, I can specify exactly where a mid-roll ad can appear, so I can place it in a way to make it less obnoxious. I’d rather not, but I’m also not creating video for charity. I want revenue from my work and the tip jar isn’t working yet for me. Want to support my content creation efforts? Buy me a coffee.)

The reason so many people allow mid-roll ads is because they see “ideas” like this in their Studio dashboard. They want to make money and they are seduced by the possibilities. It’s the same reason they set up memberships or Patreon accounts. Even if they started their YouTube channel for fun, once they get to the point where they’re making money, they want to make more.

The Trap for Creators

YouTube Content Creation as a Job

Please don’t think I’m discouraging content creators from making YouTube content creation their full time jobs. There are many creators on YouTube who do just that. They have teams of writers — many of whom lean too heavily on Wikipedia — and video editors and they appear as talking heads reading off a teleprompter with a script while stock images that vaguely apply to what they’re saying appear onscreen. They have multiple channels and they come out with new content every day. These folks are making shit-tons of money while they pay a staff to do much of the work. It’s a business for them.

There are a folks with more modest setups that do much of their own research, writing, and video work. Some of them are really good; I subscribe to more than a few. But the ones who are most successful have YouTube content creation as a full-time job. You see, once you stop feeding the beast, the beast looks elsewhere for its next meal.

So unless you’re lucky enough to have a viral video after you’ve already become part of the Partner Program with a share of advertising revenue, you can expect to do a lot of work to build a YouTube channel to the point where it actually makes real money for you. Good luck.

I definitely get it. My FlyingMAir YouTube channel was earning, for a while, $500+ per month. One month, I took in $1200. That’s some real, bill-paying money!

Of course I had mid-roll ads and of course I set up a membership program and even a Patreon account. Do you know what that did for me? It turned content creation back into a job, something I had to do all the time to keep members and patrons and Google happy. I woke up to this realization when I was spending more time editing video than actually flying and watched revenues drop as the Google algorithm favored other creators more than me. I had fallen into a trap and I needed to get out.

Eventually, I sold the helicopter and could no longer create new content for the channel. I killed the membership and Patreon programs so I wouldn’t owe anyone anything. It was a huge weight off my chest.

A New Channel

So here I am, facing a new trap with my MariaLanger channel. This channel is older than FlyingMAir and actually still has a bunch of the helicopter videos I created before I spun off the helicopter channel. But it never had a good subscriber base until recently. I have just 1852 subscribers as I type this and am getting new subscribers at the modest rate of about 90 per month. I qualified for the partner program back in August and just qualified for advertising revenue in October. I’ve earned a whopping $9.03 so far this month.

I should mention here why I suddenly picked up so many new subscribers. It’s the boating videos I was creating while I traveled the Great Loop. And I have at least 40 more to come over the next year or so. The video has been shot; it’s just a matter of editing it into something worth watching. And yes, I’ll be getting back to that, probably this week. Editing video is no fun on a laptop, but I suspect the 27″ monitor I just bought will make it less tedious. That $9.03 will go toward the purchase. (Did I mention how much camera and lighting and audio and computer hardware you’ll need to buy to succeed as a YouTube content creator? That’s something no one tells you.)

And That’s Why

So that’s why there are so many ads on YouTube. Creators want to make money and Google does everything in its power to convince creators to include as many ads as possible in their channel content.

—
*My retirement is not a “stop working” retirement. I could never stop working and I don’t think anyone else should, either. Now I do the work I want to do when I want to do it — and take a shit-ton of time off.

I’m Not Your Support Person

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Just because my blog addresses one of your problems doesn’t mean I’m willing to spend time giving you more help or advice than what you find here.

The other day, I got an email and three texts from a fellow maker. He sells on Etsy and has had a bunch of problems with them, all of which he listed in his email message. He had read the post I wrote last year about why I left Etsy and seemed to think I would be his go-to source for help finding an alternative for his niche market handmade items.

I saw the email and got the gist of it after reading just a few lines. It was early evening — unlike too many other folks, I don’t sit with notifications turned on and respond to every bing emitted by my phone. Email, in fact, is one of the worst ways to reach me because I hate checking it. So I figured I’d give it a closer look in the morning.

Text Messages
Here are the initial three messages. I did get the email he’s referring to. I just don’t drop everything to answer emails from strangers. Does anyone?

I’m not much better with texts, which is the next way he chose to reach out. He sent three of them.

That got me kind of annoyed. Yes, I wrote a blog post about why I left Etsy. And I believe that every creator of quality merchandise should do the same. (I won’t repeat why here. Read the post.) But just because I left Etsy and wrote about it doesn’t mean I’m anyone’s source for one-on-one support for Etsy dissatisfaction.

Deja Vu All Over Again

It’s just like when I wrote computer how-to books for a living. Someone would buy one of my books for about $20 — of which I’d be lucky to see $1 of income — and they’d automatically assume that I would answer all of their questions regarding the topic of the book. I cannot tell you how many email messages and phone calls I got in the early 2000s. That’s why the Contact page on my blog says this, right at the top of the page:

Support and Frequently Asked Questions

I no longer provide support for my books, articles, Web site, or anything else by email, contact form, U.S. mail, or telephone. There are no exceptions to this rule. I simply cannot provide one-on-one support for my work — especially work that is no longer in print.

Note that it includes “Web site” and “anything else.” This person used the form on that page without bothering to read what was right on the top.

Unfair Expectations

More Text Messages
Here’s the first round of responses. When he came back with more nastiness this morning, I responded and then deleted the thread.

Rather than just delete the email message and text messages — as, in hindsight, I really think I should have — I answered him honestly, trying to be gentle about it. But he got snippy and sarcastic. When I told him that I’ve been dealing with requests for help for the past 40 years — okay, maybe just 30 — he came back with more nastiness and told me I should give up blogging.

Oh really? Being a blogger means you’ll help any schmuck who reads your words and wants personalized assistance?

I told him that after blogging for more than 20 years that wasn’t likely.

I also told him that he needs an attitude adjustment and he needs to stop expecting strangers to help him with his problems. (I wish I still had the actual text I sent, but I deleted the whole exchange right after sending that last one and, for once, Apple has actually removed it from Messages on all of my devices. Go figure.) I wasn’t being nice anymore. I was being blunt. I wanted this guy to go away and I really don’t give a damn if he likes me or not.

But that’s my point of view on the issue. Yes, I wrote about it. I wrote 2600 words about it. That’s all I have to say on this matter in a public forum. My blog does not exist as a gateway to using me for support. It’s all of the support I am willing to give, all packaged up in individual blog posts.

Solve Your Own Problems

And that brings me to this, which I see as a major problem in today’s world: no one wants to do their homework anymore. Everyone would rather just get all the answers from someone else, even if that person is a stranger.

Like me, this guy has become dissatisfied with Etsy. Well, Etsy isn’t the only place to sell. There’s Shopify and some maker co-op that the folks on Mastodon keep pushing and the solution I went with: setting up a shop with my Square account. A Google search for “where can I sell my homemade widgets” will get him started on possible solutions. Reading reviews and blog posts and forum posts about those solutions can help him learn the pros and cons of them — so he can pick the one that’s right for him and his business.

Expecting a perfect stranger to take him by the hand in a phone call and walk him through the process of finding his perfect solution is unrealistic.

I have a full life and lots of things to take up my time. (Including, apparently, ranting about situations like this in my blog.) I’m running three small businesses by myself and trying to bring in some extra income in early retirement, before taking social security payments. I should be working on my Great Loop book or making jewelry right now. (I hope to do both with the rest of my day.)

Maybe our text exchange will be a wakeup call for him.

Or maybe it won’t.

Migration Warning – Update

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I prep to move this blog from my current host to a new one.

Just a fore-warning… I’m prepping to move this blog from Bluehost to Hostzinger. I’m just plain tired of Bluehost’s poor service and support and the crazy high fees they want to charge me for three small blogs.

There’s a pretty good chance this blog will go down for a few days. If it does, don’t panic! Keep check in.

And wish me luck! I’m going to need it.

UPDATE

This morning (17-Oct-24), I duplicated this site on the new host using a domain name I already had registered there. Then I pointed the original site to this one. That’s why the domain name in the URL bar is different. Once the original domain name is transferred, I’ll fix all that. In the meantime, however, it looks like the site survived the move intact.

UPDATE #2

Bluehost dragged its butt making the domain transfer so it all happened while I was away. But as of this morning (25-Oct-24), the website transfer is done and operating. Email is iffy, but doesn’t affect anything here.

Journaling My Year

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I start, on January 1, to keep a daily journal and 10 1/2 months later, I’m still at it.

Over the years, I have tried and mostly failed to keep a daily journal of the things going on in my life. I’d start with good intentions and then stop, mostly because I forgot to keep writing. Then I’d start up again, swearing I’d keep at it, but then stop.

What I Tried

I tried handwritten journals in beautiful blank books. Stopping midway through one of them was especially painful since I really wanted to fill them and have a record of a long, uninterrupted period in a really nice looking book.

I tried using calendar-style planners with a whole week on each spread. Not much space to write there; I could simply put down a few bullet points about my day. These suffered the same fate. I have many partially completed calendar books floating around my home.

I tried marble notebooks like the ones we used in elementary school. The local Fred Meyer sells them for just 50¢ each once the Back to School buying rush is over. I have a lot of them. (I have a paper addiction.) They fared no better than all the other handwritten options.

And yes, I tried digital journalling. I tried apps designed just for that purpose. (I was very excited about Apple’s Journal app until I actually tried it; what good is a digital journal if you can’t export or print it? How many people will be using the same Journal app in 20 years? Definitely not me.)

Scrivener Document Sidebar
As you can see in the sidebar for my Scrivener Journal document, I was very bad about writing journal entries.

I also tried using Scrivener, the darling of the writing world. I created a Journal file with folders for months and files for days. The screenshot of the document’s sidebar shown here should give you an idea of how that went.

Understand that my desire to journal every day has been very intense throughout my life. Heck, this blog was started as a journal of sorts. Not a daily journal but just a journal of the interesting things I was doing or thinking that I wanted to share.

That desire ramped up as I aged and I started forgetting about things I’d seen or done. The only remnant — or trigger, in some cases — of a memory was a photo I took at the time. But I don’t take photos of everything. I worried that I was permanently forgetting the things I did, things I might want to remember in the future.

Things that would be so simple to just jot down right after they happened.

In a journal.

Another Try

This came to a head when I was trying to write up the days of my Great Loop trip in the My Great Loop Adventure blog I created to document the entire trip. It isn’t easy to blog in detail every day so I slacked off. And then, when I was trying to fill in the gaps in the blog, I realized that I just couldn’t remember the details I wanted to share.

I needed to do something about this. My memory was starting to get iffy and I didn’t want to lose days of my life. I had to try journaling again and stick to it this time.

The Journal I bought
I bought a yellow one in the largest size; they come in a lot of colors and three sizes.

I started on January 1. I prepared by buying a very nice journal book on Amazon (don’t judge me) that had 365 pages. One page per day. They were not dated or numbered but they did have spaces for both bits of info. And lines close enough together to fit a few hundred words.

I started on January 1 in Key West FL, where I was on my boat with my friend Jason. And, for the first time ever, I’ve kept to it, providing an entry for every single day of my life. It’s now October 16 and I have entries right through yesterday.

Covid Entry
I backtracked to fill in the pages for days I was really suffering with Covid. All I remember from those days was sleeping.

I’ll be honest: I don’t always write every evening or the following morning like I want to. Sometimes I miss a few days and have to go back. I’ve found that going backwards from the current day usually helps. The only days when the entry is unreasonably short were the few days that I slept nearly the entire day due to my bout with Covid in August.

Why It’s Working this Time

Why am I finally doing so well at journaling this year? I think there are three reasons, one of which I already touched upon.

  • Motivation. I’m tired of forgetting days and weeks of my life. I’m tired of looking at photos I shot 3 years ago and seeing places I forgot I’d visited. I don’t think my memory is any worse than the average person my age — it’s not like it’s a problem — but the only way I see being able to remember stuff is to jot notes about the day at day’s end or the following morning.
  • Success leads to more success. After ten and a half months of keeping this up, I feel that I’d really be letting myself down if I didn’t continue to do it. So the more I write, the more I want to write.
  • 365 single pages to fill. The book’s design makes it easy — and, in a way, required — to journal every day. There are exactly the right number of pages to fill. (Actually, there were 366 days this leap year, but I can always insert an extra sheet if I have to.) Second, the pages aren’t that big. There are only 25 lines! That’s nothing for someone like me. And who says I have to use every single one?

I bring the journal with me whenever I know I’ll be away for more than just one night. I try to write my entries at the end of the day, but if I miss that, I’ll try to do it in the morning when I’m having my coffee in bed.

What I’ve got so far is a summary of what I’ve been up to so far this year. Sometimes I write about when I woke up, how I slept, and what I ate. Sometimes I write details about a travel day’s experiences. Sometimes I write notes to myself about how I have to do something or change a dumb behavior. And once in a while, I write what’s on my mind socially, politically, or romantically.

And yes, I can squeeze a lot into 25 lines when I need to. I don’t write full sentences. It’s not like it’s going to be published anywhere. It’s just something I can look back on in years to come to remember what those pictures I might have are all about. Or to fill in the gaps when I didn’t take pictures.

One thing is for sure: it’s definitely going to come in handy when I fill in the gaps in the My Great Loop Adventure blog.