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Saturday, January 11, 2020

What a difference... a day makes...


"Twenty-four little hours..."

Deep breath.

Right.  So, the video above explains it all.  Final data from YouTube's January changes arrived and the picture is extremely bleak for me, more than twice as bad as a supposedly accurate real-world test suggested it would be.  I really should be panicking right now, but somehow I'm not.

I need to make bigger changes than I have in the over 10 years I've been doing this whole LEGO thing (almost 7 of them full-time).  I'm up to the challenge, though!  In the coming days & weeks you're going to see me asking a lot of questions of fans across multiple media & communication platforms, including some with which I've never before engaged.  I have a lot of ideas swirling around and will need your direct input to help shape the best of them into a new reality.

My primary YouTube video style in particular needs a significant adjustment to overcome the latest round of major obstacles, restoring the ability of viewers to comment on videos (at least new ones), add them to playlists, and possibly most importantly, use the "mini-player" in the YouTube app.  This may be a bit disruptive at first, but I'm not fundamentally going to change who I am or what I do, I'm just going to make what changes are necessitated by factors well beyond my control.

It's a good thing I work well under pressure!  I'm actually feeling more than a little tinge of excitement over all this.

11 comments:

  1. A couple ideas. (1) Back when you did the LEGO video game 'let's plays' my younger siblings and I really enjoyed watching them! I could see you starting a gaming channel and playing a wide variety of games some of which wouldn't get labeled as for kid's (e.g. Halo, Destiny 2, COD, Forza...). People like listening to your voice and really, that's the main draw of a gaming channel. (2) You could start Patreon. I don't know what kind of exclusive content you could offer but I bet you could get a decent amount of subscribers! (3) You could start selling merchandise. I would totally buy a Jangbricks T-shirt and I have a feeling so would others.
    It really sucks what happened. Know that you have a lot of loyal fans who will continue to watch your content no matter what happens.
    Good luck building up studio C! I'm excited to see what it is!

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  2. Hi Jang,
    after watching your video, I`m kind of mad at YouTube, they shouldn´t force you to mark your stuff as "for kids", but should arrange a button for all your viewers, that they aren´t kids. I don´t know, if I´m speaking for any relevant amount of your fans, but I would readily pay regularly - as I do for my newspaper(s) (I`m from Germany and a historian by profession, so I´m a bit old fashioned). Maybe you could and should offer that - in the sense of having patreons or so.
    All the best!
    Ennasus

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  3. This is exactly what I was worried about. I'm encouraged that you are looking for a way to adapt and survive, but I think the reason so many of us are upset at the news is that we enjoy the content you currently produce. If you have to divert your time and efforts into new content that still earns revenue, but is not something your existing subscribers have much interest in, I fear you may ultimately shed those subscribers (and probably gain a new following, but isn't that throwing the baby out with the bathwater?).

    I currently check your channel daily because I enjoy watching everything Lego related, but particularly the reviews. I worry if there is too much silence while you figure out what to do next, it may be damaging to your viewership,

    The way I see it you need to maintain your revenue and be able to keep doing what you have been doing to some degree to avoid losing the support you have built. Many, many people have suggested Patreon but you don't seem to want to go that way? Being dependant on your thousands of fans is surely a safer prospect than being dependant on YouTube...

    Lastly, I would consider 'selling out' to accept Lego sponsorship. I've bought close to 200 Lego sets in the last few years, and it all started from your review of the TIE Prototype from Rebels. It would be sad if you lost your independent voice, but worth it for everyone involved.

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  4. Hey Jang, I hope in the long run your not forced to stop doing your videos, the wife and I enjoy them, and your reviews... Good luck bud.

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  5. Could you post videos on youtube redirecting us all to another channel like facebook or your website? I feel so angry at youtube but I guess it is good you try to stay calm. Still a lot of people have no idea that they can also watch your videos elsewhere, it is only because we are huge fans that we looked elsewhere. We often watch your videos together, my son and I (his mom), it would be sad you now look for ways to loose the interest of children, as I think as in many families, we watch your reviews to decide on what to buy and gained a lot of love for LEGO and details. My son is 11, and you are his hero, I guess he 's old enough and so much into LEGO by now that he 'll also be interested in your content appealing to adults. But still, we love your reviews and it is just wrong that you should be the victim here. Could you upload (or have you already?) all your previous videos to your website, and generate an income from the website? Or don't you think your followers would follow you to another channel? I hope you find a way around this, hang in there!

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  6. This is the way of things. A sad day indeed. My son and I would watch your channel and look forward to the latest offerings from Lego. We'd also put you on in the background as we built together. You became a big part of the overall experience. We certainly hope you find a way to continue and benefit from your hard work. All the best ahead. Big fans.

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  7. If you're up for trying new things, I've thought from time to time that it would be interesting to see what you would do with other people's MOCs. Like, if they submitted photos or LDD files of their MOCs and you revamped them with more efficient building, novel techniques, and so on. Just a thought. Toss it on the pile -- and good luck!

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  8. Baffled that youtube in demonitizing you have also cut their own revenue as well. It seems to me they should be working with advertizers and place kid friendly adds on
    your content just like Cartoon Network does. Youtube should allow you to market add space for your content as well, say have Target give you sponsorship and run adds like they do on all content on cable. Let creators run their own adds and you would get paid by the ammount of views without demographic tracking.

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  9. This is Youtube's business model problem. They need to roll out kid friendly advertising on channels they mark as for kids. Just stop targeted adds, it may mean more adds per video as they don't pay as much as the old model (my experience, I never click through on a youtube add, ever, so their add model wasn't that great anyways) Hopefully the business managers at Youtube get a clue and look to broadcast TV add models for the under 16/18/21 regulation or wherever they end up with. In the meantime, go paytreon!

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  10. Hey Jang, I hope in the long run your not forced to stop doing your videos, the wife and I enjoy them, and your reviews... Good luck bud.
    videos

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