So Dylan Winter seems like a jolly nice chap... Great videos!

[prv]

(I always thought the money came through the linked adverts and that went to Youtube...)

Under normal circumstances they share it with the video author, and some people do make enough that way to fully fund a modest lifestyle. However, a few years ago Google's robots got annoyed at Dylan and stopped his pocket-money, having erroneously decided that he was doing something naughty with the advertising system. After a brief attempt at resolution, Dylan decided that it wasn't worth the effort of fighting the Google behemoth, abandoned his claim to the Youtube ad money, and concentrated on selling his DVDs (popular at the time).

I thought at the time that he was throwing in the towel too easily on that issue - if I remember rightly it was something to do with his other videos for American trucker fans, and splitting the two subjects into separate accounts might have helped. But it's his business, not mine, and I can see the appeal in simply stepping away from an unsavoury episode like that.

Pete

 

[dylanwinter]

Under normal circumstances they share it with the video author, and some people do make enough that way to fully fund a modest lifestyle. However, a few years ago Google's robots got annoyed at Dylan and stopped his pocket-money, having erroneously decided that he was doing something naughty with the advertising system. After a brief attempt at resolution, Dylan decided that it wasn't worth the effort of fighting the Google behemoth, abandoned his claim to the Youtube ad money, and concentrated on selling his DVDs (popular at the time).

I thought at the time that he was throwing in the towel too easily on that issue - if I remember rightly it was something to do with his other videos for American trucker fans, and splitting the two subjects into separate accounts might have helped. But it's his business, not mine, and I can see the appeal in simply stepping away from an unsavoury episode like that.

Pete

you are partially correct

actually only a tiny number of people - apart from google - make money from youtube. Unless you have a big product to market

there is no redemption in the world of google. The 20,000 word contract I ticked the box on makes that quite clear. The decisio0n of the computers is final and irrevocable.

the trucking, candle and starlings films have had about 50 million hits. That would be worth around $150,000 not bad but spread over ten years that does not look so good.

they pay a max of $3 per thousand views

if each minority interest sailing film film gets 12,000 views that is $36 - about a third of a tin of anti-foul so getting back into google would be pointless unless I start making films about cats or breasts.

My daughter says that if I am going to p[ull this thing around I have to focus on the 12,000 potential tappers on youtube and forget the magazines, the forums and my own website. On here I am talking to the same old men - those who wish to chip in will - those who don't wish to chip in will just post again and again about why they won't.

I have had some great suggestions as to how to keep making films for free

sell my house, leave my wife, get a sponsor (as if anyone would sponsor a jowly old bloke in a shit box), take paying guests on board(illegal), sail other peoples boats(and smash them into rocks two or three times a year).

So far this plan appears to be working. I have raised enough on the 13th to last film to cover the £2K I need. So far so good. Once I have sold the centaur and the bills stop I can start diverting the incoming funds into a saving account fund to re-boot the series with a warm boat more suitable for scotland in winter than an unheated Centaur and enough money to pay for the first year on visitors pontoons.

About 40 per cent of my views come from the states - but about 70 per cent of the revenue comes from there. They do not seem to object to being asked to pay for art/entertainment. On the UK forums I get loads of advice about how to cut my costs - which as my daughter says is as there being a link between the cost of Sir Micks bus pass and the price of a ticket for their next goodbye concert.

I am guilty of encouraging old sailors into thinking that they are helping another old sailor to fulfill his lifetimes ambition of sailing around a small island. Done that now though. People should not think they are paying to cover my costs but for the joy I bring to their giant smart TV screens.

it is now back to answering inane questions on youtube and designing the next intriguing, charming, witty, entertaining reminder to go in the middle of the next youtube film

If you guys want to watch films sans reminders in the middle the ones linked from my website do not have them in

D

 

[Oldfellah]

Good luck Dylan, I for one will sorely miss your films if they are stopped. As one old fellah that both enjoys your films and 'taps' I sincerely hope that fellow devotee's will bite the bullet and tap that button before you are lost for good.

By the way Dylan, just noticed this boat - right up your street I would have thought !
https://www.gumtree.com/p/boats-kay...-in-excellent-sail-away-condition-/1213799842

 

[dylanwinter]

Good luck Dylan, I for one will sorely miss your films if they are stopped. As one old fellah that both enjoys your films and 'taps' I sincerely hope that fellow devotee's will bite the bullet and tap that button before you are lost for good.

By the way Dylan, just noticed this boat - right up your street I would have thought !
https://www.gumtree.com/p/boats-kay...-in-excellent-sail-away-condition-/1213799842

what a bloody good chap you are for stepping up to the plate

the game is not quite up yet - although selling the boat is, I confess, a bit of a set back.

Eleanors strategy is working so far - but the tappers on here have all been converted - the died in the wool refusniks who tell me that i could do it all so much cheaper are watching bikini films

Interesting boat

old, old engine though

No more crap boats for me - the next one will be as reliable and wondrous as Lily M or I will just sail the trailer sailer on the east coast while making the rest of the films that are on the hard drive and leave the field to soap operas conducted by girls in yellow bikinis on outremar cats

D

 

[NormanB]

leave the field to soap operas conducted by girls in yellow bikinis on outremar cats

D

Dylan

I think you are getting far too bitter and twisted.

1. La Vagabonde and SV Delos et al are not actually depriving you of 'space' or 'income'.
2. Neither of the above have had it 'handed on a plate' they have worked really hard at building up their channel. Brian Trautman was sailing for 2 years before he uploaded a video from You Tube as he explains in this amateurish video captured by a fan

3 There are a few other sailing channels that are full of gratuitous clickbait and vacuous content but we all know these train crash affairs without naming them.

 

[dylanwinter]

I do apologise if that is the way it comes over....

I know that there is an overlap in audience - but the real one that counts is the overlap in paying audience - them through patreon and me from paypal

I don't think there is any significant overlap. I doubt that many of my blokes are patrons of either of the top rated sailing video series.

To say that I am thinking that they are stealing my revenue is just plain bonkers - that would be like richard obrian complaining about John Grisham. It makes no sense. You have completely mis-read me.


these people are bloody brilliant at what they do. Their work ethic is fantastic. The make videos on laptops sitting down below on roasting hot boats and then upload them every week. That is bloody amazing. Their overheads are massive - but so are the rewards.

The two market leaders also know that to work youtube you have to churn out a film a week and it must come with click bait. to work that click bait has to reflect the content. If there are bikinis on the thumbnail there have to be bikinis in the film.

Nothing wrong with that at all. it is the way of the world


SV delos offers films to patreons where the youtube pixels have been removed. Dunno what you call that.. Good wheeze is what I call it.

The latest L vag soap opera in a scene remiscent of Howards way devoted many minutes to a beautifully coiffured and made up girl waving a balloon on a balcony.

My films are a bit more difficult and time consuming to make - yet still 85 per cent of my youtbe views come from those videos down the right hand side. Sometimes they click on the bikini bait - sometimes they click on mine. They all end up on the screen in front of the clicker on the smart TV

the viewer assumes that we are all making loads of money - me included - after all there are my films beside the high dollar earners on the smart TVs. One bloke said he liked the idea that I was sailing a shit boat when clearly I could afford better. Another said that I am lucky to have two hobbies - sailing and making films for fun.

I assume neither of the leaders re earning anything of any significance from adsense - they both seem to use copyrighted music.

they make their money from the 0.4 per cent of their viewers who watch their films who chip in.

about 1.5 per cent of mine chip in - so in some ways I am doing better than them - more of the people who watch my films like them enough to cough up. this last campaign has got me a click through of about two percent

I have to remind the youtube users that KTL is different from the bikini shows not only in content but in the financing of them. The people who watch my films are an elite with big brains and low testosterone.

As a former maker of TV programs I repeat I am in awe of the sailing market leaders - I admire them - I respect them - but I am not the same as them

I make nicely put together films that take time and care to create. I make four hours a year not the 14 or 20 hours a year they make.

I hope that explains where I am at.

So far appealing straight through youtube to those 4,000 people a day who watch my films seems to be working.

D

PS do you know anyone who pays for two out of the three of us

 

[jac]

One question.

Although I don't use PayPal I have had a look at your tap and I notice that it only gives the option to pay in US$. That's great for those in the US but for those of us in the UK it means that between the £leaving my a/c and going into your a/c it is being converted twice, once from £ to $ and then from $ to £. That's two sets of fx charges that will eat into the money you receive.

Can you add the option to send £1 or €1 to you rather than $1. Not only is a pound worth 25% more but there are no fx costs to come out of that. IIRC that £1 will be worth about 75p to you as opposed to about 50p that the $1 is worth.

 

[dylanwinter]

One question.

Although I don't use PayPal I have had a look at your tap and I notice that it only gives the option to pay in US$. That's great for those in the US but for those of us in the UK it means that between the £leaving my a/c and going into your a/c it is being converted twice, once from £ to $ and then from $ to £. That's two sets of fx charges that will eat into the money you receive.

Can you add the option to send £1 or €1 to you rather than $1. Not only is a pound worth 25% more but there are no fx costs to come out of that. IIRC that £1 will be worth about 75p to you as opposed to about 50p that the $1 is worth.

there are two sets of buttons - the sterling one is underneath the dollar one because I earn more from yanks than I do from Brits - for some reason they seem more at home with being considered to be patrons of the art of thoughtful sailing.

I think that most brits are happy to pay in dollars but few yanks are happy to pay in sterling.

almost no-one gives just £1 or $1.

Paypal takes 6 per cent and a fixed charge so if people give $1 then I get even less.

D

 

[jac]

there are two sets of buttons - the sterling one is underneath the dollar one because I earn more from yanks than I do from Brits - for some reason they seem more at home with being considered to be patrons of the art of thoughtful sailing.

I think that most brits are happy to pay in dollars but few yanks are happy to pay in sterling.

almost no-one gives just £1 or $1.

Paypal takes 6 per cent and a fixed charge so if people give $1 then I get even less.

D

Thanks.

Bloody well hidden though.

Can I suggest that you shove a sterling one on your home page as well as the $ one, not just on the how to contribute pages.

 

[dylanwinter]

Thanks.

Bloody well hidden though.

Can I suggest that you shove a sterling one on your home page as well as the $ one, not just on the how to contribute pages.

sorry about that

what are you using - laptop, phone, desktop, tablet, TV?

It should be possible to see both on an average size screen

 

[NormanB]

I do apologise if that is the way it comes over....

I know that there is an overlap in audience - but the real one that counts is the overlap in paying audience - them through patreon and me from paypal

I don't think there is any significant overlap. I doubt that many of my blokes are patrons of either of the top rated sailing video series.

To say that I am thinking that they are stealing my revenue is just plain bonkers - that would be like richard obrian complaining about John Grisham. It makes no sense. You have completely mis-read me.


these people are bloody brilliant at what they do. Their work ethic is fantastic. The make videos on laptops sitting down below on roasting hot boats and then upload them every week. That is bloody amazing. Their overheads are massive - but so are the rewards.

The two market leaders also know that to work youtube you have to churn out a film a week and it must come with click bait. to work that click bait has to reflect the content. If there are bikinis on the thumbnail there have to be bikinis in the film.

Nothing wrong with that at all. it is the way of the world


SV delos offers films to patreons where the youtube pixels have been removed. Dunno what you call that.. Good wheeze is what I call it.

The latest L vag soap opera in a scene remiscent of Howards way devoted many minutes to a beautifully coiffured and made up girl waving a balloon on a balcony.

My films are a bit more difficult and time consuming to make - yet still 85 per cent of my youtbe views come from those videos down the right hand side. Sometimes they click on the bikini bait - sometimes they click on mine. They all end up on the screen in front of the clicker on the smart TV

the viewer assumes that we are all making loads of money - me included - after all there are my films beside the high dollar earners on the smart TVs. One bloke said he liked the idea that I was sailing a shit boat when clearly I could afford better. Another said that I am lucky to have two hobbies - sailing and making films for fun.

I assume neither of the leaders re earning anything of any significance from adsense - they both seem to use copyrighted music.

they make their money from the 0.4 per cent of their viewers who watch their films who chip in.

about 1.5 per cent of mine chip in - so in some ways I am doing better than them - more of the people who watch my films like them enough to cough up. this last campaign has got me a click through of about two percent

I have to remind the youtube users that KTL is different from the bikini shows not only in content but in the financing of them. The people who watch my films are an elite with big brains and low testosterone.

As a former maker of TV programs I repeat I am in awe of the sailing market leaders - I admire them - I respect them - but I am not the same as them

I make nicely put together films that take time and care to create. I make four hours a year not the 14 or 20 hours a year they make.

I hope that explains where I am at.

So far appealing straight through youtube to those 4,000 people a day who watch my films seems to be working.

D

PS do you know anyone who pays for two out of the three of us

Dylan I am one of your biggest fans even if I have not been a generous sponsor - but I have promoted your work around my network and continue to do so.

You are doing great work and I for one hope that it does continue.

I did not understand your PS.

 

[dylanwinter]

Dylan I am one of your biggest fans even if I have not been a generous sponsor - but I have promoted your work around my network and continue to do so.

You are doing great work and I for one hope that it does continue.

I did not understand your PS.

I meant if anyone is both a patron of the biklini babes and taps me some money - I doubt that there is any overlap.

You summarise my problem precisely - blokes like and profess to love my work - they share it they talk about it

they occasionally forget to feed the donkey - many on the assumption that I am being looked after by the great god google

D

 

[NormanB]

You are right I have tapped on yours but not on the others.

 

[Triassic]

.... The people who watch my films are an elite with big brains and low testosterone.
.....

PS do you know anyone who pays for two out of the three of us

Me, although I'm not sure I fit your viewer profile....

I've already confessed to a certain degree of ignorance about how your films were financed and your history around them. I just thought you were a keen sailor with a particular talent for making films (both true) and didn't give the financing behind them a second thought. I'm sure you dropped the odd hint in the earlier films but that pretty much went over my head.

I've followed LVG and SV Delos for pretty much the same time frame, but for slightly different reasons. As I said earlier LGV appealed to me as they were pretty much doing what I would love to do and to a certain extent still plan to do, so call it educational research. It was obvious not only due to their lifestyle but also because they reminded you constantly that this was a full time commitment for them and they needed support to achieve it, so I chipped in. When I heard about the catamaran it was a bit of a blow as I suddenly saw commercialism rearing it's ugly head.... I really hope it won't change them, but I think I'm being a tad optimistic. Good luck to them though, they deserve it.

SV Delos was similar in content to LVG however they came across as a somewhat better off bunch of guys who were basically on holiday and every now and then laid up the boat and went back to work, in other words they had a life outside of the one we saw. They were fun to watch, but I never imagined me in their place and apart from clicking on their videos I didn't buy them a beer.... It was only later I realised their Youtube videos were about a year behind reality and this was more of a money earning venture than I thought.....

I started watching your videos for the same reasons as I followed the LVG ones, educational research. The first ones I saw were around the South Coast and they were (are) genuinely full of useful information. The fact that they are entertaining to watch due to your personal style and professionally presented was a real bonus, but I had no idea it was effectively your living. I think this was down to the fact that they were obviously filmed over an extended period in a variety of boats and were all about the subject area, not your lifestyle. I was one of the individuals you so fondly refer to as a freeloading Youtuber..... but this was down to naive ignorance on my part, and a lack of marketing on yours..... both now hopefully rectified!

 

[[2574]]

Dylan,

I like things simple. I did PayPal to you once. Too hard. I bunged a fiver in an envelope next time. Easy. Easy is good.


Some simple questions:

a) How many "elite" (your terminology) do you think you have?
b) what is your required annual income to continue film making/sailing?
c) what is b divided by a?

Just watched La Vagabonde for the first time. Nice people, dull video. Like watching Crossroads. Not for me.

I value what you do, it provides good winter evening entertainment. Like watching Sir David talking with a rhino. If I value it then it is worth paying for hence my simple questions above.

 

[dylanwinter]

Me, although I'm not sure I fit your viewer profile....

I've already confessed to a certain degree of ignorance about how your films were financed and your history around them. I just thought you were a keen sailor with a particular talent for making films (both true) and didn't give the financing behind them a second thought. I'm sure you dropped the odd hint in the earlier films but that pretty much went over my head.

I've followed LVG and SV Delos for pretty much the same time frame, but for slightly different reasons. As I said earlier LGV appealed to me as they were pretty much doing what I would love to do and to a certain extent still plan to do, so call it educational research. It was obvious not only due to their lifestyle but also because they reminded you constantly that this was a full time commitment for them and they needed support to achieve it, so I chipped in. When I heard about the catamaran it was a bit of a blow as I suddenly saw commercialism rearing it's ugly head.... I really hope it won't change them, but I think I'm being a tad optimistic. Good luck to them though, they deserve it.

SV Delos was similar in content to LVG however they came across as a somewhat better off bunch of guys who were basically on holiday and every now and then laid up the boat and went back to work, in other words they had a life outside of the one we saw. They were fun to watch, but I never imagined me in their place and apart from clicking on their videos I didn't buy them a beer.... It was only later I realised their Youtube videos were about a year behind reality and this was more of a money earning venture than I thought.....

I started watching your videos for the same reasons as I followed the LVG ones, educational research. The first ones I saw were around the South Coast and they were (are) genuinely full of useful information. The fact that they are entertaining to watch due to your personal style and professionally presented was a real bonus, but I had no idea it was effectively your living. I think this was down to the fact that they were obviously filmed over an extended period in a variety of boats and were all about the subject area, not your lifestyle. I was one of the individuals you so fondly refer to as a freeloading Youtuber..... but this was down to naive ignorance on my part, and a lack of marketing on yours..... both now hopefully rectified!

that is a wonderful post

my daughter will be so happy to read it and will show her strategy seems to be working.

The other doubt of course is... will the current up blip in tapping rates follow through for the last 12 films?


thanks T, very good man and a true patron of the art of thoughtful sailing.

I do love the idea that people see me sailing a shit boat and assume that I am independently wealthy but that I like sailing crap boats and driving a micra from Oxford to Inverness to go sailing because I am that same eccentric millionnaire and that I spend thousands on good cameras and weeks editing because I think it is fun.

I am afraid your post will earn me a big fat smirking "told you so" from the digital guru daughter - she is not naive enough to think that she can change the world away from the one where tits are better than brains . She know the figures. But she thinks that it would be pretty good if she can show that it does not always have to be that way.

She was the one who was with us for a week in scotland.

 

[Mister E]

Dylan I have not watched any of your films yet this morning you tube sent an update to watch series 4.
Why do you not remove the older films from there and host them directly?
You could then explain at the begining of each film how it is financed.

 

[dylanwinter]

Dylan I have not watched any of your films yet this morning you tube sent an update to watch series 4.
Why do you not remove the older films from there and host them directly?
You could then explain at the begining of each film how it is financed.

I have tried that - no youtube no front door.

for instance Youtube offered you the films not my website.

No youtube and I am invisible. Dancing with google is like fighting an octopus. It has more legs and levers than you can ever win against. You win with one leg and another one comes around the back and gets you. You either play by the google rules or you die.

At one time there was a thing called the long tail.

You made a DVD - it might sell 500 in the first year at £10 a dvd profit. The next year the same DVD might sell 200 and the year after 100 and then level out at 100 a year. If you have 5 dvds then suddenly you have a pretty good cash flow from those old DVDs

Youtube has swallowed the long tail and grabbed all the benefits for itself. Their film their ads so na na na na naaa

I am so full of admiration for the conniving google youtube algorithms that it is hard to express - I am like a boxer who gets beaten round after round and then mutters afterwards through a smashed up face what a great fight it was

but "do no evil"..... my arse

 

[Mister E]

Just put the old films on your web site. Use the newer ones as bait.

 

[[2574]]

I am so full of admiration for the conniving google youtube algorithms that it is hard to express - I am like a boxer who gets beaten round after round and then mutters afterwards through a smashed up face what a great fight it was

but "do no evil"..... my arse

Dylan

Only fight the battles that you can win.