QUOTE(pandy @ Jun 3 2023, 04:47 AM)
Like what? Subscription doesn't work.
Surprisingly they do seem to work for some people, mostly video creators. I could be wrong though, perhaps it's all mostly a hobby for them and they really live off their spouses or family wealth.
QUOTE
Sponsors? If for example lenstip was sponsored by a camera brand, no one would trust their tests.
Alas that's nothing new, traditionally a brand would buy ads in a printed magazine and then expect positive coverage (or they'd pull their advertizing,
unless perhaps if their competitors kept advertizing, in which case the brand wouldn't dare to be left out). Today I also see a lot of popular gear reviewers on Youtube that get equipment lent to them by manufacturers (but of course promise the latter has no say in the reviews). In that sense maybe Google ads are better by diluting the advertizing brands influence over what sites they end up on or not (though I recall you can control such things even with Google's ads).
I do know some forums that get sponsored by stores, in return for a simple, unobtrusive top banner. I haven't seen any attempts at censoring negative forum posts about those stores, maybe the situation simply has not occured yet. One forum used to offer sponsored forum sections for supporting brands, where the latter could offer support to their customers and at the same time get exposure.
QUOTE
T-shirts sale is pocket money, I think. Unless you can sell a whole lot.
Yes this only matters for accounts with say a million followers or more. Then again, how much do you really make on ads?
QUOTE
Rockwell seems to be a one man show. And he sells his photos, maybe also his services, so he has an income from that too. He only needs to keep himself floating. No salaries to pay, no equipment (other then his cameras and lenses), no rent.
He does test a lot of gear (or used to - I haven't been there for a few years), I don't know if he buys it or it's lent/given to him. Being a one man show doesn't matter, since more staff should result in more content (and thus more visitors/donations/income, otherwise your hiring philospohy would be flawed).
QUOTE
And I don't know if I find the begging for donations more tolerable than ads.
I'm not too annoyed by the begging. But there's no way I could get used to intrusive ads, after blocking them for so many years, so if Google Privacy Sandbox managed to circumvent ad blocking my web use would be reduced drastically.