FranLab is getting evicted

[SiliconWizard]

So she absolutely cannot continue to survive on just Adsense and Patreon income, unless she cut her expenses drastically by moving to a much cheaper area, and/or got a partner than could double the income and split expenses. So the only way forward seems to be product sales or some other associated business that builds upon the brand.

Yup.

And related to a previous discussion, there really seems to be renewed interest for analog guitar effects (pedals) lately. At the last NAMM show (which I think Fran should attend if she doesn't already), there were a good number of them.

[langwadt]

I suppose it depends on your point of view but I do think that's another job even if it's related. You're absolutely right though she should probably invest in something like that before there is nothing to invest. It just seems like she expected to coast through the rest of her life doing the same thing until... Millions showed up in her lap?

When it's building upon your "brand" I can't see how it's another job, you are just expanding your brands and services (product sales in addition to content creation).

I for one could not survive if it was just Youtube and Patreon income. US$42k last year in Adsense revenue and almost the same in Patreon income. That's pretty good money, about US$80k a year, but that's before expenses and my wife and two kids. I could earn more as a 9-5 engineer. And my audience is 7 times bigger than Frans. I only stay afloat at this because of the additional product sales and extra website advertising.

don't you think that much of that product sale is fueled by the large community you maintain with this forum, regular videos, etc. ?

[maginnovision]

Well there is also constant exposure to others of this forum through hackaday where articles always mention "xxx at eevblog forums...".

[Towger]

I don't know why she does produce more guitar pedals.  A couple of years ago she was going to restart  and outsource production with another company.  But nothing appears to have come from it.
Small scale production with no middle man, and sell from her own website.  She could just build to order, so no need to hold much stock.  I know some parts in her old designs are obsolete, but  enough in low volumes could be tracked down, if she does not want to design in replacements.

[TheSteve]

To me the title of this song sums it up:

[EEVblog]

You have created a monetizable "hangout" for electronics engineers and hobbyists from all over the world...  (thank you!).   I don't know if that is what you set out to do, or if it just kind of happened...

It just kinda happened. Absolutely no thought about making monkey from this gig. When I started the channel and set up this forum practically no one in the world was making any money on Youtube let alone a full time income from it.
I've set up many forum in the past for various, it's just something I did to let people discuss stuff. I had the old aus.electronics Yahoo forum, and a couple of others forum for various things I was into.
I had no idea how much to charge for advertising on the forum when someone asked, so when I got the first request SupplyFrame (who still advertise above), i had just been retrenched from Altium and I looked at how much money I was getting from Adsense + kit sales at the time, and the difference between that and how much I was making at Altium was how much I charged SupplyFrame and they accepted. And overnight this whole thing became my full time job.

[EEVblog]

I suppose it depends on your point of view but I do think that's another job even if it's related. You're absolutely right though she should probably invest in something like that before there is nothing to invest. It just seems like she expected to coast through the rest of her life doing the same thing until... Millions showed up in her lap?

When it's building upon your "brand" I can't see how it's another job, you are just expanding your brands and services (product sales in addition to content creation).

I for one could not survive if it was just Youtube and Patreon income. US$42k last year in Adsense revenue and almost the same in Patreon income. That's pretty good money, about US$80k a year, but that's before expenses and my wife and two kids. I could earn more as a 9-5 engineer. And my audience is 7 times bigger than Frans. I only stay afloat at this because of the additional product sales and extra website advertising.

don't you think that much of that product sale is fueled by the large community you maintain with this forum, regular videos, etc. ?

Of course, I've spent the last 10 years building this "brand" and community. Fran is no different, just smaller in scale, but her audience are no less willing to buy products and mech to help out.

[Mr. Scram]

To me the title of this song sums it up:

Sounds all a bit "1950's conformist dad". You, not the song.

[fcb]

The lead singer of The Offspring has PhD in molecular biology.

Pedals/music toys are a hard business to be in, even if you're a recognised brand.

[beanflying]

Fran is having money problems again, new Patron's aren't replacing Patron who drop off, as well as Youtube not sharing her content as per usual:

And after having this video recommended almost everyday if not several times a day I have finally ticked the NOT INTERESTED button as I have no plans to watch a poor me whine session. This is the ONLY one of Frans Videos that youtube has shown to me in the last week or so.

Looking at her recent channel views seems the Algorithim likes whining and bitching over proper content 

[thinkfat]

Fran is having money problems again, new Patron's aren't replacing Patron who drop off, as well as Youtube not sharing her content as per usual:

And after having this video recommended almost everyday if not several times a day I have finally ticked the NOT INTERESTED button as I have no plans to watch a poor me whine session. This is the ONLY one of Frans Videos that youtube has shown to me in the last week or so.

Looking at her recent channel views seems the Algorithim likes whining and bitching over proper content 

Looks like their "AI" is more than a little narcissistic. It really likes when people talk about it, good or bad.

[EEVblog]

And after having this video recommended almost everyday if not several times a day I have finally ticked the NOT INTERESTED button as I have no plans to watch a poor me whine session. This is the ONLY one of Frans Videos that youtube has shown to me in the last week or so.
Looking at her recent channel views seems the Algorithim likes whining and bitching over proper content 

Well it's not getting that info from the title, the description, or the keywords, as she is doing nothing special to tag and identify the video as a "whine session".
From the last 22 videos it's only one of two with >30k views, the other is a repair. Maybe people just like rants and repairs, wouldn't surprise me, and the algorithm picks up on the extra view rate/comment ratio.

[beanflying]

Given the the Automated nature of Copyright for music and auto subtitles (flawed as they are) maybe big brother Algorithm also works over what is said in the video to figure out what to promote

[EEVblog]

Given the the Automated nature of Copyright for music and auto subtitles (flawed as they are) maybe big brother Algorithm also works over what is said in the video to figure out what to promote

All videos are text translated within 10's minutes of upload, what is done with that text though in terms of algorithm, no one knows.

[SilverSolder]

Given the the Automated nature of Copyright for music and auto subtitles (flawed as they are) maybe big brother Algorithm also works over what is said in the video to figure out what to promote

All videos are text translated within 10's minutes of upload, what is done with that text though in terms of algorithm, no one knows.

More than likely, the speech-to-text is included by the search algos.   Anything else wouldn't make sense...

[KL27x]

How many of her current supporters/viewers are actively playing electric guitar? For that reason, guitar pedal effects is obviously the wrong merch to hawk via her YT channel. This seems so obvious to me. 

Simple electronics kit. Something like a gag, really. A FranLab soldering challenge with 50 cent PCB with various footprints + BOM of $0.004 parts? A blinking LED 555 kit? A continuity tester PCB with a set of 1.00 test probes? Just as long as she puts her logo on it and pretends to be excited about it. Something that promises 30 minutes of distraction from your daily grind, and will look nice on a shelf or hanging on the wall after that 30 minutes is over.

I don't think time and money is necessarily very significant, here. And would it NOT make for good video content if she showed some of the dev, the design, the arrival of the first box from China and opening it like a X-mas prezzie? I dunno, because I'm not sure what qualifies as "good content" to her subscribers or regular viewers, but it seems to be this is two birds with one stone.

1-3 dollar total cost. Sell it for 15 or 20 bucks. First class shipping, only. If it doesn't get there, ship another. You buy it, you help Fran, and you get a little experience and trinket out of it. Vs sell a guitar pedal to 10% of the 1% of viewers who play the electric guitar, and which will have a tiny profit margin and huge investment in comparison.

Heck, maybe she could sell other peoples' kits for a percentage of gross?

T-shirts? Where does she sell her T-shirts, even? Or does she?

Dunno why she thinks that making the channel self-sustaining without any merch is the "only way it works." Or why this would be insanely expensive. The most amazing thing about electronics is how incredibly cheap it is to get into, today. Free dev and PCB tools out there, millions of components at low prices, Chinese PCB manufacturers coming to us, now, directly on the internet with websites made for us in our languages. No more middlemen or translators needed. And of course all the info and datasheets available on the web, today, clickity click.

[TerminalJack505]

You make some good points, KL27x.

Subscribers will support the content creators they follow by buying merchandise.  But it has to be either 1) something they want/need, or 2) inexpensive and not completely useless.

I have some uRulers sitting in a desk drawer that can attest to that.  I have also bought the books written by some of the content creators I follow.

[KL27x]

^ Yeah, you get me. It's like a one-time Patreon donation, but you don't have to sign up for Patreon. Cuz lots of people have heard of it but aren't ready to learn/trust/sign-up-give-your-info-out to Patreon, yet. You just have to do something most of us do at least once a week, these days, already. Buy stuff on the internet. The viewers understanding/knowing the profit margin is generous and the actual value is not, this is actually a good thing in this case. You get a warm fuzzy feeling. You get a group experience out of it, esp if she shows some of the process and shows the PCB website/email on the delivery date, and she makes it like a real time thing viewers can follow and or look forward to. She needs some more of that. Something positive/happy to look forward to, IMO.

[langwadt]

You make some good points, KL27x.

Subscribers will support the content creators they follow by buying merchandise.  But it has to be either 1) something they want/need, or 2) inexpensive and not completely useless.

I have some uRulers sitting in a desk drawer that can attest to that.  I have also bought the books written by some of the content creators I follow.

I remember some of the woodworkers on YT talking about how very few who buy they plans they sell actually
build the thing

I also remember Matthias Wandel telling the one time he did sponsored video sales of plans instantly dropped,
so an indication that people will buy stuff they don't really need to support a channel, if they think the channels
needs it

[TerminalJack505]

Another way that I have supported content creators it through Humble Bundle purchases.

One of the YouTube video game creation channels I follow will create a video and provide an affiliate link to video game creation related bundles.  You can donate a pretty large chunk of the sale to the person that provided the affiliate link.

Fran or Dave could make a small fortune if any electronics-related bundles ever come up.  I do happen to remember there was a Make Electronics e-book bundle not too long ago.

Edit: LOL.  I guess I should have checked before posting.  Humble Bundle actually has a "DIY Electronics 2.0" bundle going on as we speak.  Fran or Dave should set themselves up as an affiliate and put a plug in for it.  Only 5 days left, though, so hurry.

[KL27x]

I an already see it. I'm thinking $1000 for the actual product/inventory to see what shakes. The webstore would cost more, if you can't do that yourself. But maybe she can just link to eBay or Etsy or something, if she can't do/afford the webstore.

And then... I imagine win/win, either way. If it does great, just turn on the camera and talk about it. Smile, laugh, cry, thank the viewers. If it does poorly, ditto. Another end-of-the-world video with a bow on it. Ratings. Win. If she has any acting chops, this will be great.

[james_s]

I think it's futile to set out to make a living on YouTube. Sometimes it happens, Dave pulled it off, at least for now, but it could evaporate at any time so it would be foolish to not have a backup plan. It's clear to me that Fran is going to have to get a real job of some sort and then she can keep doing the videos on the side as time permits.

I watched several really interesting technical ones, I particularly remember one about the radios that were used to receive Muzak, that was fascinating. I don't care one bit about personal drama though, that sort of reality TV bs is largely what drove me away from traditional TV. The last thing I want in my life is more drama.

[KL27x]

Total aside, but since Dave and others continue to post Fran stuff to this megathread, perhaps the title could be changed to something less depressing. It definitely shades my perception that I read "Franlab is getting evicted!" every time there's seemingly any new Fran-related post. 

This is 27 pages from 18 months ago. How long does the eviction process take in Philly? 

[james_s]

Total aside, but since Dave and others continue to post Fran stuff to this megathread, perhaps the title could be changed to something less depressing. It definitely shades my perception that I read "Franlab is getting evicted!" every time there's seemingly any new Fran-related post. 

This is 27 pages from 18 months ago. How long does the eviction process take in Philly? 

Depends on how many ways a person can find to delay the inevitable.

[Bud]

I think it's futile to set out to make a living on YouTube.

Agreed.  Every youtuber should have that posted on the wall. Hard to come across one who hasnt complained lately how hard their life on yt is.