Are these Vloggers just a scam? SOL or Shmee etc???????

[1Addicted]

DonkeyApple said:

It is interesting. Mine are 6&5 and have recently discovered YouTube. They had already learnt how to access Prime via a tablet (I still find it amusing when they expect all screens to be 'touch'. I bet every child goes through a phase nowadays of trying to swipe the TV). But progressed to YouTube and love it. It is baffling to me but they dictate into the TV what they want to watch and it is fascinating watching their selection criteria.

It's all fun and games until one of them says something remarkably similar to "Two Girls One Cup".

[DonkeyApple]

1Addicted said:

DonkeyApple said:

It is interesting. Mine are 6&5 and have recently discovered YouTube. They had already learnt how to access Prime via a tablet (I still find it amusing when they expect all screens to be 'touch'. I bet every child goes through a phase nowadays of trying to swipe the TV). But progressed to YouTube and love it. It is baffling to me but they dictate into the TV what they want to watch and it is fascinating watching their selection criteria.

It's all fun and games until one of them says something remarkably similar to "Two Girls One Cup".

For sure. I've no idea how to prevent this and obviously in a short period of time they are going to go looking for stuff. I've already found them watching crocodile attacks. I'm come to the conclusion that there is no hiding children away from this stuff in the modern world so best to stick to the basics of not permitting the TV to be on without supervision and to then just explain stuff honestly. They are central London children so probably going to be seeing far worse just being out and about.

[Jacobyte]

DonkeyApple said:

(I still find it amusing when they expect all screens to be 'touch'. I bet every child goes through a phase nowadays of trying to swipe the TV)

My wife tried several times to "enlarge" the small picture on of a box of christmas crackers and looked at me in a puzzled way when it didn't work.

[ferrisbueller]

Shnozz said:

I've seen a couple of the videos before when various car bloggers that are young are responding to questions about how they afforded XYZ. I have never seen them respond with a straight answer - its always the usual spin of having "various business interests", despite them being 20. They always profess they are self-made, allude to between 2 -3 areas of business that they work in (amazingly diverse at such a tender age) and then say they want a bizarre privacy surrounding their other businesses, for reasons unknown.

I think having no financial pressures or real world constraints is an ideal setting for creativity and new ventures. I also think, like you, that quite a few of the vlogger types may have such a background.

Shmee's tag is a tradename/brand which he is kind of saddled with now. Tim Burton probably wouldn't be any good for the target demographic and would probably be overshadowed my an American movie maker.

[cgt2]

Shnozz said:

This is my main bone of contention with these YouTube chaps. Encouraging teenagers to blog is no bad thing, but the masquerade of financial success that is painted to these aspiring kids seems to be far from honest.

Yes, I'm sure YouTube revenue for the top broadcasters is not bad - but it does seem pretty clear that a number of these guys are from money and/or have a feeder of some description elsewhere, or alternatively make massive sacrifices elsewhere in life to fund their cars. I'm not judging that particularly, other than to say I wouldn't want to see a generation growing to think 1 million youtube hits a month will see them in a Ferrari and a central london abode with more parking spaces than an NCP.

I've seen a couple of the videos before when various car bloggers that are young are responding to questions about how they afforded XYZ. I have never seen them respond with a straight answer - its always the usual spin of having "various business interests", despite them being 20. They always profess they are self-made, allude to between 2 -3 areas of business that they work in (amazingly diverse at such a tender age) and then say they want a bizarre privacy surrounding their other businesses, for reasons unknown. Despite 99% of businesses benefiting from exposure, and the fact that these individuals rely on hashtagging everything and screaming for attention in their mainstay blogging career, they never want to name their other business pursuits publicly. If it looks like a duck, and sounds like a duck...and this just so happens to be the response given by every single one of these bloggers I have seen. Amazing.

Ultimately, its neither my business and nor any viewers business whether these are all silver-spoon kids or whether they are worth ten quid or ten million. However, my worry is that a generation of idolising children will naively concentrate on producing ste videos for youtube thinking its the road to stardom and all the trappings, whereas its perhaps not all as transparent as its made (or not made) out to be.

This is precisely the same as fashion magazines perpetually showing stick thin models which lead young girls into anorexia and other disorders. Also witness the massive increase in towie influenced young people who appear to have complete s**t for brains yet will bankrupt themselves or their parents just to afford the latest fashions and project a certain image.

It's a sad state of affairs all round when young people do not have faith in themselves or their abilities and feel the need for constant self-justification from others as their raison d'etre and feel their life is meaningless outside the ''me me'' culture.

I have no idea how some of the vloggers make their money but the immaturity many of them display immediately precludes the idea of them being self made tycoons by the age of 20. I know a lot of very successful businesspeople and I really can't think of a single one who isn't a very serious, focused individual with a very low threshold for bulls**t.

I don't see why it is such a problem for them to admit their parents helped them out when it's fairly obvious there is family money behind them. My Dad helped me out when I was a young man and I am happy to admit that, I have no desire to pretend I suddenly invented the wheel and became a millionaire overnight while I was giggling my way through life as an immature teenager. As you say, many impressionable young kids who watch these videos will of course believe exactly that which gives a distorted sense of reality. It really is no different to tabloid sensationalism.

[PH XKR]

Challo said:

All these posters trying to put people like Shmee and other vloggers down is pretty sad. The way we consume media is changing all the time, and often people want to watch a 10min on a topic on youtube rather then standard TV program. Shmee and similar have found a market to share there thoughts, be paid to do it and get to drive around in amazing cars.

Some of the content is cringe or rubbish, but I switch off and watch something else. Fair play to them and good luck in what they do and hopefully they get to do more of what they love.

Seen Through Glass, atypical posh voice vlogger. Stinking attitude as demonstrated when he attended this years Goodwood sunday service and turned his nose up at cars because they were a bit "normal", thus instantly ignoring the fact some folk weren't lucky enough to have a trustafarian upbringing.

Whenever I want to feel anger and the need to punch someone I watch his videos, each and everyone of them has the classic click bait title. For example "TEN THINGS I HATE ABOUT MY F-TYPE" or the one that got me angry the most "My Mother wouldnt approve of this", which turned out to be a vlog of him simply driving from Turin to Bologne. I watched it just to see what his mum wouldnt approve of, I can only assume she wouldnt approve of click baiting idiots like me.

At least he doesnt have a hipster beard I'll give him that.

[johnwilliams77]

cgt2 said:

This is precisely the same as fashion magazines perpetually showing stick thin models which lead young girls into anorexia and other disorders. Also witness the massive increase in towie influenced young people who appear to have complete s**t for brains yet will bankrupt themselves or their parents just to afford the latest fashions and project a certain image.

It's a sad state of affairs all round when young people do not have faith in themselves or their abilities and feel the need for constant self-justification from others as their raison d'etre and feel their life is meaningless outside the ''me me'' culture.

I have no idea how some of the vloggers make their money but the immaturity many of them display immediately precludes the idea of them being self made tycoons by the age of 20. I know a lot of very successful businesspeople and I really can't think of a single one who isn't a very serious, focused individual with a very low threshold for bulls**t.

I don't see why it is such a problem for them to admit their parents helped them out when it's fairly obvious there is family money behind them. My Dad helped me out when I was a young man and I am happy to admit that, I have no desire to pretend I suddenly invented the wheel and became a millionaire overnight while I was giggling my way through life as an immature teenager. As you say, many impressionable young kids who watch these videos will of course believe exactly that which gives a distorted sense of reality. It really is no different to tabloid sensationalism.

So you don't believe Shmee when he says all the cars are funded himself?
6min 30 he answers how he can afford it. I did see in another video that his cars are entirely self funded.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPNeTcDU-ZM

[xjay1337]

Johnwilliams77: "i love you shmee"

[burritoNinja]

I really feel more encouraged now to forget about my degree or systems engineering career and just make videos of me showing off my Ralph Lauren Polo's and how to spot fake ones. Some of the how to spot fake RL's have massive view counts. Is it really so hard for people to just save up £50 on sale or £75 full price and just buy a real one? Probably make a fortune. Mo Vlogs must be rich as from it all. Sadly nobody where I live have Lambos.

[cgt2]

johnwilliams77 said:

So you don't believe Shmee when he says all the cars are funded himself?
6min 30 he answers how he can afford it. I did see in another video that his cars are entirely self funded.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPNeTcDU-ZM

I believe he comes from a very wealthy family but has clearly worked very hard and built up a self sufficient business through which he now does very well for himself and probably doesn't rely on family wealth (though it's always nice to have as a buffer if things go t*ts up).

His videos are not my cup of tea at all, and I have tried watching, but good luck to him. He has done far better for himself than many offspring of wealthy people who end up on drugs or absolutely f**ed up by their mid-20s. I do respect what he has achieved in a relatively short space of time.

My point was not specific to him but about this general culture of misleading young kids from ordinary backgrounds to believe it is easy to make some videos and get a supercar without the years of graft that many of us have put in to buy such machinery. Nothing in life is easy in the real world. Most supercar owners I know have literally worked themselves to the bone for years to buy their cars.

It's like the old image of City traders. People (the tabloid media especially) think you go into the City and get a fat bonus every year without realising how much hard work, stress and long hours are involved. For every trader I know with a supercar I know two others who dealt with massive stress and family issues due to their workload.

[Shmee]

There are a few reasons that are often overlooked for why I don't discuss my activities.

First it is in breach of YouTube T&Cs to reveal your earnings, and obviously it's not in my interests to breach my main income contract.

The second is that I'd be crazy to tell everyone how I run my business - would you expect an app developer to leak their code, or an investment firm to give you their client lists.

A third reason is that I don't want to give people false hope. I'm not trying to pretend this is easy, I started about ten years ago and made nothing for at least 5 or 6 of those. If you start now then you really need to have a serious USP or something magic needs to happen!

It was commented earlier that there are clearly far more things going on than just the YouTube ads you see: appearances, merchandise, brand deals, other platform marketing, social media advice, sponsorships, affiliate schemes etc etc. I said before that succeeding on YouTube is so much more than just making good videos, you need to understand how to run the business behind the scenes.

I'm not a journalist, I'm not a great video presenter, I am a guy doing what he loves and having fun with the opportunities that are available and sharing them. It bamboozles me that people can get upset about things they don't have to watch, or be involved with, just click the cross!

[Blaster72]

ashleyman said:

Blaster72 said:

Any chance you could explain the figures in that table you posted, it's not clear to me what it represents. Ta.

It's Date, Day, Follower Growth - new for that dat, Total Subscribers, Video Views - new for that dat, Total Video Views, Estimated Earnings for that day across all videos.

With a channel with statistics like in the table I posted the channel owner is looking at earning between £397 - £6,300 per day for the top row - depending on the ad rate on the video being watched. Monthly figure would be somewhere between £13,000 and £200,000 again depending on the ad rate.

Ad rate is how much each 1000 views is worth to the person paying to display adverts on the video.

Edited by ashleyman on Thursday 23 June 12:16

Thanks

I guess the ads have to be watched right through to make the video owner any money?

[ashleyman]

Blaster72 said:

Thanks

I guess the ads have to be watched right through to make the video owner any money?

The simple answer is Don't Know and to be honest with you, there's no one answer that will be correct for every YouTube channel making money.

I've heard that some ads require you to watch at least half, some just a couple seconds. I think you also get bonuses for clicks but again, not 100% sure. You can see on the table I posted above the spectrum of earnings. Depending on who advertises and what the terms are could mean a creator getting £300 or £6,000 - thats how much variation there is!

Every single channel will have a different deal with different advertisers or will be involved in a YouTube network which does all of this stuff generically across a certain number of channels. But there's certainly no one size fits all when it comes to YouTube ads.

[technodup]

1Addicted said:

I have to question, why these car vloggers have ridiculous aliases, such as Shmee07845942863 or some such tirade of nonsensical gibberish. Looking at this from a business perspective (which these channels clearly are, if not masquerading as something else)

It's fairly obvious that in a lot of cases they were started as a hobby rather than a business, usually by young people. By the time it grows into a business, the name is stuck and you can't change it without a lot of confusion and potential damage to 'the brand'. I'm pretty sure some did derive from the email addys they were using at the time.

Ones who have seen others success and then try to replicate it have a better start in the sense they can get creative with the name and ensure it is relevant/attractive/memorable or whatever.

[Shmee]

technodup said:

1Addicted said:

I have to question, why these car vloggers have ridiculous aliases, such as Shmee07845942863 or some such tirade of nonsensical gibberish. Looking at this from a business perspective (which these channels clearly are, if not masquerading as something else)

It's fairly obvious that in a lot of cases they were started as a hobby rather than a business, usually by young people. By the time it grows into a business, the name is stuck and you can't change it without a lot of confusion and potential damage to 'the brand'. I'm pretty sure some did derive from the email addys they were using at the time.

Ones who have seen others success and then try to replicate it have a better start in the sense they can get creative with the name and ensure it is relevant/attractive/memorable or whatever.

Mine was my email address from the late 90s and for a long time after this started growing I wanted to change it. I'm glad I didn't though, it's something unique and unusual and that works for me.

[ashleyman]

Shmee said:

There are a few reasons that are often overlooked for why I don't discuss my activities.

First it is in breach of YouTube T&Cs to reveal your earnings, and obviously it's not in my interests to breach my main income contract.

The second is that I'd be crazy to tell everyone how I run my business - would you expect an app developer to leak their code, or an investment firm to give you their client lists.

A third reason is that I don't want to give people false hope. I'm not trying to pretend this is easy, I started about ten years ago and made nothing for at least 5 or 6 of those. If you start now then you really need to have a serious USP or something magic needs to happen!

It was commented earlier that there are clearly far more things going on than just the YouTube ads you see: appearances, merchandise, brand deals, other platform marketing, social media advice, sponsorships, affiliate schemes etc etc. I said before that succeeding on YouTube is so much more than just making good videos, you need to understand how to run the business behind the scenes.

I'm not a journalist, I'm not a great video presenter, I am a guy doing what he loves and having fun with the opportunities that are available and sharing them. It bamboozles me that people can get upset about things they don't have to watch, or be involved with, just click the cross!

This is such a great reply to most of the questions being asked. Even if you don't like the guy he says it how it is.

[AyBee]

Shmee said:

There are a few reasons that are often overlooked for why I don't discuss my activities.

First it is in breach of YouTube T&Cs to reveal your earnings, and obviously it's not in my interests to breach my main income contract.

The second is that I'd be crazy to tell everyone how I run my business - would you expect an app developer to leak their code, or an investment firm to give you their client lists.

A third reason is that I don't want to give people false hope. I'm not trying to pretend this is easy, I started about ten years ago and made nothing for at least 5 or 6 of those. If you start now then you really need to have a serious USP or something magic needs to happen!

I completely understand that you can't reveal you YT earnings, but I think the point cgt2 is making, and I agree, is that the way your life comes across is "YT has earned me all these cars, this is the route to multiple supercar ownership". None of them see the work you put in in the background (I'd actually be interested to know what a day-in-the-life of Shmee was) and therefore a lot of them are going to try and copy you, because they want the supercars too and it looks very easy - that's false hope IMO and whilst you say you made nothing in those first 5/6 years, you obviously had money from somewhere because you had an Aston, an expensive numberplate, lived in a nice central London location and the ability not to do a traditional job while you developed the Shmee brand...

[Shmee]

I worked as an Analyst in an Investment Consultancy, and was not keeping that a secret at the time. Those were long and stressful days but working in the city comes with its perks. After a few years in that role, I bought my S5 and V8V and then the R8 just when I decided it was time to push harder and do something with YouTube. A hard year followed when it didn't grow as I hoped but then things started going well and it's gone from strength to strength ever since.

[Geekman]

AyBee said:

I completely understand that you can't reveal you YT earnings, but I think the point cgt2 is making, and I agree, is that the way your life comes across is "YT has earned me all these cars, this is the route to multiple supercar ownership". None of them see the work you put in in the background (I'd actually be interested to know what a day-in-the-life of Shmee was) and therefore a lot of them are going to try and copy you, because they want the supercars too and it looks very easy - that's false hope IMO and whilst you say you made nothing in those first 5/6 years, you obviously had money from somewhere because you had an Aston, an expensive numberplate, lived in a nice central London location and the ability not to do a traditional job while you developed the Shmee brand...

This is precisely the issue I have with these people as well. If they said "I had very wealthy parents who supported and funded me whilst I built up my business, I invested the large amounts of money I was given wisely and now I have a viable business which generates profit" I'd think that was totally fair: I'd probably do exactly the same thing if I had wealthy parents.

This isn't aimed specifically at Shmee, but a lot of Youtube vloggers try to give the impression they started with nothing, had a totally ordinary background, and worked incredibly hard to build their hobby into a viable business when that simply wasn't the case. Devoting all your time and energy to something which may or may not fail spectacularly is a hell of a lot easier when your parents own a multi million pound company.

[cgt2]

ashleyman said:

This is such a great reply to most of the questions being asked. Even if you don't like the guy he says it how it is.

I agree, a good and articulate response from Shmee. This really isn't the kind of persona that comes across on camera.