Are these Vloggers just a scam? SOL or Shmee etc? (Vol 2)

[CooperS]

jeremyc said:

fridaypassion said:

That's poor form. How come the forums are moderated with the efficiency that the "other side" ran their POW camps in the war but yet the classifieds are full of scam ads? I don't get that.

Have you reported these scam ads that the classifieds are "full" of?

There's a report button on each advert.

Still has a point though....

[pincher]

I think we all know the answer to that question, don’t we?

[Raduno]

Found this podcast video thing with Paul W very interesting:

https://youtu.be/ZiykKEBXVfM

But got to ask Beefy - what the hell are you wearing?!

[johnwilliams77]

Beefmeister said:

Just to clarify, I’m not complaining that the post got removed. It’s just the rules and we all have to play by them.

Clearly not. There was just a 10 page swap thread when the rules clearly state this is not acceptable!

[Beefmeister]

johnwilliams77 said:

Clearly not. There was just a 10 page swap thread when the rules clearly state this is not acceptable!

I’m not really sure what you’re talking about there champ.

[S11Steve]

Ladies - either get a room, or get a separate thread.

This is tiresome.

[CooperS]

Bit voyeuristic but how on earth is Paul Wallace in a position to finance another car! I watched his latest video where he said it would be all about financing his latest acquisition (but then didn't really go into any depth) but how with his Lambo and new flat does he take on big another car!

I'd love if I could just be buying at a whim but even with a reasonable salary for both wife and myself with a mortgage and two cars I'm at my comfort of what I think is sensible to have as outgoing commitments. (I know this varies for everyone)... I'm intrigued for a YouTubers just to put it out there and say yep my X cost me £650 pm.

[anonymous-user]

Its funny when you have dig into youtube with the source code inspector to see what everyones up to in terms of indexing tags for search.

Tim plays pretty fair and is honest.

shmee video tags said:

"keywords":["McLaren","720S Spider","720S","Spider","Spyder","Convertible","First Look","Launch","Premiere","Debut","First","Look","Preview","Roof","Mechanism","System","Process","Speed","Demo","Demonstration","Works","Example","Interior","Tour","Storage","Belize Blue","Memphis Red","Pure White","Winter Ball","MTC","Factory","Shmee","Shmee150"

While TGE Seems to want to cash in on Tim, STG and JJW...

TGE TV Tags said:

keywords\":[\"lamborghini\",\"aventador sv\",\"458 speciale\",\"golf gti\",\"tgetv\",\"shmee\",\"gravelwood\",\"seen through glass\",\"supercars\",\"london\",\"jww\",\"huracan\",\"ferrari\",\"exhaust\"

[AJB1971]

Tim, I watched your recent garage update video and was interested in your comments about the state of the market. I hadn’t realised that things had changed quite so quickly, although I did expect it to happen at some point.

If it does turn out to be a crash, I wouldn’t necessarily put it down to Brexit although that may be a factor in the timing. It could be what bursts the bubble, but it didn’t actually cause it. That’s assuming you agree there was a bubble, which, of course, you may not.

By the way, I should say that no political agenda should be read into my comments. If I did have an agenda, I wouldn’t be voicing it online!

There has been evidence of a slowdown in the wider market for some time now. New car sales are down and I suppose it was only a matter of time until that filtered through to the top end of the market.

I believe that a major factor in the downturn is the ending of the Bank of England’s Funding for Lending Scheme and their Term Funding Scheme, which happened earlier this year. These were introduced after the financial crisis to inject money into the economy. They allowed financial institutions to borrow significant sums of money from the Bank of England at preferential interest rates, which was then lent to the rest of us.

The easy availability of credit and historically low interest rates led to a speculative element entering the market in search of quick returns. This created an artificial market where people thought that certain cars would automatically appreciate in value, at least in the short-term. After a while, people started to view this as normal.

Now credit is no longer as easily available, banks are competing against one another for savers money and interest rates are rising. That will inevitably reduce demand and once the speculative element leaves the market prices will drop.

You mentioned the price of Performantes and I was surprised to see that there are over fifty examples being offered for sale on Autotrader. I wonder how many of those were originally purchased by speculators?

It’s strange how perceptions have altered since the financial crisis. I saw a video recently in which a YouTuber was discussing car finance with his adviser. This was to purchase a normal car, not an exotic one. The adviser said that around 10% would be a sensible deposit. My recollection, pre the crisis, is that the minimum deposit would have to be the equivalent of the VAT charged. At today’s VAT rate of 20% that equates to a deposit of 17%.

I wonder whether we’ll see some of the other YouTubers cancelling their orders if market conditions have changed?

I look forward to your discussion on car finance. That segment of the market is one that I have limited knowledge of and I’m sure different rules apply to it.

It's from the 12-minute mark if anybody else wants to listen to Tim's comments -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5ESKpi2eyc

Edited by AJB1971 on Monday 10th December 15:41

[jon-]

Has any other youtuber noticed the huge difference in numbers between the frontend and original backend, vs the new beta backend?

I had a video go live this morning, the front and original backend are saying 5k views, the beta backend is saying 15k! That's a factor of three.

ETA, congrats on 1.5m Tim! I might be a few months away from that still...

Edited by jon- on Monday 10th December 15:54

[S11Steve]

AJB1971 said:

I look forward to your discussion on car finance. That segment of the market is one that I have limited knowledge of and I’m sure different rules apply to it.

It's from the 12-minute mark if anybody else wants to listen to Tim's comments -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5ESKpi2eyc

I've just been looking through some of the cars he's mentioned - 720, Huracan Performante, various flavours of 911s and 488s - most of them are showing as VAT qualifying - I'm wondering how many of these have been put on the market by finance companies due to payment defaults.

[anonymous-user]

jon- said:

Has any other youtuber noticed the huge difference in numbers between the frontend and original backend, vs the new beta backend?

I had a video go live this morning, the front and original backend are saying 5k views, the beta backend is saying 15k! That's a factor of three.

ETA, congrats on 1.5m Tim! I might be a few months away from that still...

Edited by jon- on Monday 10th December 15:54

Google has issues with device tracking, its been well known in SEO circles for a while. We do (which sadly you can't on YT) a lot of log analytics on the servers we run. Quite a few devices and networks are now blocking DNS requests from advertisers and analytics before the users device or network can make a connection.

Theres often been a discrepancy between server data and analytics data. e.g. Site traffic is down but conversions are up (recorded by point of sale not GA), and the log files show a growth in mobile use.

I can do it one of three ways, two are easy the 3rd less so.

1 Ghostery - I run this on laptop

2 Safari can block most analytics / adverts within it

3 Pi Hole - I have one on my router at home it blocks all DNS from known analytics and advertising providers.

Edited by lordf on Monday 10th December 16:14

Edited by lordf on Monday 10th December 16:16

[_dobbo_]

Raduno said:

Found this podcast video thing with Paul W very interesting:

https://youtu.be/ZiykKEBXVfM

But got to ask Beefy - what the hell are you wearing?!

I can't decide if that's the best or worst jumper I've ever seen. I'm leaning towards best, and wanting one.


Question for beefmeister - does youtube give you stats on viewing a full video? Does anyone actually watch a full hour of blokes talking?

[Beefmeister]

_dobbo_ said:

I can't decide if that's the best or worst jumper I've ever seen. I'm leaning towards best, and wanting one.


Question for beefmeister - does youtube give you stats on viewing a full video? Does anyone actually watch a full hour of blokes talking?

Superdry makes the jumper - fill yer boots

Just wait til you see my Xmas jumper!

You get an average retention time, which on the SoL vid is around 32mins at the moment, which is pretty good for a YT vid. Paul hasn't promoted it yet either so will be interesting to see how it goes.

With the YT versions of the podcasts we find that people open it in another window and leave it playing, as some find that easier than sorting out podcasts. So they're not watching for the duration, but are certainly listening.

[johnwilliams77]

I have just noticed something that would concern me as a youtuber. When I clicked onto youtube then subscriptions, the default view only showed 8/12 videos uploaded today which I have subscribed to. Only after switching the views by clicking the two buttons next to 'manage', I can now see all the video's which have been uploaded today.

If I had not known there was a video uploaded which I was looking for, I would have probably missed it.

[Beefmeister]

As much as I hate agreeing with you, that is incredibly crap. Just tried it myself and in the tile view you only get a limited number under ‘Today’ whereas in the list view you get them all.

Bloody YouTube

[ReaperCushions]

Shmee said:

What you have to remember is that YouTube isn't the platform for high production quality content; as has been proven by Chris Harris, car magazines, and content pieces like this.

While you and I truly enjoy watching that kind of content, unfortunately we are a niche and do not represent the majority of the audience who much more prefer to watch a longer form piece through which they can be engaged and relate - something that's totally lost when the camera quality goes beyond how they could produce it themselves. It's a strange phenomenon but for example my content is all tailored to be as effective as possible on YouTube, whereas for example I'd love to go on more road trips and tours, driving mountain passes with cinematic angles, unfortunately that's never going to succeed and ultimately this is a business.

You can see it across many genres, success on YouTube is not linked to film quality.

See also - Doug Demuro. His videos are so formulaic he might as well be a robot. They are of the most basic production quality and filmed on a simple camera and edited in iMovie. Yet he is one of the most successful out there.

[Fr0dders]

Tad1984 said:

I used to like a lot of the channels described - Schmee, JWW, SOL etc. My biggest problem with some is they have morphed into company marketing men. I think the problem is the money - not that I am suggesting that companies are necessarily paying them directly. The issue is that their videos with the latest / greatest supercars will always get massive views, hence more money. so while they are getting invited to the flashy launch shows, and being given supercars as long term loans to make content with, they are much more reluctant to bite the hand that feeds. I'm not saying they are bad people, or that I wouldn't do the same in their position - Heck even Chris Harris has learned to toe the line for those sexy TG dollars. I'm just saying I'd rather see a reviewer who isn't incentivised to be positive about the products

Thing is, this reviewer you speak of doesn't exist. The writers here at pistonheads are given these very same opportunities as the youtubers. Look through the articles here at PH and every single one of the car reviews will have been made after the journo had a go in the press car. The front page has quite a few articles that are based upon press releases from car manufacturers PR departments. A lot of the "PH Fleet" will be long term loans of press cars. Only difference is, that PH will write up a monthly article talking about the car as opposed to making a youtube video. Those flashy launch shows you speak of ? Pistonheads writers will be attending those as well. The primary reason those flashy launch shows are done is to invite the media to talk about the cars and come take photos.

This is the way the world of journalism works. Only difference is with the traditional printed / online press with no video content is that you normally don't see it in video form. There is zero reason to treat this material any different to the way you treat the traditional press. Chris harris has talked about the fuss that ferrari will go to in order to ensure their cars do the best in magazine group tests. The ability of websites or magazines to get press cars will very much depend upon their relationship with the press department. The magazines and car websites also rely upon advertising to pay the bills. Look at Pistonheads Youtube channel and how many promoted videos it has on there. It's what pays the salary of all the writers who write for PH. One of the reasons that the traditional print magazines are dying out is because nobody is reading them, so the advertising revenue has gone (as people are now spending it on social media and youtube etc..)

This isn't meant as a negative thing, It's just how the world works, and it goes across all industries not just automotive. Just take everything you ever read with a pinch of salt knowing everybody has to make money somehow, and everybody has to be nice to the PR people to get press cars just like the youtubers do. And by "be nice" I mean be respectful, not lie. The PR departments of these companies are absolutely fine if you can legitimately criticize their products and make a valid point that helps their people find issues and fix them. Just outright dumping on car saying it's horrible won't get you a good reputation with the PR department. But then the smart youtubers aren't either. Go watch the Seen Through Glass video he took at the launch of the 720S. He very respectfully said he didn't like it and explained why. Didn't stop him getting another one later on to drive to the Monaco Grand Prix.

Edited by Fr0dders on Monday 10th December 21:08

[Fr0dders]

ReaperCushions said:

See also - Doug Demuro. His videos are so formulaic he might as well be a robot. They are of the most basic production quality and filmed on a simple camera and edited in iMovie. Yet he is one of the most successful out there.

I see this accusation a lot. And it's a daft comment. Why does family guy only ever have this one family ? why does friends keep talking about this same group of 6 people. he has a format, and he sticks to it.

Furthermore, have you seen the outcry that popular youtubers have when they change what their channel is about ? StreedSpeed717 has been very open about what sort of numbers he makes, showing his adsense revneue etc.. But the hate he gets when he stops making videos about corvettes is unreal. I saw it too with Woody's gamertag back in the day. Once upon a time he made loads and loads of call of duty videos. Then one day he decided he wasn't enjoying it and stopped. The hate was unreal. Youtubers keep doing the same thing because if they don't people get made. They came to that channel for that content and if it ever stops they lose their mind. Same with AdamLZ and the BMX content when he started making car videos.

Then of course the other problem is the youtube algorithms. Upload daily, and have each video at least 10 minutes or stop getting promoted. Keep making the same content or we'll drop you from the rankings. Youtube is almost forcing people to keep making their same content over and over again because that's what sells. This is why youtubers are setting up second channels to do other things without people getting mad and losing money.

[WarrenB]

lordf said:

While TGE Seems to want to cash in on Tim, STG and JJW...

TGE TV Tags said:

keywords\":[\"lamborghini\",\"aventador sv\",\"458 speciale\",\"golf gti\",\"tgetv\",\"shmee\",\"gravelwood\",\"seen through glass\",\"supercars\",\"london\",\"jww\",\"huracan\",\"ferrari\",\"exhaust\"

Funny how he's had countless digs at Tim and James, yet still uses their names to help promote his own videos.