I finally bought Youtube Premium
One of the last times I laughed out loud was when someone asked if Youtubers got Youtube Premium for free. They don’t give us transparency when a video get limited or no ads you think they are giving us a paid subscription for free? Nope.
For a long time I refused to pay for Premium. Not because I think it should be free because I make hours of content for Youtube a month, but because I couldnt justify it. I already pay for so many subscriptions, yet another one just so I didn’t have to sit through ads wasn’t enough motivation for me.
Till this year.
Listen I’m really going full force in “damn she’s doing the damn thing” this year. Arguably I have always done that (cuz, you know, i’m a workaholic), but this year I have a lot of goals that I kind of let fall to the sidelines last year. Namely my financial goals. I still invested the way I wanted but I did not save money the way I wanted or build out my streams of income the way I had planned in 2023.
This year? I am wasting less time. And money but mainly I have found (upon doing a deep dive of my finances and overall 2023) that most of my money wasting came from me being bad with my own time. That’s the killer of being self employed, time is your biggest limiting factor. So you must learn how to truly grip it by the throat and throttle it to bend to your will…or cut some time wasters out.
Enter Youtube Premium.
The final straw I suppose was when I was doing a livestream on Twitch and we were reacting to an “apology/addressing” video from a big creator that I kid you not had at least 25 ad breaks. I had to keep stopping what I was doing so I could hit the skip ad button. A nuisance really, but on a live, a two minute delay can be the thing that makes your audience stick around or flee.
Also when it comes to research, I can’t be wasting time stuck with an ad. Previously when people would ask why I don’t have Youtube Premium, I would say it was because I got products recommendations for videos from their insane ads on Youtube. The thing is that now the ads aren’t even for the smaller insane products anymore, but for insane cash grab course selling ads that I can’t even be bothered to give my view let alone the attention a video on them would be worth. And I get way more video inspo from ads on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.
Now the cost. Youtube Premium for me is $18.99. Frankly it’s one of my most expensive subscriptions, for my business or otherwise. So to deal with this I actually cancelled two of my other subscriptions I wasn’t really using. Crunchyroll and Canva Premium. I just really haven’t been watching anime on Crunchyroll lately but instead on Netflix and Hulu so it was mostly unnecessary at this time. Also I am not happy about how they allegedly sold customer viewing data to Netflix so they knew which animes to make live adaptations of. Canva because I just dont use it enough to justify the premium cost. Currently I am using Canva mainly to make my merch designs but I plan on hiring a graphic designer soon as thats another thing I need to be outsourcing because I have the artistic ability of a moldy mushroom.
Also as I travel so much, I am often on plans with no onboard wifi, so having the ability to download videos so I can continue to work and research in the air is incredibly invaluable.
Maybe I will do this whole reworking again in three months and decide that Youtube Premium is not worth it, but for now, I will be avoiding the ads on Youtube.