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"What next" video
carljrb , 05-22-2017, 11:42 AM
I thought this place was a better option to comment on your last video (I'm not a fan of youtube's comment system).
First, I think you need to think about who your core audience is, and that will pretty much guide your decisions. You're very well known as someone who teaches Altium (an expensive professional ECAD package), and lots (most?) of your clients are probably small businesses, new engineers and the like.
Based on that:
-dailty tips: it seems to take a LOT of time. The tips are quite basic. That content is either already covered in your basic course, or in the tips section of your fedevel academy site. Most of your core audience doesn't need videos on very basic topics either. The people who would benefit the most from simple tips on youtube would be Dave's audience (hobbyists and thinkerers) who often use simpler and cheaper ECAD programs like EAGLE. I don't think the tips videos will ever become a significant source of income.
-emails: some people or companies might be willing to pay for some sort of email support (we're trying to do something and we're stuck -- what should we do?), with prices varying depending on the question's complexity. Answering 150 emails per day for free gets in the way of making more videos that your core audience would gladly pay for.
Youtube/Patreon: the "big" names on youtube who are getting a lot of views (therefore money) have a different audience: hobbyists, makers, thinkerers, teens -- often people without formal electronics education. Most topics are at the beginner level or are mainly for the sake of entertainment like opening mail or teardowns. Every channel that's more "serious" gets far fewer subscribers and views. I don't think you can expect something so specialized/advanced to get a large number of subscribers.
udemy: seemingly that was an experiment, and it doesn't seem to be worth the time. Seemingly it's making more money for the udemy owners, and making you answer lots of emails. You work lots, and they make the money. I personally don't associate udemy and "high quality" either (based on the few courses I've seen on there), so selling on FEDEVEL academy is probably the best option.
OrCAD/Allegro: that would certainly generate lots of money. Your core audience are the kind that use Altium, OrCAD/Allegro, MG and the like. They have the money, and they have to get new hires up to speed and such. The ECAD companies are selling training for thousands of dollars and people are buying it so there's certainly a market.
Server project: It looks nice, but it's perhaps too advanced. Those projects mainly happen at large companies with huge R&D budgets. It's far too much work and money for smaller teams. So it's a small audience but with lots of money -- they don't need it to be free, and there wouldn't be enough views to make you any money on youtube or such. Also, the free or cheap ECAD packages aren't good enough either. I don't see who would ultimately pay that necessary 2M$ for the project, directly or indirectly.
kicad/eagle: most of your core audience don't use those, and as you said there's already other people making those videos. If you want to make money from youtube, making videos for beginners with free/cheap programs might work, but it's a completely different core audience.
The other option I see is covering more topics, more in-depth information, more related content and such. For example:
-controlled impedance: you could talk about common prepregs, dielectrics, stackups, specialized programs (field solvers), etc.There's a lot of companies who could use some expertise.
--power delivery networks: trace inductance & resistance, capacitor frequency charts (and signal switching frequencies), I2R losses, via ampacity, etc
-EMC and EMI related stuff. There's an awful lot of companies trying to pass certifications and who have common problems (large high dI/dt loops, termination problems, etc)
-more in-depth talks about common things like vias (technologies, plugging, tenting, aspect ratio, micro/buried vias, etc), wire and mounting holes (hole & pad sizes), etc
-more in-depth talk about altium core stuff, like what to use the MCAD layers for along with layer pairs and such, making templates, how you setup your output jobs, etc.
-more in-depth talk about things like libraries: organisation, naming (IPC-7351?), parameters and the manager, etc.
-videos about new altium features. I'd gladly pay a few bucks to see someone explain and use the new stuff like activeroute (someone knowledgeable who's used it for a few hours/on a few boards, who knows its strengths/weaknesses/limitations, etc)
There's certainly a lot of possibilities and things that haven't been covered yet.
First, I think you need to think about who your core audience is, and that will pretty much guide your decisions. You're very well known as someone who teaches Altium (an expensive professional ECAD package), and lots (most?) of your clients are probably small businesses, new engineers and the like.
Based on that:
-dailty tips: it seems to take a LOT of time. The tips are quite basic. That content is either already covered in your basic course, or in the tips section of your fedevel academy site. Most of your core audience doesn't need videos on very basic topics either. The people who would benefit the most from simple tips on youtube would be Dave's audience (hobbyists and thinkerers) who often use simpler and cheaper ECAD programs like EAGLE. I don't think the tips videos will ever become a significant source of income.
-emails: some people or companies might be willing to pay for some sort of email support (we're trying to do something and we're stuck -- what should we do?), with prices varying depending on the question's complexity. Answering 150 emails per day for free gets in the way of making more videos that your core audience would gladly pay for.
Youtube/Patreon: the "big" names on youtube who are getting a lot of views (therefore money) have a different audience: hobbyists, makers, thinkerers, teens -- often people without formal electronics education. Most topics are at the beginner level or are mainly for the sake of entertainment like opening mail or teardowns. Every channel that's more "serious" gets far fewer subscribers and views. I don't think you can expect something so specialized/advanced to get a large number of subscribers.
udemy: seemingly that was an experiment, and it doesn't seem to be worth the time. Seemingly it's making more money for the udemy owners, and making you answer lots of emails. You work lots, and they make the money. I personally don't associate udemy and "high quality" either (based on the few courses I've seen on there), so selling on FEDEVEL academy is probably the best option.
OrCAD/Allegro: that would certainly generate lots of money. Your core audience are the kind that use Altium, OrCAD/Allegro, MG and the like. They have the money, and they have to get new hires up to speed and such. The ECAD companies are selling training for thousands of dollars and people are buying it so there's certainly a market.
Server project: It looks nice, but it's perhaps too advanced. Those projects mainly happen at large companies with huge R&D budgets. It's far too much work and money for smaller teams. So it's a small audience but with lots of money -- they don't need it to be free, and there wouldn't be enough views to make you any money on youtube or such. Also, the free or cheap ECAD packages aren't good enough either. I don't see who would ultimately pay that necessary 2M$ for the project, directly or indirectly.
kicad/eagle: most of your core audience don't use those, and as you said there's already other people making those videos. If you want to make money from youtube, making videos for beginners with free/cheap programs might work, but it's a completely different core audience.
The other option I see is covering more topics, more in-depth information, more related content and such. For example:
-controlled impedance: you could talk about common prepregs, dielectrics, stackups, specialized programs (field solvers), etc.There's a lot of companies who could use some expertise.
--power delivery networks: trace inductance & resistance, capacitor frequency charts (and signal switching frequencies), I2R losses, via ampacity, etc
-EMC and EMI related stuff. There's an awful lot of companies trying to pass certifications and who have common problems (large high dI/dt loops, termination problems, etc)
-more in-depth talks about common things like vias (technologies, plugging, tenting, aspect ratio, micro/buried vias, etc), wire and mounting holes (hole & pad sizes), etc
-more in-depth talk about altium core stuff, like what to use the MCAD layers for along with layer pairs and such, making templates, how you setup your output jobs, etc.
-more in-depth talk about things like libraries: organisation, naming (IPC-7351?), parameters and the manager, etc.
-videos about new altium features. I'd gladly pay a few bucks to see someone explain and use the new stuff like activeroute (someone knowledgeable who's used it for a few hours/on a few boards, who knows its strengths/weaknesses/limitations, etc)
There's certainly a lot of possibilities and things that haven't been covered yet.
robertferanec , 05-22-2017, 12:57 PM
Thank you @carljrb for so extensive feedback. We are on the same wave length. Your thoughts are very similar to what my opinion is (I especially like the Udemy one 
)
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