ive been watching a lot of gardening/woodworking/machining videos last 5 months bc... well you know... and the main lessons ive learned is that the economics of “teaching” and vlogging are vastly better than those of doing. youtube “makers” arent, they are performers first

the “homestead” people are the worst. their “doing” operations are definitely net losers when accounting correctly, but they provide the activity for the tube, which is where all the money is made via ads and amazon links. homesteading self-sufficiency!*

*requires amazon prime

the woodworkers trail closely behind. its obvious most of their time and budget goes to production, but their comission pieces are profitable, and video is a good sales funnel and sponsorship-harvesting channel for subsidized tools. still, most income: video

finally, machinists: here the video content is primarily a vanity pursuit but i could see it being a viable marketing operation. there is a much smaller chance to convert views to affiliate purchases due to price-points and dealer dynamics.

reminds me of pilates instructor certifications 2009-2016: the economics are in training new instructors not tending to end-user clients. its pyramiddy. and as this space nears saturation its prob collapses the economics, it’s already trending “first-mover” / “winner takes all”

finally: do not ever trust any online tool reviews, especially powertools. find 10 reviews on google and they’ll all be the same and they’ll all exclude tools from dealer-exclusive outlets. why? no amazon link $. reviews are ranked by referral profitability, not quality.

which is an interesting finding on its own. decentralized content killed magazine sub revenues, which ended up killing the economics for unbiased hugh-quality non-sponsored reviews. if your product doesnt pay “affiliate rent” it might as well not exist because nobody will review

go ahead and try to find a web review of any machinery that includes powermatic or general or laguna or grizzley. Jet and powermatic are the same owner, why is jet always reviewed but powermatic never? amazon links. same with laguna and (less so) rikon.