Comics and Partnership

There's a lot of things swirling around in my head right now.  I'm wondering if I know anybody who knows anything about developing web apps for the iPhone.  I'm wondering if adapting the comics (Zaphod Zombie and EotU) into a simple video would be a smarter approach to sharing them with the world ... or if there's a simple way to create that iPhone web app for comics.  I'm wondering if the comic web app IS achievable, would it benefit the comics to market them directly to iPhone and touch users?

I'm also wondering about the reminder that just popped up on my Blackberry.  I put it on there two months ago.  I know this because after applying for and being denied YouTube Partnership, you have to wait two months before reapplying.  My reminder on my calendar simply reads "Reapply for YouTube Partner".

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I don't know if I will, actually.

When I applied two months ago, I had just hit 300 subs.  I applied because it was a small promise to myself: hit three hundred go look see.  Recently, Jenzatron applied for partnership and was quickly denied.  A similar story comes from misspacman08.  The point being that within minutes of applying, they apparently had their answer.

Two months ago, I never got an immediate answer.  I'll backtrack a quick second and tell you that the application for partnership is very brief.  I think I've described it before.  You answer a couple of questions and you have some five or six hundred characters to tell them, you know, why they should make you a partner.

I have no idea why I didn't save that "narrative".  It would have been really handy right now.  Suffice it to say, I spent a lot of time on those words, making sure they were just right.  I don't know if a description changes how youtube judges your application, but they took a good three days to finally get back to me with my denial.

I'd like to think that's a good thing.

In two months' time, I jumped (as of this exact moment) 162 subscribers.  I'm thirty-eight away from 500.  Jenzatron and misspacman08 both have well over 1000 subs, though, and they were denied nearly instantly for partnership.  Therefore, does your subcount really matter?

No.  Especially when said subcount only nets a little over 100-150 views per video for it's "shelf-life" ("shelf-life" being defined as that first week or so when the vast majority of your subscribers will watch it, giving you--obviously--the bulk of your views).

I've said it before and I'll say it again: YouTube doesn't want you for their partner program if you can't make any money for them.  100-200 views doesn't generate any kind of substantial ad clicks ... a safe bet would likely be 3000-5000+ views per upload.  And that's just the mathematics of the business.  We're not even touching on quality and consistency of content.

So the question remains: it's been two months.  Should I reapply?  Technically, no.  I'm still not close enough, certainly in subs nor in views.  But maybe there's something else that needs to be considered ...

Flashback 12 months.  If I had the kind of subscriber base a year ago that I have now, I'd probably have a fair shot at partnership.  It was a different landscape then and even more so 18 months ago.  YouTube partnership was more of a two-way street, and I think a lot of people saw it that way.  The partner would provide the content and in turn YouTube would life that partner up and help them gain better visibility.  Maybe that's not actually how it worked, but how else do you explain something like Fred?

And maybe this is still how YouTube stealthily works.  Again, though, they've grown so gargantuanly large, that it's hard to spot it when it happens ... if that makes any sense.

So the point is that yes, logically I should sit on the partner application.  162 new subscribers in two months?  Another two months and I'll be at 600 and even better positioned for partnership.  But maybe--just MAYBE--YouTube keeps an eye out for fresh, original content that engages the community and can really act as solid revenue stream for them.  Maybe, to put it simply, they keep an out for POTENTIAL as much as they look for the solid bets.

Maybe they need to be reminded that I'm still here.  And in two months' time, I'm 162 subs stronger.  Maybe the point of reapplying right now isn't to actually get it, but simply to say I'm still at it and I'm not stopping anytime soon.

Or maybe I just need a nap.