Woodworker or Content Creator

[Edward Weber]

This subject has come up from time to time, so I thought I would share this.
I watched a video purely based on the description.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhEV...URO6DHN4AaABAg

"I've never worked with pallet wood before but I figured I'd give it a shot and build a farmhouse style table entirely out of stacks of old pallets. The end grain butcher block top is 3" thick, 3' wide by 6' long and the trestle base is all mortise and tenon joinery. This was quite the project and at the end of the build, I share how long everything took and all the extra costs associated with working with "free" wood. I hope you enjoy, let me know your thoughts in the comments and please get yourself subscribed to the channel. Ryan P.S. At the very end, I say I'm going to show some final pics and then fail to include them in the video. Apologies! "

I posted a comment afterwards, and I surprisingly received a response this morning.

Edward Weber 1 day ago

Not sure what to make of this video, A month of work and $1200 + in costs, and you get a table. While it may be a nice final product, you would have to sell it for at least $10k to make it worthwhile.

Ryan Hawkins 6 hours ago

Or get a million views on YouTube


I give him credit for his honesty

[Marc Fenneuff]

It's all about the algorithm and driving traffic to your channel. Stumpy Nubs has a video explaining why you have to follow the trends to get your content to show up. Creating YT content that generates income is hard work but clearly some people can make a living at it. Not something I'd want to do as I can't imagine adding those types of pressures into the happy place that is my garage shop.

I've never had interest in pallet wood projects, mostly because I wouldn't want that grimy wood anywhere near my tools.

[Pat Germain]

I'm all for saving money, but I just don't the get the fascination with pallet wood. It's low grade pine with lots of knots, splinters and splits. Oh, and it's full of metal fasteners to boot. Someone would have to pay me to take it.

The guy on Lincoln Street Woodworks regularly makes fun of the whole pallet wood thing and I think he is spot on.

[Edward Weber]

I think you guys are on the same page as I am.
This all came about when I watched a video a week or two ago. A guy down in Australia makes things from pallets and one of his videos was the true cost and time and mess, and so on. Since then, I've been seeing nothing but pallet videos on my front page, and I (like an idiot) took the bait.

I understand that the more views the better, but a month worth of time and 1.2k is a lot for whatever YT would compensate, isn't it?

He also didn't include overhead in his calculations, I can't imagine a month's worth of rent/mortgage/electric on his shop is free.

[Jeff Roltgen]

It is sad to consider, but the old adage of the cream rising to the top has been inverted, and that which floats to the top is more often brown, a bit disgusting, and stinks.

I love the couple meme's shown recently in the "levity" post in Off-Topics as it pertains to the internet. Pic's not needed, I'll just quote:

"Yay, now that April fools day is over, everything on the internet is true again!"

Even better:

"Do you remember, before the internet, that it was thought that the cause of collective ignorance was the lack of access to information? Well... it wasn't that"

Taking recent developments and putting a few pieces together...
Someone recently asked here about internet service, and how it would be thousands of dollars to hook up to a local high-speed service, so an alternative was in order. A couple weeks later, lo and behold, now only $50. That's because of the latest infrastructure grants to states to help get HS internet service to rural Americans.
Do we really think the intent is to mitigate a certain level of "collective ignorance"?

LOL.

[scott lipscomb]

He's got over 980k and its only been on for less than couple of months!

[Edwin Santos]

This subject has come up from time to time, so I thought I would share this.



I give him credit for his honesty

Interesting response he gave you. We live in a changing world.
This reminds me of the movie about the McDonald's founder, where everyone thought he was in the hamburger business, but in reality he was amassing a fortune in the real estate business.

I didn't read all 1770 comments to his video but from a quick scan yours was about the only one that was even close to critical.

I'm with you, if he's a custom woodworker, projects like this might not be the path to success. But if he's really in the entertainment/influencer business, he seems to be on the right track.
980,000 views, 19, 700 likes? Those are solid numbers.

I would bet the number of viewers that will actually build what he's showcasing is a tiny tiny percentage. But if he's in the entertainment business, all that matters is people enjoy watching him build it.

[Edward Weber]

Interesting response he gave you. We live in a changing world.
This reminds me of the movie about the McDonald's founder, where everyone thought he was in the hamburger business, but in reality he was amassing a fortune in the real estate business.

I didn't read all 1770 comments to his video but from a quick scan yours was about the only one that was even close to critical.

I'm with you, if he's a custom woodworker, projects like this might not be the path to success. But if he's really in the entertainment/influencer business, he seems to be on the right track.
980,000 views, 19, 700 likes? Those are solid numbers.

I would bet the number of viewers that will actually build what he's showcasing is a tiny tiny percentage. But if he's in the entertainment business, all that matters is people enjoy watching him build it.

I was a bit surprised at the response, not one word about the project, but as you alluded to, that's not the point.
As to the woodworking, I don't know about anyone else, but I thought it was quite basic and not worthy of the 1700 fawning comments.
I also didn't think there was any doubt that pallet wood projects were a time-consuming endeavor for a project that will be made of medium quality wood.
I've made a few things from salvaged pallet wood because I'm cheap and don't throw anything away, but I know it's not really a cost-effective thing to do. Free wood costs too much.

[Mel Fulks]

He's got over 980k and its only been on for less than couple of months!

yep, always fun to watch upside down wood work ! But too many times they turn the camera around …. It’s NOT funny anymore.

[Andrew Hughes]

I watched some of the video but mostly fast forward. I thought the table was awful I cannot imagine any setting where it would fit in. But that’s not the point right. Making a video that holds all the NPC wood-dreamers hostage it’s a success.
God help us.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

You guys have probably noticed how easy it apparently is to separate hobbyist woodworkers, fishermen, hunters, car nuts, etc from their $ and time. Entire industustries exist solely for the purpose of doing it. We're sheep. I'm no exception, I just spent far too much time this weekend deep diving in the nuances of various router options for my now tricked out dovetail jig, then bought two. Thank god for that youtube video that pointed out that I really should buy the bosch instead of the milwaukee that I started out after. Whew. He was a good salesman though, I hope his commision check reflects it.

$1000 gone by the time I got done buying a router. All I can say is that I'm gullible, and that the system works! Mr Sawdust, Norm, Marks, etc, it's been going on for quite some time.

[Mark Gibney]

"I'm not a woodworker but I played one on Youtube!"
It'll be interesting to see what changes to the human experience all this social media brings about in years. I'm not optimistic.

[Steve Demuth]

I'm all for saving money, but I just don't the get the fascination with pallet wood. It's low grade pine with lots of knots, splinters and splits. Oh, and it's full of metal fasteners to boot. Someone would have to pay me to take it.

Burns a fine hot fire (as long as it's untreated) in the shop woodstove in the winter months. Other than that, it's useless, and even for that, the time spent breaking pallets up and then removing the metal from the ashes, makes it time consuming enough that I don't look for pallets; I only use the ones that end up here as a result of my spending money on tools and materials).

[andrew whicker]

Here is an earnings breakdown from someone I follow. She is a bike ballerina. She was featured / hired in a Danny macaskill video.

She has way more exposure than most people ever will. Her earnings per video are pretty lame.

Her indirect earnings from exposure.. that's probably the most lucrative.

https://youtu.be/jojMiAhueCk

[Marc Fenneuff]

...the time spent breaking pallets up and then removing the metal from the ashes, makes it time consuming enough that I don't look for pallets; I only use the ones that end up here as a result of my spending money on tools and materials).

I watch Steve Ramsey's Woodworking for Mere Mortals channel occasionally, and surprise if he didn't have a pallet wood project show up in my feed last week. I watched it until he started prying the first of a bajilliion nails out and then I... changed the channel. I just couldn't do it.