03.02: HausLab Valentine’s Special
Yes, it’s true. This is a special day indeed! It’s my birthday!!
This was a fun little video to put together, even though pretty much nothing actually worked! One thing it did was help me to create a little better vision for this blog and my YouTube channel. While I was searching the web for chemistry-related things to do for Valentine’s Day, I came upon many a “crafty” blog that had reasonably good content. The trouble is, I couldn’t read half of it!
Every scroll down the page towards the content loaded some additional advertisement, or a video player playing some random car ad for Honda or something. (I’m Chevrolet all the way! — Or at least GM…) The good content was seriously marred by the blogger’s attempt to squeeze out a little ad revenue. I remember reading in a book (though I don’t remember which book) that somebody put tons of ads on his website and managed to get about $400 a year. That’s fine, I guess, but how much more traffic would he get if he didn’t scare people off with all the ads?!
When I find blogs like that, the first thing I do is close the tab. So guess what you’re never going to find on the HausLab blog! I do understand the need to bring in money to keep the channel or the blog going, but I think I can find some better ways to do that. It’s not quite ready at the time of this writing, but the “Support” page is going to be my version of ads. It’s not passive, and if I’m going to get you, the reader, to support my channel or my blog, I have to give you something worth paying for.
Same for YouTube, too. I’ve decided against monetizing the channel. The main reason is that I can’t stand watching a video and being startled by some stupid music that’s turned up louder than the video I’m watching. IN THE MIDDLE OF A SENTENCE! Another good reason is that YouTube doesn’t have the best track record for being friendly to amateur chemistry.
So since this blog and the channel are still in their infancy, I’m going to keep working to improve the content and the experience, so that you the reader might have some reason to … well, read!
On to the important question: What do I want for my birthday this year?!
Starting this blog and the YouTube channel are featured prominently on a list I wrote up for myself recently. I had been slacking on creating for myself the life I want to be living, and that list is what I’m going to do to change that. I have one year before a milestone birthday, and that list is going to be DONE by then! Giving myself that kind of attention and responsibility is my gift to myself.
