A year ago this week, Graeme Kennedy and I launched this documentary series about Chinese food. We’ve gotten a lot of views and a lot of followers – and a lot of questions about who pays for all this. So for our first anniversary, I’m going to explain.
We are not:
1. Rich 2. Government-sponsored in any way 3. Soft advertising for our subjects
Our funding comes from:
1. Five private investors who contributed seed money to cover our travel expenses 2. YouTube’s AdSense program, which has paid us about $10k USD total over the course of Season 1’s 13 episodes (or roughly 10% of our costs)
In fact, we’re just a couple of guys who believe strongly in telling food stories from China, where we have lived for a combined 30+ years. Neither of us have the kind of money to allow us to do this privately, and it’s only through the generosity of our first investors (our friends) and our team of researchers that we’re able to do this at all, without having to complicate things by involving government or advertising interests.
So how do we make money?
The simple reality is, we don’t, at least not yet.
Graeme, myself and our team donate our time to the project. We stay in cheap hotels, fly economy and pay for all our own meals, even when we are filming a business. We keep costs low and guard our investment. No one gets a salary. We don’t have an office.
Of course, we are not monks. We have a blast making these videos and believe there is some reward in the bigger picture, both in terms of karma and finances. We can’t and won’t do this for free, forever.
That’s not to say we don’t have a business plan. We do. Corporate partnerships, sponsorship, AdSense, long-tail video revenue – all of that. We’re working towards it.
If you’re in a position to talk about sponsorship or interested in supporting our mission by becoming an investor, by all means, get in touch. We are fully legal, with registered entities in both China and the US. We’d like to keep making these documentaries.
But for now, at least, we are trying to build something good first and worry about the money second.
And at this stage, we’ll just as happily take a like, a subscribe and a second of your time to tell someone what we’re doing over here in China.
saintcavish
A year ago this week, Graeme Kennedy and I launched this documentary series about Chinese food. We’ve gotten a lot of views and a lot of followers – and a lot of questions about who pays for all this. So for our first anniversary, I’m going to explain.
We are not:
1. Rich
2. Government-sponsored in any way
3. Soft advertising for our subjects
Our funding comes from:
1. Five private investors who contributed seed money to cover our travel expenses
2. YouTube’s AdSense program, which has paid us about $10k USD total over the course of Season 1’s 13 episodes (or roughly 10% of our costs)
In fact, we’re just a couple of guys who believe strongly in telling food stories from China, where we have lived for a combined 30+ years. Neither of us have the kind of money to allow us to do this privately, and it’s only through the generosity of our first investors (our friends) and our team of researchers that we’re able to do this at all, without having to complicate things by involving government or advertising interests.
So how do we make money?
The simple reality is, we don’t, at least not yet.
Graeme, myself and our team donate our time to the project. We stay in cheap hotels, fly economy and pay for all our own meals, even when we are filming a business. We keep costs low and guard our investment. No one gets a salary. We don’t have an office.
Of course, we are not monks. We have a blast making these videos and believe there is some reward in the bigger picture, both in terms of karma and finances. We can’t and won’t do this for free, forever.
That’s not to say we don’t have a business plan. We do. Corporate partnerships, sponsorship, AdSense, long-tail video revenue – all of that. We’re working towards it.
If you’re in a position to talk about sponsorship or interested in supporting our mission by becoming an investor, by all means, get in touch. We are fully legal, with registered entities in both China and the US. We’d like to keep making these documentaries.
But for now, at least, we are trying to build something good first and worry about the money second.
And at this stage, we’ll just as happily take a like, a subscribe and a second of your time to tell someone what we’re doing over here in China.
Thanks YouTube!
3 weeks ago | [YT] | 617