CandRsenal
patreon
Various updates.
🕑 Added 2018-09-30 06:12:21 +0000 UTC Just a quick note, someone said they had trouble with the contact form on the site. If you think it ate a message you can always email direct to CandRsenal@gmail.com.Otherwise, I'm sorry if I'm delayed getting back to people. I am attending a semi-private networking thingy this coming week and still trying to catch up from time off, plus the usual surprises in production. So, if I can just meet my expected schedule for the next 5 days I can be guaranteed 6 whole hours a night assuming nothing goes wrong.
Oh boy.
Also, other status updates:
Half the extra funds have been used to either clean up debt or secure more appropriate base equipment for production. We had a lot of tripods etc held together with duct tape.
After shirts start hitting hands we'll spend the rest on more serious upgrades like getting Mark a machine to review his video on-site to improve their production and better outdoor cameras for Primer. Things of that nature.
Curiously, Patreon has stalled again. When we hid the total amount it shot up again but has plateaued once more. I've also noticed our subscriber count has done about the same. Likewise, we've had more unfavorable to advertiser calls against us lately.
Because of the outrageous support on the shirts, this is a minor concern at the moment but I am always weary of what the monetized carrying-capacity of the show really is. Increasing income isn't for my own pay just yet, instead it's a good way to bring Mae on full time, keep our animator from wandering, afford more travel projects ("Squib"), and if extremely successful, bring in new staff like an editor.
I'd love to free up more personal time so I can actually begin real work on the big book, or even some side project stuff like "Secret Weapons of the Great War" etc.
So if anyone has ideas about how to reach new viewers, we're all ears.
Comments
Bruce Brodnax
"...had more unfavorable to advertiser calls against us lately." Huh? Sorry, don't grok this. Someone is saying you're unfair to advertisers? On Patreon or TheirTube? Unfavorable in what way? Seriously, I think you need to get a product-placement deal going: Chevrolet [you drive a Sub', right?], Lee/Lyman/RCBS ["Can't buy ammo for your vintage rifle? Load your own!"] and of course, all the gun auctions you can eat ["Where do I find my vintage rifles? Gunbroker.pawn!.." etc.] ;-) All joking aside, I hope you do find some method of increasing your viewer base that works for you. Maybe buy a few targeted ads on the History channel & Mail Call FB pages [Does Mail Call still have a FB page now that R. Lee is t.u? Sorry, I don't FB to any significant extent... #ALLHAILLUDD! ]
I'm getting about 6 hours sleep a night while producing absolutely no video content. I hope you're not apologizing for a lack of productivity.
Old Man Winter
I totally understand, I'm just so glad you do all this for us. Y'all rock.
C&Rsenal
We actually did try this. Unfortunately our episodes have calls to Patreon, other videos, descriptions, and links. All of this is forbidden. So we burned about 10 hours getting the first 10 episodes submitted and had them all rejected without major editing. I'd like to revisit it sometime but it would require an editor to fix as I'm out of available time.
C&Rsenal
This is something I'd like to approach if I can ever unload my work some more. Mae going full-time would probably free up enough for something like this. In the meantime we did the Minute of Mae to reuse range footage and gain Instagram and Facebook followers.
C&Rsenal
r/guns is generally familiar with us but also has some heavy anti-self-promotion rules. So I have to approach them sparingly. We have had a public Discord for some time. It's on the main site, at the bottom.
C&Rsenal
I have never used it but could take a look. Trouble is every attempt outside of YouTube has resulted in no real trackable net but taken a lot of bandwidth and time to establish.
David Gummo
Forgotten weapons and InRange are now both on Amazon prime. Looks like a company called Gold Harbor Media made movies out of their episodes. Could always look into that.
A Pete Bingham
In today’s culture, anything to do with media and firearms seems to border on criminal. Even if you do nothing wrong, you, WE, face this obstacle. The fact that your presentation is so heavily based in History is most likely the saving grace. There might be no hope for a show that was produced for the fun of it. There is a interesting perspective, if you are in trouble, we will give you the shirt off our back. If you seem to be doing well and progressing on schedule, the concern melts away. Great art gets produced to satisfy an artist’s demons. It’s frosting if it is a commercial success too. All I can say is, “” keep doing what you do, I will keep loving it!””
Old Man Winter
Othias, personally I love the depth you go in your videos, however most YouTube viewers won't watch something longer than 20 minutes. I want you to keep the length of the videos but maybe you can do condensed versions for those with shorter attention spans. Say a 10-15 minute teaser or very general overview on the off weeks. That or maybe show the whistle taters more often. Hope this helps, keep up the great work!!!
PHP
Many Youtubers post their videos regularly in similar themed sub-reddits to gather interest, and it tends to work decently (at least it works better than the YouTube algorithms), but I don't know if there's much of a gun community there. Setting up a Discord may be also a good idea; if you get a pair of decent moderators you trust, you don't have to do anything. Both Forgotten Weapons and InRange have discords for their patreons (Ian never shows himself there and Karl appears once in a blue moon). It's a good way to keep an active and involved community around you whit minimal initial effort and no maintenance.
Ethereal
If your goal is just more viewership ,then have your content posted on MVgroup.It might not reap benifits initially,but you will reach another audience.
