We're extremely grateful for all the kind things you've said here about our channel and indeed for all of the amazing community support we've enjoyed our our decade plus making films on Carfection and XCAR. While you've made some very valid points about how a lot of KZfaq finance works, you're missing a lot of information about how our channel was funded, how it made money and what changed. KZfaq revenue from views was never our source of income but our content was monetised elsewhere. For the various parent companies that owned us over our lifetime it did at the time make financial sense to keep the channel funded at the time. What you also have to realise is that we made films far cheaper than you think. We always operated on an absolute shoestring and made films for a fraction of what you think they cost, based on what you say here in the video. We were just very good at making every penny count. (for example, if we were paying thousands of pounds for track use, we would have never had track use. It cost us no where near that much). It was always our desire to keep the channel free for viewers to watch, we never put up a paywall, never sold merch, didn't accept money from manufacturers to cover cars, never even had sponsored videos on the channel. Had we done that we maybe could have kept going, but then it wouldn't have been the channel we wanted it to be. In a post pandemic, economic downturn period, faced with changing what we were and what we did, or hitting the breaks and stepping away from it for now, we chose the latter. Was it always doomed to fail? Maybe. All good things come to and end and while I wish it could have gone on longer, 10 years is a long time on the internet. There's always a chance CF might resurface, never say never, but right now, we're stepping back and letting some of our amazing colleagues and friend channels take up the torch, continuously raising the bar that we worked so hard to set as high as we could. Thanks again for all the kind words about the channel, it really means a lot. To know that people appreciated our films as much as they did, makes all of the blood sweat and tears that went into making them worthwhile.

This is an excellent video and a fantastic look at the economics and the reality of our business. Thank you for posting it and for breaking it all down so thoroughly and clearly.

Great insight. I went into video myself because I saw it just wasn't feasible for traditional publishers. So I had to do it myself. Still took years to make it work as a job! About six of them in fact.

Cracking video 👊 I sat there nodding as I listen to every honest word. We've seen many channels over the years, try and purchase their way to success and rarely it works. When your channel starts to make a little bit, it is forever in debt to yourself for the years where it didn't.

Well, that's a shame. A lot of my favourite car videos recently were from Carfection, they always looked and sounded great.

I've been doing KZfaq for almost a decade. and since then, 59 out of the 62 KZfaq channels similar to mine, have closed. mine is now the biggest, but... but, at great personal cost, and barely going on. in some months it's even more economically sensible to post nothing at all. and no new channels have started after 2016's adpocalypse. Tom Scott said it in a 2015 blogpost. you should not invest a lot of money in KZfaq. make it as simple as possible. it IS disheartening. you do this from passion, but it can bankrupt you. ok, I stop writing, at this point I'm listening to the video and writing the same things you said. I didn't finish writing "bankrupt" and you said it... keep on joggling.

Brilliantly put. And a reminder to us all and all our viewers, this is a tough tough world we live in. And thanks again for allowing me use of some of your footage. It's through the generosity of content creators like yourself that I can take my viewers out from under a hoist and let them see the full glory of the cars I'm filming.

Very sad about Carfection, but thrilled that Henry has joined Jason at Hagerty. I think McKeel sees the value in the content they create and knows that it’ll be beneficial to both his bottomline and inner car guy.

James, I always enjoy your videos, but as a fellow businessman, this video is truly fascinating. Never given thought to the economics of your work. Given the beautiful cars in your garage, I take my hat off to you that you are making such a success of this new medium given all the challenges that you have so clearly laid out here. To you, No 27, Harry’s Garage, and others with the same passion and determination, my thanks and respect. Bravo!

The Late Brake Show is another really nice one. Very sad to see Carfection go. Along with Harry Metcalfe, Henry Catchpole is my favorite automotive journalist. I am glad YT has been working out for you Jay. Keep up the great work!

I went to a radio school in 1984/5, then worked as an AM DJ in New York State, USA for a year then went to study Radio/TV/Film at University. I realized before graduation that making money was going to be very difficult. So, given I'm now in Silicon Valley, USA, I went into High Tech. Love your channel, but you are one of the few that makes ends meet. Good for you! And for us that get the benefit of your videos. Thanks for doing what you do.

James, to you and your fellow British independent car KZfaqrs like Harry, Tyrell, 27, the Car Guys and Ratarossa, a big thank you for the content you put up. We appreciate it!

Jay thanks so much for including me 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼. Also thanks for distracting me from my work to watch this vid 😂😂😂

We’re all really grateful for the honesty you give us, James! And to shout out so many other channels too as they all deserve it. Highpeak autos and yourself 100% need to get together though - my two favourite channels.

Keep in mind, many of your subscribers are watching because they like you and the way you see your surroundings - not necessarily your specific cars or historic facts etc. (Although I enjoyed the Bentley video very much) Jay I hope you continue to make videos which scratch that artistic itch. Quite a number of my favourite youtubers (not in this field) have effectively started the year by announcing burnout so I hope you are at least enjoying the work!

I'll miss Carfection. Thanks for everything you do James. Very grateful for all the hard work.

Jason on hagerty is on another level. The editing is mind blowing.

Thank you for this Jay, your bit around the 7 minutes mark is so, so true. When you're small and learning the ropes nobody notices you, then when your time, commitment & hard work does pay off people are quite quick to say "You're lucky, you've got it easy.". Ignoring the previous years tolls taken by yourself.

Well said! I remember Chris Harris saying that the Drive videos back in the day cost £10k per video on average, and the only reason it worked is that KZfaq subsidised it substantially. Part of a campaign to position KZfaq as a place for high quality content... And sadly that went the same way.

I hope so much that you carry on making this great content! You introduced me to Jack's channel (Nr27) and recently to Dad's car and even 'your friends'. Would love to see more co-ops indeed and you forgot to mention Petrol Ped. Making something with Harry could give your channel a boost and of course, a video on your lovely tech-wall! Huge respect is in place!!

Hey Jay, thanks for this insight in the automotive YT scene - very interesting. A few years ago, we've tried to increase our influence with KZfaq videos additionally created to our web-magazine stuff and oh boy, soooooo much work, for so little reward. We've tried to create a fair and transparent review, but the audience went after each and every negative point and all very positive reviews went much better than the "neutral" ones, so in the end, we've decided to leave this field to others and focus on text & photos and since then, I'm very happy to see guys like you evolve in such a great way. I'm a longterm follower (your Lotus Esprit video made me subscribe and the Evora / Lotus content kept me here). During the last years, I noticed how I tend to prefer content of "homemade" KZfaqrs, like you, Joe Achilles, PetrolPed, Nick Murray, SidewaysSid, DougDM and especially SeenThroughGlass, as he kept his style while growing his audience quite substantially. The others, like Chris Harris, Shmee, MrJWW or RemoveBeforeRace are not for me anymore. I wonder how you see the future regarding EV content. Looking around on KZfaq and other social media, I feel that the "in-depth description" of how a car drives, is not in the focus anymore, as they are stunned by the EV-typical boost and the gimmicks like engage farting-mode in Tesla, which is utterly dumb, but can be easily shown in a 30 sec TikTok / Instareel. A lot of car enthusiast, me included, have lost some appetite for new cars and I feel in our reader-audience (mostly Swiss or German, 45+), that they keep their (sports)cars substantially longer, as they fear of losing stuff like NA-engines, sound, pure driving enthusiasm and multiplied that with the brands who push all their advertising / promo money towards non-critical influencers (see my fart comment above), is quite a depressing outlook for the next years. Also have a look at the magazines who desperately try and create sub-magazines or sub-channels as a catch basin for the ad-money - I remember a comparison between a Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo vs a base RWD 911 Carrera on a wet track by "Fifth gear RECHARGED" which has luckily backfired pretty horribly..

Very interesting to hear your views on and experience of producing KZfaq content Jay. As you say, to be viable all businesses must take care of the bottom line and I'm glad you manage to produce the variety of content that you do to such a high standard while remaining solvent. Keep going and RIP Carfection.

Over the years I have to come to appreciate how much time, effort and money goes into even a basic but well produced video. and adding the costs of having a car to film with only increases those things. And as an audience we are often reliant on people enjoying that process. Ben from DadCars is a great example; he is very obviously doing it (for now at least, fingers crossed for that to be a sustainable business for him) because it's something he is passionate about, and are usually reliant on larger channels giving them a little leg up, just as you have done for Ben. The other is when the channel in question helps a business or product as you mention, Matt from High Peak is, I assume, utilising the his business to give his channel content, which in turn can help his business (And yes, if I'm looking for a car, I do see what he has, because I like Matt and his attitude, I would be glad to give him my money for a car!). So I do think it is important for audiences to appreciate those who put the effort in to keep car content alive and not spam the tired old "How hard can it be..." adage, because the answer is "Very hard" I'd love to see a collab with High Peak by the way, pretty sure Matt would be rather unimpressed with some of your purchases...

Very interesting presentation. Thank you for the explanation of what goes on behind the scenes in order to get these videos out. I'd never really thought about the background expenses, though I am aware that earning money on KZfaq is harder these days compared to several years ago. Many reasons involved, the main grip I've picked up is that KZfaq has cut the rates at which it pays the content creators. While I don't watch all of your videos, (just not enough hours in the day, and I need to earn a living) I do find them to be generally [packed with new (to me) information and I have never watched one and thought to myself afterwards that I didn't learn something new. Keep up the content and I'm more than happy to watch both the cheap to produce and the expensive videos. It just goes to show how dedicated you are to the subject.

I love how Harry is the grandad of uk car KZfaqrs. He’s earned it

As a fledgling creator and fellow petrolhead this was a fascinating look into the commercial realities of content creation. Super interesting, thanks for sharing!

This is something that is just pure fact. As a small time KZfaqr with 4K subs (As of Jan 2023) every time I make a car repair video it cost me a fair bit of money with buying the car parts needed to show on the videos. The ad return revenue barely scratches the price I've had to pay for the car parts. And as much as I love making videos, it's just pure fact that making videos like it, has to be done for the love of doing it, as I'm just too small to make any real money from this. And that's the key on KZfaq. If you want to make a living, you have to keep the costs dead low, or your doomed to fail. Your channel is fantastic as you have the knowledge of car, great presentation, editing, and you do it all yourself, and that's the key for success 👍

Thank you for another incredibly informative video, James! You are one of my favorite car content KZfaqrs (the other favs are High Peak, HSG and Harry 😉) and I am never disappointed in the content you create and share with us. Just an FYI, it was thanks to your reviews of the Jaguar XF that helped encourage me to buy my 2008 Jaguar XF and I couldn't be happier! I am currently looking at either a Lotus Evora or Jaguar XKR-S for my weekend driver. Unfortunately here in Japan, the pickings are a bit slim. This video answered several questions I had about car channels that have TV like production. Thanks for clearing those questions up. I would love to see a video of your new wall mounted toy! Also a collab video with Matt (High Peak) would be amazing! Keep doing what you're doing!

I'd love to hear more about the wall mounted PC!!!

Well, that's sad to see. Of course I really enjoy these cinematic car reviews, but if it's not bringing in enough money, then that is fully understandable. In the end the most important thing for me is that the people presenting are likeable characters and seem to really understand what they are talking about. That is also the reason why as soon as I found your channel, I instantly subscribed. And actually, your type of presentation is more than enough for me, driving on the roads in your area and explaining your thoughts with a few nice camera angles is all I want to see. Everything added is a nice bonus, but this is enough to feel as if I am a passenger, and that for me is what I want to see and feel. Hagerty's production is some of the wildest cinematography for car content I have ever seen, and the production for some of these videos has to cost a multitude of their revenue. Let's see whether they will keep it that way in the future... By the way: Petrolicious also kind of vanished (although they suddenly uploaded again a few days ago), they also made incredibly produced content AND they once also had a Hagerty sponsorship! But apparently they also struggled.

Thanks for putting this out there, as a very small channel I struggle with having the funds to do the content I really want to.. someone as respected as you making it clear that the automotive niche In the UK is so small kind of makes me feel better, I'll carry on covering whatever racing I can and one day hopefully I'll get to race my own car...

Great vid mate. So true, why I stopped all the cinematic videos as it’s just not worth it. Now with shorts it makes the whole landscape even more challenging.

I really enjoyed that channel, didn't even know they stopped. I wondered why I didn't see any videos. Henry is an amazing car reviewer and automotive journalist

That was super interesting! Thanks! I guess the truisms of business apply to KZfaq car videos as much as any other - keep costs to a minimum. Much respect to you and others who produce great content without the huge teams behind you. Doug dM comes to mind too - big channel still being run without huge resources. Keep up the good work!

So glad Chris Harris has made it, one of my favourite journos since autocar and Evo days. Nobody else can put into words what its like to be inside a car and how it feels and goes quite like Chris.

God bless you James, and every other “homegrown” KZfaq channel creator you mentioned, for doing what you love and in the process sharing it with us. We are busy at our daily grind, but your content provides us with an entertaining, informative, and social counterpoint to the humdrum. Moreover, you guys get to be successful with your passion. It’s a win-win in my book!

Carfection also briefly employed Charles Morgan, who was a wonderful presenter. I'd love to see you interview him. Hopefully Carfection will be revived under new ownership - a million subscribers has to be worth something, surely?

Fantastic video James, spot on analysis as always. Would absolutely love to see you and Matt from High Peak Autos do a collab - my two favourite car content creators in one place 🚗

Well, here in the US we think you are fantastic. Excellent content. A truly unbiased care reviewer. I have actually made a purchase based on some of your videos. Keep up the great work.

Bitter truth about youtube. Last euro trip costed me 15 times more I earned from it soo far. 9 days of filming, about 180h of editing but you know what, I’m a petrol head at heart and I captured the best memories of my life in quite spectacular way (as for a one man band). Never regretted it and planning more. KZfaq and driving are both my hobbies and luckily, my main job can sponsor that. Nice to see you made it work for you Jay! Have a look at my trip if you ever get a spare minute. I think you would enjoy it. Best regards!

The high peak auto channel is brilliant. Collab would be great. I also think the cheaper affordable car reviews is what people enjoy watching, however less of the sports car/super car content.

Carfection was always my go to because of the production values. Funny you mentioned High Peak and Harry’s because along with this channel, that’s pretty much all I trust for good opinions/advice/content these days! Oh, and also Beards ‘n Cars but only because I’m looking at getting an XK and he’s done a bit on them.

I think you've hit the nail on the head with this James. We're still starting the journey and are fortunate to have time on our side rather than money, but the cost of producing even a simple review for a car we already own will cost in the region of £100 - £200 depending if we're shooting locally or not. The automotive KZfaq world is very high risk, and it's a shame that such quality is often overlooked or unrewarded. Finding a balance is key, but it's a very expensive industry to be in. Very well presented, great video James 👍

Hope this trends number 1 for a month straight and goes viral so you can finance an entire year of content! Pleased to see you're still around...oh and merch shop those shirts you wear! That's where the big $$ can be made :0

Harry Metcalfe is the daddy of a self controlled channel. Your channel has great content and will only get bigger as your audience grows.

I like your content and how you direct and finish your videos. You can’t always win every time with every video. People will watch what they want and you can’t be a mind reader. Just keep doing what you are.

Thanks for that explanation, James. Really interesting to hear how the KZfaq model works, and what YT car channels need to do and consider when making content.

Can agree… on all of it James. Unfortunately, and to be fair to many, they don’t understand what is involved, filming good quality content for KZfaq is not easy. Camera set up as an example, when wanting all “those lovely B rolls images” takes time. Oh and regards a collaboration with Matt at High Peak… absolutely👍

So many car journalists - the ones who started in magazines, etc. - are relatively posh. Still, class dominates everything in Britain, so why would that be different? Bovingdon, Frankel, Harris, Catchpole, the list goes on. Only the odd prole slips through. Even Jonny Smith occasionally slips up and says 'ga-raaaj' instead of 'garage'. KZfaq seems to be a bit of a leveller, at least.

Thank you James for the enlightenment. I never realized the business reality of the YT content I consume so often. I currently have several dozen tabs open of videos I intend to watch. Sometimes I get through them sometimes I don’t. But after watching this video, I will make much more of an effort to click on the likes and help get those numbers up. Good luck to you as well as the other channels you mentioned. I really had no idea how precarious something so important to me is.

Thanks for making this video James. Understanding the economics and the business behind running a KZfaq channel is really interesting! I would love to hear more about it. I also love to watch a video about your custom PC build. Looks epic!

Thanks buddy 🙏🏻 another great video. When are you going to start wearing Lippy for some extra revenue ?

Loved the subject material of this episode, the back-end economics of what's viable for a successful KZfaq channel about cars. Seriously explore more of this please

James, you and Harry are my top-level, go-to car video You-Tubers (and I do watch Jack a lot as well). I was quite surprised when I looked up Harry's past once and found that he was not a founder/editor of Evo-turned-farmer, he was first, in fact...a farmer who really liked cars and motorcycles. Regardless of how success came to him, he has the wherewithal to produce his videos as a hobby and not a business and he produces them very well. I recognize the deep knowledge and experience he has and that verifies his opinions. You also produce excellent content and it's clear that your former life in film contributes greatly to that. Add in your knowledge, experience, and totally upfront, honest opinions and you, too, rate just as as highly. Harry is older than I am (barely), you are younger. That works for me (and, Jack, should you see this, your overflowing enthusiasm and fascinating selection of cars profiled carry the day for you!). All three of you get my clicks always. Carry on!

Great video and explanation James. The other method that some car KZfaqrs use, aside from views for Adsense, is ‘working with brands’ as Seen Through Glass does for example, where they don’t mind so much about views, as they are getting paid by brands to be featured in films as indirect advertising.

I wonder how Throttle House do what they do. They have everything - personalities, humor, good sound, good editing, good footage, driving knowledge. Pure gold. From"big" moto youtubers they are my favourite one.

Calvin's car diaries is another good one. He is sooooo positive. You, him, Harry, high peak, Doug d, hoovie ,car ninja and the wizard are the go to channels.

Thanks for this James. As a Creator myself this has grounded me in knowing I'm not the only one who thinks this. I'm always explaining some of this to people who just don't understand the time, money, and effort that goes into making videos. And I've always wondered how these other channels continue to make TV quality content for YT. Seemingly they can't. Keep up the good work. 😎👌

It's heartening that you, as well as several of my favorite YT "creatives" (hell, how I truly hate that word) have eventually made the video equivalent of the Byrds' "So You Wanna Be A Rock and Roll Star", putting plain the reality behind being a content creator, and, in the case here, how even the big boys can get the math wrong. Weird thing is, *I've* rarely watched a Carfection video - not because I have an issue with them, but because I've long been drawn to the small-scale content creators, who often approached their subject - be it cars, motorcycles/scooters, watches Et Cetera - with passion, unique insight, and eclectic humor that the high-rollers rarely feel comfy taking a chance on…except, perhaps the wonderful Mr. Cammisa, long may he run (and Hagerty keep bankrolling him). I only discovered your channel roughly a year ago, which also led to discovering Number 27 and others on That End of the Pond. (I'm gratified to do my part as a Yank watching the channel, BTW.) Anyone having the notion to start a YT channel - and I've had the urge off-and-on for a while - needs to watch something like this as a primer, starting with the age-old adage, "don't quit your day job, if you have one."

If I had to guess, one of the biggest issues is simply over-saturation of car channels in the last couple of years. Not that I don't enjoy all the content out there, but there's so many that I just don't even know about a lot of them because I only have the personal bandwidth for three, maybe four, of the channels like yours Jay which cuts down exposure to all the rest. IE your channel, Catchpole, Harry, Throttle House and Camissa's videos. That's just all I have space for, and I'm sure I'm not alone in that kind of boundaries either.

Really interesting video this and thank you for the shoutout… My first monetised video last week allowed me to buy my girls a small fries each at McDonald’s but wasn’t enough for a full happy meal… there was tears 🙈 I can’t see co hosts on bigger shows putting up with that 🤷‍♂️ I guess the big shows will have to be on other paid streaming platforms then later put on KZfaq as a secondary revenue source.

Always love the content. It was my mate Scott's camper you borrowed. This was really interesting to see behind the curtain and understand in pounds and pence, the cash it takes to make some of the amazing content!

I have been watching you since almost day one and really enjoy your videos. The content is always interesting, you don’t seem to be having any axes to grind and unlike some you haven’t become “up yourself“! Too many content providers decide to show off, now that they’re making a few pounds and getting access to fancy events. Flexing with the new sponsored watch or car that they just purchased/leased! Both yourself and Mat from Highpeak are my favourite KZfaqrs with excellent content and quality filming, it would be interesting to see a collaboration between the two of you. I quite often feel sorry for both of you when I watch KZfaqrs that work from the front room, with millions of views. My wife likes watching a couple of American KZfaq who, simply sit in front of the PC and review music videos! Their reaction video’s have no production values at all and therefore cost them nothing to produce but earn them fortunes! Keep up the good work I love your channel and the cars that you choose resonate with me and my lifestyle.

Interesting analysis and I agree. I didn't realise Carfection died until I saw this. Keep up your good work - we enjoy your style of genuinely car geekery.

I hadn't realised Carfection had died. Sad times. The erratic nature of the views vs production cost must be difficult to stomach, as you say; but be in no doubt those more 'glossy' pieces you make are one of the reasons your loyal audience follow you, subscribe and engage. They're essentially a loss-leader.

What a fantastic video! I've realised many of these points myself over the past 12 months. As much as I want to make stunning cinematic videos, they don't pay the bills and the simpler content is the way forward if I'm to continue. Love the content and thanks for being a subscriber! All the best, Dan.

Thank you J; that was an education. Thank you also for mentioning other good channels because I didn't know most of them. As someone who is a bit of a nerd myself I'd be interested in a video on your rather cool looking pc. It's a shame that Harry doesn't use a mic in the way that you do. In a video ages ago, you said a video is no good without good audio and for me it spoils a lot of his content that I've watched. It makes yours better for it. Thanks again and RIP Carfection; there's hardly a video of theirs I've not watched, especially of Henry Catchpole's and I am very glad he has found a new home on YT.

With all this in mind, it surprises me greatly how many are still willing to make really high quality content. I suppose you just have to tackle it in a very different way from TV.

I've spent the morning thinking about this and now I've come back to type my thoughts. The issue here is attempted corporatization of KZfaq channels. The successful channels, such as yourself, start out with one guy expressing their specific interest. It's a hobby and may turn into a business. Because it's a hobby and you have a proper job on the side, there's none of the financial overheads. And significantly, it took years of work to get the channel where it is now. We contrast this with Carfection and many other similar channels (I see there's a new one with Jason Plato and Tiff I think and the views are pretty low and I'm sure alarms are ringing) who have very high overheads from the start including multiple employees and they'll need their own employee insurances...etc. They've applied their corporate model to a platform that's really for nerds with specific interests (and some accidentally stumble into making money). Because these corporates are not going to make any money for the first few years of the channel, they'll need very deep pockets to survive and this is why a lot don't. RIP Carfection. They really were a great channel.

Wow - I never knew. I'd followed Carfection since day one and realised that there hadn't been any content recently but never knew it'd gone to the wall. It really was better than pretty much everyone else out there. Your channel, I've only followed for a year or two. I like particularly that it's of the cars that regular people are likely to afford. I have little interest in a Chiron beyond novelty value. A 15yr old XJR however, really holds court with me. I think now of something like Tyrell's Classic Cars. A fascinating channel really but is little more than round-ups and summaries of what is in his garage at the time. When we talk about overheads and simultaneously plugging the company; this really is a win win channel...

The reality of small business! I'm a graphic designer and am at the point of refusing perfectly good work because I simply can't charge enough for it to make it worth my while, let alone if it takes longer than I think it will (which it frequently does!): In truth, most people don't have a clue how long *stuff* takes: dining out, brewing beer, making videos of any kind, designing a logo; and the perceived value of a thing varies wildly. IP cowboys and underpaying organisations really don't help. Slow fashion, slow food, slow video for me; and yeah, Patreon for the win. Love your videos and enjoy your passion, and really found this video a great watch. Thank you

You Harry n Matt are the 3 channels I watch. Not surprised bout Carfex an Drivetribe.

It's no wonder Chris Harris On Cars had to fold, he's a lucky lad for the TG gig to arrive...

It is amazing how much quality content you provide for us who likes cars, i watch or listen sometimes everything you upload, i really like your unbiased reviews, as an ex owner of yaris GRMN, i was blown away and with tear in my eyes you nailed the character of that car, the best part was when you said it is just to rare for people to experience it, damn that was heartbraking... It took me months to experience GRMN, you did it in few days. Hats down, i hope for much more content ;)

We need a video on your rig! Great to hear your thoughts on KZfaq as a business model and how you've made it work. Onwards and upwards - all the best to you James.

Sure it can run Far Cry. It’s Crysis you need to worry about.

Keep up the good work James. You have achieved a great deal and forged your own path. Canny ask for more than that in life.

Brilliant view into the modern motoring world, nailed it on so many levels. Compared to the "olden" days where you were working for some TV station, built a bit of a rep, got onto the lists of car manufacturers and got invited to every 3 to 5 star presentation just so you could rake in the travel cost and try to make a living of it the fabulous KZfaq business looks so promising. Everybody can be his own station, jet around the world and produce content galore - until reality hits. Great examples are Hagerty now and stuff like carwow - these are backed by a different business that uses the outlet just for catching people to buy their real products - this works "ish". Apart from that it's a tough decision to go that route and you have my respect for doing so.

Thanks James for all your great content and you deserve all the success that comes your way. I’ve enjoyed this video on the mechanics of KZfaq and would definitely love to see a video about your contraption on the wall. Cheers from Australia.

As soon as you showed your rig my heart skipped a beat. You've got to do a vid on it Jay.

Pretty much every video I’ve ever made costs at the very least half a tank of fuel and a coffee. 1,000 views pays for the coffee, so when you put your life and soul into a video and it tops out at 600 views.... well you just have to love it to be able to do it. I’m 300 videos in and January 2023 is the first month I’ve actually made anything close to a ‘wage’. But tell you what... it feels fantastic to have done that...!

Great video. KZfaq channels aren't scalable for most. They can work well to build personal brands and drive other business but the power Google holds over the (fragmented) channels who produce value content is kind of insane. Scary if that's your primay source of income. I for one appreciate the effort that goes into this in general, and Jay's non-mainsteam-POV reviews in particular.

Enlightening video, and the first one of yours I've seen. Subscribed, of course, after watching. I can't speak for others, but in my case, I come to KZfaq to get away from over-produced content, and instead want to see the more authentic, not strained through "corporate / committee" sieves, content such as yours. That's not say your content is not well produced, because it is. However, your videos seem genuine; they are about you, being you, saying what you want without influence of teams of advisors, optimisers, profit maximisers, etc. Looking forward to delving into your content over the next days and weeks. Cheers!

Very interesting video James. I totally agree with you

Shame Carfection never got traction. It was probably a little too traditional for youtube though. Want to see more about that PC btw.

I am also fascinated by this. People always talk up KZfaqrs so much and all the money they make. But I think that's finite amount of people. Thanks for continuing to make this channel what it is. That is why I watch it. By the way, I'm in the US.

I think I've said it before but it is about the presenter to me. Yes, the cars are what draws me to the video but the presenter is what keeps me coming back. Production obviously does matter but the person doing the talking is the centre of the action to me. This is true of all the channels I watch from you to HubNut, Number 27, e.t.c . Carfection made some amazing stuff but it wouldn't have been great without the guys in front of the camera. I would just like to say a HUGE thank you to you James and everyone involved in your channel. You entertain and inform me with every video. You bring back memories of cars I've owned and those I wish I had. It's great that you can make a living from doing something you enjoy so much and, at the same time, give us viewers a terrific source of entertainment and information. More power to you sir.

Just keep doing what you’re doing James. Your content is ace!

Form a 'business' perspective, as long as it's fun, focussed and financially rewarding for you to deliver your content, your channel will continue to be a joy to watch and sustainable for you. #epicwin 😀

Would be really cool (and probably informative) if you and High Peak did a video together. You 2 are the channels I watch the most for cars.

great insight and nice to hear your understanding and referencing other channels. I think we all know that youtube has its own peculiar economics. Looking forward to see you continuing for years to come...

Carfection, brilliantly scripted, filmed and with utterly knowledgeable commentary. So when they stopped putting out stuff I started looking, and found Catchpole at the Hagerty channel. It's not the same, though.

Your channel and the guys at Throttle House are the only two car channels I watch regularly. It;s been great content for years.

Hey James. Well said. Very insightful from a car content creator point of view. I'm a tiny one-man-band hobbyist car journalist in the UK. I am a car engineer working in the automotive industry. My motivation is to share my engineer-and-enthusiast thoughts to the wider car enthusiast audience. It's been really struggling for me on KZfaq as I am speaking Chinese. The Chinese speaking audience on KZfaq is way smaller than English speaking audience. I really wish to grow as a car content creator. In China, the environment is even less ideal than UK or US, as no one could gain any meaningful revenue from video-streaming platforms like KZfaq. The only way car journalists/content creators could make profits is to work with the PR departments of car companies, meaning making sponsored contents. That is bad because that fundamentally jeopardizes the credibility of the creators. Therefore, I decide to do it as a hobby. This way, although I'm losing money, at least i could make the contents that I want.

Hat's off to you and many of the other Car UTubers. What you do is bloody hard, takes a fair amount of time and doesn't pull in huge numbers (read $$$$) when compared to other stuff on YT. If I just scroll down the RH side of video's, your DB9 video is there with 120k views, directly below it is a video on running in Fibre Cable for your house, 2.7M views!!!!!! Cars may be a gobal industry but making content for YT doesn't get the return it deserves, slightly biased car & motorbike lover. Keep doing what you can for as long as you can but never put yourself into silly amounts of debt for it. Pull the pin early and save yourself a lot of life hassles.

The difference with Harry is that when he’s away, his farm is still making money. Sad to lose Carfection. What they did was superb.

Very interesting, I thought I'd take my channel to the next level with nice studio and better cameras and presenting and then this has just reminded why I didn't, it's because the income isn't amazing so it's a huge risk. I'd rather carry on with my skills and be the 'bloke next door' sort of channel. Great info man, thanks.

Hey James. American viewer here. Just want to say how much I appreciate everything you do for your audience, and how much I’ve learned from you. Keep it up man. If you ever find yourself in the southwest again and need a friend for anything, just put out the call and I’ll see how I can help.

James - I congratulate you sir, on daring to blow wide open the Secrets of the KZfaq Algorithm😆 In all seriousness, while I am one of those who has enjoyed your content for several years, this has been by far and away the one I liked the most. Quite simply, it was fascinating to get REALLY unvarnished truth about the mechanisms behind it all. When I used to work for Audi, we were always told "customers don't want to see us pulling on the strings and operating the levers" - in other words it was always to present a smoothly suave and unruffled picture of effortless serenity and sophistication. Speaking from the other side of that equation nowadays, I can only say that, unless the actors (as in, people doing things) are possessed of world class sprezzatura, any trace of what otherwise looks a bit "Stepford Wives", piques my curiosity - it is those very strings and levers that I want to know about most - not the things the company want you to think by reading the brochure. Furthermore, you not only really got to the nitty gritty of how it all works in terms of car programmes on KZfaq; many of the lessons could be applied to any aspiring KZfaqr, regardless of the flavour of their topic. Indeed they could be applied to those who might be tempted to say (or think) "anyone could do that" - which, rather than get annoyed about it, I always feel should instead be taken as a compliment as it shows something which in fact is quite difficult, is being made to look easy. Your piece also in a general sense (by being so frank about revenues - a subject which in Britain, seems to this day, to remain something as difficult to address directly and as taboo as teenage cottaging at a Presbyterian synod) was a general message out into the Universe to remind all those who are serious about embarking on a business centring on KZfaq. Actually, come to think of it, ANY business. Namely all that glisters, isn't gold and control the costs. For every Top Gear, there are a hundred Carfections. Last but not least, was your "thinking out loud" piece on deciding the nature (and hence to a degree, the cost) of your own content - and cited examples from experience, detailing how the higher quality, more involved segment was one you really wanted to create - but which made little business sense; as opposed to, and I paraphrase, the cut 'n shut job rehashing an old "cheap car challenge" - merely committing to film what many do on a Saturday morning anyway - wistfully peruse reams of adverts for a fantasy shopping list - which you report was of far greater commercial value. Everyone can see how that presents a dilemma - particularly to people like yourself by which I mean relatively new on the scene and more-or-less a one man band. There is no one size fits all response to it other than to note that your passion - your first instinct - led you inexorably down the "quality" route for the Bentley feature. You did it in spite of what common sense was telling you. While in the long run such a strategy wouldn't be viable, it does speak to who you are. It reminds me of the engineers at Saab - they were SO committed to and focused on producing wonderfully functional cars, even though the could see themselves doing it, while they were doing it, they literally could not stop themselves from going off piste from the parts bin list they were given for designing the last 9-3(and, for romance's sake, I shall ignore the global recession!). Perhaps more pertinent is the part of an interview - to be found here on the 'Tube - with Jeremy Clarkson and fellow "Farm" presenter Kaleb where the latter rather touchingly describes some advice that Jeremy had previously given him which amounted to "don't sell out". We then hear how it may well be tempting for a young lad to receive all sorts of offers but he'd then become a mere puppet in someone else's play, citing several examples of people he had known in his time who, having burst onto the scene, quickly burnt out. Slow and steady seemed to be the advice for long term survival. And, love him or loathe him, JC knows a few things about surviving... Which, dear James, is ironic, given KZfaq's apparent preference for interrupting our viewing pleasure with endless ads for any number of get-rich-quick schemes the further irony being how easy it seems to be demonetised by the KZfaq goblins who are quick, on the other hand, to accept the dollar from whichever crackpot Californian guru, Russian-oligarch front or most popularly of all, the Forex traders with no proof requested or required of the mostly outlandish claims. How these mostly outright scammers live with themselves is anyone's guess - but underneath, I bet even the ones that seem to find success (aka get away with it) don't truly enjoy it. So that's it from both sides - I was "brought up properly" - and so, would it seem, were you. And, without allowing oneself to go broke in the process, the pursuit of quality while building a reputation ought to remain paramount and dare I say, had it not been for your behind-the-scenes confessions, I wouldn't have noticed where you say you may have trimmed a few corners😄😎 It will be harder, take longer and will be peppered with distractions - but I do think your evident knowledge and enthusiasm will carry you. Btw I speak as someone whose intentions were Saab for 20 years but lost their way and tried to snatch it when I couldn't quite reach....I don't recommend it and I get the impression you'd prefer to invest for the long term anyway - do that😄

Savagegeese is also an outlier