 My work here on YouTube is supported by viewers Please take a look at the link in the description below and visit my page at 50th Street where you can become a sponsor Hello I'm recording this very early on the morning of February 6th 2018 it's almost a week of February has gone by and I haven't done my January reads video yet. So this is it and it's gonna be a January reads video and also State of the channel address Kinda I Got that name from my friend Pac Billy who just did one last month Can you call someone a friend when you've never seen their face? Can we do that? Anyway, the big issue For me and for a lot of small youtubers The past month has been an announcement from YouTube a few weeks ago that they were gonna cut off monetization to every YouTube channel that has less than a thousand subscribers and less than I Think four thousand hours viewed in the past year. I thought it was forty thousand hours But everyone else is saying four thousand. So anyway, I have already easily met the hours viewed limit but When the announcement was made, I only had nine hundred thirty subscribers And the cutoff date is going to be February 20. So I was thinking I'm gonna get cut off and even though I'm not making much money Just just dollars just a handful of dollars each month You know, I only started doing monetization about 90 days ago and I'm just getting started. That's really unfair But then in the last month My subscribership has skyrocketed. I have gotten 115 new subscribers in the last Two weeks I was slowly climbing up to I like I said 930 then 940 then 950 and then I would slip back a few And I joined this thing called the the small youtuber army and the the booktuber army And we were all trading subscriptions with each other And I was getting, you know, a few here a few there I was thinking I would make it just under the wire by February 20 and now suddenly I have 1036 subscribers And if it's if this keeps going I won't be in any danger of losing All those subscribers by February 20th. So Yeah, I'm pleased about that these subscribers are not coming from vintage sci-fi book fans. No, no, they're not I don't think they're coming from this small youtuber army either Those two rubik's cube videos that I made four years ago have have suddenly skyrocketed in popularity youtube itself Is starting to suggest those Those two videos to people all over the internet As I've told you every month, uh for the last year or so my number one Most viewed and most minutes watched video every month has been that one rubik's cube video And uh two or three times a week. I'm getting Angry comments on there from young rubik's cubers telling me that I suck telling me Calling me names, but anyway, look at this Look at the number of minutes watched and the number of views I've gotten Look at the chart here. Look how it spiked. I think I caused that In a way because just before that happened I realized that I could shut off A commenting on that video. It's been there for more than three years almost four years I said, I don't I don't need to deal with this anymore. So I turned off the commenting and I also noticed that I had never put Links at the end of that video So so I put in a link to my other rubik's cube video and what happened was These kids are so angry And they're so determined to leave an angry message that they saw that link to the other rubik's cube video And they go over there to that video to leave an angry message and what happened Is I doubled my view count and my number of minutes viewed that way So I accidentally manipulated the trolls to my advantage But this astronomical rise in numbers of views for those particular videos is not coming from somebody influential somewhere Recommended the video youtube itself is suggesting the video it's showing up on people's suggestions and and the The the google analytics here are showing me that that's where this is coming from And it's also showing me here that my monetization for the last 28 days is $31 and change that's a lot more than I've ever gotten in a month Which and I'm hoping it'll it'll stay steady or keep growing and it's also reaching the amount that I get from My handful of sponsors every month Which really surprises me speaking of my sponsors here are my four sponsors And while I'm thinking of it you all please remember the sci-fi book bag If you become a sponsor of my channel here at the rate of 20 a month I will send you a science fiction book in the mail every month That will be my gift to you for being a sponsor That's that's a real deal I've had that deal for like two years now and nobody has taken me up on it Anyway, look at these insane numbers on the amounts of minutes watched in the last 28 days Almost 92,000 minutes I remember mentioning a while back that I was getting 17 18,000 minutes of video watched each month And I was thinking that's kind of frightening and how much that is and then I've got 92,000 minutes in a month And almost all of it is kids hate watching my Rubik's Cube video Last week I published a really fun video on the 50th street channel As part of my 50th street tour of Portland It was a visit to the Columbia Gorge model railroad I think you'll really enjoy that video go look at that Anyway, that's the deal with the channel Take a look at the wall of books here These are the books that I bought in the last year since I left Florida and I've been traveling I had to in order to get the wall high enough to fill up the screen here I had to take two of the big hardbacks and stand them up and face them out I'm not highlighting these two books. That's they're just there to fill that space And I had to put a line across the top of Books that I borrowed from the house that I'm staying in at the moment It wasn't quite tall enough. I thought I had more books But anyway, all of these books you all would have seen over the last year As I've done my monthly reads videos. So right now I'm going to show you the stuff that I bought In the past month these three books I bought at another read through in Portland Right after I recorded the latest 30 second half hour episode with Cal Spivey. In fact, this is This is Cal's book the one that we mentioned from under the mountain I don't know anything about the book. I like this cover illustration though Then I bought a couple of classics collection of stories Berserker attacked by Saber Hagen and Get off the unicorn by Ann McCaffrey And then these two books I got at the Goodwill In Tacoma This is called Turn Right at Machu Picchu This is a non-fiction book. I couldn't resist that subject matter And then this this giant book by Tannith Lee called The Wars of Viz Wow, I thought this contained more than it does Apparently it contains just two books I thought surely this was three at least Anyway, I don't know that much about Tannith Lee I also got these first two volumes of the complete peanuts I bought them used at Powell's books and I'm taking notes as you can see You'll be seeing these again I also Found a local comic store and bought the two volumes of Terry Moore's motor girl I'll need to mention these someday on odd comics And at the same time I bought issue two of the Wonder Woman Conan crossover A short review of this I'm not impressed Okay, so what am I reading right now? I just finished reading Babel 17 by Samuel R. Delaney I'm going to do a discussion about that book with Becky In an upcoming episode of the 32nd half hour And I'm going to record another episode with Pat Billy I think we've decided what we're going to do anyway I did a lot of driving last week and I listened to A few discs of seven eaves I haven't decided yet what I think of it. I'm also reading Uh, oh and I just finished reading the 2013 nebula awards showcase So a big book on my phone that I've been picking away at for more than a year now You've heard me mentioned a number of times Great great stuff great stories in that book. I'll definitely give that a review of its own and I'm partway through flow my tears the policeman said by Philip K. Dick So you'll be hearing about that soon too. Okay, folks. That's it for this monthly wrap up Like and subscribe, please remember when you click the thumbs up button down there That's how videos get recommended and seen it does it works. It does work. That's why I keep mentioning it Please subscribe and please become a sponsor That helps me keep making these things more than anything else There's more stuff coming this week and next week and all the time. So keep watching Thank you for your support. Bye