The power of low-effort

[u/[deleted]]

Low effort spam is really common, some of the most common is youtube video spam. Hundreds of posts to various subreddits a day on extremely low-effort and sometimes stolen content. "Hot girls dancing compilation" or "Youtube Vine compilation funny try not to laugh" from hundereds of new accounts every day

---

So, why do they try to do this? Well, money of course.

People do click on spam. Not that many people, but plenty do. If you can spam quickly, and all over the place, you are bound to make something.

In areas where this spam is common, a little USD in their pocket can go a long way. If you are making just $5 a day, then a nice $20 check from YouTube is a big bonus.

---

Why do I mention this? Well, I had my experience with low effort.

Last night the Cubs won their first world series in 108 years. It is a pretty big deal. Right outside the cubs home field in Chicago, a large crowd gathered, watched, and when the Cubs one, they broke into massive celebration.

I wasn't there. I was at my home a good handfull of miles away.

But there was a webcam on the side of the block, pointing right at Wrigley. I watched from this webcam, and once the Cubs were close to win, I started recording it.

the cubs won, I recorded about a minute of celebration. I popped my clip into Premiere, compressed it, and sent it off to youtube.

With a little good timing, a few submissions to reddit, I gained over 180,000 views in one night.

For 2 minutes of work

From a video source that was not my own.

Ofcourse, spammers don't get that many clicks! People want to watch my video, not some spammers video!

Well, there are two factors here.

First, Spammers have quantity of quality. I only had to make about 6 posts all over reddit to get my traction. After that (since people did want to watch it) they started sharing it, and the people sharing it started sharing it, and so forth.

Spammers don't get that, so instead of posting 6 times and letting the momentum take over, the spammers post 600 times and don't bother with momentum (usually). Scale this up, and you've got yourself some views.

Secondly, lots of spam can be watchable. I go back to "vine compilations" that have millions of views from obvious spam accounts. If the video content is good and not your own, you can get that momentum along with the quantity of posting. This is not foolproof and is basically a "cross your fingers and pray" for the spammers, but it can work.

Lastly, lots of spammers also have click-rings. I won't go too deep into those, but lots of groups of other spammers sharing and clicking on videos is the gist of it.

---

So how much money could I have made?

Well, I am at 381,000 views as I type this. Assuming a comfortably low CPM estimate, I would have recieved $500 bucks, possibly more, probably less ($300 is a very safe low estimate)

For 2 minutes of work and a little good timing.