Still alive for those of you asking…just haven’t had much to share. Might be a sign that my efforts would be better served by working on my book and putting this blog to bed.
Anyway…
My Jersey friend Joe Grasso sent the following article along and I love it. Especially the line “Professional archaeologists admit that they’re also concerned about how the proposed change would affect their ability to make a living”….
Arizona May Put People With Minimal Training In Charge Of Identifying Archaeological Sites
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Sure wish there were lube jobs for the body.
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I always have to laugh when Nigel Swift shares his love for the farmer when in fact he really doesn’t give a rat’s ass about any of them. It’s just a convenient way for him to run down the metal detecting fraternity and he loves doing that. It’s fortunate that those who matter see right through his biased BS.
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Be sure to read Jim Fielding’s recent blog post “Dangerous Detecting and The New World Order”…it echoes a lot of what I’m feeling anymore. Makes me wonder if I’ve outgrown the pastime or if I’ve outlived my usefulness. Of course it could be both….
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Have a friend who has an old White’s 3900D detector and is in need of a coil….cheap or free. If you have one please let me know.
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I’m hoping that when I leave this world I will be remembered as a “detectorist who lived prior to the “Vidiot Age”….
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Was changing channels last night and came across “The Curse of the Civil War Gold” on the History channel. Watched a fifteen minute segment and can’t believe they can dupe so many people. As PT Barnum was supposed to say “there’s a….”
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Would someone please tell me…has anyone ‘really’ made money doing YouTube videos?
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Think I might start doing a once a month podcast. Anymore than that and they would get boring and repetitive. The first fifteen minutes would be devoted to sharing detecting tips & news, next fifteen I could interview all the well-known social media tekkies (for the twentieth time). The last 30 minutes? My wine and centerfold of the month. Whatdaya think?
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If I ever find that shoe box of buttons I accumulated over 40 years I will be a millionaire…that’s right isn’t it?
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Stout Standards 
The podcast seems a good idea, Dick. They could be a joint enterprise between you and John Howland. You can devote the first to ironing out who owes the $20 … then you can announce that you’re sending the missiles in! Just a thought ….
Missiles?
Dick… I know you play the upright bass and archtop guitar, but now you are playing the violin? Who cares if your blog doesn’t come on-line every ten minutes new! The body of work you have done here is fabulous and all of us are grateful for your wisdom, commentary and tips. For us old timers, it is a place to go and be comfortable with ourselves. I thank you for that! So go out detecting more and write less… That is what I do now. I spent a long time doing the reverse, it’s time to catch up. You are getting your health back, that is most important my friend!
Yes sir!!
Dick, there’s actually a ton of money to be made on YouTube. Some of the top content creators pull in fifteen or twenty million dollars per year *BUT* the channels that are making the big bucks are geared more towards mainstream, general interests, like; video gaming, make-up tutorials for women, comedy skits, movie reviews, etc.
Since metal detecting is such a tiny, niche hobby, it would be extremely tough to get the amount of views necessary to even make a meager living. There are a few of the bigger names like The Hoover Boys, Aquachigger and a couple of others that get a decent amount of views, but I’d guess that they might be making around $1,000 per month (and I’m being generous) from their YouTube efforts. While that might sound like great, easy money, it’s not. There is a LOT of work involved to put out consistent, entertaining videos: shooting, editing, SEO, and a million other things, all of which take time away from hunting, family, friends and other life matters.
Yes, some of the big guys are also sponsored, but from what I understand, most sponsorships pay very little, if at all. They might get appearance fees occasionally, airfare & lodging to attend a big event, and I’m sure they get a good deal of swag, but I don’t think anyone is getting rich from this stuff. The rare exceptions are those two digger guys who had/have their own TV show, all of the Oak Island fellas, and the Gold Rush guys, but as you can see, there are basically a handful out of thousands upon thousands who enjoy this hobby who are lucky enough to make a job out of it.
As someone once said about gambling, and I think it applies to this pastime perfectly, “It is a TOUGH way to make an easy living.” I did the videoing thing for a couple of years and had a blast, but it burned me out. Too much work, and it took away from my swinging time when I was hunting, so I nixed it. I’m in this hobby for the fun, adventure & history. If I wanted to work, I’d actually go INTO work instead of playing hooky to detect.
Glad you enjoyed the article. Yes, the line you quoted was the clincher. Really speaks volumes about a large part of their modus operandi.
Joe, you a walking encyclopedia…thank you. I heard from a tekkie a while back who gave the video thing a shot and he earned 10 cents before he packed it in. I just think it’s something that takes away from the pastime in that you need to think about both digging and filming, not to mention the cost of the equipment. On the other hand if Aquachigger makes a few bucks doing it do you think Dallas Dick stands a chance?
Joe thank you again. Good stuff!
I’ve been tapping my foot, waiting, it seems, like MONTHS since your last blog post, Dick, and I was annoying the heck out of the other people in my doctor’s waiting room with all that foot tapping so I had to just fume in silence for a while…thanks for finally posting something. Oh, thanks for the mention of my blog…I was having a melancholy day, limping out to the garage to polish my metal detectors, when I decided to make a therapeutic post denouncing the dam foolery of the hobby in it’s current state. I felt better later, after plunging my coin probe multiple times into the damp Florida soil, then wrote a blog post about THAT.
Loved the article about the Archaeologist’s getting all soap-boxy about historic Arizona artifacts being dug by someone who only has 40-hours of training. The REAL reason, their jobs may be in jeopardy, finally comes out way at the bottom. I love archaeology, even took some courses in college, but a lot of the archaeological protocols seemed a bit overly complex and duplicitous. It seemed to me they were designed to “milk” a project to the max. I was an engineering student at the time, and suggested to the professor that maybe updating and streamlining some of the plodding techniques would help make things more efficient enabling them to cover more ground and visit more sites. I cannot tell you the tirade that came from that academic’s tiny cooked mouth, mostly in the area of WHAT DO YOU EVEN KNOW ABOUT ANYTHING, YOUNG MAN???? Not being open to criticism in the slightest is an archaeological creed, apparently.
I’ve had a YouTube channel for about 10-years, which is why I am a millionaire today…in my mind anyway. The first few years i made a lot of detecting videos, got a lot of views.Made a few hundred bucks. A lot of my detectorist friends here in Central Florida tell me the reason they started metal detecting was due to my videos…their favorite one was where Patti and I were detecting on a wildlife trail. I did a long zoom shot to Patti kneeling on the ground with her pin-pointer and I said “What did you find?” and she says disgustedly “A whole lot of NOTHING!” Why someone would want to start metal detecting after seeing that, leaves me stumped to this day.
Money-wise, YouTube paid about $30 per 1000 views in the old days…but just recently, February, the Tube announced to all us “content creators” they were cutting all payments to any channel with less than 4000 views a year and less than 1000 subscribers…if you watched the news recently, an Indian woman whose channel got dumped monetarily went out to California and shot up YouTube headquarters then did herself in. I’m not nearly that passionate and had quit making videos quite some time ago. Who has time to go metal detecting when you are shooting a TV show? Not this guy!
The “Unproductive and Useless” title to your blog got me thinking you were referring to my blog since I had not done one in a month or maybe two…but I see I am in the clear and I am not feeling as guilty now as when I first started reading you latest entry in “Stout Standards.”
Cheer up…you have a large readership, and you may not realize it, but you are very much relevant in what’s left of the hobby. Your insights, remembrances and spotlighting detectorists from the old days to the current crop of knot-heads (did I say that out loud?) is always insightful and entertaining. So buck up!!!! Good post Dick.
“I’ve been tapping my foot, waiting, it seems, like MONTHS since your last blog post…” Jeezus, alright already. I see I should have worded it differently.
If you look at the number of blog posts from years past and compare them to today’s you will see they’ve dwindled. I try now to write something at least once a week but even that is getting difficult. I had a few emails from friends wondering if I was okay and thought it best to say “something”…
As far as archaeologists go..they always like to make a BFD over anything that detectorists find and label us thieves, looters, etc.. Bottom line is that “they didn’t find it” and that pisses them off. They’d be happier if we just left everything in the ground so that they could discover it months, years, decades and centuries from now, unless of course the areas in question are plowed, built upon paved or excavated. I could go on but you already know my feelings here.
As for Youtube….it’s a numbers game just like everything else today and it’s not one I’m interested in.
Thanks Jim for the comment and the sarcasm. I will get even somehow.
I await your sneaky wrath, Dick. Just don’t make it the “Here I am in France” thing again, because I am sure I’d fall for it again in a second.
Yeah didn’t take much…
When I read the title, “Unproductive and Useless”, I was looking forward to something about Barford and Swift, the best double-act since Null & Void. Seems these two have employment chances in Arizona but are they under-qualified one wonders? I hope not.
I think John Winter’s idea maybe a winner.
Jeezus a podcast with you and me? That would take a turn south real quick!!
Dick, I think you and John would be a great podcast-ers…I’ve turned the sound down a bit (all that loud talk about the proverbial $20 someone owes someone) and look forward to the “Dick and John Show” Podcast. You guys will just have to try and coordinate that 3-second delay across the pond there. Maybe get Barford as your first and last guest. I’d probably pay to hear that one…$20.
Hell I’d pay to hear that….