Matthew Haughey, "YouTube revenue and recent good ones":

For high-end channels that put out weekly videos, they often have a team of 4-5 people behind the scenes, shooting video and editing it all and getting everyone paid but it doesn't make sense based solely on YouTube/Google's ad income. Instead, they take a break into the middle of their video to talk about SquareSpace or BetterHealth, and the creators I follow admit they get $5k-$30k for those ads, while the same video might only make a few hundred bucks from YouTube. When I hear this, I'm both shocked at how high the ad rates are for an embedded ad read but also how little YouTube/Google pays their creators.

I was just wondering the other day whether YouTube has optimized its ads to make folks think favorably of the advertiser or annoy users into ponying up for a Premium subscription? Really seems like the latter annoyance way more than the former.

Sounds like the cruddy ad interjections don't even make much money for the folks who make the videos that get interrupted—and I've heard from several of those folks that they make more money from Premium viewers anyway.