There is a problem that web surfers have always had to deal with but has become even more pervasive. The topic time vampires I call them. TTV’s for short. I’ve recently discovered that the topic of photography has enticed many of them away from whatever they were wasting peoples time with previously.
What is a TTV?
They are Youtubers / bloggers who are trying to build or grow their niche. They target keywords / phrases that web surfers are typing (or speaking) in to search engines and hope we will land on their site or channel. Their aim is not to give useful or original information, it’s to convince you they’re an expert. Very rarely will you encounter an expert. Most of them are imposters. Imitators. They just copy / rehash each others content. Or worse, steal other peoples content and pass it off as there own.
A History Lesson
TTV’s were rampant back in the mid to late 2000’s especially in the “make money online” niche (as they called it). Man, I wasted hours, going round in circles. Everyone pretended they were an expert. Everyone had a link to an affiliate program that would teach you “all the secrets”. They would do whatever they could to waste as much of your time on purpose. Really. You see, back then (not sure about today), the search engines rewarded pages that kept a visitor reading. It was in the TTV’s interest to waffle on for screenfuls of content, while actually writing nothing of any value. All that was required was to pepper the article with the keywords and boom, they’d climb a bit higher towards the coveted number one spot.
Enter the “Influencers”
Since the web has shifted from static pages of text based results to multimedia content, chasing the top spot on any particular search engine is no longer enough. The TTV’s potentially lucrative audience could be one of the many intranets: Instagram, Facebook etc. Or, the searcher might prefer to watch a video instead of reading an article. So now the TTV’s must have a presence on every platform. Or at least all the big ones.
How to Detect a TTV?
If it’s a website, popups (of any kind)1 should usually be enough to encourage usage of your browsers back button. Youtubers who have sponsored videos and pester you to “click that subscribe button” should set off alarm bells. If in doubt, watch or read a couple of their offerings and ask yourself, “did I get what the title suggested?”
They’re Just Trying to Make a Living!
I know some people will object to my characterising all these people as TTV’s, but as the old saying goes “if it walks like a duck…”. I mean seriously, how many Youtubers do we need to be making photography vids?
Find the Source(s)
Searching for “take better photos” on Youtube returns the following result on the first “page”:
5 Ways To Take Better Photos… (2022)
The source:
Photo Tip: Five for Five (2011)
This of course may not be the source, but I’m sure the Youtuber discovered the concept from elsewhere. Shame he didn’t bother to mention it in his video. It took me 10 seconds to find the above article, by the way.
I’m sure many, many more easy examples could be found if needed.
There aren’t any Shortcuts
The bottom line, and the point of this post, is that there aren’t any shortcuts to learning / mastering / becoming something. The most efficient way to get what you want may be to be invest in a book, or go on a course that will cover the fundamentals. It may be tempting to do a search on “become a better photographer” or “take better photos” but be aware, those phrases will lead you to TTV’s. Every time. Your time is their paycheck.
Footnotes
1 With the exception of those highly annoying cookie consent dialogues.
