Blog, YouTube & Content Monetization

In its early days, the odds seemed good that YouTube was destined for failure. After a false start as a dating website, it wasn’t clear whether the company could cover the cost of streaming video content, or avoid the fate of Napster, which was sued out of business for copyright infringement. But after getting acquired by Google in 2006, and deciding to share ad revenue with creators a year later, YouTube went on not only to survive, but also to revolutionize the entire media ecosystem—from “double rainbows” to the “Ice Bucket Challenge.” In 2024, YouTube took in $36.3 billion in ad revenue, and today it is the most-watched video provider in the U.S.—not just among s…

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. When I recently reached out to Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi for his updated home price forecast, he said his long-term outlook for the U.S. housing market remains largely unchanged: he expects a prolonged period of stagnation as affordability gradually improves. Following the historic run-up in prices during the Pandemic Housing Boom and the subsequent mortgage rate shock, Zandi believes resale activity/existing home sales will likely stay frozen for several more years. “Affordability has to be restored for housing to regain its m…

Five students at U.S. military academies and three each from Yale University, Harvard University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are among the 32 American winners named Sunday as 2026 Rhodes scholars. The group includes students focused on housing, health outcomes, sustainability, and prison reentry programs. They include: Alice L. Hall of Philadelphia, a varsity basketball player at MIT who also serves as student body president. Hall, who has collaborated with a women’s collective in Ghana on sustainability tools, plans to study engineering. Sydney E. Barta of Arlington, Virginia, a Paralympian and member of the track team at Stanford Universit…

Is Bitcoin biting the dust? The world’s most popular cryptocurrency (BTC) has seen its value drop significantly from highs earlier this year as it has struggled to shake off a price decline that began in early October. As of Monday morning, the price of one BTC was around $94,000, which is down almost 8% over the past five days and down 14% over the past month. Notably, the token is now roughly flat since the beginning of the year—meaning it’s given back all of the value it gained earlier in 2025, having topped out at slightly more than $124,000 in October. The downturn started in early October, and since then, Bitcoin is down roughly 32%, putting it fi…

When Jennifer Austin met Molly in second grade, they quickly became best friends. They giggled through classes until the teacher separated them, inspiring them to come up with their own language. They shared sleepovers and went on each other’s family vacations. But they gradually drifted apart after Austin’s family moved to Germany before the girls started high school. Decades passed before they recently reconnected as grown women. “Strong friendships really do stay for the long haul,” Austin, 51, said. “Even if there are pauses in between and they fade, that doesn’t mean they completely dissolve or they go forgotten. They’re always there kind of lingering like a …

As of this writing, shares in Quantum Computing Inc. (Nasdaq: QUBT) are spiking in premarket trading, with the stock price up over 15%. That’s a relatively large swing, even for a quantum computing firm, where stocks have been especially volatile this year. Here’s what to know: Why is QUBT rising today? While quantum computing stocks have been volatile this year due in part to the speculative nature of the space, the main reason for Quantum Computing’s share price surge this morning seems more to do with the company’s finances than just standard run-of-the-mill quantum speculation. On Friday, Quantum Computing Inc. released its third-quarter 2025 financials—an…

Unsuspecting Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) investors might be startled this morning if they glance at a stock price chart for shares in the TV streamer. As of the time of this writing, popular stock tracking sites like Yahoo Finance and apps like Apple Stocks are showing that Netflix’s shares dropped more than 90% on Friday, when they began the day trading at more than $1,100. Those same charts now show that NFLX shares are trading at “just” around $111 each. But don’t panic. Netflix’s shares haven’t actually lost 90% of their value. NFLX stock just split. Here’s what you need to know. Why are Netflix shares trading so ‘low’? Netflix shares are currently trading …

Transitioning to a new industry often seems like a daunting prospect if you feel like you have to start from scratch, but that’s not necessarily the case. There are numerous strategies you can employ to navigate career changes, including translating existing achievements into relevant terms, finding unique opportunity gaps, and leveraging transferable skills in meaningful ways. Take it from professionals who have personally experienced this transition (or have helped others through it): you can build forward from experience rather than starting over. Build Forward From Experience, Not From Scratch When I was transitioning from more than 20 years in corporate roles to lau…

Ask yourself one question: Is your incentive plan changing employee behavior in a way that drives better business outcomes? If the answer is no, it’s time to rethink your strategy. Profit sharing, stock options, and employee ownership are popular tools, and in many cases they’re useful. Employees generally appreciate them. But here’s the catch: Appreciation doesn’t equal action. And more importantly, satisfaction isn’t engagement. Too often, these programs fail to move the needle where it matters most: day-to-day performance. If your performance compensation doesn’t change performance, it’s not performance compensation. Over the past three decades, working with hu…

Over the summer, Bogg bags were ubiquitous at beaches and parks. This year alone, it has sold more than $100 million of these plastic totes full of holes that come in a rainbow of colors. But now, the brand is trying to get you to bring your Bogg bag to dinner at a fancy restaurant, or the office, or a hot date. Today, Bogg releases its newest line, which it is describing with a delightfully tongue-in-cheek name: Bougie Quilted Collection. The structure of the bag hasn’t changed much; it is still made of plastic and has plenty of holes on it. But it also has a quilted texture, reminiscent of the surface of a Chanel flap purse or a nylon Prada bag. And it comes with an a…

Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning. Performance assessment matters: Research from McKinsey & Co. maintains that companies with a focus on employee performance see 30% higher revenue growth and lower attrition rates than their peers. In the past, though, top executives seemed to care mostly about the results of employee revi…

Sunbridge appears to be a quintessential example of 21st century sprawl. A 27,000-acre residential mega-development taking shape outside of Orlando, Florida, it’s set to include more than 30,000 new homes in total when complete—a few neighborhoods, miles of trails, and a K–8 school have already been completed. It’s riding a growth boom in Central Florida; this fast-growing section of the Sun Belt has added more than 1,000 people every week in recent years. But within the different subdivisions being constructed at Sunbridge over the next 30 years, a landscape will emerge with each new home and green space that’s much more wild, native, and sustainable than the stereotypi…

Black, unassuming, about the size of a pack of chewing gum: On the surface, the Fire TV 4K Select stick released in mid-October looks just like any other streaming device made by Amazon. Plug it into your TV, and you’ll be greeted by Amazon’s tried-and-true living room interface, complete with icons for popular streaming apps like Netflix, Disney+ and Prime Video. And yet, the Select streaming stick is unlike any of its predecessors. That’s because the device is running Vega – a new, Linux-based operating system Amazon has quietly been building over the past couple of years as a replacement for its legacy, Android-based Fire OS. The company plans to eventually la…

It’s not often that headlines about customer “brawls” end up morphing into good news for a brand. But that’s arguably what’s happened to Starbucks thanks to the bungled rollout of its limited-run “Bearista” cups becoming the first new craze of this holiday season—even including good-natured copycat tributes from the likes of Aldi and Walmart. At first, the Bearista debut on November 6 seemed like a black eye. The 20-ounce glass tumbler, shaped like a cute bear sporting a Starbucks beanie, sparked immediate viral demand, with customers at some locations lining up at 3 a.m. to score one. This apparently caught the company off guard, and supplies of the $30 object ran ou…

With over 800 student organizations on campus, the University of Pennsylvania already seems to have a club for every interest, from investment banking to beekeeping—even cheese. Now, add AI to the mix. In September, dozens of Penn students gathered in the engineering school auditorium for the debut of the Claude Builder Club, sponsored by AI company Anthropic. Over the course of this semester, the Builder Club has plans to host a hackathon, demo night, and other opportunities to create projects using artificial intelligence. “I need the Claude premium for a year,” says Crystal Yang, a freshman who attended the first meeting. Claude, she had heard, is “better for c…

For years, we’ve treated confidence in the workplace as something that rises with seniority. The longer you’re in the game, the more secure you should feel, at least in theory. But new data is telling a different story. Confidence is quietly increasing among early and mid-career employees, while many senior leaders are facing a growing sense of doubt. The emotional center of the workforce is shifting, and it says a lot about how work, identity, and leadership are changing. The View from the Ground Glassdoor’s latest numbers show something many leaders might not expect: Confidence is rising among those at the beginning and middle of their careers. Entry-level confidence …

More than two decades of research—from Harvard professor Amy Edmondson’s pioneering studies to Google’s landmark Project Aristotle—have found that the strongest predictor of high-performing teams isn’t talent or strategy, but psychological safety. As Edmondson defines, it’s “a shared belief held by team members that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking.” It’s what gives people the confidence to speak up, take creative risks, and learn from failure—and it’s foundational to innovation. But one critical truth is often overlooked: Leaders can’t create psychological safety for others if they haven’t first cultivated it within themselves. I learned this the h…

It’s an experience almost everyone is familiar with: that moment after you’ve been mindlessly snacking on a bag of Cheetos, when you realize that your fingers are now coated in a gritty, fluorescent orange dust. The finger dust phenomenon is so ubiquitous that Doritos and Cheetos have each run their own ads centering on the topic. Now, PepsiCo is debuting a version of both iconic snacks that come sans artificial orange. PepsiCo recently announced a product line called “Simply NKD,” a new sub-category of Doritos and Cheetos that come with no artificial flavors or dyes, rendering them “completely colorless.” The collection will include orange-dust-free versions of Doritos…

A few days ago, I wrapped a coaching call with a senior executive navigating a complex restructuring—work that demands steadiness in ambiguity, patience when emotions rise, and the discipline to stay grounded while others are spinning. Minutes later, I walked into my kitchen and found my child in a mismatched Halloween costume, eating shredded cheese out of the bag, and crying because her Lego creation was “too wobbly to be art.” The contrast was sharp, but the underlying lesson was familiar. Parenting and leadership rarely feel similar in form, but they draw on the same internal architecture. Both require influence without force, emotional regulation under pressure, …

Earlier this year, TikTokers declared the start of the Great Meme Depression of 2025. In the months since, things haven’t picked up much. As 2026 approaches, some internet users have decided to take matters into their own hands rather than risk yet another year of AI slop and brainrot humor. It’s time to take it back to 2016. The Great Meme Reset of 2026 was first proposed by TikTok creator joebro909 in a video from March, according to KnowYourMeme, in the thick of The Great Meme Depression. In the clip, he suggested that all memes be wiped from memory in an effort to rescue TikTok from the drought. In September, TikTok creator golden._vr took up the call, …