u/iKontact

Firstly, it's all in the algorithm. And it sets extremely unrealistic expectations for beginners. (Of course like anything there's things you can do to mitigate this, but I digress).

I can't say how many dozens of posts I see where people are saying "what am I doing wrong?" Or "how does X, Y, or Z channel get so many views after A, B, and C months?"

First of all, you come across these channels because of the algorithm in the first place. But keep in mind there's tens of thousands, if not more, AI channels that you'll never see because they're not getting any views. This is where most of the AI YouTube channels fall.

Even IF you're doing everything extremely well, it's still hard because everyone else is trying to use YouTube as a money maker too.

I'll say this: I ran a semi successful AI YouTube channel for a few months then gave up on it. Why? It's extremely hard to keep up with the trends and constantly think of the ideas to grow the channel even if you know what you're doing. And it's luck too. There's a whole slew of competition. There's always going to be channels that grow faster, one's that explode. You should NOT being doing this with that expectation. It also creates a "leash" on you. You're going to want more and more views. First it's "I made 1,000 subs, now I want 5K, then 10K, etc." And if you do, and it does feel good, you're going to probably become obsessed with views. I'm aware this true for YouTub-ing in general. The reason i mentioned it here is because people do AI YouTube channels for a different reason, not to share their lives, but for money. Meaning, it's probably not something you're passionate about. Although I could be wrong.

Anyways, patience is something I wish more people had too. For me I tried it because it was interesting. Not for the money. So I had no expectations there and it grew to my surprise. But it slowly changes your psyche as you get more into it.

With that being said, my first piece of advice is don't do it. What I learned is that once you realize how much time you put into it, trying to make the quality perfect, maintain it, make the AI voice over natural, keep the content entertaining (or useful in some way to the viewers) you also then realize maybe you'd rather just invest into yourself and do something else. Do something YOU enjoy, that's authentic to YOU. If so just stop here share it. People will watch it.

If you truly do love this (and you must if want you to be successful) and it's your genuine passion, then fine - more power to you. But it seems like a lot of people do it for the wrong reasons - i.e. money. Not to say it's silly to try and leverage technology to your benefit, but, because it's not what you think it is. You'll get bored of it, probably stop it anyways if you don't love it, like anything else really.

If you truly do love the idea of being an AI tuber and want my genuine advice - it's this:

Do something unique. The world doesn't need more copycat AI slop. And even if it's good, it doesn't matter. They've already seen a billion other things like it, probably better than yours (no offense).

You'll want to keep people's attention so be creative. Don't just regurgitate what others do. Whether there's a story, a certain character style, or theme, there needs to be a reason for viewers to want to return.

Do NOT do something that's un natural to you. Find what you love, and figure out a way to create content with it. It's why non AI YouTubers are successful. Plus if it's not natural to you you'll probably give up. Doing something you're passionate about makes the work seem like fun. That's what it should be.

Anyways, not trying sound rude here, just have seen so many posts about this lately and thought I'd share my perspective.

Just curious of what you guys think of it so far. Would love genuine feedback so I can become a better artist! Thank you!

I guess here's another thought. Consciousness Consciousness Consciousness. We have it.

Actually, I believe I know the answer to this. It's due to evolution and prediction.

I believe consciousness was created and evolutionarily necessary to make us better at predictions. Especially predicting our ever changing environments to give us an advantage. I think there's no other purpose other than this.

I think GWT & IIT are incorrect in their theories (as proven by COGITATE) and if we ever want consciousness in AI it will be through this route.

Anyways, because life is short and random:

Babble. Bobble. Beetle Bop.

Backle, Knarnackle, Kabble Gop.

https://preview.redd.it/qv91594j7pfh1.png?width=630&format=png&auto=webp&s=d10362d84e2dde2911dfb29199df99801f95e2f1

So I wanted to use Claude Code, but apparently I'm $2 over my $20 limit. Not sure how it went over in the first place, but I am..

Anyways, I wanted to add $2 so I can continue using it, but I can't. I tried the $5 option first, but it didn't work. So then I went to "Other" and it says "$7 minimum".

Okay, here's what I don't get.. why have the option for $5 if there's a $7 minimum? Just change it to $7. And why can't I just add $2 to continue using Claude Code?

Dissapointed they set it up this way...

https://preview.redd.it/7vjo4ukuevbh1.png?width=994&format=png&auto=webp&s=19ee5d2eabd2cc0bd6f4f08eaa68961b9e426c03

The chart includes: VRAM, CUDA, SU, Tensors, TMU's, RT, SM's, ROP's, Memory Bandwith, Bus Width, L1 & L2 Cache, AI TOPS, and the Die.

https://preview.redd.it/wxdpvkiuhibh1.png?width=655&format=png&auto=webp&s=eadc87de4c78afe81c94d03557ed626deace44f4

Even though no response was returned, it burned through 50% of my usage... I tried to create a ticket at Copilot's recommended page but it keeps just giving me AI recommendations which aren't helpful at all instead of creating a support ticket. Their AI is preventing me from creating a ticket apparently (probably not on purpose, but as a side effect because it's too "stupid"). Meh. Not sure what to do other than not use Fable (this is where it happened).

So I think it was by a mau5trap artist (like i_o, EDDIE, or similar) but not 100% sure on that. Either way, it kind of sounded like a mau5trap artist.

Anyways it was a female vocalist, and it had the lyrics "I can see clearly now the gone"

But it was stretched out, more like: "I can seeee clearlyyyyy nowwwww, the rainnn is gonneeee"

I know it's too helpful, but hoping someone can help me find it lol.

I swear it keeps getting worse and worse.

Probably around March or so it was great. And the premium requests was great too. I had it aid me with about 10 different projects and still had some remaining credits leftover at the end of the month with daily usage.

Now... It's awful. I've only been having it aid me for about 2 hours and already halfway through my 7,000 credits... Not only that but it feels like the models are worse too now. I've wasted 2,500 AI credits with no real gains (if anything it made my project worse) so I'll just probably do it all on my own now.

Not only did they increase the credit usage by an extreme factor but it seems the models suck too now.

Anyone else feel the same way?

So we've only been to one resort prior a few years ago (Sandals - Halcyon Beach) & used a travel agency which did all the picking (for events, etc) and planning for us which was nice.

Unfortunately, this travel agency has since out went out of business. So we could either try and find another one or try on our own. Figured I'd come here first for recommendations.

If it sounds weird to try and figure it out on our own, sorry. My wife & I didn't come from backgrounds where our families traveled a lot (at least other than driving & renting a hotel) and even that was sparse. So not entirely sure what all the best ways are to plan this type of stuff. Anyways...

We're looking for an all inclusive resort that (ideally) meets the following criteria:

1. Truly (or close to) all inclusive (apparently according to our prior travel agent some resorts aren't always truly all inclusive?)

2. A variety of restaurants would be nice! I've done some research and some only have 2 restaurants it seems. Whereas ones like Excellence Playa Mujeres has 11. We love Indian & Mexican food if that matters. But we're not of course going to plan our resort around strictly food lol. Just a bonus.

3. Add On activities would be nice. For our Sandals trip there was options for excursions so we had some things to do on a daily basis other than just enjoy the beach & sun with drinks (which is also nice to be fair).

4. If possible it'd be nice if the website or whatever included flights. And a part 2 to this - if it included shuttles. If we had to - we could rent a vehicle there or Uber, but it was nice at Sandals we didn't have to for any of that. We got shuttled directly from & to the airport.

5. Anything else you'd recommend thinking about or looking into! We've only traveled outside the country (and it doesn't have to be outside the US) once and by plane once. But I'm sure there's probably a lot of things we aren't thinking about and should so any recommendations would be helpful.

Thanks!

I've been a full stack developer for about 5 years working mainly with Laravel, React, and AWS.

I recently built a site for my brother's business, and it made me start seriously considering opening a small web agency/freelance business instead of continuing traditional employment.

For those running agencies or freelancing in 2026:

• Is the market still strong with AI tools becoming so common?
• How do you handle pricing and scope?
• Do you use frameworks/custom stacks or mostly no-code tools?
• How do you structure hosting, maintenance, and billing?
• What do you wish you knew before starting?

Would especially appreciate insight from developers who transitioned from employment into client work.

So I've been a Full Stack Web Developer for about 5 years now. Primarily specialize in Laravel & React. Also I know my way around AWS pretty well.

I recently built a website for my brother, and while I don't think it's perfect - and it still needs some work (waiting on him to give me a proper logo, pictures, and social media links), but I don't think it turned out too bad either.

He suggested I should start my own company so I've been thinking about it. Rather than working for someone else.

Anyways, this made me have a quite a few questions if you wouldn't mind answering even a few:

1. What's it like owning a web design company for those who do?
2. What are things you wish you would've known prior?
3. Is it still viable in 2026? Especially with AI tools like Claude Code, Github Copilot, etc. so readily available.
4. Do these new AI tools force you all to lower pricing to be competitive? Or does it make it so clients haggle on pricing more?
5. How do you price things/determine how to price things for what each person wants? Is it a set amount? A "feels like"? Or how do you determine pricing?
6. From research I've done it seems a lot of people charge around $2,500 minimum for basic 5 page website & around $300 a page afterwards? But then there's things like - what if they need database support, what if they want a contact form with emailing, what if they want a CRM, etc.?
7. What tools do you use for your company? Do you just set them with tools like SquareSpace? If so is that exclusive? Or do you do everything more like a job would be, with a proper frontend and backend framework and hosting like AWS?
8. How does billing work? Do you setup the hosting in your name and they pay monthly? Or do they pay? And if using AWS how does it work if you need to perform maintenance? Do you have passwords/access to their accounts to SSH in, etc?

Anyways, I'm still new to this obviously, so sorry in advance if my questions don't make much sense. Would appreciate any advice!