To monetize or not to monetize?

[Steve 3,818]

So I've been waiting to be monetized for a while, more so for the accomplishment than the money.  The money is pretty insignificant for a channel like mine from what I understand.

Now that I can monetize I'm hesitating.  Should I just do a Patreon for $1 instead and spare everyone the annoying ads?

[JosephRcarrel 28]

[Jolien Reads 383]

I'm not the biggest fan of patreon to be honest, but a lot of people are so that might be a great alternative. I've seen adds on my vids (at the start) before monetization, so I feel like 'if they're going to throw adds on my videos anyway, I'd rather get those 2 cents than give them to youtube' I don't plan to put adds in the middle of videos unless they're 20+ minutes long or something like that, because I find it extremely annoying when I'm watching a short video and it has 3 adds in the middle. But one at the start and maybe one in the middle if it's a long video? That sounds fine.

[Steve 3,818]

I'm not a big Patreon fan either, I know some people launch one pretty fast but it makes me feel a little uncomfortable and I don't know if I want another platform to manage and make sure I fulfill the rewards for people who joined. 

That's a great point about ads being there anyway.