YouTube Pay Wall, Coke Super Bowl Ads, Small Businesses Prefer LinkedIn

The Strategist picks the day’s most relevant and interesting stories about the world of content from around the web. Here’s what you should be reading today:

Premium YouTube Content? It’ll Cost You.

According to Paid Content, YouTube may be introducing paid subscriptions for premium content this spring.

Sources interviewed by AdAge claim that YouTube is reaching out to media companies with large followings to create content on channels that would cost between $1 and $5 per month.

Twenty five paid channels will be launched. Author Laura Hazard Owen suspects the company is doing this to compete with Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, and Netflix.

Coke Crowdsourcing for Super Bowl

According to ClickZ, Coca-Cola is “promoting an online ad campaign that features three rivals vying for a drink in the desert — and it is using fan votes through the end of the game to determine the winner.

The first ad, which is up already on YouTube, will air during the first half of the game. After the game, once Coke representatives tally the votes, one of the 30-second ads will air the outcome. CokeChase.com is showcasing the biographies of each of the three groups, along with photos.

Small Business Owners Prefer LinkedIn

According to the Wall Street Journal, six out of 10 small-business owners believe that social media websites help out with the growth of their companies.

However, in a survey of 835 owners, only three percent said that Twitter helped. LinkedIn was the preferred site, securing 41 percent of the vote. YouTube was chosen by 16 percent, while Facebook ranked in at 14 percent. Twitter claims that it’s just starting to court small businesses.

Layoffs at Time Inc.

The New York Times reports that Time Inc. will be laying off about 480 of its 8,000 employees worldwide, which equates to 6 percent of the company.

Half of the cuts will be made to the Time Inc. staff in New York, and buyouts were sent to staffers at People and Time.

Firing a Writing Client

For freelancers, firing clients they work for is part of the job. A post on Success Works highlights how to do this.

Writers need to ask themselves what the problem is, whether there is a personality conflict, pay issue, or a question of ethics. Before making the leap, writers need to fulfill all the work on active contracts, try to replace the client, and remain professional.

Beating Writer’s Block

It’s a curse, but it can be broken. The English Web’s Caimin Jones says that to beat writer’s block, one must not be afraid to write badly.

A writer should sit down and work at the same time every day, and read an inspiring author to “remind you of why you became one yourself.” Having an outline helps narrow down choices, and setting a deadline will ensure that goals are reached.

Lady Gaga’s YouTube Count Down

Mashable reports that following an artificial view count inflation by VEVO, Lady Gaga’s YouTube views are down by 156 million.

The first sweep by Vevo occurred in December, which didn’t affect Gaga. But this time around, it was found that her view count was “artificially boosted by hackers.”