I'm not against premium content at all but there is an inherent risk, if people pay then they expect far too much. You spoke before on your blog about people expecting certain things from your videos and moaning about the fact that you were not covering the exact topics they had an interest in, introducing a pay model will unfortunately increase this (wrong) sense of entitlement a hundred fold.
That is why I wouldn't do a subscription based model, people would expect too much, and expect it consistently.
I much prefer the one-off type thing.
e.g.
"Here is a one-off video or series on X. Here is a sample so you know what you are getting. I you don't like the whole thing you paid a few bucks for, simply chose not to buy my content again."
Have you thought about trying to herd your "average" youtube viewer here to this site where you get a bigger cut of the advertising revenue? You could put up a teaser video out on your youtube channel but cut some segments so that if they want to view the whole thing they have to come here. I've seen others do it but saying that they were not YT partners and there maybe a clause in your partnership agreement forbidding this (also video hosting might be an issue).
More views on eevblog.com does not translate directly into more advertising $. The advertisers pay a fixed amount per month.
There is nothing in the Youtube clause that stops me doing that.
I like to keep all my content on Youtube because:
a) It helps consolidate the stats, and makes me, the channel and the "brand" look more impressive in terms of views.
b) Youtube is the worlds 2nd biggest search engine, and the more I upload the better my channel gets ranked. The snowball effect.
c) video hosting is a PITA, and is actually very expensive if you want to do it right. People keep saying "just throw it on amazon S3 or whatever". They just don't understand the bandwidths involved.
There are a few companies that will host subscription and/or pay-per-view video, but I'm simply unsure which model I would chose if I were to go that route.
Dave.