Don't Farm. The Money Is In Farm-U-Tainment
Ellen Barry writes in The New York Times:

Though Mr. Gold sells poultry and eggs from his duck farm in Vermont's northeast corner, most of what he produces as a farmer is, well, entertainment.

Mr. Gold, who is short and stocky, with the good-natured ease of a standup comedian, does his chores while carrying a digital camera in one hand and murmuring into a microphone.

Then, twice a week, like clockwork, he posts a short video on YouTube about his exploits as a neophyte farmer, often highlighting failures or pratfalls. Keeping a close eye on analytics, he has boosted his YouTube audiences high enough to provide a steady advertising revenue of around $2,500 to $4,000 a month, about eight times what he earns from selling farm products.

...Mr. Gold, 40, has learned the hard way -- he tried to take a month off last winter -- that any gap in his YouTube publication schedule results in a steep drop-off in audience. So he keeps a running list of themes that could be fodder for future videos. It reads, in part:

Should I Feed My Dog Eggs?

Don't Trust This Duck

My Homestead Is a Dumpster Fire

What Does My Guard Dog Do All Day?

He has learned, through trial and error, what works with an audience. The sheepdog-mounted GoPro didn't work. ("People were like, 10 seconds and I was puking," said his wife, Allison Ebrahimi Gold.) Slow, sumptuous drone footage of his sun-dappled 150 acres, land porn for wistful cubicle dwellers -- that definitely works.

Character development works, as demonstrated by Mr. Gold's most popular video, "Our Freakishly Huge Duck (This Is Not NORMAL)," which, as he would put it, blew the doors off. Slow-motion footage of waggling goose butts, set to a bouncy, whimsical orchestral soundtrack, works.

Who knew?

But Mr. Galinat, who is also Peacham's town clerk, counts himself among a younger generation of farmers who are learning from Mr. Gold.

"He has taught me I am no longer selling hay, I am selling a lifestyle," he said. "He's really selling himself -- his emotions, his opinions, his downfalls, his successes. Boom! That's it, that's the way forward."