Youtubers Finding a Home on Twitch and Patreon After Youtube Ad Revenue Drops

in life •  7 years ago 

If you at all keep up with any of the drama happening in youtubeland, you would know that in recent months many youtubers have seen ad revenue drop on average around 50-60% in some cases 80% depending on content. It all began after the Wall Street Journal attacked popular youtuber Pewdiepie, calling him a racist for making a few jokes that at worst were in bad taste. Despite the majority of people realizing these were jokes advertisers decided to pull off ads en masse on youtube.

There has been a great debate for years now if online ads even work in general, so the companies that were advertising on youtube were quick to pull out, leaving many who have been able to self employ themselves, hurting. In an attempt to help draw back advertisers, youtube started to use an algorithm and not a particularly good one at that, in order to filter videos into a plethora of different categories. These categories could be chosen by advertisers and filtered out so the videos within them never get monetized.

In general, youtube’s management has been terrible with actually informing content creators about the changes and it seems that in the wake of them, many youtubers, even those with millions of subscribers are unable to survive off the advertising income alone anymore. Channels that aren’t “family friendly” are being systematically forced off youtube for those who are. In addition youtube seems to only care about promoting their pay to watch series and are bringing big name celebrities into a space that was supposed to be for the common person.

However, youtubers are now choosing other outlets for income such as twitch.tv or patreon which still allows them to make the content that their userbase enjoys and actually earn money from it. Patreon is a service that lets you pledge x amount of dollars per month to a content creator you enjoy, subverting the need for advertising to begin with and twitch.tv is a streaming platform where they can play games and receive tips ect.

What we are seeing is definitely a complete change to what we might have seen 4-5 years ago if something like this had happened. Now with many users who spent their teens watching youtube content creators, now getting into the work force and having jobs, there is less of a focus on paying for television or movies and instead paying creators for their work. As more time goes by I expect that this will only grow more and more as people come of age and get jobs that reflect this.

Recently some youtubers that move over to twitch have found that their earnings per month can sometimes be passed in a few days, such as Boogie2988 a youtuber who rages or sometimes talks about things that advertisers deem not “family friendly”. In a night he can earn a few hundred dollars streaming rather than making 7 videos a week that end up demonetized. I think the way we pay for content and the actual content we consume is still changing everyday and the way creators are paid is changing as well.

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I posted in Steemit a while back that it would make a lot of sense to have a Patreon vibe to Steemit, where I could consistently reward those whose content I find valuable. Glad to see that Twitch.tv offers an alternative to YouTube.

Well i think steemit is already something like that... You can always follow and reward steemians you like...

It's too bad that Youtube is so centralized.

See what happens with centralized solutions? ::WINK::

Their new policy and algorithm screwed their advertisers, and their users at the same time. Idiots. Well it's about time. Move over for more decentralized offerings coming to blockchain soon. :)

I am moving away from youtube as soon as i can. I still use it as its the fatest way to upload videos and embed them to other platforms like steemit and patreon. But youtube itself is fucking their users, i realized they do not count embed views anymore (video plays made in steemit or facebook do not increase youtube views), and so many other changes... As soon steemit offers a way to upload videos, i wont be uploading more videos to youtube...

STEEMQ It's coming!

Yesss i cant wait!, i really want to move away from youtube!

I didn't know of this new service, thank you.

In addition youtube seems to only care about promoting their pay to watch series and are bringing big name celebrities into a space that was supposed to be for the common person.

Theyve been doing this since before google took over. Its their tube, not your tube.

I await the death of youtube with baited breath.

Thanks. I'll check that out :)

All of the pundits that I like on youtube have been forced to open a patreon account. Glad to see that a few have made the move to steemit like Dave @x22report and Sean @sgtreport

moreover networking giant facebook has also started adverting on its site

We've definitely been experiencing the hit in earnings & monetized playbacks as well, which is really frustrating especially because so many of our top performing videos were suddenly demonetized. They're still bringing in tons of views but with barely any revenue. I'm so thankful for platforms like Twitch & Patreon that have worked well as a means of diversifying your income streams. Steemit seems to have a lot of potential too & I'm curious how it'll work out for my fellow YouTubers in the long run.

When youtube first came out it was great, then the commercial started not to bad at first, you could skip them but the last year or so they started with the one that couldn't be skipped and those really pissed me off, it seemed like every video had the same stupid commercial.

uBlock Origin on firefox blocks all ads on youtube straight out of the box. You can also use Adblock Adaway Exposed module on android to block youtube ads on your mobile or tablet.

Great Article, hope on those new youtube alternative channels they will have search and leave the search relevant videos to the viewer, unlike some platforms. Sorry but I just don't see how "Don takes a family trip to Italy" is worth anything! Gotta question the "community" I guess :)If the Authors you mention are in this platform now then how the heck would I know? Give me search!

Google has become IBM. Outdated and unable to keep up with the new paradigm.

@SashaDaygame posted a great video called Youtube is Dead... Here's what you need to do. He mentions several game changing alternatives including Steemit...

Well really a good point made. I have 430+ videos in youtube but i hardly make 60 - 70 USD. So the point is I can never become a full time content creator. Sad but true. But I am hopeful about #steemq . May be it can change our lives. Nyway following you. Thanks!!!!!!

nice...u deserve resteem and upvote...

An informative article. Thank u. Aloha!

Yet another example of not-too-bright people who created something new, monetized it and then ran it into the ground by making ill-informed decisions. "Even a blindsquirl finds a nut now and then." ;-)

Google and Youtube are very politically motivated. That's why they and Facebook do what they do, to forward their agendas. I now search on Duck Duck go.

I've gotten pretty tired of YouTube's antics surrounding the platform, and the changes they have made which have severely impacted small channels who were just starting to make a decent start on YouTube by monetizing their content, before having it stripped away from them because of the new requirements, instead of letting those who have already worked hard to get their content monetized, they can no longer do that, and so it's pretty much killed their channel and potential to turn it into a full-time job. I was just barely making it before I was cut from monetizing any of my videos, sub over 100 subs on my channel and a little over 80+ videos uploaded, barely made $0.30, and then poof, monetization gone. I've pretty much trying to move on and look to other platforms like Twitch, and here, if it works out hopefully.

I resteeming your post :)

Although I have heard a lot about what is happening from watching people on Youtube, I still didn't fully understand why it was happening. This was a very interesting and educational article for me, thanks a lot for taking the time to write it! Although I use Youtube a lot and think it is a good platform for content, the creators always seem to be treated terribly and I hope other (better) platforms can rise and take its place.

All Old social medias is already dead...

https://www.recode.net/2017/2/28/14761348/youtube-pay-mobile-tv-35-dollars-launch

They are trying to run out the individual creators to make way for this payed TV service.

YouTube is digging their own grave, back in September, YouTube started demonetizing videos not ad friendly. Its stupid to me, image going to work and your boss takes your money because you said something he/she didn't like. If the video is truly offensive, YouTube has every right to demonetize it, but if someone makes a video about ketchup ( random funny example) and YouTube demonetizes that, that is plain silly

Very interesting, I'm also considering jumping ship. Youtube recently age-restricted and de-monetised one of my videos, apparently because it shows cannabis consumption. But the whole thing is fishy. For one, my entire youtube channel is focused on cannabis. I only have around 20 videos, and one particular video is by far the most popular (and profitable). Youtube singled out my most profitable video and left the others alone, despite the fact that ALL of my videos feature cannabis consumption. To me, thats a clear indication YT simply don't like us making money of canna-related videos. They are enforcing their personal opinons and beliefs on their users, and doing it by a kind of "back door" means. If they don't want cannabis-related content on YT, they are entitled to that, its their website. But they should just make this a clear policy, so creators can make an informed choice instead of being in a grey area.

Youtube is definitely dying. Thanks for this post! I'm a Youtuber with a pretty good following and have a pretty nice Patreon presence since YT has killed ad revenues for most creators. You totally nailed it but I have a slightly different take at why so many content creators are MAD. Please see my new post and tell me what you think. THANKS! https://steemit.com/steemit/@mericanhomestead/how-steemit-can-destroy-youtube-and-facebook-from-a-disgruntled-youtuber

Patreon's stats are impressive. I double checked after reading your post, because I wasn't sure.

https://graphtreon.com/patreon-stats

Looks like they're paying out $9,000,000 per month at this point. That's a lot of money. If the trend continues, Patreon could be a real threat to YouTube.

Vid.me is another interesting attempt at a YouTube killer - but they are much, much smaller in scale at this point.

Tubers are reporting the same sort of censure-ship over at Vidme. I'm really looking forward to SteemQ

Let's be honest here, when is there never any sort of drama on YouTube.

Maybe we can organize a channel conversion pester and vote group... pick youtuber to swarm talking about Steem platforms.... share help on conversion.... vote on who to try to pull over.... ideas?

YOU GOT MY UPVOTE! FOLLOW ME @kid4life AND I FOLLOW BACK ;) I POST ALL SORT OF STUFF! CHEERS

Ahhh, so satisfying seeing old, expired business models die off. The #content #creators are the FUEL for those dino platforms. Without the creative class giving them something to advertise around, they would have empty stages. Long live #Steemit and #Patreon.

Page 1 of google sent me here by searching patreon youtubers. I am considering Patreon and had not heard of Twitch until your post. PewDiePie is the man and yes I agree with @intelliguy that decentralized platform is the way to go for this. I am excited for Steemit blogging potenial. For a fan based subscription service, so far the 10% costs for Patreon may be my favorite option. Please post your comments if you know of something better. Very helpful article Bob, Thank you.

We make great steemit content for everyone to those are avid and regular readers.

Show us your support at : patreon.com/overlukk

Don't forget Steemit! ;) An exodus is happening and I hope the free market will prevail above this manipulated insanity.