This article is inspired by a Norwegian article on Kryptovalutainvestor. Excuse my English!
The crypto market have been in a downhill slope since December/January but the YouTubers have been active until July. The quality on YouTube videos have almost always been questionable, at least since the retail investors invaded the market. I will not mention names, but there are really only a handfull of people that actually creates real honest content, that`s my opinion. Enough about quality and none quality, in the last 4 weeks a lot has changed. It seems that even the "serious" YouTubers have problems with generating income from their channels. It seems like a "money drought" has swiped over the YouTubers and they are now desperately trying to make money.
My favorite YouTuber, Ivan on Tech have in his recent videos included a "paid interview". The guy who actually "convinced" me of getting into crypto, Louis Thomas. He explained in his latest video that he wants to start a paid "ICO HOT SEAT". I understand that they want to make money, who does not want to earn money? The question is, this is a evil and bad path we are walking into. At least, these two guys are smart and have some level of respect. They can also probably make some good paid content. The problem with paid content is that no matter how good it is, you can`t really trust the content?
A very good example on how bad this can turn out, is the Google Index. I have worked in the SEO-industry for 10+ years. When people started to sell links - they destroyed Googles algorithm. You know what? Its getting better, but even now...black hat lnikbuilding is a problem! You don`t trust a link from anywhere now - because you dont know if it is paid or not!
The even worse thing that has happened on YouTube, is all the channels that are going from investing in crypto to making leverage-bets on crypto. No matter, how much belief you and me have in crypto. Making leverage bets on short and long positions is absolutely crazy. Of course, you can make money but you can also lose everything. The reason why they promote these "leverage plays" is because they earn on referrals and not because it was easy.
So what should they do instead of taking ICO-money?
The best road for YouTubers and content creators in general is to make their own products. Ivan On Tech for example, he has his own website ToshiTimes.com and his academy where you can learn more about blockchain for a couple of hundred dollars.
We as the users of YouTube must buy the products they create in order to learn more and support the people that actually helps the crypto community to grow in size and knowledge.
So to you Louis Thomas, I rather see you open a Patreon account and I will gladly support you every month. Please do ICO reviews, but don`t take money for them. A good ICO will not need a paid review!