After being on Steemit for just over a week, I must say, I’m very impressed! Despite having 30,000 active users (of 170,000 total users), this growing community has done a fantastic job of building personal relationships despite its large size. Throughout the last 9 days I’ve already learned so much not just about the Steemit platform, but also about life: people’s travel adventures, cryptocurrency, the future of social media, etc. In fact, I've been so blown away by the warm of the community & its strong sense of support that I find myself spending more time on Steemit nowadays and figuring how to provide more value here than on YouTube, which once was my normal day-to-day grind/passion.
One of my closest friends Rene @world5list (who also runs another large YouTube channel) just posted a very insightful tirade on our journey through YouTube together and why it's quickly going down the drain.
Now needless to say, I’ve been a full-time YouTuber for over two years now and it would be very ungrateful of me not to say that despite the difficulties I (and many other YouTubers) have faced, I've been fortunate enough to make a living off of it!
After surpassing the 100,000 subscriber mark on two separate occasions across two completely different channels (They Will Kill You and Bored Badger), I also partnered up with Rene on World 5 List and together we've had the opportunity to coach other aspiring YouTubers (Pablito’s Way and Origins Explained) to help them pass the 100,000 subscriber milestone as well. And don’t worry, we're in the process of getting the latter two over here to Steemit soon too ;)
Although there's still a lot of money to be made on YouTube, it's definitely a tougher game nowadays. In fact, it's gotten so difficult that we've discouraged our close friends—who've wanted to get into YouTube for the longest time—from actually diving in; instead getting them set up on Steemit. One of YouTube's major drawbacks (which occurred in the wake of the ad boycott on March 25th, 2017) is that content creators are now struggling to receive as many monetized playbacks as before due to stricter guidelines, thus making it more difficult for producers such as myself to release videos that are in line with YouTube’s new ad policies.
Not only must we work around it, but we are now having to change up the general direction of our channels; a direction that veers away from the channel’s “true essence”. One can argue that you should keep doing what you’re doing and that money shouldn’t matter if you’re truly passionate about what you do (in my case, providing information about lethal entities in this world). But once you make this your primary source of income and livelihood, it’s a completely different ballgame. Another classic example of this is in a post from @alexpmorris on how he essentially got screwed.
Enter Steemit: Steemit has been a fabulous place to share unrestricted, no-holds-barred content without facing the same demonetization risks involved with YouTube. As far as the money goes, we've found that it's been well worth the time investment. Not only will our main “grind” now consist of making contributions to this platform, but we're also in the works of bringing on some other international YouTubers to the game in an attempt to expand Steemit's reach far across the globe and in as many different languages as possible!
As I said, one aspect I highly value is the community’s warmth and support in seeing others succeed. There’s just as much content variety here as there is on most other social media platforms, but with more of a personal touch IMO topped off with an extra sense of belonging. Additionally, I see it as the future Reddit in the sense that it’s a good place to learn new things, get a look into other people’s lifestyles, and even stay updated with news/current events. Not only is one no longer censored, but the ability to monetize not just as an author but also as a curator??? GENIUS! Although I'm still new to this and haven't made as much as the experienced whales, it's good to know that a place like this exists where one can make a living doing what they love and at the same time receiving support during a time of dire need. This place has opened countless doors to so many people, and it's time we share it with the world!
And for that I say, thank you Steemit community! Rene's and my effort's will now be focused full-STEEM on delivering!