Considering leaving Freedom, forms of new revenue streams?

[TheKevit07]

As the title implies, I've been here for, what, a few months? Going into this MGN, I figured I'd get a lot more subs, or at least new information or tools to help me achieve better quality content. Granted, I've received a few good connections in terms of music creators, and the people here are incredibly nice (so don't take what I say the wrong way, please!) HOWEVER I am a business man, and took business classes, and I have to focus on my channel the most. I've started to realize this is get what you put in, and I haven't put in much lately, but at the same time we face a greater problem that needs to be tackled- ads suffer due to AdBlock, which effects our total income, which effects the 60/40 split, which effects MY total revenue.

Let me get right to the point now- I WANT to stay with Freedom, because the community is SUPER supportive, but to me, that's not enough to stick around...at least, not for a 60/40 split. Ads are terrible for generating revenue, and I'm considering starting a Patreon (well, I'm most likely going to start it regardless) where if I reach a certain income per month, I drop my ads, which means dropping this MGN inadvertently. It may not be that successful BUT, I've always been the type of person to never rule anything out, and if it happens I don't want to screw the MGN over. I guess what I want to know is this: Is Freedom willing to consider other forms of revenue streams to keep us happy? I know I may not get far on my own, but if I make $5/month through Patreon alone, I'll be making over 500% more through that compared to what I make from here.

Again, I'm not posting this to "diss" on the MGN, as I really like the community, and even recommended people here because of it. But from a business perspective, I have to look out for me first.

 

[Nolan Westmore]

The second you start to worry about how much you make through your channel, is the very second you've failed as a content creator.

With just 42 subscribers, you shouldn't be even thinking about money. Shouldn't be at all until you make enough to pay your bills, that's when it matters.

 

[TheKevit07]

The second you start to worry about how much you make through your channel, is the very second you've failed as a content creator.

With just 42 subscribers, you shouldn't be even thinking about money. Shouldn't be at all until you make enough to pay your bills, that's when it matters.

Unfortunately, to pay my my bills would take more than (at the 60/40 rate, anyways) I would GUESS 20k, and I haven't seen very many (actually, none come to think of it) that are above even the 10k mark. So I should be stuck here until then? Not sure about that.

 

[Koala_Steamed]

I'd really suggest going 100% on growing your channel when you start. Even if you are all about getting money, channel growth is the best way to get it. If Freedom isn't helping growth as much as you like then it's perfectly fine to leave and go back to the default network or change over to another one, do whatever is best for your channels growth. Freedom isn't here to lock people into staying if they don't want to

Even at 4k subs and 90% rev share I don't bother looking at my monthly earnings. If I wanted to earn a few dollars for hours of work I'd work at McDonalds If you want to start earning real money off Youtube you would probably need 60k+ subs and a very active audience base.

 

[TheKevit07]

I'd really suggest going 100% on growing your channel when you start. Even if you are all about getting money, channel growth is the best way to get it. If Freedom isn't helping growth as much as you like then it's perfectly fine to leave and go back to the default network or change over to another one, do whatever is best for your channels growth. Freedom isn't here to lock people into staying if they don't want to

Even at 4k subs and 90% rev share I don't bother looking at my monthly earnings. If I wanted to earn a few dollars for hours of work I'd work at McDonalds If you want to start earning real money off Youtube you would probably need 60k+ subs and a very active audience base.

Thank you! I actually work a 50+ hour a week McJob already, and is WHY I wanted to switch to Youtube, because there's nothing where I live for work, unless you want to do engineering/extremely hard labor for a live-able income (harsh reality is I'm not 14, or even 21, so I can't get away with working just a McJob). I dunno, maybe it's just discouraging to not see the progress, maybe I just suck, who knows! I just know I look around and see people with hundreds on subs, don't get me wrong, but being here a few months...I haven't seen them grow as much as I would LIKE to see them grow months later. Trust me, I want everyone to be successful as they do themselves...but the harsh reality we must face is very few people can make Markiplier or Pewdiepie level. Now, I know I won't ever reach it, but if I could make a decent growth I can walk away content.

 

[1SB2Gamer]

@TheKevit07
Ok, first of all, forget trying to make youtube a job. I am not saying it will not happen, but the chances are incredibly low. Unless you are experienced and really know what you are doing it can take many years to even get to a point where you are earning enough just to get decent equipment for your channel. Living off of it is a whole other story. You really need to become pretty big for that to work out.

Let's put it this way. Trying to recruit others into Freedom is likely to be a better job. Even if you don't work directly with freedom and only get 15% of the earnings ... it's likely still a better paying job.

Heck, if you ask someone if they have a quarter ... once a week. You will likely earn more from doing that than the first year of youtube.

 

[TwilightPrinze]

Youtube can be a tough community but with effort and dedication you can certainly grow. By collaborating with people on the forums is a good way to get your name out there.
That said i wish you the best of luck with your channel

 

[akirby80]

First of all, thinking in the mindset of YouTube becoming a job isn't necessarily the best mindset to have. It limits creativity. It limits passion for doing YouTube. It just makes you discouraged with lack of growth and makes you look at numbers too much. That's why I never encourage people to join networks early on in their channels. They start looking at the business side of YouTube instead of the creative side of YouTube. It makes them destined to become discouraged and lack creativity.

Secondly, If Freedom isn't helping you grow your channel and that is what you want from a network, it only takes 30 days to unlink from Freedom. However, if you're looking for a network to push the growth of your channel... don't expect too much. Most (not all) networks will promote channel growth but in reality, it is up to YOU to grow your channel. Creating content that people want to watch and being different is incredibly important. Just creating gaming videos and not learning how SEO works or not differing yourself won't get you far.

Finally, looking at your channel, I can see it isn't optimized for growth. Study SEO, learn how to promote, study trends, study social media techniques, be consistent, make your channel look eye-catching, and create content that people want to consistently watch. If you really want me to go in-depth about it just send me a direct message here. I'll be happy to go into detail on things you need to improve on.

 

[Believe]

Try to get 90 to 95% rev share. All ur dreams will come true believe me.

 

[TheKevit07]

First of all, thinking in the mindset of YouTube becoming a job isn't necessarily the best mindset to have. It limits creativity. It limits passion for doing YouTube. It just makes you discouraged with lack of growth and makes you look at numbers too much. That's why I never encourage people to join networks early on in their channels. They start looking at the business side of YouTube instead of the creative side of YouTube. It makes them destined to become discouraged and lack creativity.

Secondly, If Freedom isn't helping you grow your channel and that is what you want from a network, it only takes 30 days to unlink from Freedom. However, if you're looking for a network to push the growth of your channel... don't expect too much. Most (not all) networks will promote channel growth but in reality, it is up to YOU to grow your channel. Creating content that people want to watch and being different is incredibly important. Just creating gaming videos and not learning how SEO works or not differing yourself won't get you

Finally, looking at your channel, I can see it isn't optimized for growth. Study SEO, learn how to promote, study trends, study social media techniques, be consistent, make your channel look eye-catching, and create content that people want to consistently watch. If you really want me to go in-depth about it just send me a direct message here. I'll be happy to go into detail on things you need to improve on.

Thank you for the input, I had a feeling I suffered in the SEO, and maybe it wasn't the MGN I was most discouraged in, but myself for not being able to find out how to maximize SEO (I've always been a self-taught person, so it gets frustrating when I can't figure out the answer myself). I didn't want to spam tags or try and have misleading tags like YouTube sometimes offers when you start typing tags in.

I've been working on an intro, and once I get that done and put into my latest videos, I'll work on an outro...so in those areas I hope to improve, and for thumbnails I been improving on how to make them, but on top of the actual editing (I have a back log of about 20 videos I've yet to upload due to limited internet...which I feel is the root of all this evil), I haven't had the time since I work over 50 hours a week (overnight shift, no less) and my days off I'm usually either making more videos to add to the backlog, or making thumbnails, writing skits for a friend to collab in, and watching over content to see if I need to condense/cut out spots.

I dunno, I feel a little better already about it, and I'll have the time to upload what I have so far this week...so I'll study on SEO while I upload the back log and take a break from recording for now.

 

[Phil Kidd]

Try to get 90 to 95% rev share. All ur dreams will come true believe me.

Wow, way to completely miss the point.[DOUBLEPOST=1450101802][/DOUBLEPOST]

Thank you for the input, I had a feeling I suffered in the SEO, and maybe it wasn't the MGN I was most discouraged in, but myself for not being able to find out how to maximize SEO (I've always been a self-taught person, so it gets frustrating when I can't figure out the answer myself). I didn't want to spam tags or try and have misleading tags like YouTube sometimes offers when you start typing tags in.

I've been working on an intro, and once I get that done and put into my latest videos, I'll work on an outro...so in those areas I hope to improve, and for thumbnails I been improving on how to make them, but on top of the actual editing (I have a back log of about 20 videos I've yet to upload due to limited internet...which I feel is the root of all this evil), I haven't had the time since I work over 50 hours a week (overnight shift, no less) and my days off I'm usually either making more videos to add to the backlog, or making thumbnails, writing skits for a friend to collab in, and watching over content to see if I need to condense/cut out spots.

I dunno, I feel a little better already about it, and I'll have the time to upload what I have so far this week...so I'll study on SEO while I upload the back log and take a break from recording for now.

Could you not do overnight uploads and then just schedule their release?

 

[TheKevit07]

Wow, way to completely miss the point.[DOUBLEPOST=1450101802][/DOUBLEPOST]
Could you not do overnight uploads and then just schedule their release?

Due to my internet (we only have satellite since I live out in the boondocks), my data cap unlocks at midnight, and locks back in after 5AM, my overnights start at 11PM and end at 7AM, so now you see the plight with not getting content up regularly. The plan now is to save money to relocate and get a better shift for sacrifice in pay (I currently make more than any employee at the store I work, including management).

I do have a question, however. Everyone says once you consider it a job, you lose in terms of interest and it becomes a burden. Why? I love my other job and the people I see and talk with, and I love making YouTube content even more...there's nothing wrong with loving what you do while trying to figure out how to make it more profitable. It's gonna come with stresses like what I'm dealing with in terms of the uploading, and what makes me mad the most is I promised my viewers I'd have better internet 3 months ago since I myself was promised by our local legislators low-latency internet (satellite comes with a ping of 700+, respectively). I really don't care about having it for myself, I'm more mad I promised my viewers I would have an opportunity to upload more, be able to possibly do streams, and sessions with fans/collaborations, and I can't.

 

[1SB2Gamer]

I do have a question, however. Everyone says once you consider it a job, you lose in terms of interest and it becomes a burden. Why? I love my other job and the people I see and talk with, and I love making YouTube content even more...there's nothing wrong with loving what you do while trying to figure out how to make it more profitable. It's gonna come with stresses like what I'm dealing with in terms of the uploading, and what makes me mad the most is I promised my viewers I'd have better internet 3 months ago since I myself was promised by our local legislators low-latency internet (satellite comes with a ping of 700+, respectively). I really don't care about having it for myself, I'm more mad I promised my viewers I would have an opportunity to upload more, be able to possibly do streams, and sessions with fans/collaborations, and I can't.

I, personally, do not agree with them on that. You most certainly can still be interested in doing youtube even if you do treat it like a job. I don't see why it would have any effect on ones interest to do it.

However, I do think if it is your only reason ... then and only then you may become disinterested in it simply because it's a dead end job. For most ... it will never pan out enough to become a job. Thus you will eventually realize that and stop doing youtube. I mean if your only reason to do youtube was for the income and it wasn't making income ... then why continue? Maybe that is sort of what they meant.

 

[Bannik13]

All the best with it all, i truly hope it works out.