There are lots of “for fun” YouTube channels but what enables so many people to publish so many videos is the fact that they can profit off of them.
That’s such a double-edge sword.
I have a channel with tens of thousands of followers and nearly 200, long-form content in the educational/healthcare space.
I was creating videos way before I was “allowed” to monetize, and even after, I was not making them so I could profit. No sponsored content. No begging for likes. No paid products. Not even affiliate links.
If my motivation was driven by profit, then the quality of the videos would suffer. And when I see channels that really push hard to monetize, it’s off-putting as a viewer, and I’m less interested in what they have to say - even if it might benefit me.
On the flip-side, I know some content creators have to spend a lot of money to create certain content, so they should be able to recoup that somehow.
I personally prefer a donation model, since it keeps things unbiased, with the creator having far more freedom, and it doesn’t disrespect users. Even having a shop selling channel merch is a more ethical way to monetize, provided that the channel doesn’t become one big ads for the merch store.
Good channels could absolutely make enough through donations to turn their channel into a full-time, paying job. And a donation model would also help to cull channels that create garbage content, AI generated content, and clickbait crap.
That’s such a double-edge sword.
I have a channel with tens of thousands of followers and nearly 200, long-form content in the educational/healthcare space.
I was creating videos way before I was “allowed” to monetize, and even after, I was not making them so I could profit. No sponsored content. No begging for likes. No paid products. Not even affiliate links.
If my motivation was driven by profit, then the quality of the videos would suffer. And when I see channels that really push hard to monetize, it’s off-putting as a viewer, and I’m less interested in what they have to say - even if it might benefit me.
On the flip-side, I know some content creators have to spend a lot of money to create certain content, so they should be able to recoup that somehow.
I personally prefer a donation model, since it keeps things unbiased, with the creator having far more freedom, and it doesn’t disrespect users. Even having a shop selling channel merch is a more ethical way to monetize, provided that the channel doesn’t become one big ads for the merch store.
Good channels could absolutely make enough through donations to turn their channel into a full-time, paying job. And a donation model would also help to cull channels that create garbage content, AI generated content, and clickbait crap.