On occasion, I read comments that accuse me of being “YouTube Rich”. I wish my income bracket was higher. That would be so great. At this point, what I earn on YouTube is below federal poverty. That’s right…you can have videos that gain 5,000 – 10,000 views or more and still earn BELOW poverty income. Although I’ve been trying to increase my earnings, my efforts have not paid off but I still try. Each week I release 1 – 2 “high effort” videos.
I could make low effort content that is unedited and present it in a way to trick the audience into believing it’s “real life”. There are many tricks that can be played on an audience. To continue to do this work authentically is difficult. I’m still avoiding doing the typical sales I see out there like selling a $1,000 vacuum to my audience. I want to make it without compromising my audience. Most of my audience is Senior Citizens, many are retired and living on a fixed income.
Having an audience is stewardship. If you mislead people they will eventually catch on. I see channels that straight up lie to their audience a little here and there. Misleading others to earn money is unethical. Of course not everyone does this. But it’s a “gray area” of compromise with content creation. Many people that are in this world of online content believe “everyone does this, it’s not a big deal, gotta make money”. But at what cost. I am in a moral dilemma of should I do what I see others do …. or, do I choose a path that I can answer to God for if He were to come back today.
I will celebrate 4 Years on YouTube later this year. So far, I have taken ZERO Sponsorships. That means I am not keeping free products to review on my Channel. I am not offering discount codes to my audience for commissions. I am not selling $1,000 vacuums or whatever else is trending. With the cost of living having increased so much I am tempted to do it. I am still trying to make it without sponsorships. The cost of electricity went up 20% for me. As we all endure this heatwave, I am comfortable enough, but very mindful of how much power I am using to keep the bill as low as possible. Right now I’m very tempted to compromise.
To be clear: I am not against Paid Sponsorships, in general. What I dislike is content creation that cries poor when they already are making Bank on views and then act like they have to do sponsorships to make it. I am against selling exceptionally high products (think $1,000 product) to a lower income audience that could never outright afford it, or would get into debt buying it to support a channel that is already prospering from Views through Ad Revenue. Remember a video that gains for example: 20,000 views in a 24-hour period likely has earned minimum of $200 in Ad Revenue. Now if they have 50,000 views you’re looking at $500 or more earned…that’s just for 1 video. Multiply that by the number of videos in a month. If it’s a very long video let’s say 30+ minutes, double the earnings, maybe even triple.
I am grateful for my audience. And I don’t want to compromise those who are following my videos. Especially those that are Seniors, that are facing financial hardships silently. I’ve seen what that looks like up close and personal to be around an older person with compromised health, that does not complain, doing the best they can to take their medicines and make ends meet. Because of my real-life personal experiences with someone that I watched financially suffer and how they were mistreated and abused, it has turned me into a better person than I otherwise would have been. I absolutely hate to see elderly people taken advantage of. I was unable to help the most important person in my life. I believe in the stewardship to protect my elders. Even my “online elders”.
Someone will read my article and take it the wrong way. Just know this: I have to make my yearly decision. This is my own timeline that I give myself to decide whether or not to take on Sponsors. What will I decide for the upcoming year of 2027? I’m trying to stay strong on this because most of my audience is low-income Seniors and I take this decision very seriously.
