CREATORS ARE QUITTING - What's happening to the "creator economy"?
Have you heard the news? Over the past several months, more than a few BIG YouTubers have decided to throw in the towel and quit making videos. A few of these creators include:
Matpat
Tom Scott
Matti Haapoja
Full-Time Filmmaker
DSLR Video Shooter
Polyphonic
And other creators, like Matt D’avella and Ali Abdaal have also shared about being burned out and scaling back.
Which leaves us wondering… considering what a fun job YouTube seems to be, why are so many creators quitting?
First of all, It’s important to note that people are ALWAYS changing careers, quitting things and starting new things. And YouTubers are no different. With millions of creators on the platform, every day, dozens, probably hundreds of YouTubers “quit” to move on to something else.
But then, when a couple “big names” or OG’s quit in close succession, a lot more people notice, think this is a unique occurrence and start asking, “Why are so many YouTubers quitting?”
Well, to answer this question, we first have to consider the fact that the creators who have gotten the most press when they quit are, arguably, some very big creators, whose reasons for quitting may have little to do with most creators’ reasons to keep creating.
But what are their reasons?
6 Reasons YouTubers Are Quitting
They can afford to quit. The fact of the matter is that, as fun of a job as YouTube might be, it’s still a job. It’s still work. And, well… people don’t tend to choose to work when they don’t need to. And many of these popular creators who have quit have made enough money that they never have to work again.
They’ve let YouTube / their channel / their business take over their lives. MatPat talked about this in his quitting video, saying that he worked and thought about work all the tim – that he couldn’t even enjoy playing a video game just for the fun of it, because he was always thinking about how it could be a video, and that the channel and the videos were all he and his wife talked about.
They’ve lost their passion. Most of them have been doing YouTube for well over 10 years, and it’s understandable that their passion may have waned… especially because the nature of building an audience and brand demands that you generally continue to focus on one main topic for the life of the brand.
Their channels aren’t as profitable as they used to be. Really big channels can struggle to find sponsors who are willing and able to pay them what placement on their channel is worth. In a recent interview, Mr. Beast talked about this as one of the main reasons he switched to selling his own products, like his recently re-launched chocolate brand. He can make a lot more money promoting his own products then via a sponsorship, but…
They wanted to make videos, not sell products. Selling your own products turns you very much into primarily a business manager vs a video creator. And while some of us started our businesses first and just use YT as a marketing or education channel (as one arm or support of our businesses), people who started their channels purely out of love of videography often quit enjoying the career they’ve built for themselves when it gets away from that.
They wanted to make videos, not manage a team. And, even if you don’t end up selling products and managing inventory, these creators still find themselves running businesses and managing a team, which can still be stressful and just not what the creator really wanted to do. Matt D’Avella and Ali Abdul both talked about this in videos they made earlier this year about why they’re cutting back and simplifying. Matt said he had found running a team to be a lot more stressful and that he was liking his videos a lot less than he used to, and Ali said that he thought more help would enable him to make more videos in less time, but it ended up doing exactly the opposite.
And I’ve found this to be true as well. While help with video editing is a huge time saver, a lot of the creative work of making a video happens in the edit… so, by outsourcing that, your videos will only ever be as good as your editor can make them. And when I tried outsourcing other parts of the process – like script writing and filming… I found YouTube to be way less enjoyable and my video quality suffered as well. That’s not to say that it can’t be done… but it’s a whole different ball game then most of us were prepared to play when we decided to become YouTubers.
Has YouTube changed? Is it still a viable (and fun) way to make a living online?
Yes, YT has changed… continually, ever since it started. In fact, the platform has undergone big changes every year ever since it was first created in 2005.
Related: a short rant about YouTube's new monetization policy
But not only is “change” nothing new to YouTube, neither is growth. In fact, today, YouTube has become one of the very largest platforms on the internet, and it just keeps growing.
Related: How to Get Monetized on YouTube [Full Monetization Process Explained]
And not only does YouTube keep growing, it’s also still fun! While some people, especially creators who have been on the platform for 10+ years, are apt to reminisce the “good old days” of YouTube, and how they were so much better, the fact is that there were problems then as there are now. Just different problems. YouTube never has been, and never will be, perfect. However, if you enjoy creating video content, then YouTube is still a great place to do so, and can still be very enjoyable.
It’s also still profitable. YouTube has more active users than ever before, and they’re more addicted active than ever before, which means more views are being racked up than ever before – and this is true for channels of all sizes.
And this isn’t really the topic today, but no, the fact that some big creators are quitting definitely does NOT mean that YouTube is history and it’s “too late to start a YouTube channel.” Brand new channels are blowing up all the time, thanks in part to YouTube’s continually growing user base, in part to people’s changing tastes, and in part to those older channels that are phasing out as yesterday’s creators retire. And…. perhaps in whole to people’s insatiable desire for new video content.
So, if you’ve been thinking about starting a YouTube channel… or maybe you’ve already started one, but it’s not growing as fast as you’d hoped, and now these big creators quitting has you doubting if YouTube is even still a good place to build your brand… don’t. YouTube is bigger than ever before, is the BEST place on the internet to create long-form video content, and a great platform to grow your audience and build your brand.
However!
With its immense popularity, competition on YouTube is certainly something to be reckoned with, so it’s essential that you go into it with the right strategy. If you haven’t already watched my YouTube strategy masterclass, then that’s a great first step to get your mind around the basics of how to work WITH the algorithm. You can watch it now at https://creatorfasttrack.com/workshop-registration – and it’s totally free.
Also, it’s super important to be clear on what you want your YouTube career to end up looking like, or else you might end up like these creators who we see quitting. They “just wanted to make fun videos” …and then found themselves managing a team and managing inventory.
So, what do you want? Do you want to run a business… and use YouTube to market it? Or do you want to make videos yourself? Or maybe you have an important message you want to share with the world, but editing videos sounds incredibly boring to you.
There isn’t any right or wrong answer here, it’s just important to know what your real goals are and what parts of the process you enjoy so that you can make YouTube work for you and support your goals!
3 SECRETS TO REACH 1,000 SUBSCRIBERS
AND GET MONETIZED IN JUST 3 MONTHS
How to maximize every viewer that finds your channel so you can reach your goal with fewer videos.
A surprisingly simple strategy for slashing the time it takes to get monetized by half.
