I read it. It makes some good points, but all I hear is, "Work harder" I mean, it is hard enough to make good content for one platform, but their main suggestion is to become a creator for multiple platforms. Even if you use the same piece of content, you still have to customize it to each platform, and that takes time and work. Instead of the old mentality of, "Carve out your niche," it is now, "Try Everything."
They are right about not trusting the platforms. YouTube is flat killing us right now. In a recent article I read, it said that 45% of the ad revenue YouTube is paying out is going to shorts creators, while they have only started running ads on shorts in the last quarter. What this means is that YT is using the revenue that long-form content creators are bringing in, to dump money on Shorts creators that are bringing nothing in. I saw my earnings crash in September, down over 70%, while my views and watch time remained the same. And I have produced a video every single week this year. All the same style, and the same genre, all the same quality of production. So, where did my earnings go? Since the only factor that has changed was my earnings, it has to be that YT's algorithm decided to pay me less. Sure, things can go up and down, but a drop of 70% in a single week, that can only happen if YT does it.
Patreon is right about the platforms willing to kill its creators in their experimentation with new ideas. We have to diversify. But the real question is, how do we diversify and make it pay us for our time and effort? There are plenty of platforms that are willing to gobble up all the content you can throw at them, but are they willing to PAY you for your content? Well, some might say, "They only need to pay you according to how your content performs", but the truth is; How our content performs is completely in their control, not ours. You can have the best piece of content on earth, but if the algorithm is not suggesting it, it will do nothing. Some might then say, "The algorithms suggest what people want." To that, I say, BULLCRAP! I hardly EVER get recommended anything that I am interested in. In fact, most of what is recommended to me by YT, IG, Twitter, and TikTok, is so polar opposite of what I like; in most cases, I end up blocking or reporting it.
The platforms could care less about what you want to see. They will PUSH at you what they THINK you should want to see. What they think you should want to see is governed by the viewing habits of brain-dead content crack junkies that watch endless amounts of useless, mind-numbing gobbledygook. The algo thinks, "Hey, this content is really popular because all these GenZer teens are watching it millions of times, so this Senior adult male should want to watch it too." Or the algo thinks, "Here is some new extreme LGBT content. Hey, I bet this conservative Christian pastor will want to watch this." Don't tell me the platforms are serving you what you want. They are pushing the content THEY want to promote. They could care less what you want to see.
Honestly, I disagree with Patreon that the next ten years are going to be great for creators. Well, not for creators of useful quality content. Sure, there always be a demand for useless gobbledegook content, and the person who acts the craziest and stupidest will find fame among crack-content junkies. But for creators that actually want to offer something of value to an audience, well, we will be trampled in the stampede of lemmings, rushing to jump off the cliff of stupidity, chasing useless, brain-dead, entertainment.
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