It wouldn't be this way if YouTube didn't force youtubers to have to do this. The system is somewhat built against them. If you're not humongous you have to constantly generate content.
And there simply isn't THAT much to this game.
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You've been watching too many of those Pewdiepie/Markiplier/Boogie videos whining about how they only now get 1 million views per video instead of the 6 million they usually get...
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You don't have any idea how right you are about this! YouTube absolutely decides on its own what videos to promote and share. Heck, I can post a video that doesn't even get seen by 1% of my subscribers. All the likes/Subs/comments (and even dislikes) are mainly to help the algorithm look at your channel and at least show the content to the people who have subscribed and indicated they wanted to see what you do.
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Yeah, I've been looking a lot into this, and YouTube doesn't seem very good for generating enough revenue to make it worth your while to take the time to produce high quality videos. That's why we get these barely edited 15 minute videos of meandering content.
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Yeah I couldn't even remotely come close to living off the revenue. It's more that any money you generate simply gets put back into the stream or channel via new technology that you purchase. I won't speak for everyone, but I feel like at least from my perspective, I wouldn't do all this if I didn't enjoy it since it's not easy fitting things in with work and life.