I started my YouTube channel in 2016 while living in Vermont. I had access to a community access TV station studio and equipment at the time, and I put a lot of thought and effort into my videos, scripting them out, reading from a teleprompter against a green screen, and editing in Final Cut.

Those early videos are among my most viewed. In 2019, I resolved to upload something to YouTube every day, and doing so put me over the 1,000 subscriber threshold needed to monitize, but it also pushed me into a rapid production mode where I would jabber freestyle into my phone, edit on the phone, and upload from the phone, sometimes compressing the whole production pipeline into about 90 minutes (though it usually took longer).

After 2019, I stopped uploading every day, but I stuck with that gonzo method and uploaded 2 - 3 times a week. At one point, I had over 900 videos on YouTube. Now I have less than 700, because YouTube keeps deciding, years after the fact, that some old video of mine suddenly violates their community standards. They remove it and send me an email scolding be for being a bad person.

YouTube won’t make an AdSense payment until they owe you at least $100. I noticed that every time I got close to that payout threshold, they’d find some problem with an old video of mine and demonitize my channel. I could appeal, but “appealing” is just pushing a button. You don’t actually get to argue your case. Usually the appeals are denied, but even when a review goes in your favor, the demonitization isn’t reversed. You have to wait 90 days, apply for monitization again, and when you’re reinstated, your AdSense balance starts at zero again.

They charged advertisers for the videos shown before or during my videos, but the money never made it to me. Did YouTube refund the advertisers when they demonitized my channel? Fat chance.

That happened over and over, such that I haven’t received a payment in about 3 years.

It should come as no surprise that I don’t devote much of my creative time and effort to creating YouTube content anymore. (Though I still like to make videos and hope to find a way to reach an audience with video content.)