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Some of us were raised by our folks who told us quitting is weak or you don’t quit or whatever. Sometimes it’s Ok to walk away from something that is not working.
You’re not “taking the easy way out” you are learning one thing that isn’t working so you are moving on to something that works best for you.
I always like to provide a back story for new watchers to fill them in.
In 2017, I joined this crypto blogging site kinda like Reddit due to unemployment. Due to autism and mental illness (at the time before my physical limitations kicked in) I was unable to work a normal job and decided self-employment was the best route. On these sites, I’d embed my YouTube videos, make photography posts, and more.
In 2021, I started to earn enough to at least stay afloat for the rest of the month. From April of last year to June/July, my earnings started to dip majorly. Which caused me to panic. Since having to give my grandma 125 bucks of my already tight funds for a new heating system. getting through the month was even harder. I went from getting 100-200 a month to 20-60 a month.
I never intended to put my eggs in one basket. I was promoting my Patreon, Kofi, etc non-stop and couldn’t get people to join.
When you are a small creator starting a gig is hard. Getting subs or whatever is the hardest part.
No matter what I tried, I could not get my earnings back up. Recently, I decided to retire from crypto blogging. I will no longer make videos for threespeak. Instead, I will post videos on Facebook whether it’s reels or a full video since I will unlock mid-stream ads. I now see these sites are holding me back. if it’s been a year and my earnings have not improved, it’s a sign that what I am doing is not working. All that content for a platform keeping me broke could have gone toward Facebook reels.
When there are various types of content people like makes it harder. if most of the people like let’s say, politics and I post gaming, this is why my earnings dropped. People’s interests change. I used to want to have a channel for vlogging, now vlogging is something I rather do from time to time.
I believe telling people I’m chronically ill and need the platform to stay afloat hindered my growth. Possibly.
Not everyone will understand the site is a means of survival for me. They see a person thinking they’re entitled to votes, likes, etc. When in reality it’s a chronically ill creator seeing their means of making it slowly fade and they have to post like crazy to make up for the loss.
Social media is the only thing that is accessible and flexible. I can allow my body much-needed time to recharge. I will also have content about disability, being a content creator, and so on my Substack. I also have a blog post explaining how employment can be difficult for disabled people to get or keep.
Imagine if your job started slowly cutting your hours to the point where you can’t stay afloat.
Imagine if I made content for Facebook, a platform giving me a lifeline, instead of staying on the sinking ship. I probably wouldn’t be struggling as hard.
I can understand Facebook more.
Sometimes you have to know when something isn’t working and retreat and find something that works. I started getting over 100 dollars on Facebook in May or so. imagine how much more I could get had I put more effort into reels on Facebook. Or give my Youtube content its full potential. Posting shorts more often to show new watchers what I have in store for them.
Folks that need social media as their job are just as valid and should not be seen any differently. It’s hard out there. It’s harder to get a job now than when your folks grew up. It’s rough. Also, the epidemic showed us how working from home kept people safer and they were more efficient and it was more accessible for people who became sick as a result of COVIID.
I don’t mean to come off as expecting all these votes, likes, etc. That’s why I never intended to only rely on one thing. I’ve been trying to expand ) eg Patreon, Kofi, etc it’s hard to get people to join. That’s why you have more than one revenue source.
I wasn’t, by choice, only having one stream and not trying to get others. When you’re a small creator, it’s harder to get people to trust you in the past if the person was scammed. This shows how quickly things can change and why it’s important when you get a big check, put away savings so if something happens, you will be covered.
If you don’t see improvement within a few months or so, start planning your plan B or C or whatever. As soon as I unlocked monetization on Facebook, I should have started working on my “plan b”
Now I am doing that. Planning a bunch of reels to post to Tiktok, Facebook, and Youtube shorts. Now YouTube has given creators more options to get into the partner program and lowered their requirements for memberships, super chats, and so on.
I should still be glad I have Facebook and just have to tough out a few weeks broke. Which is way better than the rest of the month.
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