Why I Don’t Monetize
Hello, I’m Max and I have a crypto YouTube channel that has been active for about 1.5 years now.
However… I do not monetize the RHMax channel.
“No monetization” is written in the intro and outro that plays every time I live stream as well as in my Twitter headline. Many people have asked why and some may scoff at the idea of giving up “free money”. They may be ignore it as a funny ideological position and think, “hey, more for me”.
You may be asking, “why not just take the money?” or “why are you taking the time to write about this?”. If you all me to explain, I’ll go into it as I think it’s an interesting way of going about things. If nothing else, it’s not the standard.
Airdrops
Let’s start with an example of a popular way of distributing tokens or free money in the crypto ecosystem. Yes, airdrops.
What if, just like airdrops, free money isn’t really that free. It comes with a price, regardless if it’s upfront and obvious or not. With airdrops, regardless of how good or bad the project may eventually turn out to be, they almost always cost time, consciousness and even other opportunities if you manage to convince yourself that THIS IS THE ONE THAT WILL MAKE ME RICH IF I JUST SHILL IT HARD ENOUGH.
Just because “money” hits your wallet, especially in crypto land, doesn’t mean it won’t have social strings attached.
I optimize for many things in life. One of which is avoiding things that aren’t important or valuable enough for me to give attention.
In a world where you can distract yourself until you die pretty easily, it’s also what all the social media platforms are fighting for (along with your data) and everyone else, some more and some less, that you encounter in your life. You need to actually see and hear people, things or ideas to pay attention to them after all, right?
So how are airdrops, attention and monetization relevant here?
I avoid most airdrops as well and only talk about or participate in ones these days from founders that I believe are being a net benefit to the community and the Richard Heart ecosystem blue chips, HEX, PulseChain, PulseX (and you could throw $INC in there as well).
So if best case, I make $1,000 on an airdrop. Ok, cool. But worse case, the project rugs and everyone who I shilled it to (and they probably bought more of it) sees their bag go to zero. Nope, not worth the risk. I don’t need $1k so badly that I’m willing to wreck people who follow me in the off chance it works out. Not a game I want to play.
I’m Not An Influencer
I prefer to describe myself as a creator, not an influencer. I may influence people, but it’s not what I’m here to do.
I like to create content, code and connections. I like to share what I’m learning and introduce people to concepts where they decide what, how and if to use them and in what way. I present information, you decide. Removing monetization from the equation allows me to operate more freely and better align the incentive structure so that I’m not temped to deviate into selling you something, whether I believe in that something or not.
I like to tell you what worked for me, what I see is working (or failing) for other people and perhaps speculate on the trajectory of the community and products (but not the price). It’s better if I don’t pretend I know things that nobody truly knows.
I didn’t create a YouTube channel to become a famous influencer. I did it to give back to the community, as it’s given me so very much, and have utility with the talents, work ethic and any intellect that it appears I possess. Maybe that explains my different way of thinking than others where the goal, implicitly or explicitly, is growth and popularity at all costs.
As for the channel, me and my own current, individual situation, I don't see the point in monetizing my channel (or really much of my brand at all). This may change in the future, but I’ve remained confident over the past year or two that I can overall, with many trade-offs considered, operate more effectively without it.
The Mission
I don’t shill ref links, have a donation address. I rarely ask you to “like and subscribe” even as it’s become the obligatory jingle of every personality on YouTube, no matter big or small. Why?
More subs is a nice to have, but it’s not the mission.
Being liked and respected by everyone is a nice to have, but it’s not the mission.
Growing the brand into a symbol that is universally known (at least in our small crypto community) for integrity, truth seeking and fairness is a nice to have, not the mission.
The mission is to give back to a community and a man who has laid the groundwork for many truly special ideas and products to take on a life of their own and… be a force for good in the world as a wise man has said many times.
I’ve already been given so much and while I’m passionate about it, have the time and energy and will to learn and grow myself, why not make it a win-win and become not an influencer or a youtuber (strictly speaking), but a creator who excels not because they love money or fame, but because they love to create.
My channel description doesn’t say “to the moon!”, however I hope all these amazing products achieve such heights. It basically reads, “Become the best version of yourself in the crypto and DeFi space…” and that’s what I want to channel to do. Monetization helps very little, if at all, with this and is more distracting than nurturing, so I don’t need it.
I’m not some socialist holding these views. I would prefer capitalism had slightly better incentives, but it’s a great system and I like it a lot. It creates wealth and value better than anything else in the world. I just don’t think every single thing should be monetized, just because it can be. I would prefer some things remain sacred.
Money is great and I want to keep accumulating it. To me, it’s not to be feared or worshipped. It is not good or evil inherently, it's just a tool.
Money can enable use to scale resources to solve many of the world's problems, especially ones that are still underfunded and have yet to be commoditized, like Longevity and next gen Green Tech.
But money can also corrupt. Just as surveillance can make us less free to express ourselves and literally change our behavior, money can taint and make the message less effective and even less genuine in some cases.
If this idea is frustrating, there might be something useful to discover. As Naval Ravikant said, “You're offended when you fear that it might be true“. I’ve found it useful to self-reflect and question my own ideas from time to time as well. It may strengthen or weaken them, but I think it helps me get closer to the ground truth.
What Keeps Me Firm On This Decision
If I'm so confident solely buying, holding, staking the right products will make me more than enough riches, I wouldn't then say well I could use 1% more by monetizing
If it's about challenging myself and providing education products or courses, then I'm also not interested in charging money for that because I'm actively working towards not selling my time for money any longer, it's something I want to get far away from and not closer to by making exceptions or anything else
I don't want people to have expectations of me, my time or my effort and having a group of people pay me for things naturally creates those
I think monetizing is hard to do correctly, without tainting my content or eventually losing people's trust it if the sponsors, individuals or companies associated with it do something against my own principles or otherwise promote ideas I'm not in support of
I don't believe unless you are in the 1% of YouTube or otherwise social media, you can make enough $ to justify it anyways
I don't want to make the trade-off nor take the risks, I value peace of mind more than extra money I don't need and has a chance of otherwise co-opting me
I want to have a unique brand, so if everyone else is monetizing, it's an easy win for me to just not participate as that naturally makes me more competitive anyways
And it’s just a lot more work keeping track of orders, 1:1s and “running a business” in crypto. I just don’t want to spend time on it and I already outsource plenty of things that don’t interest me. I’ve got enough work managing investments and I think my time is well spent and will most rewarded there. Time is the most precious resource and I’ve spent enough of it on trivial stuff already, so I’m going to try and get a little back these days.
Trade-offs
“You'll reach more people if you monetize, YT will push your content.”
Acknowledged. People will find my content if they search for HEX and PulseChain anyways.
Your channel will grow faster if you monetize.
Acknowledged and accepted. My mission isn't 10k, 100k or 1m subs, so this matters less to me.
“But they are going to play ads on your channel anyways! Why don’t you want to at least have some control over them and get a piece of the pie?”
I simply do not want to be a part of the system or at least refrain from being an active participant. ESPECIALLY not for *10 cents a video.
* I don’t know exactly much they would pay me, but my channel isn’t anywhere big enough to compete, so 10 cents sounds like it’s in the ball park.
As a contrarian, if everyone thinks its a good idea and no-brainer, it makes me skeptical. There’s plenty of things I disagree with the majority of the population on so as far to what’s good and healthy habits as well as ways of thinking, so this naturally fits into that as well.
What I Get Out Of It
If I don’t make money off you you, views, clicks, subs, merch and so on, there must be something in it for me, right? You are correct!
I don't have to make duck faces.
I won’t be seen as someone who wants to make a deal that's obviously going to favor me more than you, I'd rather give away stuff than prioritize taking (or lop-sided taking) from the community.
I don’t need to insert ads, change my content or feel pressured to have a particular view.
These keep me from being tempted to do click bait or otherwise trick people into clicking on videos that aren't what they thought they were and they get little value from spending their time on vs other channels videos that are more helpful.
It doesn't make me sit there thinking of ways I can take people's money, for lack of better words.
And I like not spending time thinking about how to make you part with your money and give it to me where I can't guarantee I'll spend it on something more useful than what you would.
It’s interesting to see people form opinions or stand strong on positions when it’s obvious that, almost entirely, it’s because it benefits them financially to do so. I prefer to take a position based on my research and reasoning, combined with my own principles. It’s so much easier to do that by removing the concept of sponsorship entirely.
I also don’t sell merch, but I have given a ton of it away... custom made t-shirts, hats, pens, cups, lots of cool community stuff. Honestly, seeing people’s faces confused yet pleasantly surprised when they say “how much” and I say “no no, it’s all free” is quite satisfying. Maybe it also promotes a “pay it forward” type of environment within the ecosystem. I hope so as I love getting free swag as well (buying it is fine too)!
There are plenty of costs, as well. I’ve spent thousands of dollars, maybe tens of thousands on equipment, events, swag and funding other initiatives or just helping people out when I feel like they are doing good work (I think for the most part, without ever directly telling them about it — not bragging, just a fact). Not to mention I charge no hourly rate, as I often do in my professional work, which would add up quite a bit.. especially if you count the hundreds of hours spent streaming, producing, editing, countless thumbnails and opportunity cost of spending it elsewhere. But I view these all as donations and I don’t keep count of my donations of time, money and resources.
I'm fortunate enough to afford to buy things, fund events and donate many things to the community. Many are not able to give so freely (at least for now) and I completely understand, no expectations. If I couldn't afford it, maybe I'd donate more of my time or whatever I can give.
I do it because I believe in the mission of Richard Heart and this community, people and groups that have given me so much, I truly want to give back and have a bigger impact than I ever had before.
And one day if I ever do call it quits and stop creating content, maybe they’ll even say, “That guy was ok”. He gave a lot and asked for little. He had utility and provided value, not forever but for enough time. That would be better than taking a lot, giving little, starting drama and leaving the community in a worse place than I had found it, at least.
Conclusion
That being said, I know there are plenty of educational and helpful crypto paid groups, courses and otherwise. This is not meant to be a critic of them. Many of the people I hang out with and stream with run or are a part of some group of people who monetize their time and efforts and I totally see how many of them provide a lot of value.
So why write this?
To show you can have a brand without monetizing. Even with the Richard Heart Maximalist brand in a small sector of free crypto. There are trade-offs, but for me, it feels amazing. Some didn’t believe a non-monetizing, low profile social media RH maxi could make it. Well, sometimes they do. You can be friendly and helpful within the community while being an example and showcasing ideas you value.
In the end, I believe sticking to my principles enable me to be that best version of myself and that’s good enough.
