Influencer Courses are Garbage: The Dark Side of Content Creation

Great Video. I really hope it will help keeping comitted kids from stardom-y delusions about becoming the next big thing since virtual sliced bread. Let them just have tons of fun and encourage them to just see where it goes eventually. Great job, John 👌

Listior

As someone who spends way, way too much time on youtube, this video really impacted me on a deeper level. I was thinking for months to start making trendy videos to make a quick buck and leave. But, just like I make wooden swords, useless in the modern world, just for myself, because I like making them, youtube should be the same. As an art form, not a business.

pimi

Really glad I watched that vid

I've never supported a Patreon before, not sure I will again, but the quality of your videos, the obvious hard work, earnestness and humour you put into everything you release, yeah you're someone I had to support (however little I can). I hope you keep producing videos you're passionate about and manage to have a happy and fulfilling life.

Really awesome video! I think it's something that would be good for lots of people to hear. Any chance we could see your full interviews somehow?

Devin Wobschall

Excellent effort, proud of you! Keep it up

Nin

excellent video! getting a special thanks was somewhat surreal, i guess thats why i have the name, as it almost always get some kind of reaction.

arseholetep the insufferable

Also I might need to create a gif of "You can SEE I am not a Tiger!"

Jeffrey Green

Incredible.... But also, I felt so hurt when the end of the video went off on Andrews. I'm a Andrew. I know. I know. But somehow it felt like suddenly in this long video I was being called out... Made me laugh so hard... 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Andrew Robinson

I love this video. It's a better, more researched, and more engaging lecture then I've been giving young kids in my life for years. I can't count the number of young people in my life who have told me they want to be an influencer and it breaks my heart. It's the new "Videogame Tester" career goal.

Jeffrey Green

I went into this expecting the Super Eyepatch Wolf version of Drew Gooden’s content and got a compelling two hour Why You Should Watch Blue Period video essay instead. In all seriousness, this video explored the gaps between YouTube’s more questionable practices and scummy influencer tactics better than any I’ve seen. And as a nobody creator who only writes for himself, I appreciated the validation at the end. Excellent work – now please make good on your word to rest up and explore an easier topic next time.

Oisín Harrell

Good taste with Senran Kagura. Who is your favourite girl?

Alany

What an awesome, inspiring video! 2h just flew by and I loved every minute of it. This was great, thanks John

A lot of what this video goes into is true from my experience with Tiktok too. I built a small following on the platform (40k at the peak) and the analytics because the first thing I looked at when I woke up and the last thing when I went to sleep. Absolutely sucked the fun out of it, that constant feeling of dread and inadequacy is part of why I don't post there anymore 😅

Diarmuid Burke

Thank you for making this video. I am having a lot of mixed emotions, as somebody wanting to be a working content creator, but it has given me a lot to think about.

Vaughn.

Great video! I have a nitpick though. You say that an influencer course is successful if >50% of the people who took it become successful enough to do YouTube as a career. But that seems like an unreasonable bar. After all, becoming that successful is WAY more than earning back the cost of the course. Instead, it makes more sense to ask whether the course helps people earn back the cost of the course. I'm sure virtually no one becomes a 100k Andy because of these courses, but a $15 course on the basics of YouTube could definitely help clue you in enough to earn $15 of ad revenue, and even graham stephans course looks like it could kindaaaa be enough to help you earn $500 of ad revenue. So I think it's possible these courses aren't ripping people off as much as you say. And that's just looking at the modest bar of success. An outside shot at success is still something to think about. You looked at the group of 16 testimonials and said that only one person became 100k+. But success as a YouTuber is so valuable that a 1/16 shot at it is possibly worth paying hundreds of bucks for! This is still a nitpick because I think you convincingly show that it's mostly selection of people who were already going to be successful. And I think the most important part that I resonated with is the latter half on how these courses are a symptom of how shitty internet self worth is. But I still don't think you were fair in how you evaluated the courses. EDIT: separately from the above, I think you might be underestimating whether there are predictable steps that can make someone more successful as a content creator. Obviously I know WAY less than you do so I'll tread carefully here. But Ludwig had a video titled "I made a secret YouTube channel to prove it's not luck" that had some interesting ideas. And personally one of my favorite YouTubers is the chess content creator GothamChess, who has spoken candidly many times about prioritizing video ideas based on his analytics and how he thinks it is actually part of the reason why he grew so much more than other chess creators. All I know is that there's lots of different types of content - while longform video essays aren't conducive to this kind of "growth hacking", lots of other YouTube content could be.

Karthik T

Just watched it with my partner, who has a small streaming channel and it was brilliant. Thank you for making it!

Frau Tiger

Half way through, but it's been so interesting and entertaining so far! Please chill and take a breather now, John. Think you earned it!!! 😂 And love back at ya from two numpties down in London here!

Richard Williams

watching it now, your hair is 🔥🔥🔥

Valerie Messinger

Can't wait to watch :)!

Gameboy

I'd tell you to enjoy Riverdale but I'm not entirely sure Riverdale fans watch it to enjoy it. At least I hope the rest is restful.

Corran MacCorran

LETS GOOOOOO

Vito Vigliensoni

👊🏼

thank you!

Valerie Messinger

👏🏻 👏🏻

Davey Cadaver