Going In Raw Is Fine

So lately, some of the friendos have noticed me (Steve) joking about Going In Raw going out of business. The barista remarks have kicked up a notch, as have jokes about YouTube going down the tubes. As with most jokes, there is some truth behind the humor. In this case, the humor comes from the fact that, basically, YouTube revenue has taken a massive tumble. There hasn't been a massive outpouring of press about it like from the Adpocalypse of 2017, but we're pretty sure the last half of 2018 was bad across the board for YT creators.

To be honest, though, not all the blame for this falloff in our specific YouTube revenue can be leveled at YouTube. Frankly, we underestimated the demand for some content that we moved away from, and we believe this may have resulted in some friendos dropping out of our community altogether. So we've made an effort to bring some programming back to the channel, and add some new stuff as well. Countout is back on a weekly basis, and Going In Rawview is back on a monthly basis along with an associated Watch Party/Commentary track. We elected to do Rawview monthly and not weekly for multiple reasons. First and foremost, it'll simply make for a better Going In Rawview. With time to research the PPV we're reviewing, it should make for a much better watch/listen. Also, we're doing Tape Trades now, which are fun. 

More importantly, though, with a huge assist from our management team at Studio 71, we found additional revenue streams for GIR. You'll notice now and in the future we have ads for HIMS, Hello Fresh, Robinhood and more placed in the show, which are a huge help in making up the lost YT revenue. We're also looking to further build the Patreon to make it an even bigger value for the friendos. We're still sorting out the details, but additional access to exclusive livestreams and exclusive bonus content will be hitting Patreon in the very near future. Adding the Friendo Market and placing a renewed emphasis on adding products to our PWT shop were also helpful to keeping us healthy in 2018. 

There are still more things we really want to do, some more likely to happen than others. Collaborations on a regular basis with other wrestling YouTubers is high on our list of priorities. We plan on getting back to Friendo Road, but that's easier said than done for multiple reasons. We know you really enjoyed GIR Daily, and that's something we'd love to bring back, but given that we've folded news stuff into the Friday podcast, finding actual material for that without being redundant would be a challenge. Not to say it won't happen, just that we'll need to find an approach that has legs and won't be content for the sake of content.

In short, things at GIR are totally fine. 2018 was our best year in pretty much every metric, and we found new ways to monetize the show.  With Rumble/Mania season around the corner, Kenny possibly arriving in WWE, the start of AEW and All In 2, and with Smackdown headed to Fox, 2019 looks to be a killer year for wrestling and Going In Raw. We literally have the best community in wrestling, and as long as we keep producing content that you all enjoy, we'll be fine. 

Or we'll quit and get barista jobs. Either way. 

-S