Are these Vloggers just a scam? SOL or Shmee etc? (Vol. 3)

[jayemm89]

YouTube is not much different to many other aspects of the media industry. One could argue it is both the best and worst time ever for content creators now. You can build an empire from almost nothing, but you are fighting so many others doing the same.

I am sure it is the same for the music industry now - lots of people out there who cant understand why they would pay for music, but also get annoyed when their favourite band asks for help in just surviving.

The media business isn't the NHS, or the army, but that doesn't mean the people in it deserve to be disregarded.

Personally, I prefer this over my old film career. Yes it has it's own unique quirks, but at least I am a little more a master of my own fate. I'm alson fortunate that seven years in film taught me well how to avoid burnout and fatigue, but I've seen first hand too many times how it affects people.

[Glenn63]

egor110 said:

TheAngryDog said:

egor110 said:

You are joking about the nurses and soldiers ?

Nurses have patients lives in there hands , soldiers face the real prospect of being injured/killed , making a crap video carries none of these consequences .

I get it can be stressful but it's nothing like the responsibility of being a nurse with peoples lives in your hands .

Reading between the lines suggests that unless you're a nurse or a solider, you're not allowed to be depressed? Quite a harsh view, isn't it?

Not at all .

My point is the consequences of some jobs far outweigh making vlogs .

The trouble is vloggers now all seem to think there entitled to have a career doing it , and when they don't hit the numbers to match the money needed to fund there lifestyle they meltdown.

I think that’s the real issue, they don’t want to stop making videos or they could tomorrow. They want to be rich and famous that’s why they make the videos. If the stress of a job is so great that it’s breaking you down mentally then seek another profession/ get a normal job. But they won’t because there’s no fame in that. I myself have been in a job (and probably many others have) that I physically hated going to so much so if affected my ‘out of work’ life, so I got a new job.

[egor110]

The difference with the music industry is they can still make money playing live .

[jayemm89]

Glenn63 said:

I think that’s the real issue, they don’t want to stop making videos or they could tomorrow. They want to be rich and famous that’s why they make the videos. If the stress of a job is so great that it’s breaking you down mentally then seek another profession/ get a normal job. But they won’t because there’s no fame in that. I myself have been in a job (and probably many others have) that I physically hated going to so much so if affected my ‘out of work’ life, so I got a new job.

You know there are some of us who do it because we aren't much good at anything else. It also helps that for many it starts out as a pure passion. But I won't deny I am sure there are some out for the fame. Like anything, you cannot tar all with the same brush.

[Japveesix]

egor110 said:

You are joking about the nurses and soldiers ?

Nurses have patients lives in there hands , soldiers face the real prospect of being injured/killed , making a crap video carries none of these consequences .

I get it can be stressful but it's nothing like the responsibility of being a nurse with peoples lives in your hands .

Depression affects people in all jobs, all walks of life, all financial positions. Many, many very wealthy, successful and famous people whos lives outwardly would be the envy of most have succumb to it.

Every knows it's relatively more common in certain sectors, armed forces and farming etc, and also higher among men than women and so on.

Not sure why any of that should mean that YouTubers shouldn't be depressed because have 'got it easy ' or whatever. That's just illogical and unfair.

[jamesth32]

How long do I need to be a member so I can post without the “constant abuse” message popping up, so irritating!

[scottydoesntknow]

jamesth32 said:

How long do I need to be a member so I can post without the “constant abuse” message popping up, so irritating!

One month I think. Have a search around website feedback. There was a thread about it recently.

[95JO]

TR Hamza has been involved in a bad crash during an X4M review (he wasn’t driving).

https://www.instagram.com/p/B56BcWdJE3B/?igshid=7h...

[Butter Face]

Lucky he’s not dead tbh.

[Gary29]

Seems like a nice guy (and sensible compared to some of the others, I know he wasn't driving)

Hope he makes a quick recovery.

[Shmee]

As one of the longest running Automotive YouTubers, I should offer some thoughts as my channel is now just over a month from reaching 10 years old.

Come 18th January 2020, I will have uploaded approximately 3,890 videos to my channel in 3,652 days; of which about 313 will have been during this calendar year of 2019. While this year hasn't been fully a daily output, considering that I've also taken 25 long haul flights (that more or less eliminate filming days), it hasn't been far off it. In 2018 I filmed just shy of 300 videos, but in 2017 I went the entire calendar year without missing a single day and uploaded approximately 380 videos in total including duplication days and that was intense to say the least.

Of my 313 videos this year; from a quick glance I believe just 2 of them weren't edited by me - so it has basically become a nightly occurrence that I will be up late editing; and as it happens I'm writing this comment while waiting for the next video that will be published to finish rendering.

As Beefmeister pointed out:

Beefmeister said:

Being a full time YouTuber is a very solitary job, you're either filming by yourself, editing by yourself or sitting in a hotel room by yourself a lot of the time

Truer words could not be spoken; I think a lot of people do not realise what this side of it is like. I suppose I'm quite lucky that I rather enjoy doing my own thing, travelling as I feel and not feeling routed to anywhere in particular - it's not something that works for a lot of people, as I even discover frequently with those that travel with me.

However, there is this strange sense of compulsion to keep going and going, which for some people becomes too much as has been well documented. It's quite like running a business and ultimately the more you put in, the more you will get out. Although, I very much disagree with this:

Glenn63 said:

They want to be rich and famous that’s why they make the videos. If the stress of a job is so great that it’s breaking you down mentally then seek another profession/ get a normal job. But they won’t because there’s no fame in that.

While there are people who will try to get into YouTube because "they want to be rich and famous", very few of this group ever actually achieve success. In fact one thing that's a direct correlation across almost all successful channels is that it was born out of a passion and enjoyment for the subject and content creation process. Quite simply you are being watched and if you don't enjoy it, that will come across in the video, and it will not succeed. Equally, if your only goal is fame but without the enjoyment for the years of work that it takes to grow a channel, you'd quit long before it got anywhere.

egor110 said:

The trouble is vloggers now all seem to think there entitled to have a career doing it , and when they don't hit the numbers to match the money needed to fund there lifestyle they meltdown.

One thing I do find strange is that nobody who once had a solidly established automotive channel that has since gone into decline has up to this point quit what they are doing to go into an alternative profession. There were channels that existed in the 2010-2013 era that were at the larger scale for the time that no longer really exist in a substantial way, but the individuals never took the step into running it full time so they almost get left behind by those that did. In the more recent period within the automotive niche, there haven't really been any of the full timers who have called it quits when things stopped going so well and I don't have a proper feel for why that is, other than the fact it's still a continuously growing industry which keeps everyone's incomes high enough that an alternative wouldn't be as lucrative - or as much fun.

While I don't mean to discredit any other job roles, particularly some of those mentioned before in this thread, please do not underestimate the workload involved in doing the kind of job that I and other YouTubers do. I would say I am generally working 15 hours a day, every single day of the week, every week of the year; especially Christmas and Bank Holidays. Even when you aren't officially working, you actually are because there are the constant selfies in the street, the people overhearing your conversations, and the peculiar negative comments that end up on Pistonheads from people you supposedly met in passing once... The content opportunities don't normally miraculously happen either, away from the 30 minutes of driving something awesome comes the planning, scripting, editing, publishing and even while the action is happening you have to fit the filming into the storyline; get the right words, capture all the images for the thumbnail and social shares - all of which are compulsory or the video will never propagate correctly. That's before you start working with brands where there are contracts, requirements, complex edits, last minute changes, scheduling adjustments, travel hiccups/cancellations and so much more.

I feel very lucky myself that I enjoy planning, I thrive on solving problems in stressful situations and environments, I enjoy learning about cars, I enjoy travelling around the world (despite it getting ludicrously tedious at times when you just want to sleep in your own bed) and of course I hugely enjoy the cars I get to see and drive along the way. But I am absolutely confident that the number of people out there who would be happy to do what I do is limited to a very small number - despite how "easy" it might look.

[easytiger123]

Mazeltov on 10 years Shmee! And good for you for coming on here and taking the time to explain and inform. Care to make any predictions about what the next 10 years will bring?

[BerlinChris]

Shmee, long time channel viewer and enjoy your content but I disagree with your comments. YOU have chosen that lifestyle and you have chosen to upload daily in order to fund the fleet of supercars you have. If someone of your calibre mentions about stress, depression and feeling burnt out I question this. Cut down on filming, take some holidays away from the camera, pretty much you can dictate whatever you want to do in your life, you have the funds.

In regards to the smaller youtubers who survive video to video, well again I don't really have any sympathy if you feel under pressure to pump out videos to pay your mortgage. You shouldn't have quit a safe 9-5 job to dive into the murky world of youtube where income is hit and miss.

Majority of stress (and therefore depression) comes from money problems. A youtubers problems are far from reality and call me heartless, I have little sympathy for those who create stress for the sake of having 12 supercars in their garage rather than just the 6.

[nunpuncher]

Shnozz said:

I’m sorry but when I look across a range of careers and see you tubers talking of depression and what an impact it has on them, I find it a little hard to take it seriously when compared to jobs such as understaffed health professionals. I’ll admit to not knowing about algorithms (or particularly caring) but surely if the pressure is so much in recording and editing a video, just reduce your content until it’s no longer an issue?

You don't seem to have much of a grasp on mental health.

I suffer from bouts of depression, as does my mother and my grandmother took her own life due to depression. My grandmother was a housewife, my mother worked part time in a bank and I have a very easy, stable and reasonably well paid job in technology. Work can be a contributing factor but to think you only deserve to have depression if you're job is meaningful enough or stressful enough is just idiotic. It's just in some people and it often takes hold for no reason at all.

[Shmee]

easytiger123 said:

Mazeltov on 10 years Shmee! And good for you for coming on here and taking the time to explain and inform. Care to make any predictions about what the next 10 years will bring?

I wish I could, but I think we have no way to know. There are both impacts on the supercar world in connection to the environmental impact, but also to the shifts in media and I suspect that the social media generation of now will be replaced by the 'next thing' before we know it.

BerlinChris said:

Shmee, long time channel viewer and enjoy your content but I disagree with your comments. YOU have chosen that lifestyle and you have chosen to upload daily in order to fund the fleet of supercars you have. If someone of your calibre mentions about stress, depression and feeling burnt out I question this. Cut down on filming, take some holidays away from the camera, pretty much you can dictate whatever you want to do in your life, you have the funds.

In regards to the smaller youtubers who survive video to video, well again I don't really have any sympathy if you feel under pressure to pump out videos to pay your mortgage. You shouldn't have quit a safe 9-5 job to dive into the murky world of youtube where income is hit and miss.

Just to state something, I didn't say I have a problem with my lifestyle - I love what I do and I'm very happy to work incredibly hard for it! My point was that although it may seem very appealing to others, it probably isn't when you get into the detail of it.

However, for those of my contemporaries in other genres who have been more public about their struggles with the YouTube lifestyle, you have to remember that if one does cut back and "take some holidays away from the camera" what actually happens is that half the people you know instantly start trying to reach out to you, along with huge numbers of others online. The next result is that the algorithms completely dive your channel off a cliff; so it's not like taking a 2 week holiday where that's part of your annual allowance or perhaps 1/26th of your annual salary; you can realistically expect to see a huge drop in earnings for the 6 months that follow; perhaps halving your salary for that upcoming period and permanently denting where your channel could otherwise have been.

BerlinChris said:

Majority of stress (and therefore depression) comes from money problems. A youtubers problems are far from reality and call me heartless, I have little sympathy for those who create stress for the sake of having 12 supercars in their garage rather than just the 6.

I'm certainly not asking for sympathy in any regards, I couldn't be happier with what I do day to day. My point is to explain more about how much work is involved which I believe that most people simply don't understand.

[Beefmeister]

If anything, some of the responses on this thread have highlighted to me just how little understanding there is of depression and stress.

We've a long way to go before it's truly understood and accepted by mainstream society, and it's really a shame as the stigma and lack of compassion is one of the reasons why suicide is the biggest killer of men under 50yrs old. People think it's not okay to talk about it, when in reality people need to be more accepting of things they don't truly understand and realise that if men (and women) could talk more openly about depression, stress and anxiety, lives would be saved.

[egor110]

I think we do understand , it's just vlogging is not as important as other jobs .

A family member has been involved in developing a app for social workers to try and reduce there stress/sickness , he's interviewed loads of them and the end result is they have to few staff trying to look after too many people .

Now there unable to switch off after there work day because there responsible for peoples lives and no matter how hard they try there fighting a loosing battle .

I understand that stress is equal opportunities as it can affect anyone from any occupation , my point is some occupations are far more important and have far more responsibility than making videos of cars .

[W00DY]

There are always people who have it worse than you. People's struggles are not invalidated because you deem them less worthy.


In the case of Hubnut, he has clearly made a leap to do what he loves (and I suspect becoming famous is not his aim) and like a lot of people when they start out on their own it's a fight to keep your head above water and when things aren't going as well as you'd hope there's still the bills to pay and the possibility of failure hanging above you and when you're self employed then it's always there and the work day never really ends.

[S11Steve]

Shmee said:

But I am absolutely confident that the number of people out there who would be happy to do what I do is limited to a very small number - despite how "easy" it might look.

I think the last line is very telling - if somebody can make something look easy, then it is evident they are very good at their "job" - be that a sportsperson, an actor, an engineer, a Doctor, a soldier or a Youtuber.

It sounds like you if you had a normal 9-5 job, you would be bored without the constant juggling of schedules and tasks, but this role suits your skillset.

[North West Tom]

Beefmeister said:

If anything, some of the responses on this thread have highlighted to me just how little understanding there is of depression and stress.

We've a long way to go before it's truly understood and accepted by mainstream society, and it's really a shame as the stigma and lack of compassion is one of the reasons why suicide is the biggest killer of men under 50yrs old. People think it's not okay to talk about it, when in reality people need to be more accepting of things they don't truly understand and realise that if men (and women) could talk more openly about depression, stress and anxiety, lives would be saved.

Possible controversial opinion but I think in a way it's becoming too normalised to the point where we're desensitised by it - especially in the Youtube/entertainment world. Every Youtuber and their chihuahua has done a video titled 'my mental health' (all lower case as it fits the aesthetic) with a thumbnail of them looking deeply into camera with crocodile tears. Convincing their young naive viewers that they most likely have a mental disorder if they feel sad sometimes.

Hope this doesn't come across as insensitive, it's just frustrating as those clout-chasers really make it difficult for people with serious, genuine problems to be believed and helped. Not some influencer who diagnosed themselves with chronic anxiety because they get nervous before interviews.