Key Differencences Between YouTube and Steemit/DTube

For those considering a career in YouTube, here are some important things to keep in mind. I write this because I’m often approached on how to get started on YouTube.

Note that these are my own personal opinions after living off of YouTube full-time for 3 years, having recently surpassed 1,000,000 subscribers on my own channel They Will Kill You, grown a second channel to over 100,000 subscribers (Bored Badger), and coached two other channels to over 100,000 subscribers (Pablito’s Way & Origins Explained); the latter of which has recently also surpassed 1,000,000 subscribers.

René @world5list (far right) and I (far left) with our students "Origins Explained" (center).

Some may feel differently with what I’m about to write here, but keep in mind that this is my own personal experience. The beauty of a place like Steemit is the openness to ideas/opinions without the risk of censorship or harassment. Let’s begin!

6. Personal vs. Business

Based on my observations, Steemit has more of a personal touch than YouTube. People are using it as their own travel blog, diary, cookbook, whatever!

YouTube on the other hand is more business-oriented. Not only is this apparent in the fact that it’s now commonplace for many companies to start their own dedicated channels as a marketing tool, but there are also teams behind many of your favorite channels.

I run my own team of video editors, writers, voice over artists, etc. for my own channel, while René @world5list has his own team in place cranking out videos for his channel World 5 List. With more & more competition these days, YouTube has a higher barrier to entry than before. It’s almost impossible (and practically unfeasible) to meet the minimum requirements without employees to outsource your tasks to. Note: there ARE huge YouTubers who manage to do everything themselves, but most of those who I’ve seen that fall under this category are the vloggers of YouTube. As I said, this is purely from MY experience as a YouTuber, and I create “list” channels.

Diagonal View offices: a London-based network of several multi-million-subscriber channels run by separate production teams whom I've had the pleasure of collaborating with in the past.

Steemit requires none of that. While there may be professional setups out there, I’ve yet to come across them, as most people have stayed true to adding that “personal touch” to their blogs. While YouTube started out this way, we all know which direction it’s taken a turn for...

5. Network

In the YouTube world, there’s what you call an MCN, or multi-channel network. For a negotiated percentage of your channel (between 20-50%), the network will help you attempt to resolve any monetization issues you may be facing (although most times there’s nothing they can do), set up guerrilla marketing campaigns (i.e., get paid $x,xxx for doing a shoutout for McDonald’s), or establish collaboration opportunities (i.e., you appear on my channel if I get to appear on yours). Think of MCNs as an agent that works for your best interest (similar to what sports stars or actors/actresses have to represent or negotiate on their behalf).

In most cases though, MCNs don’t do much for you, but still manage to take a cut from your channel’s earnings at the end of the month. Although networks aren’t essential to succeed, it’s a resource you can use to help you in your journey...if you show enough initiative! By initiative, I mean bugging the hell out of them!!!

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Amongst Steemians, there’s beginning to emerge small communities or “support groups” similar to MCNs in the YouTube sphere. There’s the Minnow Support Project that @aggroed runs on Discord while @sndbox created an incubator program. The more I talk to other Steemians, the more I learn about “syndicates” of individuals collectively helping one another out. It’s becoming increasingly obvious that there’s more than one way to the top. We all have the same goal of getting there...but exactly how we get there can differ extremely!

They key difference between networks built around YouTube & those revolving around Steemit is the mentality. YouTube is ruthless: “How much can I squeeze out of this ‘mutually beneficial’ opportunity so that I can maximize my returns?” Take, take, take! Steemit is different: “How much value can I provide to the community so that I can help others succeed while also helping myself in the process?” Give, give, give…

The differences are astronomical.

4. Community

This makes for a good segway into the community behind each platform.

While YouTube is littered with internet trolls & keyboard warriors who think they’re invincible hiding behind a computer screen with a cartoon as their avatar, Steemit shows strong community support. In stark contrast to the keyboard warriors, most Steemians who I’ve come across aren’t afraid to show their true face & colors.

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Doing so is far from easy, as it takes an incredible amount vulnerability to expose yourself in as vast of a place as the internet. But it also establishes trust, a lack of neediness, & more credibility behind your actions...not to mention the very real & very powerful bonds created through human connection; a notion both absent & abstract in the digital world.

My first, initial experience on the Steemit platform was both humbling & flattering. Since then, this place has become a life-changer.

It’s not that us YouTubers are always looking to get a nice pat on the back or to be inundated with praise, but the words of encouragement & positive support were a breath of fresh air compared to what I was used to in the YouTube world.

Dealing with negativity targeted towards myself or my work has never been a problem for me. But the main difference I’ve experienced between negativity on YouTube vs. negativity on Steemit (if there even is any) is that any sort of “negativity” on Steemit is, at worst, constructive criticism. Negativity on YouTube doesn’t have much intrinsic value outside of “kill yourself” or “FIRST!”

3. Monetization

Inherent in Steemit’s blockchain infrastructure is its temporary monetization period. 7 days after your post is published, it’s minted into a block, added to the chain, and rendered incapable of monetization.

@aggroed made a good point during one of our discussions on his MSP Waves radio show that even though your post may no longer be monetizing, the value of the STEEM/SBD you earned still has the potential to go up! While this does hold true, the volatile nature of the cryptocurrency market means it can go down just as easily as it can go up. Unfortunately, the short-term direction in which it moves cannot be immediately impacted by the actions of a single individual in most cases (unless your name is either John McAfee or Jamie Dimon). In addition, the long-term market value of STEEM/SBD as an investment means nothing to those who rely on it for their livelihood; those who regularly cash out in order to make ends meet.

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This is where I believe YouTube has the upper hand if you can make it work. Demonetization & ad policy issues aside (I can write an entirely separate post about this since there’s a lot to be said), YouTube is still a lucrative source of passive income. Its algorithm works in a way such that once you have momentum, you can easily take 6 months to 1 year off or more & still experience the same level of--if not more--growth in both your earnings & subscriber base.

Unless you’re running a full-scale business complete with managers, assistants, etc., this sort of earnings model is hard to beat!

2. Content Diversity

I came across a comment the other day on someone’s post (and I can’t remember who it was by, so if you’re reading this I sincerely apologize for my inability to retain these exact details) shedding light on the fact that while Facebook has worlds of issues on its own that it’s struggling to sort out, you can find almost any type of content you want on it; I believe that the same applies to YouTube. On the other hand, a lot of content on Steemit is purely about Steemit. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing--and partly, in my opinion, due to the platform’s infancy--it’s only a matter of time until we see more diversification.

In addition, as one of the top 30 coins on coinmarketcap.com, STEEM (Steemit’s native token) has organically drawn a crowd well-versed in cryptocurrencies. This is a difficult & very noteworthy achievement, especially considering how relatively small the cryptocurrency industry is on a global scale as well as how much resistance cryptocurrencies face from traditional financial institutions.

Its crypto-heavy content distribution--populated by users knowledgeable in crypto-currencies--has easily made it one of the go-to platforms for crypto-related content. A quick Google search of an arbitrary coin oftentimes yields a Steemit blog post as the top search result more often than not.

One thing I must add though in order to keep this as unbiased as possible is that due to Steemit’s more personal flare, it makes the content seemingly lack a sense of authority or “guru” whose words hold any significant weight. But I believe that--just like with the diversification issue I touched on earlier--it’s only a matter of time until more “gurus” start making their way over here. You can already see this occurring with the likes of @stefan.molyneux and @hodgetwins joining the party; both of whom are prominent social media influencers as well as go-to sources of information on YouTube in regards to politics & health, respectively.

YouTube, being the massive video-sharing platform that it is, has anything & everything you’re looking for (barring graphic/bloody or sexual content). This is in part due to its longstanding history...but how long will it last? In wake of March 2017’s “Adpocalypse,” creators are growing more & more discontent with the demonization issues & strict ad policy guidelines they’re facing from their benefactor. This is why there’s an ever-increasing need for DTube (Steemit’s YouTube equivalent built on the Steem blockchain).

DTube’s decentralized, autonomous nature gets rid of any form of censorship or single, authoritative figure & puts the power back in the people’s hands. Although there are still many bugs to fixed & the platform isn’t as smooth as I’d like it to be (along with the same monetization protocol as Steemit blogs), it’s a HUGE step in the right direction!

1. Strategy

While there’s some overlap with optimal strategy on each platform, they differ pretty significantly, which makes complete sense given the fact that one is for video-sharing while the other is for blogging (with exception to DTube).

While there are certain strategies you can use on YouTube (i.e., thumbnail selection, title, etc.), they’re all catered around one important metric that holds more weight/importance over all other metrics on YouTube: watch time. The longer your channel’s overall watch time, the more favorable it is in YouTube’s infamous (yet highly secretive) algorithm. The higher the watch time, the longer people are spending on your channel & thus, the more ads YouTube is able to deliver to its viewers. Translation: MORE REVENUE!

Although YouTube adamantly denies that revenue increase is their main goal--disguised behind the motive of providing an exceptional user experience to the viewer--it’s blatantly obvious that money is their motive. It’s becoming more & more apparent that the constant changes made to YouTube’s algorithm functionality is to make more money. This has been confirmed countless times not just by the way they conduct their business, but also by former YouTube employees & ex-engineers who worked on the platform.

Steemit is worlds ahead of its time in the sense that it’s a completely autonomous ecosystem. We’ve come to realize that factors like follower engagement & meaningful content are what’s most important, rather than how long someone stays on the platform. This is clearly demonstrated by guys like @aggroed, @jerrybanfield, and @kevinwong, all of whom share the same common underlying characteristic: creating content in a meaningful manner that provides value to their readers/viewers.

Check out @aggroed's awesome radio show "MSP-Waves Radio" every Sunday on the "Peace, Abundance, and Liberty" Discord channel if you haven't already!!!

The key concept to take away from this is “value” rather than “money,” the latter of which is YouTube’s main flaw (and may be the ultimate cause of their demise). Rather than chasing money, find a way to provide value & the money will follow.

I hope this helps, and if you have any questions/comments/critique whatsoever, please feel free to let me know in the comments section below or write me directly on steemit.chat! I wish you all a wonderful day & happy Steeming!