Everyone hates to see their favorite YouTuber "sellout," but in this post I am going to tell you why they aren't a "sellout," and why they do it. Also, for you receptive readers out there, yes, the shocking in the title is in fact sarcasm.
What is a Sellout?
Well, according to most of the YouTube community, a sellout, is a YouTuber who starts advertising in their videos. What I mean, is that they have a sponsor, and usually at the beginning or end of the video, they will say, "This video is sponsored by (company)." This is usually considered a bad thing and YouTube fans hate to see their favorite YouTuber "sellout." However, according to Google, which owns YouTube, a sellout is actually one of two things, neither of which include YouTuber in it's definition. See the image below. However, in this post I will use the word as if it represents the YouTuber's definition.
Why do YouTubers "Sellout?"
YouTubers don't sellout, in the words of Anna Akana, they buy in. Imagine this, you started a YouTube channel 3 years ago, now you have 1 million subscribers. Every video, you get about $300 for 300k views, 4/5 of which goes to paying your expenses for that video. A company approaches you and offers to pay an extra $2 per 1000 views, in order for their product to get featured in your video. That means you would get an extra $600! Now instead of profiting $60 per video, you profit $660. You now can afford to produce better videos, do giveaways, and interact with your fans better. Seems like the perfect solution, right? Everything is great, until you look in the comment section of that video, and almost 3/4 of the comments call you a sellout and say they are unsubscribing. Now, you have about 800k subscribers, most of which are mad at you. Can you see how this is unbelievably unfair?
The one and only reason a YouTuber "sells out" is to produce better videos for their viewers and subscribers.
How You Can Help
Support you favorite YouTuber in their decisions. If they choose to buy in to their videos, don't hate, because you know this means better videos are to come, so you can have a more pleasurable viewing experience. For all those comments that say sellout, you can refer them to this article, or explain why that YouTuber isn't a sellout. However, do not start a flame war which could hurt the channel. Overall, just be a productive viewer, that takes part in the success and failure of the channel.
For all those YouTube viewers out there, who get mad when they see their favorite YouTuber buy in, just remember, What would you do in their position?
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Thanks for reading, I hope you learned something!
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