I'm Fighting Back.

Fighting Back Against YouTube Censorship

I'm fighting back against YouTube censorship with a second channel called Treasure Christ Plus. The link to the second channel will be in the description and pinned comment below, as well as on screen right here.

And I would be so blessed if you would head over there, subscribe, click get notifications, and watch the first video that I literally just published there. I hope you'll be blessed by the message in that video as it blessed me tremendously.

Now, you might notice that there's something a little bit strange about this second channel. It already has over 3 ,000 subscribers and it has a bunch of videos from over 7 years ago of me doing random things like juggling and hand whistling.

That video actually has 1 .6 million views. That's because this second channel is actually a very old channel that I kind of stopped using, it became completely inactive. And now I'm activating it again to be Treasure Christ Plus.

The purpose of this second channel is not to replace my main channel because I want to keep that around, I want it to continue to grow. But rather it's a protection and supplement for my main channel.

And this second channel is currently in good standing with YouTube. So in case one of my channels gets taken down completely by YouTube, you'll still be able to find me at the other channel. Unless YouTube decides to completely wipe my presence off of YouTube altogether.

That's pretty unlikely, but I guess anything's possible when you're a Christian making content about controversial issues. It really does seem like YouTube is cracking down more on LGBTQ related content especially recently.

It demonetized my channel, Matt Walsh's channel, and it's thrown tons of violations at my channel, other Christian creators' channels, and a bunch of the Daily Wire's channels also. Tons of videos are getting demonetized or taken down.

And I just think that having two channels will be a protection against having YouTube take down one of my channels so that you can still reach me on the other one. I don't want to stop making content about this topic because I think it's very important.

Funding the Second Channel and Staying Active

And so this is just one of my strategies to continue delivering content on important issues that I think the church and the world needs to hear. My current plan, while I wait three months to see if YouTube will unblacklist this main channel, is to probably publish most of my long form content on the second channel.

Not all, I'll still publish some on this channel. And most of my short form content on this main channel. Just to kind of make sure both channels are active. I would love for both of these channels to continue to grow, so I'm going to try to keep both of them as active as possible.

Even though I am just one person. A lot of people find this kind of hard to believe, but I'm actually not a team or an organization, besides the people that I hire for voiceover and for video editing.

Those are just freelancers, they're not really part of my team or anything. I really don't have a beautiful filming setup like many other Christian YouTubers. In fact, the reason why you see this specific frame right here when I'm on camera is that if I turn the camera just a little bit, you'll see storage shelves right there.

And so, this is really my work room, and it's really kind of a storage room, it's not a filming room at all. And if you look over there, there's a janky green screen setup that I use for when I film shorts.

I mean, so that's where I am in terms of filming. Hopefully one day maybe I'll be able to upgrade to a more nicer looking room like some of the other setups I've seen from Christian YouTubers that just look really beautiful.

I'm a little envious of them, but you know, you gotta work with what you have been given and what you have, and this is what I have right now. I also wanted to give you all an update on how I'm doing financially, now that I'm demonetized.

Financial Support Through GoFundMe, Patreon, PayPal, and Venmo

Again, thankfully, I don't do this for a living, I have another full-time job, and so I don't depend on this to support myself or my family. But I do spend money on voiceovers and video editing, about $300 a video.

So I do need money to be able to fund those, or else my production rate will probably drop to be very slow, because it takes a long time to edit videos. And I'm terrible at recording myself speaking to a camera or a microphone also.

But thankfully, you all have been amazing in terms of your response to the demonetization. I set up a GoFundMe with a goal of $2 ,400, and we've raised over $4 ,500 so far, so we blew past that goal in under one day.

So I just want to say thank you so much for that. I'm going to say that the GoFundMe is finished and a tremendous success. There is one very scary story regarding that GoFundMe, though. When there was still about $700 left to be transferred to my bank account, between $700 and $800, somebody actually hacked into the account and changed my email, changed the bank account, and planned to have the $700 diverted to his bank account.

But thankfully, I was able to contact GoFundMe's trust and safety team, and they recovered my account for me, and now I have all of the funds. So that was a pretty scary experience. Regarding Patreon, we now have almost 100 patrons, which is amazing.

That'll fund the creation of maybe three to four videos every month. And I would say that long-term, Patreon is probably the best way to ensure funding for these videos, in case YouTube continues to shut down my content.

There's actually a very big YouTube channel. They make very inappropriate content, so I'm not going to say who they are, but I'm going to play a little bit of a clip from them sharing about the importance of their Patreon page to the work that they do.

Because I end up seeing comments for the rest of the year with people expressing concern for us, and it's just not necessary. To, like, put you guys through that. Because honestly, financially, we are fine.

We have a great Patreon page where you guys literally give us more than enough for a living.

So I just think it's pretty cool that they receive enough support from Patreon that they don't really need to worry about even complete demonetization of their YouTube channel. Now, of course, they have 22 ,000 patrons, and I don't have anywhere near that, nor do I need that much.

But the idea is just that it's kind of neat to think about being in a situation where you receive enough funding from outside of YouTube so that you don't depend upon YouTube for continuing to create videos for the community.

And I would love to be able to be in a place like that. So, if you want to support me long term, I would be so blessed if you would head over to the Patreon page and become a patron. I've also received a lot of donations via PayPal and Venmo, so once again, thank you so much for those.

And I just want to say thank you all so much to this community who have poured out so much support and encouragement in the midst of these setbacks, this demonetization. I feel like this demonetization has kind of been even a blessing in disguise because I've been able to connect with so many of you and to experience just how generous you all have been in terms of supporting the work that I'm doing here.

Burnout Among Major Content Creators

And it's just been such a tremendous blessing. And one last thing that I want to say about, in general, how I'm doing post demonetization. I've been hearing a lot more about big YouTube content creators who are just getting burnt out and stepping back from YouTube, both non-Christian and Christian content creators.

Take a look at some of these.

All right, Chad. It's been a long journey, man. 25 years old. I've been doing this since I was a kid, man. I feel like my childhood and even some of my adulthood kind of flushed away. But I feel like this is the end of the journey, man.

And so, if I ever want to really, really fulfill the calling that God has on my life outside of YouTube, I need to take a step back, all right?

And I'm just a guy trying to keep up and trying to keep the boat afloat and trying to keep everyone happy. But it's hard when, you know, you find yourself being unhappy. And so, yeah. But I've been here before.

And I'll find my way out. I know I will. I always have. Just within the last week, PewDiePie also recently made an announcement about how he finally feels free from the content grind. Now that he lives in Japan, he's got his baby.

There are a lot of examples of this over the last year alone of huge content creators that are just kind of ready to move on from making content online.

But I want to say that thankfully, I'm not there. I'm doing absolutely fine. I've been very encouraged by you all, by this community. And I don't plan to stop doing this anytime soon or to even take a break or to slow down what I've been doing.

Making videos isn't the most enjoyable or the most fun thing to do. But I feel like it's one of my missions and callings in life. And I do enjoy being able to help people through these videos. So, I'm not going anywhere.

I'm going to continue this fight alongside of you all. And once again, I just want to say thank you all from the bottom of my heart. God bless you all.