YouTube‘s fame is extremely fleeting.
Even Doug, who is still earning decent money is now in his twilight phase of his career, and way past his prime. Yes his reviews are still profitable, but very very far from his peak.
The only smart YouTubers are the ones that take it as a side gig, or are earning a lot of more money than they ever would with a real job, maybe even millions, and are saving, and investing their money for when the well dries up. Think Peweiepie or h3h3 as much as he is a loathsome person. And it will dry up. It’s not a matter of “if” but “when”.
People like Linkara that barely make more money than a random office job, are both lazy and stupid beyond belief. Lazy because they could be making more money doing a real job, or doing their YouTube videos on the side. Because contrary to what Lewis believes, reading comics in front of a camera, and watching tv shows for children (aka Power Rangers) is not hard.
Reality will hit him hard once he loses the little fame he has left from his time leeching on Doug, and he will find himself with no job experience , no savings, or real skills whatsoever. Unless his fans bail him out, he will be lucky if he ends up in retail.
For Lewis it is especially dire.
if Doug invested even a tiny portion of his paycheck in the feast days, in modest investments, and continues to this day, he would have enough to retire comfortably.
Lewis has a degree, a major in english, with a minor in philosophy. The only job he can get with that is in teaching. The licensing rules in MInnesota are pretty minimal for teachers, where realistically all Lewis would need to do is enroll in a preparation program and pass a license exam.
https://mn.gov/pelsb/assets/Infographic Update - 07.2024_tcm1113-638554.pdf
If he tried to become a columnist with this degree, it's impossible because he hasn't really engaged in journalism since getting the degree, nor has he minored in journalism.
Honest truth is he's a lot like Boogie in the "I will fail on my own terms" attitude, which ironically Boogie has ways to recover but chooses not to, while Lewis has no way to prepare for the fall, nor does he think he needs to.
People have been saying this since the Blip.tv years and Youtube has only gotten more profitable with sponsorships and Patreon alts, what you're saying hasn't reflected reality for a long time. If DSP or Ethan Ralph aren't in trouble after all this time, why would Linkara?
I see that he makes about $2,500 a month, if he took sponsorships on top of it he'd probably at least double his money. Does he sell merchandise at all?
He hasn't been able to secure a single sponsor, and the merch he does sell is the usual print on demand shirts and stuff he 3D prints in his garage. With his YouTube ad revenue money, and extrapolated from what he volunteered when he begged for tax money(over $7,200) , his overall income, based on if he paid $7k+ a year, is $34K a year or slightly higher.
Lewis also doesn't have any sort of insurance. He went to a dental college to get his wisdom teeth extracted, and chose to pop over the counter tylenol for the pain since he couldn't afford a prescription. Lewis is in the "There are levels of survival we are willing to accept" tier of youtuber.
