Andres Segovia10 Years on YouTube. Wow. Time flies.
I have many fond memories of my early years on YouTube doing tech reviews trying to figure out what worked and what didn’t.
My first video that took off was an off-the-cuff video I did in response to a TechTuber’s ridiculous take on BlackBerry products. The sun was going down. My dog was barking. I recorded anyway and didn’t make any edits. Next thing I know, the video skyrockets to 249k views!
My channel started to take off and as I quickly (and organically) reached the 1 million view milestone, YouTube reached out and offered me to enter their partnership program. While I did read the Terms Of Conditions and realized the guidelines were much more strict, I did not think any of that would apply to me. After all, what was so controversial about doing tech reviews?
So, I signed with YouTube. It was an opportune time as I was merging my Tech Corner channel with my real estate podcast. My intent was to inform my audience on how I leveraged tech to run my small businesses and to ultimately work smarter not harder.
The first few months went well. As a YouTube Partner, I expected them to boost my episodes. To their credit, they did but only ones they deemed news worthy. I paid to boost other episodes that I knew were worthwhile. They took my money, but didn’t push them citing some obscure rule. It wouldn’t be the last time YouTube would cite a rule that would negatively impact my channel…
I noticed channels were stealing my content. There were even copyright abusers hitting me with claims despite them not being the original license holder and my playing within fair use guidelines.
All of that didn’t matter. My channel was getting hit from all sides.
Things came to a head as I informed my audience regarding economic policies that would negative affect real estate. People took that as “political” and so did YouTube. Thanks to Steven Crowder’s VoxAdpocalype, my channel became throttled and YouTube would stop responding to questions.
2020 came around and the goal posts weren’t even moving anymore. They didn’t exist. No one knew what was “borderline” content. Despite my not engaging in political content, my channel suffered throttling, shadow-banning of episodes, censorship and demonetization. The most frustrating part of it all were the ever-changing rules. What was fine then might not be now. Early 2025 I received mass demonetization of older episodes without any real explanations.
What was once fun was now a burden. I neared a million views without the aid of YouTube within 4 years. Ever since joining the YouTube Partnership program, It has taken SIX YEARS to gain 500k views.
At the end of 2020, I joined Rumble. It was the first video platform among many others I would join to reach a whole new audience and make myself un-cancellable. At the time, Rumble was still a Canadian-based company. The first few months were well. I even let myself speak my mind on politics.
Then January 6, 2021, happened. After that, Rumble would not monetize my next series of videos and they would complete throttle my account.
I was grateful that Gab TV, YouMaker, BitChute and others were around to keep me motivated to continue creating content. Sadly, most of those are no longer around either, but a major change did happen when Rumble bought Locals and moved their headquarters to Florida.
This was the kick in the butt Rumble needed to truly stand up for free speech. And when Steven Crowder signed with Rumble, the rising tide lifted all boats.
The most inspiring part of Rumble’s approach was their outreach to small creators.
I qualified for Round 2 of the Small Creator Program in Spring 2024. It ran for a month. It was such a great experience! It reminded me of why I did what I did!
This year, my channel was picked up by Gan Jing World opening the door to yet wider audience. I officially became a creator with them and recently received my first payout!
Today, I am nearly at 4,000 YouTube subscribers and have over 500 Rumble subscribers. I appreciate all of them.
As I reflect on 10 years on YouTube, sure, I had my ups and downs, but it has been a journey. I do not know how much longer I will do this, but I can say I’ve been consistently doing video content for 10 years. Published over 1,000 videos. The last two years have been among the most incredible experiences in tech landing exclusive coverage and the highest profile interviews I’ve ever done.
So, here’s to the future and for whatever it will hold!