Trying Out Rumble as a Platform For My Audio Dramas (Join Me, Won't You?)

Folks who've been following my work for the past year have probably come across some of the audio dramas I've been making. Most of them are smaller things that only last a few minutes, such as Shining Armor, my story about mech pilots fighting genetically-engineered dragons, or Russian Roulette, a dark little drama about a former hitman taking a deal with a devil to avoid dying, and to get revenge on his former boss. Those appear on the Azukail Games YouTube channel (which you should definitely go follow), but I've wanted to do something bigger, and more involved for a while.

And while I've had a few false starts, I figured that I'd try it over on Rumble. So if what I'm saying in today's post sounds interesting, consider following me at The Literary Mercenary, or signing up using my referral code.

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

Lastly, don't forget to check out my Vocal archive for additional fiction, articles, explorations of weird history, and more!

Seeking Alternatives To YouTube

This isn't the first time I've talked about this issue, but I'll sum it up for those who haven't seen me touch on this before. In short, while YouTube is the biggest, most dominant platform on the market, it has a pretty high bar for a lot of folks to actually make money. Until you have 1,000 subscribers, and 4,000 hours of watched content in the past year (or roughly 11.5 hours of watched content every, single day for 365 days), you're not going to see a single cent of the money your content makes. And make no mistake, it is making money, because there's still ads on it... it's just that YouTube puts that money right in their pocket.

Now, making a living off of YouTube even after you're monetized ain't easy either. With so many people using ad blockers, you basically need to drag down hundreds of thousands of views a month just to pay your rent if you're depending on ad revenue. But that steep cliff on top of working for months (or years) just to be allowed to start getting paid is like running a race, but starting several laps behind just to get to the starting line.

However, on top of all of that, YouTube uses Google AdSense to pay its creators. I am not allowed on Google AdSense, so even if I managed to jump through all of those hoops, I'd get nowhere because I couldn't be paid.

And that's... not great.

I've been looking for an alternative platform for a while, and while they do exist, most of them came with other challenges that were deal breakers for me. Some only allowed you to get tipped by viewers, or to sell access to your content, rather than letting you get paid by ad views, meaning that if your audience was broke they couldn't help you pay your bills so you could keep making stuff. Others promised to pay you, but only in cryptocurrency. Last Fall I gave DailyMotion a try, and while it had a much gentler bar of entry, the site turned off a lot of folks due to glitches, format, inability to turn off autoplay, and so on.

It was thanks to A Vox in The Void (who has dramatized several of my Warhammer 40K stories) that I found out about Rumble at all.

In short, YouTube was labeling some of the channel's work as for mature audiences only, but there seemed to be no real rhyme or reason for this decision. Particularly the short story Fangs Out, which is basically Top Gun but with orks, which didn't have any objectionable content... particularly when compared to some of the other, more grotesque stories on the channel that were left alone. Frustrated by the situation, Paul decided to put some of his work over on Rumble to try it out, and I figured I'd do the same just to see what sort of results I'd get. Also, while you're there, follow A Vox in The Void's Rumble page!

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

So, what does Rumble have going for it as a platform for creators?

First off, there's no monetization hoops to jump through. Right out of the gate, your work can start paying you. Once it's reviewed, it gets a Monetization stamp (this can take a few hours or a few days, depending on), and then your traffic starts generating you income. No hoops to jump through, no subscriber count you need to hit, no "proving" you're a real creator, just hit the ground running. Secondly, Rumble is not an exclusive platform. So if you already have a YouTube account, or even a DailyMotion one, you can keep your content on multiple platforms without too much issue. This was an issue for DailyMotion, as YouTube is not an option if your content is hosted on DM, or vice versa.

There is another side to this equation, though.

Chances are that if you're reading this you probably haven't heard of Rumble. YouTube is the biggest game in town, and a lot of folks don't seek out other platforms, assuming that if you're worth watching/listening to that you'll be on the big stage. So you're drawing from a smaller pool of people, and you aren't going to have those algorithms working for you to shuffle people onto your page, holding them face down in your content. For newer and smaller creators, you probably won't be able to tell the difference. However, Rumble is also tougher to market in a lot of places, as some sites have it banned, and even where it is allowed there aren't the large, heavily-populated groups like you'll find for YouTube creators.

So if YouTube isn't an option for you, Rumble might be worth checking out. If you're on YouTube, but either are having trouble getting monetized, or you are monetized and want to double dip, it might be worth trying.

What about the big, dangerous shape in the room?

There is something of an elephant in the room... literally, in this case.

In the interest of full disclosure, Rumble is a platform that lots of people have come to because YouTube was censoring them. Some of those creators, like A Vox in The Void, were just dealing with the difficulties of what words can be said, what topics can be discussed, etc., and those things being inconsistent in a way that hurts their bottom line. However, there are no few creators on Rumble who appear to have been actively kicked off of YouTube, and they were looking for somewhere else to go. Many of these folks are very right wing, and a lot of them wind up on the front page of the site.

You can't always choose the company you keep, and YouTube certainly has its own problems with right wing figures, conspiracies, etc. But when the pond is smaller, the sharks are more visible.

I felt that was worth mentioning, particularly knowing my audience.

Again, if you're looking for an alternative to YouTube, my experiment with the platform has yielded positive results so far. If you want to check out my content, follow me at The Literary Mercenary. And if you want to give it a try yourself, sign up through my referral link so we can both keep putting one foot in front of the other.

Like, Follow, and Stay Tuned!

That's all for this week's Business of Writing!

If you'd like to see more of my work, take a look at my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife as well as my recent collection The Rejects!

If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!