In addition to Etsy, it's been my only source of income. As a college student working hard to get as close to a 4.0 GPA as possible, (it's 3.86 right now, woohoo!) I can't juggle classes and a full-time job. Crafting and making a video about once a week has been helping me pay for things I otherwise wouldn't have the money for.
Like this shiny new headset! After my old one broke, I had to use a mic I dubbed "the boob microphone," because the only way I could game and use the mic was to shove it into my shirt or under a bra strap. Hilarious, but not very practical.
Thanks to my YouTube channel's success, I was able to buy myself a new headset to continue making videos and broadcasting on twitch.tv without having to lean over to talk into my boobs.
(Also saved $20 and got free shipping!)
However, YouTube has started to be a butt and rejected my monetization claims on my two latest informative videos for Rage of Bahamut and Blood Brothers. This has been extremely frustrating because according to YouTube's own policies, these videos fall under fair use.
YouTube claims that gameplay itself cannot be monetized, but when a video shows gameplay footage that is directly tied to commentary and is education/informative, it can be.
Not sure why they are having an issue with me, and that wouldn't be the worst part if it wasn't for the fact that I have NO WAY TO DISPUTE IT.
YouTube, being a part of Google, has a help section that includes everything BUT a way to contact a representative. Yep, no emails, no live messaging, no faxes, nothing. All the provide is a community forums that isn't even visited or read by YouTube employees, just some community managers with no power whatsoever.
It's frustrating and infuriating at the same time, because I've put a lot of work into these videos and have made sure to NOT monetize any videos of mine that do not fall under YouTube's guidelines. I've been operating for months now with no problems.
Oh well. Hopefully things will resolve themselves, or else I'll have to quit making videos.
