Hey everyone, I hope you’re all doing well. It’s been a while since I’ve been in contact with you on here, and there’s a reason for that.
In the start of 2021, I explained my situation with work at the time and made a commitment to begin producing a wider variety of content focusing more on culture rather than current events and news.
One of the reasons behind this is that I was just burnt out of writing current events and politics news. Now, articles about coronavirus hysteria and political turmoil are perfectly fine, but those aren’t my focus. I became a writer to highlight current ongoings that aren’t normally discussed in the mainstream media as well as to explore interesting subjects like psychology and consciousness.
However, what truthfully ended up happening is that I got pulled into writing stories I knew would get clicks. There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with that, but it does become a bit soul crushing after a while.
After going down the road of writing more for views, there came a point where my personal writing business peaked and I was starting to have money roll in for the first time, albeit just a small amount, and my articles were being picked up by bigger outlets like Lew Rockwell.
But something happened. Across the independent media, Google Adsense had been hitting us one by one with what I wholeheartedly view as bogus claims meant to hurt us for our speech. This cut our earning potential down by a lot. The service that just about every writer relied on started turning against us, which frankly we all knew was going to happen, but there just wasn’t a competitive alternative. Thus, when it came my turn to get the boot, momentum was killed as soon as it began.
We Can’t Rely on Big Tech if we Want Free Expression
So, what became glaringly obvious to me is that if we want to retain something resembling a free press in America or abroad, we simply can’t rely on big tech companies like Google or Facebook (which we’ve had many, many problems with in the past as well), to get out information and financially support us.
In other words, we’re stuck.
There do exist alternative social media and ad revenue sites, and we in the alternative media have explored these fairly thoroughly. I’ve been using a different (and much lower paying) ad service since Google kicked me off, but even the second-best ad service requires much more traffic than I currently have and only pays about half of what Google does. That’s not a lot of financial wiggle room for smaller media companies to survive and grow.
When it comes to distribution of content, this presents another major roadblock. The primary way that smaller media groups distribute content is via social media. But what happens when those points of distribution lower your ability to reach your audience or cut you off completely? You’re left with a skeleton company.
Minds and Gab are somewhat viable alternatives to Facebook and Twitter, but really don’t have the kind of userbase you can run a company on. So, imagine you’re a struggling smalltime media company trying to make your mark, then in a sudden rush of corporate power, your earnings get cut in at least half and your distribution potential is cut by a 100th of what it used to be, or even less. That’s what happened in 2019-2021.
We have to create a home on alt-tech, or we are simply drones of a sick, dying, oppressive culture. Saying only what we know we are allowed to say; afraid of being unpersoned, cancelled, and our livelihoods ruined for stepping out of line. This is a sick and twisted way to live and it’s not something I’m about to accept. I’ve seen it, I’ve been on the receiving end of it, lost my dream job over it – it is very real and very disheartening.
Getting into the Gaming Space
From August of 2021 to now, I’ve spent a great deal of time building up my Twitch channel where I consistently stream and create gaming content. On a personal level, it’s been one of the best things I’ve ever done. I have made so many friends over there, gotten a lot more comfortable in front of a microphone, and really thoroughly enjoyed my time as a streamer. It is something that I just had to do, and I apologize for falling off the map for nearly an entire year because of it.
At the time writing was just a dead end for me, but now that I’ve spent some time away doing something I very much enjoyed, I feel that I have a broader perspective as a writer and have gained some skills which will certainly come in handy when I seek to merge these two things together: writing and streaming.
Over this time, I connected with a number of gaming creators on alt-tech and made some good friends, as well as brought over a number of people to Minds from Twitch. That is really the only way to win this social media war: just tell people about alt-tech by word of mouth.
Additionally, what we need more than anything are non-political users on alt-tech. Most free speech sites are filled with politics, and that’s fine, but if we in the alternative media sphere want to grow into something that rivals big tech we need to expand into entertainment. I’ve always wanted to work in media and say what I think without fear, and I’m not stopping now.
Help Push this Media Endeavor to the Next Level
Whether you have any interest in gaming content or not, it helps me out a ton when you guys lend me your support. To be honest, I’m not sure how many people are actually going to read this seeing as though I’ve been on a near-year long hiatus. But if you are one of my readers from 2021 or before, I appreciate you more than you know. This is not the end, it’s only the beginning of the next exciting phase of our exciting journey together.
If you would like to support the next phase of this journey, even doing something as simple as leaving me a follow or a dollar on Patreon is enough to see this through to the next step in the process. I really do believe that we can create something spectacular and beneficial to humanity. A place where we can discuss important issues without fear of censorship; entertainment that doesn’t promote an authoritarian political or social agenda; removing the corporate gatekeepers from our pathways to success. These are all beautiful things which I think we can really make an impact to revive if we work together.
I am back. I will be writing more frequently from now on. This is the start of my integration of news/entertainment content from me. Expect more in the future.
If you’d like to support my new content, you can give me a follow on YouTube, Minds, Gab, or Patreon. And of course, Twitch. Again, I cannot stress how important and immensely appreciated your support is. From the bottom of my heart, I sincerely and severely can’t do this without you. If you have a blog, twitch page, or other media of your own with a similar mission, feel free to leave that link in the comments section!
I apologize if this post was a bit long-winded and rambly. I had to try my best to explain why an entire year had gone by as well as what I’ve been up to and why. I hope you all have a great evening and prepare for some awesome content coming your way!
About the Author
Phillip Schneider is a writer frequently seen on Waking Times and Blacklisted News. If you want to see more of his work, you can follow him on the free speech social network Minds or become a contributor via Patreon.
This article (Phillip Schneider 2.0–Getting into the Gaming Space) originally appeared at Phillip Schneider and may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author credit, and this copyright statement.
