Millions of people now earn part of their income from video .
Their audience, however, is decided by a system they cannot see.
A small change in that system can cut a creator's views by half overnight.
Platforms rarely explain such changes, because the details would be gamed immediately.
Creators respond by chasing whatever format currently performs well.
The result is a strange : the same thumbnails, the same opening sentence, the same length.
Income is also in a way that is hard to plan around.
Advertising rates vary by season, by country and by subject.
For this reason many creators now sell directly to their audience instead.
, courses and live events are less profitable per viewer but far more .
This shift moves the relationship away from the platform.
It also raises the cost of leaving for the creator, who must now run a business.
Few of them trained for that, and many say it is the hardest part of the job.