You know I watch copious numbers of videos on that platform.

Dear Alexa Saarenoja,

I have notes on this video on your channel. For those who may not know, I still spend a bit of time in the How-To-YouTube niche. This time of year is especially fun because I get to see all of the videos that were repurposed from last year. And since I don’t make response videos because writing is still my favorite medium, I wanted to share my thoughts here. Stick around because there’s also a key TTRPG tie-in to all of this.

Disclaimer: this is not a disrespect to Alexa. I’ve commented on hers and other similar channels before. She is an awesome lady with a lot of good ideas regarding YouTube, whether I agree or not. A lot of these creators know me and know that I have all kinds of love for them. I don’t begrudge them for wanting to make money. They probably think I’m some sort of loon out here in the sticks. LOL!

About two minutes in: This ain’t my first rodeo.

“Way back” in 2017 (scary that’s nearly 10 years ago,) I was heavy into the Law of Attraction/Personal Development/Growth/Life Coaching/New Age community. I still dip my toes in that end of the pond once in a while. I’ve given the whole spiel about you-attract-what-you-believe speech. We can go into all the Jake Ducey/Aaron Doughty stuff. (I highly recommend both of my brothers from other mothers.) There’s a spectrum from joy all the way down to anger and suffering. It’s kind of similar to the alignment chart in Dungeons & Dragons for a gamer comparison.

To expound a little further, Jesus reportedly said, “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.”

Without getting into a lot of theological interpretation, I hear this as the divine power of the Universe resides in each one of us. You can do anything you set your mind to. I can be successful on YouTube if/when I hit the right flow state and reach the correct vibrational frequency. Skeptics will tell you otherwise, but when do I ever listen to them?

If you believe you’re failing, you will fail. If you believe you will succeed, you will eventually succeed. Keep making videos. Keep believing in yourself. Feeling is the secret. Welcome to the Law of Attraction.

What your YouTube metrics say about you.

Alexa said the same thing I’ve known for quite a while now: Don’t watch your YouTube metrics too closely. For example, my subscriber count grows more when I don’t pay any attention to it. Most of the time I don’t look to see where my video placed with the rest of my content. If I don’t have anything to worry about, then I’m going to behave as though I’m not worried. Would a truly successful YouTuber with thousands of subscribers and hundreds of thousands of views refresh their metrics constantly? No.

It is done. As above, so below. It is done. Breathe it in.

One thing I learned in 2025 that carried over to Instagram, Threads, here on the blog, and YouTube: If I don’t think a comment is productive, it’s gone. Comments can get shut off on the entire post, video, etc. If I think something is controversial enough, I shut the comments off right out of the gate. No trolls means no trolls.

I have a high degree of social anxiety disorder when it comes to YouTube comments. My most “popular” and dreadfully negative videos had great engagement. Unfortunately some of the discussion turned political and the trolls showed their whole asses in that comment section. Now I’m back to shutting down comments if people aren’t going to play nice with me or one another. I don’t care what any of the YouTube gurus say. My sanity is more important than some troll’s comments.

You are not your metrics.

Breathe that in. You are a wonderful, meaningful, loveable, and downright special person. You are not defined by a number on a screen. Your health and sanity are more important than your YouTube metrics.

Also, would a highly successful and well-paid YouTuber worry about their metrics all the time? Nope. Neither should you.

Yes, it sounds hypocritical when contrasted with the comments philosophy above. Separation and duality abound in the physical and spiritual world. It can be pretty and ugly at the same time. The baseline is mental health above anything on the screen. I don’t ever have to “suck it up and deal.”

Alexa is right. If I’m destined or believe I’m going to be successful and make money on YouTube, then it shall come to pass. As long as I have faith that when I work hard and remember I have done this, I can do this, and it is successful, it will work out. Yes, the self-pep talk does come out occasionally on this one.

“You can make all this money on YouTube.”

Here’s where Alexa along with a lot of other gurus and I have a serious disagreement. Most of them comes from the gurus not knowing the tabletop roleplaying game niche, hobby, and market like I do. I hate to say it but what applies to regular YouTube businesses doesn’t apply to the TTRPG nice and community.

We don’t get big brand deals (like electronics companies, video games, travel, or furniture.) We don’t get multi-million dollar companies to sponsor us in the TTRPG niche. That, and there’s really only a handful of companies that could be considered “big” and the largest one does hand out perks like candy from heaven but not cash as far as I’ve seen. (*Behind the scenes, concealed by NDAs, who knows?) The one and only marketing agency with DungeonTube clients is so bloody obvious across every channel still doesn’t pay as much as someone in the YouTube Coaching niche or camera niche might make with a sponsor deal.

Btw, I was told late last year by the same marketing/talent agency not to come back until I was pulling in 25K-35K views. It’s going to be a while yet. Right now I’m overjoyed that a few companies like Top Notch International and Free League Publishing (through Uberstrategist) are kind enough to send me review copies and upcoming project details. I do love a good marketing package.

“You can make huge money and have such a huge impact on people.”

Again, here’s where I disagree with Alexa Saarenoja. I’m sorry, but no. In the YouTube niche we always hear about how someone went from zero to 10K subscribers in their first week or some outrageous thing like that. Believe me when I say brand deals and collabs don’t just jump out at new TTRPG YouTubers like they do in other industries/niches.

While I have seen a couple of new DungeonTubers go from zero to 3,000-4,000 subscribers in about a month. I don’t know if they monetized, though. I know at least one of those fortunate souls started getting convention invites and voice acting auditions as a result of that massive rise on YouTube. Yay for her. (Now if she’d just stop rubbing our noses in it…)

If I go by my subscriber counts on here and YouTube, I’ve maybe reached three hundred people plus or minus the overlap, people I’ve subsequently offended, etc. This is the tabletop gaming niche. There aren’t as many of us to begin with and some of us are pretty picky about playing games that aren’t D&D.

There. I said it.

“Dungeons & Dragons.” <dives for cover>

The formula for success, as you would undoubtedly hear from the YouTube gurus and DungeonTuber crowd alike if you want to be successful in the TTRPG niche is: You gotta talk about D&D or be stuck in the minor leagues forever. Unfortunately for people like me, D&D is the opiate of the masses when it comes to TTRPGs. It’s the biggest, most well-known TTRPG intellectual property in the world.

I see D&D YouTube (DungeonTube) channels jump exponentially in a very short amount of time in terms of metrics. We have to have something to compare, but I stand by what I said earlier about self-confidence and self-worth not being tied to analytics. I notice these things because I’m constantly scouting new channels for the OG_GM’s Saturday Shout Out. I usually don’t have to look hard for new channels. As long as you mention D&D in your first dozen or so videos, you’re pretty much good to go.

I chose to go the hard route. I don’t much care for Critical Role. I’m not a Stranger Things fan. I really don’t like a lot of the Wizards of the Coast shenanigans or their Reptilian Overlords at Hasbro. The non-TTRPG Illuminati probably has it in for me at this point, but that’s another article. But leave it to me not to chase popularity. It’s just my way of doing things.

Yes, even VidIQ’s coaching AI said I should embrace all the negative commentary in the niche. It even said to switch to D&D. My ChatGPT LLM said I should change, but at least I finally got her trained to mostly see it my way. (You think I’m joking, but the Ais do learn. It’s their job to learn.) I’m sure the human coaches/gurus who know nothing about me or the niche will probably do five whole minutes of research and come to the same undesirable conclusion. D&D sells, the rest smells, apparently. (Sigh.)

Possibly my biggest disagreement with the Alexa Saarenoja video comes next.

I don’t sell courses. I’m not a life coach, YouTube expert, or business mentor. I’m not here to teach much of anything. There’s no sales funnel, lead magnet, or offer to sell here. That’s not my job.

I’m here because I love TTRPGs. I want to talk about all these cool TTRPG things on YouTube. I want to talk about all the stuff going on in the world of TTRPGs here and on YouTube. I want to speak to my fellow Game Masters here and on YouTube. 

I don’t know if anyone else has noticed, but a lot of the How-to YouTube gurus who make their huge bucks selling courses and coaching are making all their huge money selling their services on the subject of courses and coaching, thereby creating their own competition. One of these days the bottom is going to fall out of that market because the snake can only eat so much of its own tail.

Okay, Jeff. Where’s the payoff, then?

Well, I’ve given that a great deal of thought over the last few years. When I got serious about YouTube I spent a ton of time on that exact question. I still ask myself that question occasionally.

I don’t have clients, so building a big email list or client list does nothing. I don’t have a course or a coaching service. (Would I hire me to teach someone about TTRPGs? No. I do it for free along with dozens of other online tutorials.) All I have is my love for the game. One that’s not D&D.

Yes, I am a DriveThruRPG affiliate and I do have a few meager offerings on that site. Mostly I create Dragonbane material using their open-source license. I enjoy creating content for Dragonbane everywhere I roam. No, I’m not ready to blare it to the world, “Go buy my stuff.” I want to make sure my catalog is satisfactory by my standards first. I want a wide range of products from PWYW up to $4.99.

I might go higher someday. Right now I want just enough to keep me in books without ruining my deal with the US Government. But there is a growth plan beyond just the meager earnings on our favorite indie TTRPG site.

When I look at the Ginny Di’s of the world (and refrain from the Deez joke) I see success unparalleled in my time. Like her or hate her, we have to acknowledge that she did learn how to make the system work for her. The rapper KRS-ONE put it more succinctly, but I don’t want to get hunted down by Ginny’s fans again. But in all seriousness, Ginny knows what she’s doing.

So let’s see what her deal looks like for a moment. She’s got hundreds of thousands of followers across multiple platforms back-to-back totaling over a million. She’s got pretty much any endorsement deal, convention appearance, guest appearance, book deal, sponsorship, and all the free merchandise she’ll ever want. She pops up in a product now and then if one of her fellow DungeonTuber friends or someone else wants the star power for added promotion. Wizards of the Coast still calls on her as their spokesperson. She even gets to run D&D in a Castle for the love of Source. Oh, and she was reported to be making close to a million dollars in 2023. It’s probably only gone up from there.

Notice I didn’t mention any AdSource revenue. She can probably buy groceries and pay bills for the year just on that money alone. Even if her revenue starts falling off a little, good grief, why would she even bat an eye. She’s a couple of public appearances away from making it back. No shade, just being honest here.  She’s got it going on and I respect the Hell out of it. That’s where we all strive to be.

Ginny is the exception, not the rule.

Other DungeonTubers do pretty well for themselves, but maybe not quite that well. I think if I can reach some pretty specific markers or all of them, I’ll be relatively satisfied enough to find new goals. Congratulations, this is part of my New Year’s Article we didn’t quite get into.

Here’s my list of markers in no particular order:

  • Convention appearances:
    • All expenses paid for dinners with other DungeonTubers.
    • Booth appearances.
    • Charity Guest DM or Player.
    • Food and Lodging paid for.
    • Having vendors and the Con itself handing you full bags of free merchandise.
    • Multiple Con Panel appearances.
    • The adoration of thousands of D&D fans everywhere.
    • Travel arrangements paid for.

  • Book deals:
    • Being asked to write a forward just for the clout it adds to the book (and probably some sort of royalty check, but I’m guessing there.)
    • Being asked to contribute to a project on crowdfunding or by another DungeonTuber.
    • The ability to say, “I want to make ‘blah’ sourcebook” and have it done in a year.
    • Your name being worth thousands of extra dollars when attached to a Kickstarter.
    • Having industry notables ask you to contribute to their project.
  • Free merchandise from your favorite company show up in the mail.
  • Having enough money to take a month off if desired.
  • Having enough money for a really nice custom gaming table and a space to put it in.
  • Voice acting auditions or invites.
  • Actual play invitations either as a guest GM or as a player.
  • “Charity appearances.”
  • D&D in a Castle invites.
  • Never having to worry about the YouTube algorithm randomly losing you.
  • Being able to drop a DungeonTube video any time and know it will probably do well.
  • Recognition from other DungeonTubers and a huge fan club.
  • Having a marketing/talent agency seek you out.
  • Being able to say, “Oh yeah. AdSense money. That’s cool.”
  • Being able to move up in tax brackets far enough to make our H&R Block lady nervous.
  • Being able to quit my, uh, full time unemployment.
  • The amazing ability to hire human artists for projects.
    • Having artists to choose from instead of randos sending pics on the Internet.
    • Being able to take the AI art sticker off a product and replace it with a list of credits.
    • Being able to actually pay for the art.
  • Creating and fulfilling a crowdfunding project from start to finish successfully.
  • Showing up for any in-person game is a big deal.
  • Adoration of thousands of fans everywhere. (Maybe not for me, but…)

Now bear in mind that back in my day just getting your name printed with an article in Dragon Magazine was a big deal. No actual money per se, but industry recognition and clout. With enough magazine experience someone could then go to Mr. Gygax or Steve Jackson, or whoever and say, “I’ve been published.”

The real big time back then was seeing your name in the credits of a game book or (gasp) on the front cover of one. There aren’t many people now who get to do that unless they’re indie publishers. But back before Print on Demand became a real thing and companies weren’t multimillion dollar conglomerates, it was a huge thing. Then the convention appearances came and more book deals, too. 

If I had to pick three things from that list it would be all expenses paid convention appearances, book deals (especially my own,) and being able to hire human artists. Anything that helps build the brand gets us more things on that list after what I just named.

From where I sit a little AdSense money would be lovely. That requires monetization on YouTube, Instagram, or maybe Facebook. The YouTube Partner Program (the good end) requires 1,000 Subscribers and 4,000 watch hours. Anything I bring in goes toward something on the channel or out here in blogger land; possibly other projects or review games. Anything beyond a little here or there and I have to jump the shark into the area of feasible income above what the government sends me. (I’m sure the judge will be thrilled to hear it someday.)

If I get the wherewithal together to start a Kickstarter and go the Will “DnD” Shorts route or the Kelsey Dionne route, I promise I won’t let it go to my head. Shorts was DungeonTube famous and Dionne is Shadowdark famous via friends and fans at conventions. (Kind of the old fashioned way we got TTRPG famous before social media.) They jumped the shark.

Not a single life coach or YouTube guru is really capable of guiding someone to all the successes above to the best of my knowledge. The only reason I know much about them is because of my years around the industry and researching some of them for my own edification. A couple of people got my dander up enough to get researched.

Back to our video.

Alexa Saarenoja talks about “find a community.” Yeah… She obviously has no gawds-awful idea what the overall TTRPG “community.” We’re more like a bunch of loosely integrated factions ready to implode on each other at any given time. The OSR and the 5E crowd can barely share convention space and the separation gets even wider on social media.

Mentors? That sh*t ain’t likely. Last I checked Monte Cook or Sandy Pederson aren’t exactly taking on students. We’re lucky if we get a chance to meet these guys in person at a convention or some such. Not to mention we’re in enough of a cottage industry that we can go from mentor/mentee to competition in a big old hurry.

Not to mention we have the BrOSR, the OSR, the 5E kids, the big name DungeonTubers, Baron DaRopp’s clique, the newer DungeonTubers, and so many more on YouTube and out in the TTRPG world. Things can divide even further along political lines. Heck, even the LGBT               QIA equality issue by itself can split the room. If someone yells, “bigot” on social media, it’s on. My guess is in-person interactions at conventions are similar.

For a bunch of people who value the friends we made along the way, we’re a riotous bunch with extra toxic personalities riding just under the surface. Community? I might have brought people together with this article from being open about Critical Role, Stranger Things, D&D, and Ginny Di in one article.

It’s like going on Threads and saying, “I like chocolate ice cream” Suddenly I’m the devil because I don’t like mango, mint, and bacon ice cream even though I never mentioned any of those flavors. I happen to like mango, mint, and bacon but maybe not in the same bowl together. Although nuts and gum together with lemon still has to be my least favorite.

Still, the Internet is full of opinions. Everybody’s got one. Use your discernment. Take what benefits and walk away from the trolls.

Unlike “big” DungeonTubers, I can’t afford a YouTube Coach or business mentor.

One of my other sticking points with Alexa Saarenoja’s video is I can’t afford to leverage my house to hire a YouTube Coach or buy some $1,000 course. I’m over 75 videos in, over a year into the journey, and I still haven’t found my tribe on YouTube. Ever notice everything some of these folks do on YouTube comes with a price tag? Everything is a sales funnel or click-through marketing.

I can believe all kinds of things, and I do. I’m 53. I ain’t getting any younger here. YouTube, TTRPG specifically, seems to be a younger person’s game. I believe it can still be done, but there’s a journey between here and where I want to be in life.

I’m worthy? Have we met? I really disagree with Alexa on this point as well, unfortunately. I find her blind faith admirable, but yet here we are.

The information I was putting out a year ago has yet to hit home with a thousand, two or three thousand people. Somebody can start a DungeonTube 5E channel and hit monetization status within weeks. My audience demographics show that either there aren’t enough of us or my message hasn’t found the right crew yet. This is where a mentor/coach/whatever might be of use, but I ain’t holding my breath.

By the time I make enough money to hire one of these coaches, there’s about a 90% or better chance I will no longer need one. The “free” YouTube coaching from Alexa Saarenoja, Think Media, VidIQ, and hundreds more all seem to be great… as sales pitches for their paid promotions. There’s some good advice for brand new YouTubers, but after that it’s catch as catch can on good advice.

Here’s where feedback might be useful.

Like I said, I have a pretty good idea of what my target audience looks like on here and YouTube. I’m still spending a good amount of time shouting into the void. That’s just honesty.

Do I have anything I can really teach someone? Do I have any valuable experiences that aren’t offered a hundred times over on other channels? A successful YouTuber would say, “Yes.”

As far as Discord communities are concerned, I’ve joined several and then left with a sense of disappointment. It’s usually an overwhelming sense that I’m still shouting into the void, or that this isn’t my tribe. Much like Patreon, I don’t know if I have the wherewithal or time to dedicate to creating my own. I like “community” spaces where the creator of said is actively engaged. The ones I’ve been in so far (looking at you, Knigobi) that has just not been worth my time and effort.

This could actually be four posts written over three days, so I guess this is a good time to exit rant mode. Please go check out Alexa Saarenoja’s channel. She really is a remarkable lady. I’m very happy YouTube and all her associated marketing is working for her. I just don’t think the TTRPG crowd on YouTube works the same way. Or at least as far as my experience goes. Maybe yours is different.

I say it every year, but I think 2026 bears repeating it. This year I intend to write more, read more, and discuss cool TTRPGs as well as supplements. Most of all, let’s just have more fun. Let’s explore. Let’s save the kingdom from the evil warlord. Let’s discuss all the fun stuff in gaming that we love.

With the world in the state it finds itself in today, please be kind. Please be considerate to one another even if we don’t agree. Lastly, please pursue the thing that brings you the most joy without harm to others. Thank you!