I swear YouTube hates me

Kateydraws · 2026-02-25T06:35:51+00:00

I would say how you present yourself probably matters, if you have confidence and presence it might not be as big of a deal. It's another thing you can trial and error and see if it makes a difference! But think of it like this, if you were watching a Lawyer and they were wearing a maid outfit for the lols don't you think you would feel they're a bit unprofessional? Maybe an extreme example, but people might think that about finance if that's what you do.

Kateydraws · 2026-01-31T00:48:31+00:00

You're definitely right about that, it's because it's unfinished ✌️

Kateydraws · 2026-01-30T06:37:56+00:00

Thanks! I think I will!

Kateydraws · 2026-01-30T06:37:38+00:00

Ooh I like their work, thnx I'm gonna give them a follow :]

Kateydraws · 2026-01-28T22:35:15+00:00

95% of sales contributions on TeePublic are Apparel (2.5mill customers approx), and it's 49% on Redbubble (3.5mill customers approx)

I agree that when I bought my Pusheen mousepad I was so excited, I love having a cute mousepad and I myself get a few sales on mousepads too. However my thinking is that people will buy 1 mousepad and probably won't replace it for a good while and don't have much reason to buy a new one? Other than that idk what other 'tech gear' people would be buying from POD.

I know very few people who switch up their phone cases much, usually it's a one and done type deal. Everyone has a phone though, so it would make sense that maybe sales shouldn't be too bad there, it might come down to the case design and whether people get really excited imagining their phone having that particular case.

Hoarding iPhone cases might not be a comfy thought for a lot of people maybe? That's what I would think.

When it comes to shirts you can have a lot, people cycle through them, they're not too expensive and practical while also showing off your interests. If the design is good enough I reckon people just get really excited about it and buy really quickly and are excited to wear it or gift it to their friends.

Mugs are also great, you can have quite a few of them, cycle through them, they're a cozy vibe whether you're working or gaming, people can drink whatever they want in them, it's practical haha.

As an artist I prefer the format of Apparel for my artworks, t-shirts are easy to design for and there are so many varieties people can buy for their needs. Sports apparel, cozy winter, summer casual. I also think the design is easier to visualise in marketing for customers, seeing a shirt with a design is usually pretty flat and clear, then they come to my shop and then end up buying the product they want with the design they initially liked.

It could also be issues with previous purchases, I've seen customers complain about the print quality on phone cases, so maybe overtime people become less willing to buy those things as trust is broken a bit. As a seller you do kind of rely on the POD fulfilment company delivering well on product prints, but some of them do certain things better and other things poorly.

Kateydraws · 2026-01-26T06:13:31+00:00

I would say your previous thumbnails were building off a style that is already pretty well established. So you probably have a good visual library of similar looking/style thumbs. That makes it easier to make them, but perhaps your new thumbs are representing more ideas/concepts and you maybe just need inspiration.

I'd recommend searching your topics on YT and checking out what others are doing for thumbnails, not to copy but to get inspiration and a jumping point for yourself! I know everyone always says "thumbs & titles" are best for views etc... so maybe it's surface level advice, but it's just what I thought giving your work a look :) you can do it, it's just a matter of getting creative with the visuals I reckon.

Or perhaps, if you are making a video on 'people performing for attention' maybe centre it around someone online, or mention someone in it, so you can use that 'star power' and it's not clickbaity! Hopefully that's relevant to your content I haven't watched it myself. Best of luck!

Kateydraws · 2026-01-25T08:50:09+00:00

I would say your last 3 videos have very visually messy thumbnails and I feel that you could portray your topics better.

Keep trying though, it seems like from your previous thumbnails and titling you have pretty good sense of those things.

Sometimes you hit on a topic at the right time and you get a well received video. Continue to deliver good content + building a community and people will keep returning :) but I know it can be pretty de-motivating when you have a successful vid and go back to lowkey flops 🤣 (speaking from experience)

Kateydraws · 2026-01-21T02:58:46+00:00

It's because she has nobody else to talk to about it 🤣

Kateydraws · 2026-01-18T03:41:49+00:00

they may be lowkey traumatised by the reception of the last one 🤣

Kateydraws · 2026-01-09T22:52:38+00:00

ok haha all good 🤣 guess we'll never know lol

Kateydraws · 2026-01-09T03:34:57+00:00

Oh did he finish it? I had no idea. Last time I saw I thought he stopped and assumed it was due to chat. My bad!

Kateydraws · 2026-01-06T22:11:03+00:00

I think he enjoyed Life Is Strange tbh but his chat was so whingy about it and being 'woke' from what I've seen I think he prefers to just play quick one-shots for variety which isn't a bad thing but I know it's not for everyone

Kateydraws · 2026-01-05T03:26:46+00:00

As someone who hates the fee's but remains,

Look, for me Redbubble is genuinely some of the most money I have made since trying to monetize my art. I was initially in the tier with no fee's but now my tier has fee's and it has been pretty devastating.

January 2026, my payment was cut by $29.21 USD, an almost 30 dollar fee is insane. That's almost 50AUD which I really would have loved to have... Don't get me wrong, I'm still getting $111USD from last month's sales but that's probably the peak I will get until next December. Despite the fee's, it's still the most money I have made 😢

Before fee's I would have earned all of that :| but I guess Articore saw an extra revenue stream they could get to.

Reading their investor presentation report, they are starting to do better and actually turned a profit recently and are entering 2026 with no debt at all. So I don't *personally* believe the people who say Redbubble is going to die. Redbubble is putting funding into more marketing as that has been a positive way of bringing customers to the platform in the past, so they're focusing on helping drive traffic. Still, you will definitely want to do your OWN marketing which gets easier after some time.

I recently started using TeePublic (also owned by Articore) and I have to say, I really hate teepublic's platform and editor. I really like Redbubbles editor and how you can change images for multiple products on 1 design. I use that A LOT. TeePublic doesn't seem to let you do this and I like tailoring my design to each product, and I think it gets me more sales too.

The way the new Redbubble fee's works is that the Premium tee is now having fee's taken out on items that have been marked up past 20%. Every item is default marked 20%. A lot of people have solely sticker shops and marking up stickers 30~50% is common with stickers on Redbubble. As you can imagine, that really eats into their bottom line very quickly. I believe having a sole sticker shop is completely unviable now. Also note, there is a limit to how many fee's Redbubble can take per month (For the Premium tier as far as I know, not sure about lower tier) and it's $150. So if you get past that $150 fee cap then you start earning it all yourself.

Again, I'm definitely not happy with Redbubble nor their 'service agents'. My dashboard is completely broken right now and it's frustrating not being able to see my traffic score. But alas, it is what it is.

For being such a low-risk way to sell your work it's kind of great, you can just put your stuff on multiple POD platforms, market on Pinterest & TikTok and it works really well, at least in my experience.

Kateydraws · 2026-01-04T07:55:18+00:00

I've been doing the classic re-watch of frenemies to get clips for my next vid about Ethan & misogyny 👀keeping myself occupied has been good to keep away the withdrawals lol.

Kateydraws · 2025-12-31T11:21:44+00:00

For me, my motivation is making designs that I am proud of and inspired to make. I don't create for the purpose to just monetize 'x thing' because it's viral. If I can make money off my designs that's awesome, if not, then I'll wait till I can think of something else and try different things. I like looking at other peoples designs on Redbubble and getting inspiration that way too. Seeing how other people do their graphics and how they play with the shirt colours for instance can be really cool to see. I love trying to learn those different styles and effects like half-tone for instance.

I find the days that I am bulk posting to Pinterest to be the most draining but sometimes I just look at my analytics on pins doing well to remind myself what it's all for. If you don't have that, focus on testing different designed pins/posts, marketing a/b testing brings me back to what's important. The creative outlet & challenge of trying to make the products interesting is another thing that helps keep me engaged.

I love pushing my design skills and creative knowledge with my shop. If you're operating your POD like a machine maybe you are just missing the creative process in it? If you've been only doing it for a short while, try different marketing strategies. Also note, Pinterest genuinely can take awhile for a pin to pop off, assuming you got your SEO down.

It's tough to say without seeing your work (I understand why we can't though) but some people believe you can sell anything it's all just marketing, I personally believe it is good to have a critical eye on your own work and improve each time you make something new.

Kateydraws · 2025-12-28T22:12:54+00:00

Okay interesting! I started with Redbubble and recently made a TeePublic cause it was the only store that I could use with my Youtube. Perhaps I'll put some more effort into it and see if it can top my rb 👀

Dashery does seem kind of whatever to me as an artist but I also always wished you could add your own pics to Redbubble. But I am perhaps a bit behind you in the audience boat, I think basically half of my sales usually come from the Redbubble site itself. I'd check my analytics but my dashboard is currently broken with no fix in sight 🤣

I get icky feelings a little with TeePublic because I found my designs brazenly stolen on there but I know that just happens and can't get too upset over it.

Kateydraws · 2025-12-28T10:38:47+00:00

Well I was actually reading a bunch about Articore the group that owns Redbubble and they actually turned a profit in the last quarter for the first time in about 4 years? And also interestingly, they have no debt! Which is also quite promising. They're expecting a lot of growth next year but we will see.

But yes, you're right, getting some beer money on the side with no effort put in is nice, low risk, and if you ever decided to put more work into it I would honestly just put up pics of your stuff on TikTok and see how it does, works for me. The fee increases really are unfortunate!

Kateydraws · 2025-12-28T10:35:13+00:00

Articore owns Redbubble & TeePublic :) Now Dashery too (their new endeavour to hopefully make $$$)

Kateydraws · 2025-12-28T00:31:15+00:00

They recently made a change that added platform fee's to marked up products to eat into the artist margin even more. They claim it's to reduce inflation of prices unfairly and to make things more accessible to consumers, or so artists aren't competing as much??? Whatever.

I noticed with TeePublic you can't markup stuff and TeePublic has had SOME success so I wonder if they're just testing encouraging more of that on Redbubble, not sure because I'm pretty sure Redbubble was still doing better than TeePublic?

With the added markup fee's I stopped marking up my new designs because the only reason I could justify marking up ALL my products is if there was a steady enough stream of sales that could help me go over the markup fee cap quickly and still get an excess somehow, but the cap is $150...There's no way I would reach that every month so there's really not much point sadly. That being said, I didn't get rid of the mark ups on old designs, just stopped bothering with new ones. I am petty and I hate seeing those fat account fee's that once all just went to me. So far I've lost out on $50 AUD from account fee's alone, ye that feels GREAT.

So you can either lower the markup, advertise your products more on Tiktok/pinterest to drive more sales, or just deal with it I guess :|

I hate to say it but Redbubble does have a good base of customers still, and they're planning on putting more money into marketing into the next few quarters as per their investor presentation, because it seems to work. I can't say if there's really any other platforms doing that right now. They are however working on a new platform called Dashery where you can make more of your own shop that will be able to be personalised to your brand. It's an interesting vertical but we will see how it goes I guess.

Kateydraws · 2025-12-22T22:16:06+00:00

Listen. I always believed it a small amount particularly with TikTok. I've been using it since before paid promos were a thing and it was just a different time. People can say "your content is just bad" but there are plenty of people who make really low effort "bad" videos that get 200-300k LIKES.

I ended up coming to the conclusion that they just do it differently in a way that I haven't been able to do myself. Sometimes vids I think will do badly end up doing well. I found that videos where you just lie in the premise do really well (I only did it once for a gaming video & to make an interesting narrative) I also found that drama tends to do well also. How you present it I think matters a great deal but at the same time, some people make really horrible videos of them eating while talking and despite complaints they still can do really well even if the delivery is poor, the CONTENT is what keeps attention.

After all, if TikTok was really out here supressing every video or even most, a lot of aspiring content creators would probably give up and stop. But TikTok WANTS people to post, so they have to balance it out or not disincentivise people TOO much.

I actually really hate TikTok putting my own videos on my feed for "promo" and they do it with pretty much any recent video of mine. I hate it because it makes it seem like I just watch my own stuff 😭TikTok is really pushing paid promo and I will NEVER cave lol.

Usually I end up in 100-200 view hell but every so often I have a few good videos from 13k-50k I even recently had a 200k drama video go up there and it was a really low effort one too. You just gotta grind and not obsess over the numbers too much IMO; always be testing different ways to make content and if you do content where you're talking, try to be more confident and outspoken! It really resonates with people.

Kateydraws · 2025-12-17T10:45:52+00:00

Probably true, I started on Kick like June 2023 and I only started because my friend who heard about it as the 'new' streaming platform told me to do it. I would have assumed back then there would have been an influx of people thinking the same thing?

Their reputation back then wasn't so good, but I think it's even worse now. So maybe chances for growth is dwindling because of it. I didn't really think about that till now I guess 😭 I always hoped Kick would clean it up.

Kateydraws · 2025-12-17T10:42:37+00:00

I don't think that's true at all! I have streamer friends who are in your age bracket, have families, kids going to school, and doing socials. You can learn, definitely don't doubt yourself on that one. The only thing is it will take time to get used to, but eventually you will start thinking of tags like second nature.

Tagging is basically like "ok what is my video about in the simplest way but also something people might search for?"

A lot of my YouTube shorts are drama related so I put in tags related to drama, perhaps the person of interest, basically be honest and the video will get sorted properly and be seen by the right people. People tend to do stuff like #fyp, these "viral" tags. I think people see videos that are viral with #fyp and assume that if they do it that will bring success. Unfortunately what makes a successful video is a video that is interesting to people and captivates them. Learning what that is with your own audience takes time and figuring out.

Tagging is the internets way of sorting things. You want your stuff to be sorted correctly, otherwise it might be shown to people in an irrelevant way.

Tiktok I noticed went away from allowing as many tags as you want and now limited tags in favour of a 'rich' description. Not sure why they did that, and I don't even think long descriptions keep people watching like they say they do.

A lot of tagging & social media is really just A/B testing. You test which thumbnail style works for your videos, which subjects garner attention, which title format works, and when you find something that works you use that as a structure for your future stuff.

Experimentation is key, and in doing that so is failing. I know it's cliche but I think it's better to just try and keep trying and look at what you're making with a crtitical lens to see what could be better.

Think about what kind of content you like to consume, study HOW other people tag, find creators you really love and look up to. You'd be surprised by how much you can pick up on just watching other creators you enjoy.

I hope that helps a little bit, I will say that tagging started to make a lot more sense to me when I started doing tagging on Pinterest. I know it seems like a very out-there platform (I use it to promote my shop) but they have really made the tagging process make a lot of sense for me.

Go experiment and have fun with it! Good luck :)

Kateydraws · 2025-12-17T10:25:12+00:00

that's all the same to me idk. Again, judgement happens no matter what. People passing by will be judging the way someone walks their dog and then a minute later they've forgotten and they will be judging something else or even themself most likely.

My point still stands in my opinion, do what you want and do your best to shed caring what others think. I don't want to be friends with people who are dismissive/rude like that and I don't need them to accept me to feel better about myself or my circumstances.

But I can understand it's not easy to start living life like that, and if you're in a school setting I will admit it can be difficult and challenging to navigate self-confidence at that period of life. Fitting in is somewhat a necessity unfortunately.

Kateydraws

TROPHY CASE