this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2023
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It sounds harsh, but it is very risky to put all your eggs in one basket. I feel the same way whenever I read about someone whose livelihood apparently depends on income from YouTube and some arbitrary/automated decision by Google cuts off their revenue. The actual fix is to have employment contracts in place so this can't happen (which Google would have to be forced into as many places have forced the likes of Uber to treat their employees as employees), but for the moment don't let your income rely on empty words and good will!
I mean, aren't we all putting our eggs into one basket with our jobs? Isn't that what all of us are doing, relying on good words and will of our employers? Most of us work for a company that could decide to get rid of us on a whim. "At will" employment is a thing in some places where they can literally just decide to fire you if they want. Sure, it seems silly to make a living off a video game, but any company could just as easily make just as stupid of decisions.
"At will employment" is not a thing in the civilised world, places with passable employee protection laws ensure that you can't be fired without reason and you will be compensated if you do lose your job.
Lucky for the people in those places, apparently America isn't civilized enough. My point still stands though I think, most of us are relying on things outside of our control for a paycheck
No, if you want to be self employed (YouTube creator, digital marketplace owner, etc), you need to diversify your revenue streams. For a YouTuber, perhaps stream on Twitch, write up summaries of videos on an ad-supported or subscription based site, sell merch, etc. If you run a digital marketplace, sell digital content for multiple games from different publishers, and if possible, make your own digital content to sell. And so on.
The less diversification you have, the more formal and binding the contracts need to be. If YouTube wants you to be exclusive, they'll need to pay upfront for the opportunity cost you'll incur from not entertaining other options, as at as at least have a severance package if they cut your contract short to cover the transition period to a different platform.
You don't need an employment contract to avoid this type of issue, and in many cases employment contracts are less valuable than proper diversification if your role can be diversified.