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mattgambler · 7 years

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Status Report

TLDR: The big Dad cannot support me financially for much longer and I explain what exactly that means for us. I disclose how much I have earned in the last year, paint a best case as well as a worst case scenario, explain how you can help if you so desire and talk about my overall business philosophy. I also included a FAQ section in the end. Ladies and gentlemen, we hoped the day would never come. But last week the big Dad told me that he sadly couldn’t do it anymore. For the past two years he generously backed me every month, while I streamed 6 days a week, 6-10 hours a day. I will be forever grateful for how much he has done for me, allowing me to chase this dream of mine. But he had a tough year and me constantly draining his wallet every month hasn’t helped. We both hoped I would grow quicker than I did, but that doesn’t mean that I’m giving up here or that my chances of ever making it are all that slim. Let me show you the numbers. Here is what I earned last year, every month, including subs, bits, and donations: Jan 17__________ 210,34 € (I had two donations of 100€ each that month) Feb 17__________ 31,74 € Mar 17__________ 28.1 € average income 1st quarter: 90,06 € Apr 17__________ 50 € May 17__________38,28 € Jun 17__________ 59.41 € average income 2nd quarter: 49,23 € Jul 17___________ 27,43 € Aug 17__________ 324,49 € Sep 17__________ 243,91 € average income 3rd quarter: 198,61 € Oct 17__________ 112,39 € Nov 17__________ 199,42 € Dec 17__________ 114,88 € average income 4th. quarter: 142,23 Jan 18__________ 191,54 €

I am showing you this because a) I think it’s interesting and b) because I want to show you that the curve is clearly going up. I don’t have the numbers for 2016, but it looked pretty much like February to May, I probably made less. The big jump in August can be explained by the fact that I got my sub button in June and Twitch keeps the money for 2-3 months in case of refund requests or whatever else can happen to that money. Looking at these numbers I can’t predict the future, but I want to believe. I want to look back at where we were a year ago and where we are now and hope that a year from now things are looking even better. I’m not sure if the channel grew at a slow pace or at a quick one, I have no idea what the average growth rate for streamers like me is and how big of an issue it would be if others grew quicker than me. I don’t really care either. What I do care about is that the past two years were the best of my life and I would absolutely passionately hate to ever stop. Even the thought of streaming less makes my heart cramp a little, because I’m worried that only 4 hours per day or only 3 days a week (or whatever else we might end up doing if we have to) would turn the steady growth of our community into a slow decline. Is that likely? I wouldn’t know, I’ve never tried streaming less before. So - what now? The big Dad was kind enough to ease me into it instead of suddenly cutting off all support. What that means is that according to my calculations I will need to earn about 600 € per month starting in March. 900 € starting in June. 1500€ starting in October. Clearly that is not gonna happen just by streaming, I’m not about to ask you guys to suddenly give me 10 times as much money as you have so far. As a matter of fact I will have to find a dayjob, no matter what happens. However! I still have about 2000€ saved up. The big Dad took care of rent, insurance, etc over the past two years and provided 500€ per month on top of that for me to spend on food, energy drinks, etc. Given that I have money leftover I clearly don’t need 500€ per month, but I felt it would be better to calculate with those numbers instead of shaving off every last cent and then having to realize after 6 months that I was too optimistic. I bring up those 2000€ because that effectively means that I can keep streaming for at least another two months, no matter what. Of course I will. However, sooner or later I will run dry and have to find work. I’m not afraid to not find anything, I’ve done a hundred jobs before I started streaming and I’m confident I can find something immediately if I have to. The question is how much the schedule will suffer because of that. Worst Case I have to take a fulltime job. 40 hours every week, it pays enough for me to get along, but I come home tired everyday and then maybe sit down and stream for 2-3 hours, possibly not even everyday. Even in that case I will live just fine. I won’t go hungry and I won’t have to sleep under a bridge, but I will miss you guys like hell. And worst case many of you will eventually stop missing me and the whole thing dies a slow and painful death. Best Case I have streamed for another three months - and with your support maybe even 4 or 5 - and since then the community has continued to grow and I can now comfortably work for only 30 or even 20 hours per week and still stream a good amount, most people don’t even notice that my dayjob makes me stream a little less. We continue like that for another year or two and eventually I quit my dayjob again because by now I don’t need it anymore. Realistically speaking we will probably end up somewhere inbetween those two extremes. I have always strongly believed in the way I run my stream and that includes how I treat financial support, subscriber goals, etc. This blog entry on its own is already almost violating those beliefs. Accept gratefully what you are given, do not ask for more. I have seen too many people try to milk their audience at one point or another and I would absolutely hate to have any of you feel like I’m doing the same now. So if you are even the slightest bit unsure if you want to support me or not, please don’t. The Donate-Option is only for those that want it, and always will be. However if you always felt like “nah, his dad is taking care of it anyway.” - Well the times of milk and honey are sadly over. Glhf to all of us. :P FAQ “So basically you are asking us for money because you don’t want to get a proper job like the rest of us?“ Yes and no. Obviously I want to keep streaming as much as possible and having a job at the same time makes that impossible. However I never wanted to ask people for money, I even refused to get a donation button for the first 4 months because I felt like I “wasn’t good enough yet”. Even now writing this is something I do because I have to, and be it only because if I dont explain it right away, I will have to do it anyway once people start asking why the schedule got butchered and left to die in a corner. However there is no reason to approach me and explain why sadly you cannot support me. I completely understand. Please don’t try to help if you can’t easily afford it. If you really want to, however, then you can. “I really want to help more, but sadly I can’t.” As I just said - I completely understand. However - there are many ways of helping me out that don’t include money at all. KittyTwo and Monokilho only found me because JohnyEdx told them about my channel. Kaioner was then dragged along by those two (I think). Even more importantly, simply watching the stream is by far the best way to support me (apart from straightup buying my soul with money). Not only from a channelgrowth-perspective but more importantly because I love to have you in chat when I stream. I have no idea how likely this is, but by far my biggest fear for the future is that a radical change in schedule could turn a slow and steady growth into a sudden decline alà “well, he’s gonna stop soon anyway, might as well find a new guy to watch”. Some of you might smile right now and think that I’m an idiot and that I worry too much. Others might have already left, it’s not like I can tell. “I am a subscriber already, and I watch a lot, I’m somewhat surprised your income isn’t already higher given how many subs you have.” You are forgetting that the sub button, while certainly effective at killing aliens, comes with it’s downsides. Twitch and I have a 50/50 split, so for every 5€ that you lose, I get about 2,50. Possibly less, there’s no easy way for me to tell if there’s additional fees, I just get for example 120€ at the end of the month and I have to assume that subs and bits added up to that amount. In comparison, if you give me the same amount using the donation button below the stream, I receive between 4,30€ and the whole 5 €. Even though I’m not sure how that is possible, but my Paypal history shows me that that has happened every now and then. Maybe Paypal had a Happy Hour at some point. Of course - if you use the Donation Button instead of the Subbutton, you don’t get the emotes, and the sub streak message, and the fancy subbadge, etc. It’s your call, but if you want me to keep streaming, one option helps more than the other. “Matt, I read through all of that and you should really do X. We need to raise more money, I recommend you ask for donations every 20 minutes and sell nudes on Discord. Also host more Girlstreamers, and you definitely need to upload more to Instagram.“ Your help is greatly appreciated and I am happy that you are so invested in my stream. But backseating is still a no-go. I have thought about this for two years and I will stick to my ideals, for better or worse. If you are convinced that you have it all figured out better than me, feel free to start your own channel. There are a few rare people that have mastered the fine art of suggesting ideas to me without making it feel like a command, but I am seriously touchy when it comes to how I run my stream. “Matt, will you play X if I give you enough money?“ Depends on the amount and the game, but in 99% of all cases, no. “Matt, will you sleep with me if I give you enough money?“ Depends on the amount and the dickpic, but in 99% of all cases, no.

#status report #Matt Gambler #Stream #donation #business

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