Have you ever wondered what design teams are all about? What does it mean to be an influencer, brand ambassador, design team member, etc.? I hope you’ll watch pop on over to my YT channel on Saturday, January 7th at 2PM PST to join my Let’s Talk livestream – https://youtu.be/pIRRLDfW6jY.
This Let’s Talk livestream is the first in a series. The goal of this series is to have real, honest conversation to dispel some myths and lift the veil of Design Teams. Earlier this month, I announced my new design team. My number one requirement for this new team was ZERO design team experience. My goal by having this team is to give crafters a chance to join a team and see what it’s like in a low pressure setting. We are not sponsored. It’s all just for fun and to help these crafters gain experience and exposure!
During this live stream, I’ll chat with my new design team about what they think is involved with being on a design team and how they’ve approached trying to get onto one. And then I’ll give my team an opportunity to ask me questions! My hope is I can shed some light on any assumptions or mysteries they may feel about design teams.
I hope you’ll join us live and be part of this conversation too!
My Crafty Journey to Design Teams
2019
When I first started sharing my papercrafting in 2019, I only had a blog, but I knew I wanted to make videos and create a YouTube channel.
2020
It wasn’t until February 2020 that I started my channel, and on March 14, 2020 I posted my very first video. Today, it has a grand total of 69 views. There were times it felt like everything I was doing just went into a black hole — invisible in the sea of millions of other videos on YouTube.
I applied to a couple design teams this year, but wasn’t getting any success. What to do now? Well, I quickly stopped trying. The rejection was tough but understandable. I don’t know if I learned the right lessons, but I came away with a couple conclusions:
- I was too new. Maybe sponsors/companies want to see that you are not a flash in the pan, not dedicated to producing content on the regular
- Maybe my following is too small. I understood design teams as marketing tools for the sponsor/company so what value can I bring if I’m such a small channel?
- Am I just not crafting with the right supplies? Should I be buying and using bigger brand items?
So I trudged on… posting videos that didn’t get a ton of views and barely got any engagement – likes, comments, etc. It wasn’t hard to stay inspired to create. I’ve always been a crafter, so I would be creating anyways, but the slow growth was discouraging. And watching my subscriber number SLOWLY tick up (and down) was getting to be a bad habit — one that I still haven’t broken.
2021
In August, I hit 500 subscribers! Roughly a year and a half from starting my channel, I celebrated this first major milestone. While not overly impressive, I was proud that this was all based on organic growth. I don’t have a huge social, personal network and most my family & friends didn’t know I was doing this as a hobby. So besides a dozen or so people, these were all strangers. Strangers who like my content enough to subscribe to my channel!
The reality of hitting this milestone on YouTube is that nothing really changes though. Except what I began to notice was that ads were playing on my video… though I wasn’t getting a portion of that ad revenue. Yes, it happens. So while my videos were starting to get more views (and hence worth YT’s ad placement), I didn’t have enough subscribers for them to be willing to share that ad revenue.
But this was a big personal milestone and it was at this point that I decided maybe I can start really applying to design teams. And in the fall of 2021, there were a lot of DT calls to apply to.
October 2021, I made it onto THREE design teams. Huzzah! I’ve never been on a design team and the last couple of years have largely been crafting in isolation. I don’t know any crafters personally. And I didn’t know any crafters virtually either. I don’t think watching other crafter’s videos counts as knowing them. 🙂
2022
With more confidence now and something on my “crafty resume”, I continued to apply to more design teams as I became aware of them. Throughout the year, I added 9 teams to my crafty resume and 5 teams fell off my DT resume (for a variety of reasons).
February 2022, I hit 1000 subscribers! This is big, folks. At this point, things start to really unlock on YouTube. Firstly, you can now apply to monetize your channel. So now I can actually try to make some money from my crafting beyond affiliate commission, which was maybe $50 every couple months. Not a lot.
October 2022, I Hit 2500 subscribers! I credit my growth to the various design teams I’m on. Many of them are very supportive and will actively drive traffic to my channel or credit my channel. And this is the mutually beneficial part of being on a design team. Every team is different and the level and form of support you get will differ, but it all helps.
This is when I started live streaming. Now, with an audience, while not huge, it’s enough to where I feel like having an opportunity to engage and connect in real-time is worthwhile and fun.
2023
I woke up on News Year’s day to 3000 subscribers! A wonderful way to start the year. And I can announce that I’ve joined 3 new teams.
I started a channel membership club, so you can now become a member of my channel! More on this in a future blog post, but it’s the first step to actually making steady income from my crafting.
Where am I headed? I mentioned on my very first blog post that ultimately my goal is to earn money from this crafty hobby. That money helps offset my expense. Yes, even though I’m on several design teams, there’s a lot of personal expense still. I still spend more on craft supplies than I earn from affiliate commission and ad revenue combined. And the ultimate dream would be to be able to work less or quit my day job all together so I can craft full time!
How Can You Support Your Favorite Creator/Designer?
Free Ways to Support
Engagement – If you see your favorite designer post a new photos, video, etc. , leave a like or comment. Subscribe on YouTube or Follow on IG/FB. This puts you in the know when new content gets published but it is one of many metrics that social media platforms use when they consider whether or not your content is worth showing to more people.
Watch to the end – YouTube values “watch time” — that is how much time are viewers spending watching your content. It is one of the things that indicates to YT that your content is worth watching, so they will put it in front of more people. You can help by watching a video to the end or putting a playlist on auto-play in the background as you work.
Shop their links – many creators share what they use and include links for you to shop. If you make a purchase from their link, your cost is the same but the content creator may get a bit of a commission from the company.
Paid Ways to Support
Some creators have some form of a “Tip jar”. On YouTube, you can hit the “Thanks” button and give a one-time tip to the content creator. Yes, YouTube take a cut of this (a large one) but it helps all the same.
Super chats – during livestreams, you can chat as usual and that helps with engagement, but you can do something called “super chat” and similar to “thanks” it’s a one-time payment to the content creator.
Become a member. Some creators have a membership club. This can be the form of Patreon or YouTube channel membership. This is a monthly subscription — usually with exclusive perks and benefits to make it worth your money.
This is hugely beneficial to creators because it gives them something of a steady income. And at some point, could mean that they can create content for you full time! This is my ultimate dream.