YouTube Demonetization: How The Armchair Historian Launched a Members-Only Platform

The Armchair Historian is a popular YouTube channel that dives deep into various historical events and figures, offering viewers a compelling way to revisit history without making it feel like a monotonous lecture. Hosted by Griffin Johnson, the channel covers a wide array of topics, using a mix of animated visuals, storytelling, and well-researched facts. The team recently launched a members-only platform, Armchair History TV, using Fourthwall Memberships, and they saw 1000+ sign ups within the first 3 days. 

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Frustrated with YouTube's demonetization challenges, Griffin Johnson launched Armchair History TV to keep history content thriving. YouTube was regularly and unfairly demonetizing educational content - specifically from history creators. The new site features exclusive, in-depth content, giving history creators a more welcoming space and offering supporters something they can’t quite get on YouTube. It's more than just a backup plan; it's a game-changing way to reimagine how we consume and discuss history online.

We were fortunate enough to get the chance to chat with Griffin Johnson about YouTube demonetization, the success of The Armchair Historian, and their experience launching a members-only platform. 

A Q+A with Griffin Johnson, host of The Armchair Historian

Can you please briefly explain your journey as a creator before you started memberships?

I started my channel back in 2016 originally. Back then there weren't as many history channels, and the ones that were around were much smaller. I animated short historical videos while in high school, and decided to go full-time while in college. From that point on, I started bringing on extra people to help and built a team!

Why did you choose to offer memberships? Was there something that inspired you to get started?

As the success of The Armchair Historian channel grew, I began to feel held back by the restrictions of the YouTube platform. We often feel like the topics we cover need to be click-bait, it's difficult doing deep historical topics that aren't always WW2. At the same time, we also need to balance YouTube's advertiser-friendly guidelines, meaning often we need to censor important historical events in order for our video to get enough views to cover our costs; custom animations are very expensive! Memberships was our solution to get our content funded directly by our biggest supporters, instead of through corporate advertising.

What platforms have you tried in the past? Anything you didn’t like about them? Any specific feature that brought you to Fourthwall?

Our business has been solely run off of YouTube, and our main issues are needing to occasionally censor our content and embellish our topics in order to make them "viral." Fourthwall allows us to focus on deeper historical subjects, or subjects that would normally be demonetized or restricted on YouTube. Our content isn't at all shocking or disturbing, in fact it's often shown in schools. The problem is that YouTube has no clear way to identify educational content, and so that important piece of context is missing. To them, a video we make about WW2 might as well be a video praising the Nazis or making conspiracy videos about 9/11 or other controversial events.

What do you offer to your paid members?

We offer our members the ability to see original content from over 50 different historical content creators on YouTube, all uncensored without any advertising. We also have a Discord community which is already very active and we plan on hosting all sorts of events there. For our higher tier subscriptions, we offer an exclusive podcast as well as the ability to vote and nominate video topic ideas for us to cover on the website. Lastly, we offer discounts on our store to our higher tiers as well.

You hit over 1K members in just 3 days. How did you promote your launch?

We posted a single video calling out the problems we're facing on YouTube, and the response has been incredibly positive. So far we haven't marketed anywhere else yet, but using the profits from the website, we can now reinvest in more original content as well as paying content creators on our site to promote it on their YouTube channels.

What has the response from your community been like since you launched?

It's been overwhelmingly positive, I was incredibly surprised at the reception. It's difficult asking your fans for money, but we plan on really making the subscription worth it to them with lots of original content and events.

‍What have been the most useful Fourthwall features for you?

I love the feed system that shows all the latest posts, most of our members seem to be using that as opposed to sorting through the whole video library. It also allows us to keep our members updated with polls and news, instead of relying on an email list which isn't as effective as having communication directly on the website.

‍Can you share a little bit about your future plans and how you’ll continue using memberships?

The rest of this year I'm planning on working with all kinds of creators to produce original content for the website, and make sure there are always new videos coming out- especially the kind of stuff that YouTube normally doesn't promote (niche historical subjects, or controversial historical events). We're also in contact with a few school districts and are looking to help get our videos in the classroom! Fourthwall has been great because it allows us to make educational content without any kind of restrictions.

Do you have any advice for creators just starting out, creators struggling with monetization, or creators considering memberships?

I think one of the most important things you can do when building a business through a social media site is to make sure you diversify your revenue streams. If your entire business is built through YouTube or Instagram, and a policy changes or advertisers are suddenly spending less one year, your whole income can be jeopardized. It's good to make sure you have an actual product or service you're offering to your fans, something that provides value to them, so that your funding isn't so reliant on a single platform. It did require a lot of preparation and took time to build our brand to a large enough level in order to fully launch Armchair History TV, but it has been worth it in the end.

Content Monetization, On Your Terms

‍YouTubers are noticing that it’s becoming harder to make money from the platform due to content constantly being demonetized. The Armchair Historian team didn't just adapt to the challenge; they turned it into an opportunity, offering supporters exclusive, uncensored content that delves deep into history like never before. If you're a creator wrestling with a platform's ever-changing policies, looking to start monetizing your content, or wanting to get closer to your supporters, perhaps it's time to consider diversifying with Fourthwall Memberships. Start building a community where you and supporters can engage in a more direct, meaningful way.