$3000 helps paying for that gear recording your face and the mic recording your voice. If people get into this type of thing for making money, then I agree that a person is better off flipping burgers at a fast food joint. If you are trying to get into a field like you are, there is nothing better than the experience and the feedback you get from your audience that allows you to make tweaks to perfecting your craft. I have only followed you for about a month now on Minds and here, but I can bet your videos have increased in quality from your first one when you started, and that is worth a LOT more that paying someone in a school to teach you. I want nothing to do with Google and don't have a YouTube account, the videos I do would thrive in the YouTube arena because of the size of the audience and the search feature they have, but I think Google is pure evil and will never support them even though it would be better for my own exposure. I am just doing this as a hobby and don't care about making money from it. I have a career already. I don't do this for others as much as I do it for myself. I appreciate the fact that you are not concerned about what others think about you online, because as we both know 50% of the people online are Trolls and people that just look for a reaction from others. Do what you do for yourself and the other 50% will fine you and appreciate what you have produced for them at no cost to them. Hopefully over time if you stay at it, you can grow that audience and get donations, advertisements and offers. More power to you Scott.