Britain Lockhart never knows what he’ll find when he scuba dives for treasure. Neither do his viewers on Facebook who tune in for a surprise reveal. His page, Depths of History, has been steadily growing on the social network since he started posting videos there about two years ago. He now has 70,000 followers on his page, which has started generating thousands of dollars a month in ad revenue.
“I really didn’t think it would be that profitable at all, but Facebook has such a variety of users on their interface that don’t even use YouTube, but they’ll be on Facebook ufabet999.com,” he says, adding that he’ll post his YouTube videos on Facebook to make ad revenue on both.
His income varies, although he says he’ll typically make between $2,000 and $3,000 per month through Facebook. But in 2021 so far, that income has unexpectedly dried up. The January payout was only $931, leaving him thousands of dollars short. In February, it was even lower, coming in at just $664. He double-checked his creator backend, and the numbers didn’t make sense there, either. Facebook’s revenue estimation tool projected that he should have received $3,397 for January and $1,747.52 for February. When the checks came in, he ended up more than $4,000 short
“It was like a slap in the face,” Lockhart says. “I was looking forward to buying more camera gear to increase my business, buying things that could prolong me working with Facebook and me working with YouTube.”
It’s good news for the creators getting a rebate but still an alarming precedent — holding thousands of dollars back for months with little explanation or guarantee the same problem won’t pop up again in the future.