TOGETHER WITH

It’s Wednesday and an anonymous donor is pouring money into a permanent undersea colony for humans. (It would certainly bring another meaning to "Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes.")

BUILDING CONNECTIONS

YouTube is giving creators a two-way space to communicate with fans

The update: According to a spokesperson, YouTube is going all in on “community-building features” that “help creators connect with their fans in more powerful ways”—and its latest product fits that description to a tee.

The platform has officially introduced Communities, a dedicated hub where creators and their viewers “can start and join conversations, share updates, and build relationships.” The feature’s debut represents the first time creators and fans will have access to a single, two-way space where they can share things like fanart, posts from other social media sites, and forum-style thoughts. For now, Communities is only available on mobile—but that limitation hasn’t stopped creators like @froggycrossing (who was involved in an earlier test of the feature) from singing the tool’s praises:

The context: The wider rollout of Communities not only gives YouTube users access to the immediate creator-fan interaction offered by rivals like Twitch, but also encourage creators to keep those interactions within YouTube (rather than turning to discussion sites/services like Reddit and Discord or using third-party subscription platforms like Patreon).

YouTube isn’t stopping at Communities, either. In its quest to foster fan-creator relations, the platform has also introduced a new shelf feature that allows some creators to spotlight specific Channel Members.

🔆 SPONSORED 🔆

From Hollywood studios to the Super Bowl, Black creators are shaking up the industry one campaign at a time

It’s Black History Month, and that means more viewers than ever are going online to connect with their communities, patronize Black-owned businesses, and discover content from boundary-breaking Black creators. 

During February and beyond, Viral Nation makes sure those creators have everything they need to reach fans and partner with top brands—because when they do, the possibilities are endless.

Meet a few of the talented Black creators making waves in 2025:

🏠 Robb Kenon 🏠
An Atlanta-based creator who covers cozy home content, Robb Kenon recently partnered with Apartments.com to give fans an inside look at his apartment-hunting journey. 

🕺🏿 Basement Gang 🕺🏿
It’s been a big few months for Basement Gang. After hitting the red carpet for Disney’s Mufasa and partnering with Meta Quest, the TikTok dancing stars are gearing up for the Super Bowl.

🎬 Loren Lott 🎤
Singer/actress/creator Loren Lott has become a choice partner for studios like A24, Hulu, and Warner Bros. Most recently, she joined forces with Meta Quest to create content for Just Dance VR.

Viral Nation’s diverse roster encompasses 900+ creators across every vertical and platform. Hit the link below to learn more:

Get to know Viral Nation →

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• Creator Clash will return for a third time on June 28, when more than a dozen celebrity fighters will go-head-head at Amalie Arena. (Tubefilter)
  
  

• MrBeast led this week’s U.S. Top 50 YouTube chart with 700 million views—at least 100 million more than any other channel in the ranking. (Tubefilter)
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• Snap CEO Evan Spiegel acknowledged yesterday that “the overall environment of uncertainty” surrounding a potential TikTok ban “is benefiting our business.” (TechCrunch)
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• LinkedIn says video uploads on its platform have risen 36% year-over-year. Its next step: rolling out full-screen vertical video display to all users. (TechCrunch).

PLAYING THE FIELD

Creators are ruling Super Bowl advertising. Doritos brought back a $1 million contest to join the fun.

The context: Doritos parents PepsiCo and Frito-Lay are bringing back a beloved fan contest just in time for Super Bowl LIX. Ten years ago, the brands’ Crash The Super Bowl competition was an annual tradition that injected a bit of user-generated content into the Super Bowl ad landscape by crowdsourcing Doritos’ Big Game slot.

Back then, captive TV viewers were the main audiences and YouTube was just beginning to explore its potential as a Super Bowl commercial distributor. Flash forward a decade and YouTube’s AdBlitz hub is still alive and thriving—but now, digital viewers are a key target and creator-driven ads are common sights on Game Day. That trend is only expected to become more prominent during Super Bowl LIX, with several advertisers lining up influencers for their multi-million dollar spots.

The campaign: The return of Crash The Super Bowl is perfectly timed to help Doritos ride that digital hype machine. PepsiCo and Frito-Lay announced three semifinalists for the contest last month, with each video submission showing off the goofy, fun tone that has become a hallmark of Doritos’ Super Bowl advertising. The $1 million prize winner: content creator Nate Norvell and director Dylan Bradshaw’s alien-themed Abduction.

TIS THE SEASON

If you’re a creator, you’re probably overpaying at tax time. Here’s how to fix that:

The context: Tax season is no picnic for creators. While revenue earned from content is taxable at self-employment rates, platforms like YouTube and TikTok don’t actually take taxes out for creators—meaning video makers have to personally calculate how much their taxes will be and save that exact amount. Oh, and self-employment tax? It’s pricey: an extra 15.3% of what creators are making, on top of federal and state taxes.

The expert: So, how can creators make tax season less stressful? To find out, we asked Nate Coughran, a CPA with 12 years of experience and the founder of tax and accounting creator services company Cookie Finance. Coughran started Cookie Finance in 2023 after realizing that his two sisters-in-law—both content creators—needed specific tax help from someone who understood the creator industry. Now, the company has 16 CPAs on staff, works with hundreds of creator clients, and is expanding into Canada.

Here are Coughran’s top tax tips for creators:

1. Start deducting more.
Traveling or a video? Deduct your plane tickets, rental car, hotel room, and other costs. Coughran says creators can also deduct their home internet costs and cell phone bills, as well as a portion of their rent or mortgage as a home office.

2. Keep an eye on earnings thresholds.
Once a creator is earning more than $12,000/year from content, they should think about making quarterly self-employment tax payments to the IRS to avoid having to pay one big lump-sum in April. Making over $100,000 a year? At that point, Coughran says forming an S corporation can save creators from paying self-employment tax.

2. Treat content creation like a business.
“Set up a separate bank account and keep a good financial record of your income and expenses,” Coughran says. “Running this like a business not only helps from the tax perspective, but it helps from a mindset perspective of growth and diversification of revenue streams.”

FYI: Cookie Finance is a Tubefilter partner.

WATCH THIS 📺

Televangelism has arrived on YouTube (but viewers still love Jesus memes)

The trend: Jesus Christ has shown up in our worldwide YouTube rankings in the past, but those videos typically had more in common with Gen A memes than traditional church sermons. Some of the internet’s latest religious stars, however, are keeping doctrine at the center of their videos—and using YouTube as a hot new megaphone.

The channels: The first of those YouTube-based leaders is Bispo Bruno Leonardo, who has become a star in Brazil thanks to the passionate sermons he delivers through his São Paulo-based World Revival Baptist Church. Leonardo’s most popular Shorts include snippets of those speeches, delivering an internet-based version of televangelism to 44.5 million subscribers.

Of course, not all religious YouTube viewers are ready for a return to cut-and-dry evangelism. A meme-heavy channel called Camina con Jesus also appeared in January’s ranking of 100 most-subscribed YouTube channels. So if you’re wondering whether Jesus could beat the Grinch in a fight, well…now you know.

Creator economy marketing starts here. Get in touch to advertise with Tubefilter.

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Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen. Drew Baldwin helped edit, too. It's a team effort.