He has a patreon now but still no ads:

https://youtube.com/@primitivetechnology9550?si=lBWNPNLZowdKKR6i

Just a guy in the woods building shit from nothing, without tools. It kicked off a lot of similar channels that were obviously using tools.

If you’re at all into Minecraft, EthosLab is the gold standard for low-key, super interesting, and not driven by money videos. He’s not small, but he’s worth mentioning in case anyone hasn’t heard of him.

My channel is not very good 😅 but I make videos just because I love talking about old video games and want an excuse to talk about them more. New videos come out every Tuesday and Saturday because that's when my co-host is off of work and can watch them with her mom. 🙂

https://youtube.com/@drcouzelis

Louis Rossman. Right to repair is great

Beau of the fifth column does 3-10 minute videos doing political analysis in what looks like a garage.

He said on a longer FAQ video that he's set things up to hide his channel's income from himself. He draws a salary that's enough to take care of his family, but he doesn't know how much more the channel earns -- he doesn't want his content to be influenced even unconsciously by which videos The Algorithm say paid better.

All of them with sponsorblock, which you then whitelist based on tolerability and quality.

I find that most content producers don't really actually let the sponsors get in the way of content in any capacity other than quantity (as in they produce too much for the channel's good). There's a small number of exceptions, but those usually stink enough that you spot it a mile away, and most of them intentionally. This isn't TikTok or Insta, Creators actually do want you to know when they didn't make something out of their own accord.

Some try to be more subtle with their one-off events... And into the blacklist they go back when they do. Unfortunately one of those was Kurszgesagt a month ago, with their blatantly biased and fearmongering video on Bioweapons, which was largely based on one non-scientific source. Funny enough, they did seem to a leave a hard to notice hint that the video was off, I mean, aside from the content. The hint was that: The video had no birds. You know, their mascots.

"Hello. My name is, your host, ... The Crafsman."

The CrafsMan SteadycCaftin is the most chill, honest, and entertaining crafting/toymaking/music-making channel anywhere.

There's some outstanding science content out there. My newest find is Three Twentysix, a 2.5k-subscriber chemistry channel. I've already learned some new stuff from him that I hadn't seen from The Professor or Nile Red.

I have a big list of favorites that I've shared recently, really solid creators, but that's my hot tip for the day.

I have to tell you about Bobby Broccoli. He makes high quality videos about fraud/scandals in science. All his videos are well researched and have a unique style you won't find anywhere else on the internet. One of his recent documentaries (about fraud in stem cell/cloning research) was so good, Netflix straigt up copied it

Hbomberguy and MattKC come to mind for me. Also, but this is very niche, most of the Brickfilming scene still feels this way, there's just no money to be made in there.

I'm not sure all of these are really small content creators and completely sponsor free but here it is:

YT channel on STEM and making sciency stuff: https://youtube.com/@TechIngredients?si=ic6g-uCLEWXO4DWu

Random technical stuff : https://youtube.com/@TechnologyConnections?si=sz-Gwfgo0gMN3vOG

All things space genuine expert: https://youtube.com/@scottmanley?si=MzE-v1thBOwrvmBf

Great computer stuff: https://youtube.com/@Computerphile?si=S2Ju7aLhViNw5sd8

Not so unnecessary inventions: https://youtube.com/@UnnecessaryInventions?si=O9iy4OVVbhJj6-kE

Some scottish guy researching odd history stuff: https://youtube.com/@CalumRaasay?si=UqgnEsN0YkU7YZuR

This guy sounds ! https://youtube.com/@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER?si=9lN-vhpOO-twS6pi

Pretty random list, I just like very different kind of things :)

But I'd say most of the above are passionate people and mostly without ads or sponsors etc.

Prozd and Magic the Noah.

Prozd is mostly "Here's a boardgame i reviewed. Now look here's a skit!"

Magic the Noah just bullshits around coming up with boardgames that he forces other small content creators to play.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Cody's Lab. He's been on YouTube for a very long time, never seen him have ads or do sponsors or anything. He also frequently gets screwed over by YouTube due to his content (lots of chemistry) but has always managed to keep making videos.

Project Farm is probably the foremost tool/gear testing and review channel. No sponsors, he always buys what he tests with his own money, and all of the testing ideas come from the community. This dude is one of the hardest working content creators and makes great videos that serve a valuable purpose.

One of my favorites is Atomic Shrimp. He does his own thing creating videos on weird stuff he loves doing. Videos include scambaiting, reviewing cans of strange foods, nature and slowtv videos, cooking meals from ingredients bought with limited budgets and rules, food, gardening, and crafting experiments, cheap dropship item reviews, etc.

I've never seen a sponsored ad from him and he avoids using clickbaity thumbnails and titles. His content isn't for everyone, but I thoroughly enjoy watching all the random shit he does.

Edit: also, I just read over his channel description, he blatantly says he does not accept any offers for sponsorships, paid ads, product placements, etc. Definitely fits your "not for the money" question! :)

Hardly a small channel, but VlogBrothers still make videos like it’s 2008. They don’t even ask you to like, comment, and subscribe, never mind mid-video ad reads for World of Warships or Scottish Titles.

Civvie 11 has a Patreon, but he never begs ya to support him, doesn't take sponsors (even makes fake sponsor skits to make fun of sponsors), and he just delivers his content with no intention on letting monetization get in the way. Worst he's done is display a card saying "midroll ad goes here."

As for his content, it's sort of a hybrid review/let's play of old first person shooters, new first person shooters inspired by those of old, hilariously inept first person shooters, and Slavjank. His humor is fantastic, editing is tight, and there's a sort of back story going on in the background of his videos that he could not be more interested in getting involved in (in character, mind.)

Beau Miles. Makes beautiful little documentaries voiced over with his beautiful Australian accent.

I do appreciate creators who do their own content despite being keenly aware of the algorithm.

Infrequent long-form content creators to check out:

Tom O'Regan: British(?) topical/interest reviews, personal recommendations include his Obra Dinn video, Sickest Chess Match, and The Biggest Mistake In Music History

B-Mask: I support him on Patreon so pardon the bias but he likes to take his time creating in-depth and clear retrospectives on topics he's interested in, managing to get you interested in The Fantastic Four, Jems, and 2000s video game trilogies. Not long form for the sake of $$$ but insightful analysis of the history, themes, and personal deconstruction of such topics.

Also check out Moth Light Media for evolutionary biology, and Lines in Motion for manga and art analysis.

More frequent but short form (under 4 minutes) creators to check out are few and wide, 5sf are back-ish but carrying the torch are:

CrackerMilk are a bunch of good aussie lads making short sketches for quick laughs, with excellent timing and shooting.

Valueselect is a personal fave where he was doing sketches a year or two ago but is experimenting with yt shorts quite well. The majority of his comedy surrealist/fantasy/80's styling music are absolute hits.

Hope these are good starting points, I found these guys from browsing similar threads.

https://www.youtube.com/@post.10

just a dude unclogging culverts, living in the moment

no ads, no begging to subscribe, nothing, just pure raw content

Bill Wurtz

Can't recommend Posy enough https://youtube.com/@PosyMusic?si=Ea2_2-mgE_58dvKa

His style is /amazing/. Beautiful images and music with soothing voice over

A cool starting video would be this one: https://youtu.be/eGQQWIbD-nM?si=0AqB6o4T09wza9vf

I've got some, but they're not small.

There's callmekevin for game plays, but it's done in the worst way possible. (Rtgame, too. They're friends and have videos together)

Stephen tries' main channel. He does comedy sketches. But may not land as well if you're not from England.

And, one I haven't seen people mention, Kurzgesagt. Some people have issues from them for talking about things that may be influenced. And they've got big sponsors like Bill Gates. But, when you actually watch them, that whole kerfuffle just doesn't make sense because of what they talk about. They do educational videos, and their art style is the best I've honestly seen.

I mainly make game reviews and I often get comments shocked at how I only have 600 subs, so go check me out if you have the time. I just made an hour long video about Pokemon Crystal a few weeks ago lol.

https://youtube.com/@flameguy21?si=Rc3JbPOkBx4_niZJ

Away from the edutainment and tech based stuff, I like Decino. Just a guy that really likes playing old school Doom. He doesn't do the whole exaggerated reactions or yelling or anything like that and I don't think I've ever heard him plug any kind of sponsor or product. It's great to put on in the background or just watch casually if you're into it

I've been trying to figure out why Bess never hit it big for years now. She does some of the most cutting anime analysis you can find. Though her body of work is still fairly small, admittedly.

Example, diving into the Madoka Magica debate: https://youtu.be/n_71AJSpDPI?si=4qrYjpseohnWJ7iu

Conedodger240 Kurtjmac

After all these years they're still small enough that I feel a connection. These guys aren't making millions. They're getting by and trying to be genuine.

@kernelle Ross Scott

For videogame gameplays, I like 2BSkyen. It's a secondary channel of his (his main ones being TBSkyen and TBSkyenShorts or something like that) and I tend to find that secondary channels are the ones that are usually less plagued by chasing trends and sponsored stuff. In his main channels he has a focus in character design but I like him because he's sort of an all-rounder: he's insightful, knows a bit about everything and is much more eloquent than the average youtuber. I also like that he wears his progressive politics on his sleeve and that he's not scared of playing like a patient gamer and reading the lore. He's also a bit of an insider in the videogame industry and sometimes shares interesting stuff regarding that.

If you like to discover indie games, I have two channels for you: Wanderbots and Splattercatgaming. The first one is a progressive guy that explores all kinds of indie games (but I do think he likes bullet heavens and turret defense games because there's a lot of those), he also sometimes plays with his wife and friends. The second one has quite a high quality channel and he periodically revisits what feels like every single RPG and/or strategy and/or roguelite and/or space related indie game out there giving his insights on each version of them along their development. Both of these channels tend to play just a bit of the game, not full walkthroughs: that way you can choose if you'd like to play the actual game yourself and support indie devs.

My last gameplay channel recommendation would be MKIceAndFire. Now I don't know if this fits your criterium exactly because he does very much upload the latest mainstream games the second they come out, and very often before they do because game companies seem to give him early access. The reason for that is that it's the biggest no commentary gameplay channel in YT. So... it kinda feels like and old school YT channel if you used to watch no commentary let's plays on YT, which is something that I did. And if there's a mainstream game I want to watch that I know I won't find an insightful letsplayer playing it... then I know I can watch it in MKIceAndFire. It's not often that I need him, but he's always there. He also has a lot of Mortal Kombat and fighting game videos if that's your thing.

For non gameplay channels, there's a number I follow that do their own thing and disregard the algorithm:

• Brian David Gilbert: He just does weird song videos, his humor is kinda 2000s YT.

• Errant Signal: He does good video essays analyzing videogames, usually indie ones. He also has a phenomenal series he has been slowly building lately called Children of Doom which I absolutely recommend if you like videogame history. I don't even like FPS games and I found it entrancing.

• New Frame Plus: The guy does video essays on videogame animations. I particularly like his Final Fantasy ones, where he goes through the animation of every FF game starting from the first one, and the Best Game Animation of the Year where he shoutouts a lot of noteworthy animation in videogames for the whole year. I like how it feels he loves and relishes every single detail of animation work.

• Innuendo Studios: This one doesn't upload very often but he does interesting political essays on the alt right from a leftist perspective.

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BTW anyone reading this that made it to here: if you have channels you would recommend me based on the things I've said I like I'd love to hear it.

LGR is the same he's ever been.

Physics Videos by Eugene Khutoryansky

Not really a small YouTuber with just under 1 mill subs, but he's a good example of someone just doing their own thing. Super bizarre videos, but incredibly well made at the same time.

Chuggaconroy and TRG have pretty much kept up their quality over 20 years at this point, specially Chuggaconroy. He specializes in Nintendo games, and he's known for doing borderline encyclopedic let's plays, such as 100% Xenoblade chronicles. TRG meanwhile is just three guys hanging out and having fun. Just a fair warning, Chugga in particular has very high energy. Not obnoxious, like Mr.Beast or other high content YouTubers, but he's known for having extremely high energy moments. His newer content is much more mellow.