Did DeCastro Already Give Up on Product Rebranding?

Followers of Jose “Chille” DeCastro were curious Tuesday night as he referred to his newly launched “First Amendment Auditor” channel, formerly his planned flagship of his auditing empire, as his new “backup channel.”

DeCastro’s comments came as he was interviewing fellow first amendment auditor First Amendment Protection Agency on his live stream and were the first acknowledgement of trouble brewing with his planned pivot to teaching first amendment auditing.

It was announced by DeCastro in late September that his main channel was shadow banned by YouTube to the point where it was nearly worthless. Changes in both YouTube’s algorithm and serious crack downs on content featuring violence had essentially crippled his financial growth with the channel.

For once, DeCastro was telling the truth. While all auditing channels suffered severe declines in August to early September based on YouTube’s changes, only DeCastro’s has continued to decline as he has refused to pivot to feature less extreme content.

Currently, DeCastro has been flat on subscribers for his main channel for the past 30 days. He had briefly moved from 623,000 to 624,000 subscribers over the weekend, only to have 1,000 subscribers unsubscribe by Monday morning, returning him to 623,000 total subscribers.

According to Social Blade, DeCastro’s video views for the past 30 days continue to decline, down 45.3% to 3.181 million views, and his low-end revenue for the month is pegged at $795.00. That is the lowest we’ve seen their estimate go for a channel with such a huge subscriber base.

While DeCastro’s subscriber base has always been in question, critics note that attendance at his live events and video views never seem to improve as he adds hundreds of thousands of new subscribers. The declines seem to have come as DeCastro has all-but abandoned his previous reliance on YouTube shorts to bring video views.

We also know that DeCastro apparently has had the bigger plan to “unite” First Amendment Auditors by literally trademarking the term and licensing usage of it to others in the field. The “rebrand” to First Amendment Auditor and abandoning his primary channel seems to have been a large part of the plan.

That said, DeCastro’s first attempt at rebranding to escape the confines of YouTube’s reach – his Patreon page – failed spectacularly last month. Drawing only 53 members with 4 of them currently paying, DeCastro was unable to convince his massive followers to make the jump to Patreon.

Likewise, his announced First Amendment Auditor page has drawn 398 total subscribers I the week and a half it’s been live on YouTube. DeCastro has already at least temporarily abandoned posting new videos on the channel and in fact, removed one of the few videos on the channel as he accidentally doxed his studio’s new location in the video.

At the same time, he launched his Patreon page, he also launched his TeamDLZ.com website, which has all content under a paywall. As a privately owned website, sign-up figures are not available. Speculation has been that the site is tanking as DeCastro’s ability to promote his product outside of his YouTube home seems to be holding him back.

In fact, observers have noted that DeCastro’s only real successes over the past year have come in his GoFundMe campaigns. The YouTuber managed to bring in a little over $50,000.00 in donations from his fans before suspending his multiple campaigns in September.

With his new website apparently floundering, new channel not even to the point of monetization after a week and his Patreon literally withering away, DeCastro may turn to crowd sourcing to stay afloat until he can get back on his feet and find something that works.

In a sneaky plug, our own on-going expenses campaign took Munday with a $70.00 donation to our GoFundMe campaign. The market was flat for Tuesday with no noted donations for election day.

As for DeCastro, all is not lost. With the apparent pending election of Donald Trump to the United States presidency, DeCastro has a glimmer of hope. He has long stated that a second Trump term would bring about massive crackdowns on first amendment freedoms and the need for his army of auditors.

If he is correct, there will be a growing need for his first amendment auditing teachings if the practice manages to stay alive with the presumed Trump-crackdowns on freedoms. It will be interesting to observe as he attempts to save the rebrand with the new developments.

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