As The Customized Ride continues to grow, I’ve been thinking a lot about something I believe could become an important part of where we’re going next.
My son and I love traveling to automotive events and capturing the cars, people and culture we find along the way. But there’s also a reality that comes with trying to grow The Customized Ride into a larger automotive media company:
We can’t be everywhere.
We might be covering Run to the Sun in Myrtle Beach while another incredible show is happening in Texas, Michigan, California or somewhere else across the country.
There are already talented automotive photographers and videographers standing on those show fields capturing incredible content.
So I’ve been thinking:
What if some of them eventually became part of what we’re building with The Customized Ride?
But if we do this, I don’t want to build a contributor program based solely around asking photographers and videographers to give us their work in exchange for exposure.
I know that’s common in media. A creator submits a photo or video, a large page publishes it to its audience, the content generates views and potentially revenue, and the person who actually created it gets a tag or photo credit.
There’s nothing necessarily wrong with someone choosing that arrangement.
I just think we can try something different.
If Your Work Helps Us Win, You Should Have an Opportunity to Win Too
The idea I’m considering is pretty simple.
When an approved TCR photographer or videographer provides original content that we accept and publish, The Customized Ride would share 50% of the directly attributable platform revenue generated by that content with the creator for its first 90 days of monetization.
You created the content.
TCR provides the audience, distribution, brand and platform.
If putting those things together generates revenue, why shouldn’t both sides participate in it?
This wouldn’t mean sharing 50% of all TCR revenue. It would apply only to eligible platform revenue that can be directly attributed to that contributor’s individual content under the terms of our contributor agreement.
And while 90 days would be our standard starting point, it wouldn’t necessarily be the ceiling.
If we find photographers and videographers who consistently produce great work, communicate well, understand automotive culture and become trusted members of the TCR contributor network, we’d be open to discussing longer revenue-sharing periods and more substantial contributor relationships.
Because ultimately, I’m not looking for people who will simply send us free content.
I want to find automotive media people we can build with.
We Would Start With Facebook
Right now, The Customized Ride generates directly attributable content revenue from Facebook, while our YouTube channel is not yet monetized.
Originally, I thought we might need to wait until YouTube was monetized before launching something like this.
I’ve reconsidered that.
YouTube monetization could still be a considerable distance away, and I don’t think we should wait potentially another year to begin testing an idea we believe in.
Instead, I’m considering starting with a small group of Founding TCR Media Contributors and treating the first stage as a pilot program.
During that initial phase, the 50/50 revenue share would apply to eligible, directly attributable Facebook revenue generated by approved contributor content during its first 90 days.
The videos could still be distributed across The Customized Ride’s other social platforms—including YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and others—even when those platforms don’t currently generate directly attributable revenue for us.
But I also don’t want someone helping us build our YouTube channel today and then being forgotten if their work begins generating revenue for TCR later.
So I’d like to build protection for that into the program from the beginning.
The Revenue Clock Shouldn’t Start Until There’s Revenue
Here’s one way I’m considering handling YouTube.
If a contributor gives TCR a video today and we publish it to YouTube before our channel is monetized, their YouTube revenue-sharing clock wouldn’t begin yet because there is no revenue to share.
If TCR later becomes monetized and that video becomes eligible to generate revenue, its YouTube revenue-sharing period could begin at that point.
In other words:
Facebook’s 90-day window begins when the content starts generating eligible Facebook revenue.
YouTube’s 90-day window begins when the content becomes eligible to generate YouTube revenue.
That way, someone who helps us build the channel before monetization isn’t automatically excluded from participating in what their work may eventually produce.
The exact terms would need to be finalized before launching, but the principle matters to me:
The revenue-sharing clock shouldn’t be running while there’s no revenue available to share.
Starting Small and Learning
I wouldn’t want to open something like this immediately to hundreds of people.
I’d rather begin with a small group of photographers and videographers—maybe three to five people we believe fit what we’re trying to build.
Then we learn.
We learn what kinds of contributed content work with the TCR audience.
We learn how frequently people submit.
We learn how much editing TCR needs to perform.
We learn what the accounting looks like.
We learn how often payments should be made.
We learn whether 90 days is the right standard.
And most importantly, we learn whether the arrangement actually creates value for both TCR and the creator.
If something doesn’t work, we adjust it before trying to scale the program.
From Contributor to Something Bigger
What excites me most isn’t really the 50/50 split.
It’s what this could eventually become.
Someone might begin by contributing several videos from a local car show.
Maybe their work performs well and they become a regular contributor.
Maybe eventually they’re attending shows specifically as a TCR Media Contributor.
And over time, perhaps The Customized Ride develops trusted automotive photographers and videographers in different parts of the country.
Chris and Lil Chris could be covering a show in Myrtle Beach.
Another TCR contributor could be covering an event along the Gulf Coast.
Someone else might be in the Midwest.
Another could eventually be capturing automotive culture on the West Coast.
Suddenly, The Customized Ride doesn’t have to physically send our family to every event in order to tell automotive stories from around the country.
That’s when this begins becoming much bigger than a social media page.
It becomes a media network.
Protecting the Creators
If we move forward, there are also things I believe should be clearly established before anyone sends us content.
Who owns the original work?
What rights does TCR receive to publish, edit, format, promote and archive it?
How is the creator credited?
How is attributable revenue calculated?
When are contributors paid?
What happens after the initial revenue-sharing period?
What happens if content includes copyrighted music or material the contributor doesn’t own?
Can the creator continue using their own work elsewhere?
Those aren’t details I want buried in fine print after someone has already given us their work.
They should be understood from the beginning.
My preference is also that photographers and videographers retain ownership of their original work while granting The Customized Ride the agreed rights necessary to distribute and use the content.
We’re trying to build relationships with creators, not take their work away from them.
Transparency Matters Too
If we’re asking people to trust TCR with their work, I also want them to understand what it actually produced.
If a contributor’s eligible content generated $200 in directly attributable platform revenue during the agreed period, I don’t want the creator receiving a mystery payment with no idea where the number came from.
I’d like the reporting to be as transparent as reasonably possible.
If the content generated $200 in eligible revenue and the agreement is 50/50:
Creator: $100
TCR: $100
Simple.
Some videos might generate $10.
Some might generate $100.
Maybe one eventually generates $1,000 or considerably more.
There are no guarantees.
But if somebody creates something that becomes a major piece of content for The Customized Ride, I’d love knowing the person behind the camera participated financially in its success.
Building the Kind of Media Company We’d Want to Work With
The Customized Ride started with me walking around car shows filming vehicles with my phone.
Eventually my son picked up a phone and started creating alongside me.
Today we’re approaching 600,000 followers across our platforms and have generated more than 250 million views, and we’re beginning to think seriously about what it means to take TCR from a large automotive social media brand into a true automotive media company.
That next chapter can’t simply be about Chris and Lil Chris doing more.
It has to eventually become about building something bigger than us.
A contributor network could become one piece of that.
And if we’re going to ask talented photographers and videographers to help us build it, I want to create a model where they have an opportunity to build something for themselves too.
Maybe someone begins as a contributor.
Maybe they eventually become one of our trusted photographers.
Maybe someone grows into a regional TCR representative.
Maybe one day some of those people become part of an actual TCR production team.
We don’t know yet.
But I know the philosophy I want to start with:
If your work helps The Customized Ride win, I want you to have an opportunity to win with us.
I don’t want to build The Customized Ride by simply asking talented people to give us their work for exposure.
I want to build relationships.
I want to discover talented automotive storytellers.
And I’d like to build the kind of automotive media company we would want to contribute to ourselves.
That’s the bigger idea.
Not just more content. More people building something together.
The Customized Ride covers car shows, car meets, car events etc..