I know it’s easy for me to say, seeing as of this point, I’ve never had a sponsor. But let’s say I did. Let’s say some fancy wallet company called Fancy Wallet sponsored me. Let’s also say I was somewhat popular, and regularly got 100,000 views.

Why would I put out videos with links like “fancywallet.com/kawlinz” instead of using “kawlinz.com/fancywallet” which redirects to theirs?

Are they promising to sponsor you and keep your partnership in perpetuity? What if their business goes under? What if you say something that that gets retconned as offensive in 2 years and they drop you? What if fancy wallet fails to pay you for 3 months?

Are you going to edit every instance of content you’ve made containing that link?

If you own the link, you can change it from a redirect to a post and tell everyone that they’re garbage. If they own the link, they’ll still get paid since you’re sending your fans directly to them.

And what does it say about them if they don’t agree to you owning the link in your content? Either they shady, or they don’t trust you.

Own the link.