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Truth about YouTube income


wolf33d
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So a few weeks ago on the forum, a lot of people were wondering how some YouTube with hundreds of thousands of subs could afford to buy many cameras like C500 and so on. 
That’s when I realized people are completely clueless about YouTube revenue. As I said, any Youtuber in the world with 1M+ subs is a multi millionaire. Someone with 500K subs is already quit rich. 

That guy made 250K a year when he had 200K subs. He now made US$1.9M in 2019 with 1M subs. 
Time to stop being blind..

Sometimes I do not know how to think about it. It makes me feel similar to soccer players and so on with irrational amount of money. 
I am like, good for them you know. But when you think about it, the guy picking up trash in your street does a more useful job to the world than a guy telling jokes on YouTube. Yet one gets 15K a year, the other 100 times that. Just the world we live in I guess. 

Also about that video below, his channel is about personal finance. He his making money explaining you how much he makes thanks to you watching him explaining you how to make money

 best gif wow GIF

 

 

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23 minutes ago, DaveAltizer said:

I was lucky enough to break six figures last year with 73,000 subs. I’ve never enjoyed my work more and i’ve never made more in my life. I highly recommend it if you’re thinking of starting a youtube channel. 

Just based on Amazon affiliate links!?

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4 hours ago, wolf33d said:

It makes me feel similar to soccer players and so on with irrational amount of money. 


And there are movie actors making tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars, from that perspective the "big" YouTubers are underpaid?
 

4 hours ago, wolf33d said:

Also about that video below, his channel is about personal finance. He his making money explaining you how much he makes thanks to you watching him explaining you how to make money

He was already a millionaire before he founded his channel, and he has a great channel educating and entertaining people. He deserves it. 

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1 hour ago, alsoandrew said:

well you could also buy subscribers

Fake subs don't buy merch!
 

1 hour ago, kaylee said:

true or false: regardless of ones subscriber count, this is all predicated on ppl posting videos constantly, ever day or close to it


You could suffer from a steep drop off if you stop regular updates.

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4 minutes ago, IronFilm said:

Fake subs don't buy merch!

That's not the point. The video I linked is just an extreme example. The point is that some people can cheat the system/algorithm to then get actual viewers, getting ahead of other YTers who may have better content but are less willing/not aware of less scrupulous tactics.

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That's an extremely high risk strategy however.
Would you want to put thousands of hours into a youtube channel which YouTube might later heavily punish or even outright delete because you were trying to exploit the system in an unethical manner?

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9 hours ago, wolf33d said:

So a few weeks ago on the forum, a lot of people were wondering how some YouTube with hundreds of thousands of subs could afford to buy many cameras like C500 and so on. 
That’s when I realized people are completely clueless about YouTube revenue. As I said, any Youtuber in the world with 1M+ subs is a multi millionaire. Someone with 500K subs is already quit rich. 

That guy made 250K a year when he had 200K subs. He now made US$1.9M in 2019 with 1M subs. 
Time to stop being blind..

Sometimes I do not know how to think about it. It makes me feel similar to soccer players and so on with irrational amount of money. 
I am like, good for them you know. But when you think about it, the guy picking up trash in your street does a more useful job to the world than a guy telling jokes on YouTube. Yet one gets 15K a year, the other 100 times that. Just the world we live in I guess. 

Also about that video below, his channel is about personal finance. He his making money explaining you how much he makes thanks to you watching him explaining you how to make money

 best gif wow GIF

 

 

I personally know people with over 2 million subs and they're definitely not rich or anywhere close to being rich. 

There are a lot more variables at play. The type of content you make, who watches it, etc. plays a huge role. My friends that have hundreds of thousands of subscribers but deal with pro wrestling content don't get much at all since YouTube allowed advertisers more control over what videos they advertise on and most passed on advertising on wrestling related content. 

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Well yeah, not sure why you needed a new topic for that, was already mentioned.

I also watched Vlogumentary the other day. Recorded before all the Shay Carl drama. But an interesting look at the vlog scene nontheless. Maker Studios bought by Disney was a biggie.

Also mentioned struggling YouTubers. Like this one girl was doing Postmates and got recognized on the streets whilst doing her job which was a bit painful. xD

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The real challenge is longevity and to avoid being jaded by your own content and subjects, honestly that is a big challenge after a few years, as is burnout, because YouTube (and blogs) all have a relentless pace, it never ends and takes over your every waking thought.

It's easy to turn off from a normal 9-5 job but not if you are a YouTuber.

If you can keep the hit videos and passion flowing for 10 years without a break, that is honestly a miracle and almost never happens. I sometimes tune out of the camera world completely and stop blogging on EOSHD for months. This isn't because I've lost interest or no longer want to talk to people I know and like, sometimes it is as simple as wanting to do something else, not having anything to shoot, but then coming back refreshed with new ideas. Well done @DaveAltizer with how the YouTube channel is working out for you, it's great. And we should do the podcast soon as well, when I am back more regularly in world of cameras.

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5 hours ago, newfoundmass said:

I personally know people with over 2 million subs and they're definitely not rich or anywhere close to being rich. 

There are a lot more variables at play. The type of content you make, who watches it, etc. plays a huge role. My friends that have hundreds of thousands of subscribers but deal with pro wrestling content don't get much at all since YouTube allowed advertisers more control over what videos they advertise on and most passed on advertising on wrestling related content. 

A lot of modern get rich quick schemes centre on content creation and YouTube.

Snake oil, the lot of it.

There is only one general rule and that is the relevance and quality of the content.

You are right there are a ton of variables too. You can put out absolute shit and see it rocket in popularity - look at all the clickbait out there - but these channels are fads, 15 minutes of fame, and don't sustain a career for 10+ years.

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8 hours ago, newfoundmass said:

I personally know people with over 2 million subs and they're definitely not rich or anywhere close to being rich. 

There are a lot more variables at play. The type of content you make, who watches it, etc. plays a huge role. My friends that have hundreds of thousands of subscribers but deal with pro wrestling content don't get much at all since YouTube allowed advertisers more control over what videos they advertise on and most passed on advertising on wrestling related content. 

Yes, if you watch the above video he actually tells you how much people make per view for some categories. 
Any content with violence or bad words doesn’t get much. You just mentioned an extreme example. The majority, including the initial guy we talked about in the other thread who reviews camera make a lot per view. 
Also if your people with millions of sub make family friendly content, then you don’t know them well. Reminds me of that French youtuber having 10M sub and daring to say on his channel he takes home 500$ per month. A few days after he was bashed by the French YouTube community for being so insulting to his subs.

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3 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

The real challenge is longevity and to avoid being jaded by your own content and subjects, honestly that is a big challenge after a few years, as is burnout, because YouTube (and blogs) all have a relentless pace, it never ends and takes over your every waking thought.

If you make a normal salary yes. If you make 2M a year, considering this guy started in 2017, he can stop today. Put that money into a mix of index funds and with a withdrawal rate of 4% ($80K a year, a good salary) he can retire for ever then pass 2M to his descendants... 

Also someone said above do you have to make content super regularly. Not when you reach millions of subs. Casey Neistat posts sometimes 1 video a month, so he can take 100K home advertising a product, and channel is doing fine. 
 

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18 hours ago, wolf33d said:

making money explaining how much he makes thanks to you watching him explaining you how to make money

Any "self-help" media/program that's ever existed.  If you're lucky, they'll make a religion out of it. Then you're not just talking about making "bank," you start owning the actual banks.

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1 hour ago, wolf33d said:

If you make a normal salary yes. If you make 2M a year, considering this guy started in 2017, he can stop today. Put that money into a mix of index funds and with a withdrawal rate of 4% ($80K a year, a good salary) he can retire for ever then pass 2M to his descendants... 

Also someone said above do you have to make content super regularly. Not when you reach millions of subs. Casey Neistat posts sometimes 1 video a month, so he can take 100K home advertising a product, and channel is doing fine. 
 

yeah, sometimes when I hear wealthy people complain, I think to myself, "well, just quit and live on the interest".  But I think most time, everyone compares themselves to the guy just above him on the social ladder; the guy that makes 2M, compares and aspires to be the guy that makes 3M; the 3M guy wants to be the 4M guy, etc.  It's like a hamster wheel.

But than the cash/prizes get more tempting every rung of the ladder people climb, and the Sirens are too tempting for most.  Those that can resist, don't complain and they are living comfortable somewhere.

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1 hour ago, eleison said:

yeah, sometimes when I hear wealthy people complain, I think to myself, "well, just quit and live on the interest".  But I think most time, everyone compares themselves to the guy just above him on the social ladder; the guy that makes 2M, compares and aspires to be the guy that makes 3M; the 3M guy wants to be the 4M guy, etc.  It's like a hamster wheel.

But than the cash/prizes get more tempting every rung of the ladder people climb, and the Sirens are too tempting for most.  Those that can resist, don't complain and they are living comfortable somewhere.

I agree. The only difference is that there is one point you reach where you do not need to ever work. Basically you can live decently with just the money you have on interest.

This is not possible if you have 50K in your savings account. Someone with 2M in his savings can get 80K per year for ever without touching the 2M base. 
So I agree, he probably wants 5M then 10 then 20, then 200. You never stop. But the difference is he WANTS that, he does not need it. Someone making 50K a year NEEDS to continue working. 

There is a huge difference in life when under pressure between wanting to and needing to. 
Those people should never complain, as they do not need to continue. They could live as well or better than most people on this forum without ever making a cent again from YouTube. 

But as I said in my first post, good for them. I like people succeed. A lot of them took a risk and it paid off. 
 

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2 hours ago, wolf33d said:

Yes, if you watch the above video he actually tells you how much people make per view for some categories. 
Any content with violence or bad words doesn’t get much. You just mentioned an extreme example. The majority, including the initial guy we talked about in the other thread who reviews camera make a lot per view. 
Also if your people with millions of sub make family friendly content, then you don’t know them well. Reminds me of that French youtuber having 10M sub and daring to say on his channel he takes home 500$ per month. A few days after he was bashed by the French YouTube community for being so insulting to his subs.

Most of the content on YouTube is extremely niche content. There are YouTube channels about marbles that have more subs than you or I could ever dream of. If your content though is deemed undesirable to advertisers it doesn't matter. 

A lot of YouTube content falls under that label. It's also resulted in creativity becoming stagnant on the platform as everyone copies one another. 

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