Making money on YouTube

[distortiondave]

I recently made the mistake of telling my perpetually working parents that some American kid has made himself a millionaire before turning 20 by playing computer games. I don't know a specific example, but its probably true. And they asked 'how - if all people are doing is watching, how do they get the money?' And I don't know the answer.

I get the onlyfans thing, because men of all ages will pay money to look at pretty girls, but Twitch and YouTube and stuff - watching other people play computer games, or watching reaction videos etc etc. I'm not an old man yells at cloud, because I'm not anti any of it, but I don't understand it either.

So how does it work?

[daveisaclaret]

There's adverts and if you get enough views you get paid because people are watching the ads.

[distortiondave]

but I don't watch ads on youtube, and if I can do it then it mustn't be that difficult to dodge the ads....?

[Goobs]

but I don't watch ads on youtube, and if I can do it then it mustn't be that difficult to dodge the ads....?

Youtube are now trialing a new system that let's you watch 3 vids (I think) before shuttling you down if they suspect an ad locker is being used. Remains to be seen if this will work and the effect it will have on the platform

[Newcastleclaret93]

Three main revenue streams are from:

Ads
Selling products
YouTube creator fund

Ads make up more than 50% of revenue

[Inchy]

but I don't watch ads on youtube, and if I can do it then it mustn't be that difficult to dodge the ads....?

Most ads on YouTube last 5 seconds

You can skip on 5.5 seconds.

Most people who watch YouTube watch ads.

And then there’s the data side of things

Don’t knock it, plenty of millionaire on YouTube

[Nonayforever]

I know two people who post on YouTube.
They both get shed loads of views, can't remember the exact figures ( 48,000 in one hour springs to mind) but in my mind it's huge.
One gets £60 every 6 months, the other £30 every two months

[Rowls]

I make £24k per month from YouTube.

Mainly selling pyramid schemes, bitcoin but also crowdfunding my political litigation cases which never come to fruition.

Highly recommended.

[Rowls]

Send just £100 to my paypal account and I'll send more info how you could be making ££££s sat on your arse too.

[Nonayforever]

I make £24k per month from YouTube.

Mainly selling pyramid schemes, bitcoin but also crowdfunding my political litigation cases which never come to fruition.

Highly recommended.

Rowls, are you a scammer

[GodIsADeeJay81]

Ads
Product advertising
Viewing numbers
Subscribers

It can take years to get to a decent revenue level.

Mr Beast took 4yrs to reach 10k subscribers I think

Also you need to keep churning out content, YouTube only pay out on a video that's less than 12mths old, after that they stop.

That's why the bigger accounts churn out so many videos.

My son has been giving it a go, but he got put on the naughty step over copyright for a bit and then his viewer numbers dropped like a stone.
Since then he's got lazy and his viewer numbers have stayed low.

If you make decent content, eventually YouTube recommend you to people and then you see viewer numbers rising etc.

It is hard work and credit where it's due to those who can make it work.

Some move on from video games to live action stuff.
Then there's the merchandise you need if you start pulling in decent viewer numbers, all the decent accounts have something branded for sale.

[Spiral]

Gaming channels aren't my niche (though I 100% understand the appeal and have watched a few speedruns here or there), so I can't say if there are a lot of gaming channels that follow the this model because I don't know much about the sub-genre, but quite a lot of Youtube creators have Patreon, particularly the more creative channels rather than the mindless reaction and clickbait type channels. Patreon is like an opt-in monthly subscription, sometimes just £1 a month or something, with different tiers giving you more content. The creator has their own Patreon account which anyone can subscribe to, and the creator sets the price, the tiers etc. Parteon the company gets a cut, the creator gets the rest. It's a way of becoming professional without being beholden to advertisers or sponsors. Usually there's the basic bread and butter tier, the free content on YouTube plus other stuff like Q&A's or whatever, then higher tiers come with more access, some merchandise etc, and if you enjoy a channel, you can throw a quid or two at it each month to keep it going. Even though under this model the bread and butter content is free on YouTube, people are paying for what they like because they're making the calculation that by paying a little bit the content keeps coming. The benefit of Patreon to a YouTube creator is that even if their videos are demonetized for whatever reason, they still keep their operation running because the economy of it operates outside of YouTube.

[Spiral]

Send just £100 to my paypal account and I'll send more info how you could be making ££££s sat on your arse too.

This is unironically how Andrew Tate got rich.

[Spiral]

Mr Beast took 4yrs to reach 10k subscribers I think


If you make decent content, eventually YouTube recommend you to people and then you see viewer numbers rising etc.

Mr Beast, to his credit, got to the level he's at because he studied how the YouTube algorithm worked and started making content precisely designed to drive up his view, not necessarily because it was good content he wanted to make about anything interesting or entertaining. It's not usually about organic growth or quality content, it's more often about gaming the algorithm to optimise your reach in people's recommendations, which is why for the big channels the content type, the thumbnails and the video titles are all so similar. The thumbnail is always an OTT facial expression superimposed over a brightly coloured background or image, there's some key word or phrase in big capital letters (think of the god awful "such and such EVISCERATES/DESTROYS such and such" type political content which sane people avoid like a plague lest the algorithm force more of it on you), and the videos are usually around whatever length the algorithm deems optimal (I think somewhere between 7-12 minutes, but I'm not sure, that's just a guess).

[Spiral]

Youtube are now trialing a new system that let's you watch 3 vids (I think) before shuttling you down if they suspect an ad locker is being used. Remains to be seen if this will work and the effect it will have on the platform

Wouldn't surprise me if they're looking at all the...how shall we put it..."tinkering" (read: self-immolation) going on with twitter and the negative reaction to it, and thinking, 'on second thoughts...'

Nothing will drive people away to a competitor like making them sit though adverts on the internet .

[GodIsADeeJay81]

Gaming channels aren't my niche (though I 100% understand the appeal and have watched a few speedruns here or there), so I can't say if there are a lot of gaming channels that follow the this model because I don't know much about the sub-genre, but quite a lot of Youtube creators have Patreon, particularly the more creative channels rather than the mindless reaction and clickbait type channels. Patreon is like an opt-in monthly subscription, sometimes just £1 a month or something, with different tiers giving you more content. The creator has their own Patreon account which anyone can subscribe to, and the creator sets the price, the tiers etc. Parteon the company gets a cut, the creator gets the rest. It's a way of becoming professional without being beholden to advertisers or sponsors. Usually there's the basic bread and butter tier, the free content on YouTube plus other stuff like Q&A's or whatever, then higher tiers come with more access, some merchandise etc, and if you enjoy a channel, you can throw a quid or two at it each month to keep it going. Even though under this model the bread and butter content is free on YouTube, people are paying for what they like because they're making the calculation that by paying a little bit the content keeps coming. The benefit of Patreon to a YouTube creator is that even if their videos are demonetized for whatever reason, they still keep their operation running because the economy of it operates outside of YouTube.

A few music content creators have patreon because their YouTube accounts have been de-monitised for varying reasons.

Personally I don't sign up to patreon, but I'm aware others do

[Cleveleys_claret]

Could be a massive knock on effect soon for youtubers as several companies are suing YouTube for hundreds of millions due to people being able to skip their ads after 5 secs, supposedly the contracts were that viewers would have to sit through the full cycle

[Hipper]

I used to watch YouTube videos, mostly in cab train rides in many places round the world. I found it relaxing and pleasant. Now I hardly watch them. This is because of the increased intensity of YouTube adverts. On some approximately one hour long videos, there would be adverts throughout every five minutes. Most required some attention, at least turning the sound off and pressing 'skip'. Others, often in pairs, just ran their course, often up to twenty plus seconds. For smaller films, such as music videos, you often have to wait for an ad to do its thing. Yes, you can subscribe to YT to avoid adverts but it costs as much as a TV licence.

In order to make money YouTube are making watching unpleasant and turning at least some people away.

[AfloatinClaret]

... My son has been giving it a go, but he got put on the naughty step over copyright...

That is a major issue and catches out a lot of novice/lazy you-tubers. I have a good friend who makes a reasonable living from his youtube channel - wages, not big-bucks - but he's certainly not doing so from sitting on his arse, probably putting out 20+ 20 minute videos per year, with well over 100k followers and scoring 200k+ views per video. His latest one included footage of friends singing and the sound at that point was muted because of copyright; posting a one-off vid of your mates singing a published song is one thing, but if you're a regular/commercial you-tuber, then a ten second sound bite of someone else's copyrighted song can see youtube paying your next few month's earnings to them instead of you.

[Bosscat]

Rowls, are you a scammer

Is that a Euphemism