Has anyone here managed to become a profit making YouTuber?
Please share your experience and the equipment you use. I don't have a YouTube channel and I just upload from time to time videos made on my phone on various topics; travel, food, animal and tech stuff. I just do it for fun and share larger videos with close friends. I recently noticed I have got 200+ subscribers.
Now I am retired and maybe, just maybe, I can be a real YouTuber? :)
ive had to register for GST and turn it into a pty ltd last month
Thank you.
Ball park figure for monthly income?
I make zero dollars per month from the zero videos that I have not uploaded to my non-existent YouTube channel. I hope this information is useful to you.
What information?
;-)
I work as a full time YouTuber (and don't make AI videos like the other guy)
To actually make YouTube a full time job, you'll probably have to average at least 1 million views per month - though this varies depending on what your channel covers, as that affects ad rates. But in general from 1 million views per month, you would make a little over $60k AUD per year off AdSense (YouTube ads)
At that size you could probably supplement your income with other sources as well, like channel memberships/Patreon for fans, affiliate links, other ads, etc
The problem is getting to that size. You'll need to work extremely hard and probably do the equivalent of a full time job (or part time if you're lucky) unpaid for multiple years to get your foot in the door. It'll help if you have other skills or unique attributes you can bring to the table - because you are competing on a world scale, so if you're already an expert in a field that will help - but if not, you'll have to get on the grind and try and improve your skills.
Gear doesn't really matter too much when starting out because modern phones have great quality. But audio quality is MUCH more important than video quality, and good lighting is also crucial.
There's a very good chance you will never make it, so my advice would be to have fun making videos and enjoy the process - which it sounds like you're already doing. Then if it never takes off at least you've enjoyed yourself and maybe learned some things. And if it starts to gather some momentum you won't be burnt out from the grind.
I was eventually able to do it full time because of years of hard work, but also a huge contribution from luck and just being in the right place, making the right content at the right time
Nice - what type of content do you post? Cheers
Thank you, @Scorpus, for your detailed response, and congratulations on your YouTube success. Your insights have led me to realize that pursuing a "second career" as a serious YouTuber isn't for me. Instead, I'll continue creating videos for fun and enjoying my retirement life. Thanks again!
I recently noticed I have got 200+ subscribers.
recently retired
Oh boy here we go.
Boomer who thinks their YT channel is booming.
You need click-bait titles and a soyjack face in every thumbnail. Plus tens of thousands of subscribers, and making videos very regularly.
Gear is very cheap. You can buy everything you need for a couple of thousand dollars. It's the time and energy you need to sink into the effort that's the real cost.
The laziest, but most profitable and low effort way to make money on Youtube at the moment is react content. Just video yourself watching other people's content. React to it. Put in enough clickbait and ragebait to enrage viewers and get them commenting. Profit. Yes, it's extremely stupid, but it works.
Until you get pinged for copyright
As long as you use short clips it's apparently fine. Also removing all music from the source video seems to be very important.
I have about ~2k subs and videos with ~30k views. At this scale it works as a lead generation and authority building method for the business and is profitable from this perspective. We are still a way of audience size and view time to monetise… which isn't the intent, however interesting nonetheless.
Unless you have a business, I would say only do it for the love of it and nothing more. Exceptionally hard to hit big numbers. Bonus if you make bank.
If you were a single person and had no overheads, building a channel of about 200k views a video, one or two videos a week could probably sustain you living. Need some collabs and in video advertisement though.
I can Show You How to Get RICH !!!
Send money to this address …
dunno but the kids who got Billions of views with BabyShark or from unboxing toys might have earned a Million dollars or somesuch
stories I've read of people starting out - tend to be more like $10 per 10,000 views or somesuch
and to make anything approaching a rich Western country full-time wage you'd probably need 100,000 subscribers (you'll note I'm making this up +;-)
some stories about famous actors' daughters making a Million on OnlyFans may or may not be true
but for me, the problem with internet click-pay is the money stops as soon as you stop generating new content to attract and engage eyeballs
not sure how many people want to burn themselves out working intensively 24x365 to earn probably less than they could at a standard seat polishing office-worker position in CBF Slackabouts Company Ltd. …
Just don't make YT contents like the idiot Johnny Somali.
I was making $500 to $5000 a month on YouTube off and on from 2020-2023, mostly thanks to covid lockdowns. I ran one of those annoying text to speech Reddit channels. Unfortunately, YouTube cracked down pretty hard on them and without a human presence and voice on the screen, it is hard to keep a channel like that monetised (reused content is YouTube reasoning). Tried using AI voices and voice cloning, but they really are not a fan of those types of channels, so moved onto other things.
I found the most impactful thing for view was consistent uploading, if you upload at the same time every week (or every day) the algorithm seemed to love that. Since my channel was essentially programmatically generated, that was easy, and would upload a video at 11pm every day. There would be a period where I didn't upload for a couple of days, my views on each video would dip until my upload schedule was consistent, and then they would pick back up.
That is not the only important thing, finding a niche within a popular form of videos is key, as well as constantly improving content and adjusting thumbnails and titles
My $/1000 was anywhere between $15-$22. I uploaded for a year (2019) before being eligible to make any money. I only got to around 10K subs and 7 million total views before YouTube started its crack down.
Happy to answer any questions.
'I was making $500 to $5000 a month on YouTube off and on from 2020-2023, mostly thanks to covid lockdowns'
I noted your use of the past tense …
'My $/1000 was anywhere between $15-$22'
1000 click views, or subscribers, or paid members, or what … ?
"I noted your use of the past tense …"
YouTube removed my monetisation
"1000 click views, or subscribers, or paid members, or what … ?"
Views.
Movie and TV reactions. Put the full unedited cuts on Patreon for $10 a month. That's how you make the money. See Popcorn in bed, you me and the movies Ashleigh Burton, ect. Unlimited demand for this stuff.
"Don't forget to smash that like button and demolish that subscribe one too!"
The e-begging for likes and subs on almost every video is quite annoying.
Flying the Nest are really good - they're a Youtube channel from Perth and their content is very good. (travel vlogs). I think it's not just about the content, but you also have to be personable as people have to want to watch you so you need to have something in your personality that is appealing to others. Sometimes I look at some vloggers and I rush to close off their channel because they're arrogant or too silly etc. Other well doing Australia vloggers include the Norris Nuts (Sydney) but they had help and a kick start from appearing on tv.
What about OF?
3000 subs banks you about $140 a month
The more views the higher you monthly adsense
Have a side shop not attached to Youtube to build your own community.
Become Mr Beast
Give away money
???
Profit
For those in Australia actually making taxable* money out of YouTube:
How much per month are you making? Aprox … Please …
*AKA: real income.