Biggest YouTubers on YTTalk

I respectfully disagree the best measure of success, at least financially, is subscriber counts. Subscribers are meaningless unless they're actually viewing videos and viewing them frequently. Look at consistent monthly view counts, which translates into $$, as the best indicator, because when it's all said and done it's about getting videos viewed, not subscriber lists grown. Socialblade is a great resource for this info. It'll show average daily and monthly view counts (as well as subscriber counts). Subscribers are good to have, obviously, but there are lots of people making ridiculous amounts of $$ primarily by getting on hugely-viewed suggested video lists and the views are dumped on them consistently, with very few subscribers involved. Personally I don't have many subscribers (relatively speaking) because I don't really have a focused niche site and when I upload a new video my views are only in the thousands. But when they ripen for a month-or-three and get on suggested video lists, it often comes a dumpin'.
 
buckforester said:
I respectfully disagree the best measure of success, at least financially, is subscriber counts. Subscribers are meaningless unless they're actually viewing videos and viewing them frequently. Look at consistent monthly view counts, which translates into $$, as the best indicator, because when it's all said and done it's about getting videos viewed, not subscriber lists grown. Socialblade is a great resource for this info. It'll show average daily and monthly view counts (as well as subscriber counts). Subscribers are good to have, obviously, but there are lots of people making ridiculous amounts of $$ primarily by getting on hugely-viewed suggested video lists and the views are dumped on them consistently, with very few subscribers involved. Personally I don't have many subscribers (relatively speaking) because I don't really have a focused niche site and when I upload a new video my views are only in the thousands. But when they ripen for a month-or-three and get on suggested video lists, it often comes a dumpin'.
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There is more than one measure of success, everyone around here completely understands the views = money. However, having people subscribe and care about your content is also a measure of success. Having said that, this thread is about subscribers, you should make one about views. That would be just as cool.
 
CK, my apologies, I didn't know this thread was just about subscribers, I thought it started out as a thread to try and 'best' measure success. I'd rather have 6+ million views a month with a six figure income than a million people who hit the subscribe button. Plenty of those high-subscriber channels are not really making very much $$, check Socialblade to verify. But if someone is just out to "be seen" in terms of being followed and admired as a personality or show or channel or ego, then the subscriber route is probably the best measurement. I'm looking at this strictly from a business standpoint, perhaps I'm out of place. I'm new here! :)
 
buckforester said:
CK, my apologies, I didn't know this thread was just about subscribers, I thought it started out as a thread to try and 'best' measure success. I'd rather have 6+ million views a month with a six figure income than a million people who hit the subscribe button. Plenty of those high-subscriber channels are not really making very much $$, check Socialblade to verify. But if someone is just out to "be seen" in terms of being followed and admired as a personality or show or channel or ego, then the subscriber route is probably the best measurement. I'm looking at this strictly from a business standpoint, perhaps I'm out of place. I'm new here! :)
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No, you aren't out of place, but you aren't the norm either. Unfortunately for my genre, you get lots of subscribers but not that many views. I usually get 1 subscriber per every 75 views or so.
 
buckforester said:
I respectfully disagree the best measure of success, at least financially, is subscriber counts. Subscribers are meaningless unless they're actually viewing videos and viewing them frequently. Look at consistent monthly view counts, which translates into $$, as the best indicator, because when it's all said and done it's about getting videos viewed, not subscriber lists grown. Socialblade is a great resource for this info. It'll show average daily and monthly view counts (as well as subscriber counts). Subscribers are good to have, obviously, but there are lots of people making ridiculous amounts of $$ primarily by getting on hugely-viewed suggested video lists and the views are dumped on them consistently, with very few subscribers involved. Personally I don't have many subscribers (relatively speaking) because I don't really have a focused niche site and when I upload a new video my views are only in the thousands. But when they ripen for a month-or-three and get on suggested video lists, it often comes a dumpin'.
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Views are definitely a better measure of success, but subscribers are more important than you think. Other channels use your subscriber level to determine whether they want to collaborate with you-and most importantly, advertisers do the same thing for sponsored/brand deals.

I used to say that I'd trade subscribers for views, but after hitting 100k subs, I would no longer do so. The opportunities that have come about because of the number of subscribers have increased dramatically. I'm at half your monthly views and I'm betting I'm way beyond half of your monthly revenue simply because my sub count means I don't have to rely on preroll ads as a primary source of income.
 
Wreckless, I agree. It all depends on your approach to income and what you want out of YouTube. I don't want collaborations, I don't want to make tons of videos and on a schedule. I don't want expectations from sponsors. I want to do what I want, when I want, travel the world and spend time with my family. I don't want fame or recognition, I want to be a behind-the-scenes mogul. I study YouTube and what works for what, I've only just begun. I have several channels, most I'd never reveal and they are hail-mary channels going for huge views on suggested video lists on videos most people would never see. I follow people making well over a million $$ a year and you'll most likely never hear of them or probably ever see one of their videos. With a subscriber-based model you get lots of views upfront and fewer on the back end (this could vary depending on subject matter of course), while some get monster views on the back end and could take the rest of the year off and see their income still grow. I sometimes make one 2 minute video every couple of weeks and my income doesn't dip (not just on my channel listed here). I quit my full-time job on this opportunity and on Jan 1 of this year I made a mere $4 that day. In six months I'm well into six figures and I have a trivial amount of subscribers. The subscriber model is fine but it takes a lot of work, consistency, marketing, building a brand, etc. It's how nearly everyone goes about it and it's why so many have a tough time with it. And it's primarily for those who want fame with their fortune. There are other ways, if one studies it, figures it out, sees where the big money is coming from that also allows for complete freedom of time. Without the lifestyle of have lots of $$ along with insane amounts of time freedom, this would just be another 'job'. And trust me, I in no way am bragging, nor do I expect or get anything if someone listens to me, I'm just sharing my experiences about the greatest, life-changing thing called YouTube! There is no right or wrong approach to this business. It's just all I hear in YouTube trainings is 'subscribers, subscribers, subscribers' while almost secretly there are 'some' people who have found, in my opinion, a much more amazing way to do it that truly gives a dream lifestyle. Much of the thrill is in studying it and figuring it out! YouTube is a dreamers dream come true!
 
It's not really about fame. It's about freedom. Building a large subscriber base means that you can take that base nearly anywhere-including off youtube. So if anything happens to youtube as we know it, I have the freedom to take my channel and my fans somewhere else. That's nearly impossible to do if you don't have a large subscriber base and rely on searches/recommendations for the majority of your views. My model works on the advertisers as well. Because I'm not as reliant on prerolls and have personal relationships with advertisers, I can take them with me wherever I go. While I may never have to rely on that backup plan, it's nice having that in place for peace of mind.
 
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