Did some math on what is necessary to earn a living doing gaming videos on Youtube.

There are a ton of variables, but realistically a channel needs tens of thousands of monetized playbacks per day, every day, to make a living.
 
babyteeth4 said:
realistically a channel needs tens of thousands of monetized playbacks per day, every day, to make a living
Click to expand...

Yes, we're talking around the same order of magnitude. 500,000 views per month is 16,500 views per day, and that was quoted as a not-very-safe bare minimum if you are in a position to live very frugally.
 
babyteeth4 said:
There are a ton of variables, but realistically a channel needs tens of thousands of monetized playbacks per day, every day, to make a living.
Click to expand...

markkaz said:
Interesting perspective but as others have mentioned, it depends on where you live and what is the situation. If somebody is living at home with parents, paying $100 a month for the room, and the parents are paying for the food...

In no way would I suggest that 500K views a month is anywhere near the threshold of what would allow somebody to 'earn a living'.
Click to expand...

Is my CPM really low or is that not even close to enough to make a living? I just checked my last 500k and it wouldn't even pay my rent...

EDIT: Not even 500k monetized playbacks would be enough to live for me:crying:
 
markkaz said:
I was doing 4 million views a month and I wouldn't quit. I didn't resign until I was doing 5 to 6 million and other factors were in place.
Click to expand...

So what was your required income level, if you don't mind me asking? Some people need more money than others. It's ok if you don't want to say, but I would be interested. :)
 
Commodore Grayum said:
So what was your required income level, if you don't mind me asking? Some people need more money than others. It's ok if you don't want to say, but I would be interested. :)
Click to expand...

It was the 'other factors' that made me wait. I was 49 years old with 21 years of service at the US Post Office at the 4 million views a month period. We need 50/20 to retire. 50 years of age with at least 20 years of service. Even still, I was 13 years short of full 'retirement'. There is a 5% penalty for every year. If I applied for retirement, it would have been a 65% penalty. That's a bit chunk!

By the time I was doing 5-6 million, I was 51 and had 23 years of service. I also found out that I could 'resign', not 'retire' and there wouldn't be any penalty if I waited to apply for retirement until age 60. That really was the final piece of the puzzle.

I had 12 more years of earning left, $55K a year, $660K left to earn. When I decided to resign, I was doing $180K from YouTube. That would be 3-4 years of YouTube to make up for lost earnings. I felt that YouTube would be around at least 3-4 years so it was a safe bet.

Little did I know, by having more time to make videos, I would double my earnings in the first year (2014). Only one more year to go =)
 
The only thing with basing really anything off of subscriber counts, is you can't tell how many views you are going to get from subscribers. Yes you can see how many you have received in the past, but you never know if subs are going to continue watching, even if they are subbed to you. Plus when you get a new subscriber, you can't be sure if they just subbed to be nice, or because they plan on watching all of your new uploads lol. To me subscriber count doesn't effect view count "enough" for me to base too many numbers off of it. Not saying that you can't use it in your numbers lol. Obviously there is a tendency that higher subs = higher views. But there isn't an exact formula for that one.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top