Famous on YouTube, but still broke?

babyteeth4

babyteeth4

Taking over the world... ...one kid at a time!
Interesting (if overly long) article here on the plight of YouTube's "middle class"--those who have had some public recognition and high subscriber counts, but aren't pulling in enough daily views to quit their day jobs. This might be a reality check for some, but it's important to remember that no one is entitled to make a living this way, it either happens or it doesn't.
http://fusion.net/story/244545/famous-and-broke-on-youtube-instagram-social-media/

Next time you see a "famous" YouTuber, take a look at their Social Blade daily view count stats...they might not be pulling in as much as their sub numbers indicate!
 
babyteeth4 said:
Interesting (if overly long) article here on the plight of YouTube's "middle class"--those who have had some public recognition and high subscriber counts, but aren't pulling in enough daily views to quit their day jobs. This might be a reality check for some, but it's important to remember that no one is entitled to make a living this way, it either happens or it doesn't.
http://fusion.net/story/244545/famous-and-broke-on-youtube-instagram-social-media/

Next time you see a "famous" YouTuber, take a look at their Social Blade daily view count stats...they might not be pulling in as much as their sub numbers indicate!
Click to expand...
Interesting read. I doubt I will ever make it big on YouTube to even be considered middle class, so I don't have to worry about this! Plus my videos rarely feature my face so customers would not recognize me.
 
babyteeth4 said:
Interesting (if overly long) article here on the plight of YouTube's "middle class"--those who have had some public recognition and high subscriber counts, but aren't pulling in enough daily views to quit their day jobs. This might be a reality check for some, but it's important to remember that no one is entitled to make a living this way, it either happens or it doesn't.


Next time you see a "famous" YouTuber, take a look at their Social Blade daily view count stats...they might not be pulling in as much as their sub numbers indicate!
Click to expand...
Yes I totally agree with your point, YouTube does not really guarantee the subscriber counts to increase gradually, so it is bad idea to quit some job to make a living this way. I wonder how PewdiePie might be making millions of bucks ;)
 
aww.. It's too sad to see people building a fan base but still can't earn money they worked for so hard that they deserve.. I wonder how those fans don't even support their idol in everything and every venture they choose.. They just love watching for free and not even taking a single look on giving credits to those who really work so hard.. :)
 
Such an interesting read, thank you for sharing! I really like Gaby Dunn and I hadn't seen this yet.

Very interesting to compare lifestyle and pay with more traditional media, I had noticed the apologies before but hadn't drawn any conclusions from it. I've also noticed a few people that are more up front/unapologetic about "the hustle" seem to get less hate for it (i.e. Philip Defranco). Why do you think that is?
 
Wow, I never realized people had it so hard. I guess I just assumed everyone monetized their videos. Or are they doing that and still not making enough?
 
It takes a LOT of views to make a living from YouTube, not just some of the time, but every single day. Think how hard it is to get a hundred views on a video, especially when starting out and no one knows who you are. Now let's say you're doing pretty good after a few years and you're getting 50,000 views every day, that's gotta be enough to live on, right? That's a lot of views, a whole stadium full of people every day watching your stuff is a great achievement and I don't want to take away from that. But it's probably not going to be enough to quit your day job on, or you'd have to find some sponsorship deals outside of just Adsense. There are a lot of bigger channels competing over those sponsorship deals too.

And many of these channels have more than one primary person, there are a lot of two-person teams, so that gets cut right down the middle. On top of this, some of these channels have put themselves in a position where they have a lot of overhead (often unnecessary in my opinion) where they are paying editors, actors, camera people, set and studio time. And some are in networks that take a large chunk.

This shouldn't discourage anyone who is doing this for the right reasons, and lots of people do make a living on YouTube income alone (I'm one of them). But people should know that fame and recognition alone doesn't necessarily give you a path to easy street and guaranteed income for life, you need millions and millions of views every month on a consistent basis.
 
babyteeth4 said:
Now let's say you're doing pretty good after a few years and you're getting 50,000 views every day, that's gotta be enough to live on, right?
Click to expand...
Over the last month, I averaged almost half of that and I can say that it definitely isn't enough. Granted, a good amount of those views aren't monetized because of copyright claims, but for one month I had about 50,000 views every day with no copyright claims and I made almost $900 for the month. But it certainly didn't last and I'm lucky to get 1/3 of that now.
 
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