How viable is Youube as a means of income nowadays?

OrbitGuy said:
Everyone else pretty much covered it. Adsense can be way up one month and way down the next so you need to find ways to use that audience to generate other revenue streams to help stabilize it.

In one of the groups I worked in at VidCon we talked quite a lot about affiliate links. Depending on what your channel is about they can be a great way to supplement your ad revenue. Sponsorship are tough to get into until later on is my impression. Merchandise specific to your channel would also be tough to sell at the start I would think. A lot of gamers stream on twitch or YouTube and use that as "filler" income during time when they don't feel like working.

Specific other notes I have on my phone from VidCon that are relevant
- like I said everyone was talking glowingly about the potential for affiliate links, I didn't hear specifically what products they had success with however. I would assume things that relate to your video content.
- someone, maybe it was Tim mentioned that he was making like 10k a month with 3,000 subscribers by using his channel that had useful real estate information on it to refer people to his real estate business and gaining many more clients than he had before. So if you do other things outside YouTube that are relevant to your videos they could benefit as well.
- diversifying income streams is very very important if you want YouTube to be viable full-time in the long term
- Famebit (which is owned by YouTube now) can help for sponsorships and brand deals
- Barbara, who spoke at the creator keynote and works at YouTube, highly recommended using Super Chat if you stream on YouTube. Apparently it generates money from viewers... haven't tried it myself.
- gaining a reputation in a particular community could lead to paid speaking opportunities IRL

- not from VidCon, but product shout outs or spoken ads in a video. Linus Tech Tips is a great example, he does a combo of this and referral/affiliate stuff SO well.

Everyone seems to think YouTube is in this downward spiral and not viable but I think there is still plenty of opportunity to be had if you do your research and make smart decisions.
Click to expand...


Awesome info, thanks for that!

Only thing is, none of it is relevant to kids channels. Kids can't buy via affiliate links, can't buy super chats, not can they sponsor via Patreon. I have as yet to come across a parent who will sponsor a kids channel their child watches (unless it's the top 10 channels) when so much kids shows are available for free on Tv and reuploaded to Yt. T-shirts and branded merch same problems, kids have to convince their parents to buy, parents have to weigh the option of a $20 kids channel t-shirt vs a $4.99 paw Patrol or Peppa Pig at Kmart.

Only thing that may work is Famebit, but generally it's reviewing apps or clothes or some other gizmos that are barely doable as a fun video for kids. I've looked at Famebit several times, can't say I found anything I can honestly do that doesn't seem pushed or fake.

Kids channels, for the most part, rely 100% on Adsense. We ride that ship no matter the forecast, and when it's time to go down with the ship, most will. Adsense can end any day, as recent experiences have shown. For the very few who do manage to break out to 1M-2M subs at 100M+ views/month, Walmart, Target, etc may be interested in sending you a carton of toys to review for a modest monetary compensation. That's about it.[DOUBLEPOST=1498743559,1498743106][/DOUBLEPOST]
Cyath said:
Hey thanks for all the replies. They are all really well-thought out and informative. I appreciate it. Hugs to all!

Lest I give anyone the wrong impression, I am not approaching this blindly and without lots and lots of backup plans. :) Firstly my monthly expenditure is pretty low, so I am not in danger of starving anytime soon. I don't have a day job, but with some passive income and freelance work I can get by. And I am well aware of fluctuations in YT subs and income streams...I mean, everything is always changing right? You can be up one day and down the next, and vice versa.

I think looking at it as a business is probably the right idea. I would be looking to use YT synergistically with a webpage, a blog and other social networking tools (Facebook, Instagram etc) My content would be spread out among all of them, and not specifically focus on YT itself.

But strictly in terms of revenue, doesn't YT itself pay you once you have more than 1000 subs? I've seen Patreon mooted as a useful tool, but I haven't made the jump there yet. I don't think AdSense enough is sufficient either.

Just picking your brains here, generally as a ballpark -

1. How many subs would you say is sufficient? Views?

2. What kind of recording gear would you need? Honestly all I have at present is a webcam. Though I have decent audio stuff.

3. I'm wary of spreading myself too thin...from the YTers I've seen, they tend to focus on maybe 4-6 topics max, and most of those are related. Would you say to go with a single topic, or more than one?

A lot of YT seems to be a crapshoot though...I've been through many channels trying to figure out why or why not someone might be popular, and it seems more random than anything sometimes. Take PewDiePie for instance...I would rather have my fingernails pulled than watch him, but he has millions of viewers. I can't be the only one that feels this way? :)
Click to expand...

1. It's not about subs, all that's important is views. A 10k sub channel can have a video go to 10M views generating $10k income. A 50k channel can wither away with 300-1000 views/video generating $1 from them. To consider going fulltime, I would suggest 500k views/day for 1-2 months as an absolute minimum as a single person with low expenses. As a parent with kids and rent, you'd probably want to average 1M-2M views/day for a consistent period of time, and be able to maintain that output schedule going forward. A cash reserve to ride out the troughs would be helpful as well.

2. Although you can start with anything, the standards are high. Top channels have top lights, cameras, backend equipment.

3. Identify your audience and cater to them. Is your audience interested in 1 topic or 10 topics? An aquarium channel can have many topics related to fish and aquariums, fresh and salt water. A goldfish channel would focus on goldfish I would assume.


All the other social sites you mention - they don't generate revenue but eat up precious time. Only engage on them if your audience is there and you can bring them to Yt. For the most part, focus on Yt, that's where the audience is and where your revenue will come from.
 
i would recommend just starting your channel and see how it goes. I dont think there is a need to invest in video or audio equipment until you are sure this is what you want to do.

I would also recommend viewing YT as a secondary source of income and not your primary, which means you may want to focus on finding steady income first, before working on your youtube channel.

btw, you mention 6 months to get 10,000 subscribers in your original post and this is highly unlikely. Only a small % of channels see growth like that and its probably because they got lucky and had a video go viral.

Normally it takes years to gain that many subscribers. Set realistic expectations if you are going to do this.
 
Honestly, it doesn't make much for me and I have over 4000 subscribers. It was a big disappointment and many of the people here have said it. You have to be like in the 10,000 to 100,000 to even consider going full time. Good luck though, I'm looking to see how you do!
 
Well, I have 91 subs after 4 years, so I'm definitely not trying it yet. Like everyone's saying, you need a lot of subs and AdSense alone is very volatile. But it was also mentioned that regular jobs are very volatile. Hell, I work in customer service with logistics and I could accidentally say something they don't like and get fired or demoted (both would end me). I would actually prefer to live off my content at times. Soon as I am able to, I might just say something a customer won't like, lol.
 
As KiddieToysReview said it, subscribers don't matter for earnings (maybe sponsors might be persuaded more easily though but I think consistent high views on your last 10 videos is more important to them). Views is what matters if you rely on adsense. I have two channels and have around a million views a day in total which is enough to make a very good living at the moment. I haven't quit the dayjob yet though but I'm thinking about it, wouldn't do it for anything less than that.
 
I see it as for now, adsense could be an extra income on the side of your full time job. As it is very volatile, as everyone has said, and that it could be reinvested into your channel, which could help you improve the channel!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top