YouTube Full Time - Should I Do It?

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RCLifeOn

RCLifeOn

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I don't even know how to start this thread, I'm lost and would appreciate your assistance. I'm going to try and make this text as short as humanly possible. Here we go:

My name is Simon, I live in Sweden and love making YouTube-videos. At the same time I'm also reading to become a mechanical engineer, but I hate it. I went to college right after high school because I didn't have anything better to do. Basically, I want to drop out from school to pursue my YouTube-career.

Money is not an issue. I have been saving up for several years. My monthly earings from YouTube and affiliate links is considered to be an average salary.

When I began uploading regularly I gained a lot of subscribers in a quite short period of time, and according to my YouTube-analytics, I gained more than 7000 subscribers this month. However, I can't stop thinking about how many subscribers I would gain if I actually made YouTube my full time job.

I've been in contact with a lot of people at my school asking for assistance about my situation. According to one specific lady, I don't have to drop out from school right away. She suggested I would stay in school, but skip the actual courses. If I would fail my YouTube-dream, I could simply join back in 1 year later.

I want to emphasize that I simply don't want to read courses at a college, I don't like it at all. I find most of the subjects repetitive and boring. However, I do love making YouTube-videos. I'm asking myself, why would I contuine with mechanical engineering that will provide me with a job I have no interest in? Shouldn't everyone strive to work with something they love doing?
 
I checked out your channel and i think you make some good content. My only worry would be is you dont have a fall back plan. So whatever that lady said about being able to go back to school if you need to that would be good. Its like an NBA player say they go to college perform well enough their first year to go pro. Then the first game of the season they have a career ending injury...what do they do next? no college degree and a signing bonus that wont last them long. Its a risky move to go full time, but if you are 100% invested into youtube go for it!
 
I've moved this to the Strategy / Technique advice forum. ^^

I personally wouldn't feel comfortable having a wage come from YouTube, because there are so many variables out of your control. All you have control over is the content you make, not what the platform does. YouTube can make an algorithm change and kill a channel's successful search engine rankings in a matter of seconds. YouTube is a nice income source if you can get it to that level, but I'd aim to spread out your income across multiple sources...
 
I appreciate your help guys!

KatyAdelson said:
I personally wouldn't feel comfortable having a wage come from YouTube, because there are so many variables out of your control. All you have control over is the content you make, not what the platform does. YouTube can make an algorithm change and kill a channel's successful search engine rankings in a matter of seconds. YouTube is a nice income source if you can get it to that level, but I'd aim to spread out your income across multiple sources...
Click to expand...

I've been thinking about this quite a bit, I agree, YouTube is a risky platform. However, by spreading the income across multiple sources you could make it fairly safe. Merchandise, Patreon, website, affilaite links and sponsorship is some examples of different platforms. Even though they are all linked to YouTube, they wouldn't fully disappear if YouTube shut down.
 
I can clearly empathise with what you are thinking. I have myself toyed with the idea in recent months.

I looked up your channel on socialblade. As you mention your channel has had excellent growth since the Summer and you have several videos that gain high views not just one viral video. You have clearly shown you can create popular content. On the other hand, the surge you are seeing now may not last. There have been other channels such as yours that see rapid growth but then decline. I am no expert on your sort of channel, but what I would do if I were you is to look at your closest competitors and see how they have developed over time. Did they see a rapid continuous surge or did they experience ups and downs in viewership? The risk you are taking is that you will have no qualifications to fall back on if your youtube income should prove insufficient. If I were you I would ask myself if the youtube channel you are creating is something you really believe will grow? Do you have loads of ideas that you just need the full-time opportunity to realise? It may be that missing this opportunity is more of a risk than staying in education? But you have to make a realistic analysis of what you think the potential for your channel is. Consider all the pitfalls. If you should prove unsuccessful would you be able to return to college say 5 years from now and complete your education? Or will leaving now do irreparable damage to your options to gain employment in that sector?

Personally, with your excellent numbers I would probably go fulltime with Youtube to see if it could work. You have already shown that you can make money on youtube which is more than I have yet I am still contemplating going full time as well which kinda seems reckless on my part. On the other hand, I am 42 years old and would like a break in my career to do something else and if youtube fails then I can just return to my old profession where I have full educational credentials and many years experience. On that front - no offense - you seem to be the reckless one as you don't have that safety net.

A last thought is that since you are from Sweden maybe just go for it. I am originally from Denmark myself and I know people from our part of the world have great opportunities to recover from past mistakes. Our societies are very rich so you can definitely afford to follow your dream ... at least for a while. The risk you take is much less than people from less prosperous countries. That may sound a bit of a crude statement to make but it is nevertheless true.

Good luck in whatever you choose to do.
 
I think whatever the lady said is a good idea, a whole year is a long time and can give you the time you need to be able grow and put more effort and if you don't see any growth after taking a year off then go back to school and find something you enjoy, I know switching degrees is a pain in the butt, but it's better to go back to school and start from the beginning and study what you love doing. Another option would be finding a job that is less demanding then school that still brings in money, if you have an income form youtube and other links then both should be okay.
Honestly everyone's situation is different, because I finished college only with an associates, I'm also quitting on of my jobs, and probably the other one too at the end of January. I want to do YouTube full time even though I'm not making a penny yet. Because I know this is what I want and I know if I work hard and dream big, it will happen.
So good luck to you and never stop dreaming :)
 
Your type of content has potential.
But almost half of your views come from 2 videos. They will stop pulling in views and stop pulling in subs. You may need to consider that you can´t keep up with your current growth subscriber wise.
You pull in a good amount of views compared to you subs, so that might be an unreasonable thought, but being dependent from the newest algorithm changes doesn´t seem nice.

On the other hand your future doesn´t seem bright as an engineer so you might as well just go for it.
Personally i wouldn´t drop out of university directly, try for one year and then either pick up studying again or keep doing youtube.
 
Huge thank you for everyone who commented! I have a lot to think about, but ultimately I believe I will take the chance. From 15th of January I will take a break from school to pursue YouTube.
 
I think maintain YouTube routine like that, which day more upload video, more view, more engagement etc. Not just full time.
 
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