I recently became aware of people making their livings by creating YouTube videos and/or Facebook pages, and I’m a bit amazed by this.
I know, for example, that you can get paid based on the number of views you get on a YouTube video, but I have no idea how much. Other things also seem to bring money, but again, no idea.
So, can anyone give me the straight dope on this? How does one make money on YouTube and Facebook?
I would like it, if it is possible, for it to be broken down into the following:
On YouTube:
how much one gets paid to have another person subscribe to you (I.e. is it a dollar per subscriber per month, or per week, or what? So if I look at someone who has 200 subscribers, what’s that worth? (I bring up 200 because one guy was begging folks to subscribe to make it to 200, so I assumed it may be a minimum threshold value, or perhaps you get paid for each 100 subscriptions, or something.
how much one gets paid for each view of your video? I’ve noticed different advertisement methods… One has a 5 second forced view commercial that the viewer can shut off after the five seconds has passed, and I’ve also noticed 15 or so second commercials that you have to suffer theough to see a video. (Most of these are Progressive insurance ads, giving me yet another reason to never buy their insurance). But, do the video makers themselves pick out the length of commercial, does YouTube do it based on the traffic of a user or video, or a combo of the two? And how much is each view of the video worth to the poster? Also, how much is it worth if the viewer sits through the entire ad or shuts the video off ASAP? Also, do these have to be new views of the video? Meaning, if I watch the video 5 times, it only counts me as one viewer, while five different people watching the video counts as 5 views?
3). How much does one get paid for someone voting a thumbs up or thumbs down?
how much does one get paid for someone leaving a comment?
Almost every video now has a begging section which consists of “leave a comment below! Be sure to check my video if you like it! Please subscribe to my channel! And like me on Facebook!”
5). So, Facebook, does it pay folks off in a similar fashion? How many friends does one need to get paid?
on Facebook, how many likes of a picture or saying or video gets one some money?
how much does one get paid for each forwarding of something from Facebook?
Are there any other ways people get paid, and how much do they get paid for each and any way I’ve missed?
Thank you for anyone who can answer these questions!
Don’t forget to like me on Facebook! Link to my YouTube channel, check the thumbs up button on the video and leae a comment below!
For YouTube, there’s no predictable formula (at least, not a published one) - if lots of people are viewing one of your videos (and the ads), but not clicking on them, you get paid a little bit, if a modest number of people are viewing and clicking, you get paid a fair bit more; if lots of people are viewing all of your videos, YouTube may charge advertisers a higher rate for the ads placed against them, and you’ll get paid more than you would otherwise.
One of my videos got featured on Reddit yesterday, received about 120,000 views that day, and earned me nearly $500.
It depends on what kind of advertisers get featured on your videos and what kinds get clicked on.
Some keywords pay very well per click while others pay less well per click.
How do you get paid? Do you need a tax ID, or can it just be transferred into a bank account? If you need a taX ID, do you have to be incorporated or be an llc?
Thanks.
Oh, and feel free to link to your video if you’d like. I’ll make you a few more cents.
The money accumulates in my Adsense balance, then is transferred direct to the bank account I specified in the control panel of the Adsense thing - the transfer happens any month when the adsense balance tips over some threshold amount ($100 maybe - not sure).
I’m in the UK, so Google doesn’t report me to the tax authorities (they would in the USA, once the earnings are sufficient). I fill out a tax return for self-employed earnings and I am either billed by HMRC, or they just tweak my tax code for the following year and take the tax from my full-time earnings from my employer instead.
I lumped Facebook in simply because EVERYONE has a facebook page, and always tells the viewer to go to facebook, like his page, and become a fan. I assume, since there is advertising on FB as well, that people with heavy traffic would see money. If that’s not the case, I stand corrected. But if not the case, then why would people spend so much time creating and maintaining a FB page when it’s not profitable?
Thanks for the info.
I guess this is a harder question than I thought. I am surprised at the lack of responses, so either no one knows what algorithm YouTube uses, or it’s held as a close secret. or no one has a channel on YouTube, which is always a possibility.
It can be complicated. This website estimates earnings but I have no idea about their accuracy. Most channels make all their money through Adsense, but some channels, like I believe Sourcefed and The Lizze Bennet Diaries were funded originally via direct support from youtube. There are also various networks like Machinima, MyDamnChannel, and Maker Studios that an up and coming youtuber can join and take advantage of being part of a much larger organization with writing teams, professional editors, and business managers at the price of losing control of their Adsense. These make it harder to accurately gauge a channel’s worth.
edit: Hank Green, one of the most popular and influential members of the Youtube community has a tumblr on online video. Money is a common topic and while I can’t point you to a specific blog, if you look through the archives, you might find what you’re looking for or reasons why it’s not available.
That reminds me, I have a (dormant) Adsense account with about $17 in it from a blog I used to run. Internet riches, indeed
If you have an Adsense account, does your YouTube account get linked to it automatically? Or do you have to do something to sign up for it? If I posted a video on YouTube that just got a few hundred views, would I earn any ad revenue (even just a dollar or two - I know that would be below the payment threshold)? Or is there a certain level of views above which YouTube starts paying out? I know that “featured videos” get some kind of special deal…
Facebook pages are free. And they can drive eyeballs to your website at a great clip if you have information people want. Beyond that, “maintaining” a Facebook page takes an almost trivial amount of time. Even big corporations rarely post more than a few times a day.
It’s all powered by AdSense, which pays out on an ad-by-ad basis. There’s no algorithm to discuss because every ad pays out at different amounts and it’s impossible to know exactly how many clicks you get on those ads. “Pre-roll” video ads are a bit different in that they pay out when someone sees it, but I’ve seen a few bucks ($4-$6) per 1000 views, so go with that if you’re looking for a figure.
AFAIK, nothing else (subscriptions, upvotes, sharing) generates any revenue.
so let’s call it a conservative dollar per thousand views. i’ve seen cat videos with millions of views. does that mean somewhere, a cat yawning is making its owner thousands of dollars?
When you like something on Facebook all of your friends on Facebook get a message that you liked it. This is free advertising and also since it comes from someone they know it is more impactful than a random ad.
I always wondered how much the family made with the “Charlie bit my finger!” video.
They made so much money (don’t know how much) and the thing became such a cultural phenomenon, that they sold t-shirts and mugs, and things like that. I think they are still making money off of that video.
It also explains why people post zit and cyst squeezing videos by the hundreds. So you can get rich by having someone squeeze the pus out of your body now… what a country.
(Thinking of what kind of video will go viral…)
