Thanks, Inner Stickler, that is good information!
Do you think so? Some of these guys are apparently making millions. The question is how easy would it be for new people to make various levels of $: 10k, 100k, 1M, etc…
I’d say that you should at least try it out just to say you tried - like, so what if it’s similar to music and some great bands get left by the wayside. As long as you have fun doing it, it’s not time wasted. I’ve read that with all creative things like this (movies, comics, books, etc) the best thing to do to focus yourself is to create a pitch. Act like you’re going to fly to Hollywood and convince an agent there that your thing is the next new hotness. Pick out exactly what you’ll focus on, the name, how the opening goes, how long the segments are, if there’s advice and why people want it, etc. After you’ve made your imaginary pitch complete with powerpoint presentation it’s the perfect springboard to know exactly what you’re going to do.
Anyway, if currently there are mostly a whole bunch of teens watching and making channels, it does mean that there’s room for someone older to walk in and take a spot. I know if my dad found out about a youtube channel of a middle aged guy that did nothing but happen to ruminate on my dad’s specific interests he’d be there every week watching the next segment. I have a potter friend who all he does is video himself during his clay making process and he just talks about whatever the heck. I’m sure it helps that he has a quirky renfaire personality since that would attract a specific set of people as well. There’s always a niche you could fit into.
However, I don’t know how much people literally make on Youtube itself. I would look into when Youtube starts noticing you enough to offer you the ability to put ads at the beginning, how much they pay, and stuff like that - it probably takes quite a bit of viewership to break even $100 a month.
There are a couple of posters here on the dope who make some change on youtube in the $100 a month range so they’d probably be able to give you a rough idea of ad revenue tied to views and subscriptions.
If you are questioning whether or not to do it, haven’t you already answered your own question? I wanted to be a pilot, and although I got my license at 16 never followed it up because I didn’t think it was worth it at the time and would somehow come back to it later.
Painters paint, writers write, video stars make videos. For the amount of effort involved why aren’t you already doing it?
That’s somewhat odd logic. Everyone has to start sometime. Especially when the thing itself is relatively new and constantly in flux.
I think Nylock made a good point. Your expectations on success are unrealistic. Most people do not become celebrities. You can’t look around and think, “Becoming a celebrity is easy. Look at all these people I’ve heard of who are celebrities.” Because that’s missing the point - you’ve heard of these people precisely because they were the small handful who beat the long odds and did become famous. For every one person who became famous, there are thousands of people who didn’t become famous and who you consequently never heard of.
The same is true about financial success. Most people will never be a corporate CEO.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t set a goal for yourself. But don’t set an impossibly high goal because then you’re most likely setting yourself up to fail. Set an achievable goal that you can reach through hard work.
My point is that if you’re feeling like this is something you should pursue you would already have posted on YouTube. Stevie Ray Vaughn didn’t start out saying I’ll be a blues guitar God, he just started to learn how to play the damn thing with all his heart and made a conscious decision to put the time in and master the instrument.
“Music has become really important now. It’s helped me to open up more and take a chance on loving people. Music is a good reason to care. It’s just a vehicle though. It’s a way to try and give somebody something that you feel. If trying the best I can isn’t good enough, I’ll just have to try harder next time…it’s all I can do. If I do the best I can, then at least I did the best I could in this life The way I like to look at it is…if that’s the last time /I ever got to play, I’d better give it everything I’ve got.” - SRV
If you have the talent, and already know how to post to YouTube (which I’m assuming you do), then you should be posting on YouTube. Your heart, not your ego, should be deciding what you want to do creatively.
My gf is in advertising. It is common for her accounts to suggest they do something “that goes viral”, as if virality were something that could be intentionally produced.
The idea hasn’t been in my head that long, and I want to get some idea of what outputs I could expect for what inputs.
But what you can expect fromYouTube is a direct function of what you have to bring to it. YouTube isn’t an end, it’s a means to an end. There is no “generic results from YouTube” to speculate about.
I’m not trying to attack here. You approach is wrong and your idea seems half baked. In a competitive arena that’s not going to cut it. Put some more thought in to this.
It all depends on the quality of the inputs, your flair for self-promotion, and a healthy dose of luck. I think what most folks are saying is that your plan should be “I’m making this interesting content, how can I publicize/monetize it?” rather than “What kind of money can I make on Youtube if I can produce interesting content?”
The medium is useless without a message. What’s your message?
I think Telemark and Evensven have done a better job of what I was trying to say, Aeschines. Change your question about YouTube for guitar; how much money can I expect to make playing guitar? Well that depends on a whole lot of factors. Same with YouTube.
But if you don’t play at all the answer is nothing. Reward generally follows effort if applied correctly.
Another thing you have to consider is marketing. How are you going to drive viewers to your videos? There may have been a time when a video of good quality on an interesting subject would draw attention because there just wasn’t that much stuff out there. That time is long gone. I often stumble on excellent videos that have been out there for 5 years and have maybe a 100 views. I have no idea how to do this. I am sure there are YouTube videos about it.
Beyond this, if you want to make videos of yourself being a talking head, your success will depend on whether the camera likes you. Do other people think you are good looking? well spoken? Its amazing how many people will fool themselves about this. Being able to speak well in front of a camera is not a skill many people have and even for those who have it there is a learning curve.
I would say that if you have a passion for something that you want to share with others (whether it is Pez dispensers or the History of the Peloponnesian War), then go for it. Don’t worry about success. Those kind of videos are my favorites.
No because I am looking for a validation/invalidation of the medium. For example, if the case is that, “Dude, don’t even bother! It is now virtually impossible to make any headway on YouTube,” then I want to know that.
Yeah, surprisingly enough, youtube is not a web-based money printer. You do still have to work for it.
I say just come up with something and try it. What have you got to lose?
As a point of calibration, I have a channel with 150 subscribers and maybe 900k views. It makes me around $100 a year. It’s peanuts but it’s virtually zero effort: I just make short clips of the various hobby projects I work on. There’s a pretty wide range in popularity that I don’t understand but I suspect has something to do with Google’s indexing system.
If you have an interesting concept, you should be able to get to that point without too much effort. Give it a shot. Maybe it works and maybe it doesn’t. Maybe you’ll find the experience boring and give it up, or maybe it’s exciting and you’ll want to keep going even if it isn’t a viral hit.
Of course, that’s a far cry from $10k or $100k. I’m pretty sure I could hit $1k/yr if I just filmed more of my stuff and did some very rudimentary promotion. More, I suspect, would require something resembling production values.
Thanks! This is just the kind of information I was looking for.
Excellent question. I have a handful of YouTube videos posted so I can share them with friends and relatives. Each video has 5 - 50 views. They are all mundane; the dogs playing, me kayaking, deer in the yard, etc.
But one video has a huge number of views. It is a minute or three of my gf swimming in the Caribbean. You only see her head. Because small swells break over her and she is sputtering/goofing around, I used the word “drowning” in the title. Do people search for drowning videos?
Probably. People search for all sorts of things.