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How much can you earn creating content on Youtube?

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Re: How much can you earn creating content on Youtube?

#111

Post by chongli »

drBonkers wrote: post #104
chongli wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Making videos taking time away from actually making stuff and making the projects take 10X longer. So I stopped. Check out Kenji Lopez-Alt [1]. He’s an award-winning chef who makes cooking videos by strapping a GoPro to his head and going to work in his home kitchen. He has basically none of the fancy production you see on cooking TV shows. Yet his videos are very popular because he’s a great chef and he tells you th…

Do you reckon he uses the built-in microphone, or an external? This channel is amazing. I learn best by simply watching others do, and this will surely help me advance my culinary art!

He definitely does not use an external mic. You can tell because of the reverb from his voice bouncing around the kitchen getting picked up on the camera’s internal mic. If he wore a lapel mic he wouldn’t have that problem!

But lapel mics cost money and they can be a pain to wear, especially when you’re cooking and need to keep your hands free without anything dangling into the food or the fire!

Re: How much can you earn creating content on Youtube?

#112

Post by 123pie123 »

drBonkers wrote: post #104
chongli wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Making videos taking time away from actually making stuff and making the projects take 10X longer. So I stopped. Check out Kenji Lopez-Alt [1]. He’s an award-winning chef who makes cooking videos by strapping a GoPro to his head and going to work in his home kitchen. He has basically none of the fancy production you see on cooking TV shows. Yet his videos are very popular because he’s a great chef and he tells you th…

Do you reckon he uses the built-in microphone, or an external? This channel is amazing. I learn best by simply watching others do, and this will surely help me advance my culinary art!

I've just watched over an hour of his videos, he's very good.

Apart from the good format I found myself thinking the audio is extremely good

Re: How much can you earn creating content on Youtube?

#113

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

jcranmer wrote: post #79
lakomen wrote: post #12

Dealing with Youtube's "copyright" department isn't worth the trouble. Also the same content on a Adsense monezited site yields factor 10 earnings vs Youtube. Just one example of their copyright shenanigans: A friend of mine prank called some water cleaning office somewhere in Africa. He was put on hold, while on hold some music played. Youtube wanted to know if he had the license for this "elevator type" music, esse…

Copyright is designed for an industrial content creation context, and it does not have the flexibility it needs to avoid the absurd results it reaches as it's been extended outside of that context. In this case, it's the same reason that $BLOCKBUSTER_FILM needs to license $HIT_POP_SONG as the montage or mood-setting music for part of their film. It's possible that there's a viable fair use defense in this case, but d…

YouTube doesn't have to engage in the absurdity at all. They have safe harbor protection. All they have to do is process DMCA takedowns in a timely manner rather that preemptively flagging content on behalf of powerful interests. They do the latter because they're in bed with the corporate media who provide content for their subscription services.

Re: How much can you earn creating content on Youtube?

#114

Post by Havoc »

tester457 wrote: post #101
Havoc wrote: post #3

It is the classic & interesting question, but from watching other creators it seems to miss a key variable: Reliability of monetization. Someone may love making videos, has a reliable core audience and good views from western audience (and thus high pay rate). However if it costs them 1k to make a vid and the algo is hit/miss as to whether it gets demonetized or not then that becomes a show stopper issue. If you make…

I've seen twitch let's players say they wish they prioritized youtube first because they claimed youtube revenue is larger and more reliable than twitch subs. But gamers are able to publish a video nearly, a contrast from the kind of youtuber that spends 1k on a video like you mentioned.

I guess youtube has the advantage of potential recurring revenue from back catalog so I can see that creating a reliable stream effect. Depends on type of content I think - some types have very spiky first 48 hours. So either you're monetized there or it's a dud video.

Re: How much can you earn creating content on Youtube?

#115

Post by mwidell »

agumonkey wrote: post #107
mwidell wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Appreciate that :) In a previous life I was a programmer/CTO, so it's an old habit to visit HN.

Did you foresee a 5 year span before stable revenue (and indirectly, did you have to alter your ways/work to have better views and workflow) ? Also did you try other platforms ? Kudos on the dedication :)

When I started I studied some other channels in the photography niche. And I saw that you need around 100k subscribers to make a living. I also saw that most of the successful channels in this niche needed around 5-7 years to get there. So yeah this was very much expected.

But I’m not doing this for the money. I do it because it is the most fun project I have ever done. I would do it for free. If I go too long without posting a video I actually start feeling depressed. So for me it is therapy. But it is nice to earn a living from doing something you must do to be happy :) And also it feels nice when people ask what I work with, to mention something that actually earns me a living.

YouTube is pretty much the only viable platform if you make long form content and want to earn money doing so.

Re: How much can you earn creating content on Youtube?

#116

Post by jeffwass »

mwidell wrote: post #74
jeffwass wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for this Micael, very helpful info and your channel is pretty cool too! Regarding the weekly video, are you saying you’d spend about 15-20 hours per week on that one video to get to the status you were at last year? I’ve heard that regular releases are important for a channel to be picked up properly by “the algorithm”. Is this your experience, and is that a critical to keep up the cadence of one video per wee…

I spend on average around 10 hours per video. (1h ideation, 4h filming, 5h editing+thumbnail). I make at least a video a week, often 2 videos. How much time you spend per video will be up to you. There are successful youtubers who spend just 8h per video, while other successful youtubers spend A LOT more. I think of every video like a lottery ticket. I know a certain percentage of them will become "hits", ie. give me…

Thanks for the reply, very helpful.

Well done for maintaining that publishing momentum. That's a good strategy it seems, spending a little time each day, but enough to maintain a weekly video at least.

Will give it a go and see if it helps. Cheers!

Re: How much can you earn creating content on Youtube?

#117

Post by jeffwass »

waboremo wrote: post #89
jeffwass wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for this Micael, very helpful info and your channel is pretty cool too! Regarding the weekly video, are you saying you’d spend about 15-20 hours per week on that one video to get to the status you were at last year? I’ve heard that regular releases are important for a channel to be picked up properly by “the algorithm”. Is this your experience, and is that a critical to keep up the cadence of one video per wee…

I'm not 100% on youtube's algorithm, but I believe one of the points it hammers is that it's no longer about catering to the video but rather the viewer. So rather than think about weekly releases to play into the algorithm, it's generally better to focus on higher quality content that keeps people/your subs engaged throughout. Schedules are important for fans, it's easier to grasp that they can check youtube at a ce…

Thanks for the suggestions waboremo!

I never would have even thought to film myself practicing, I would have thought it would be way too boring for any of my subscribers to want to see.

Honestly I feel fairly camera shy, and in life I managed to roll a 3 in charisma :-) Luckily I don't need to speak in my actual published videos. But I'll give it a think and maybe try it out some time.

Yeah I mix it up w/ covers and originals. Every cover is in my own unique style, and has at least some bit of originality in it.

Re: How much can you earn creating content on Youtube?

#118

Post by system2 »

oblio wrote: post #67
zamnos wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't disagree, but there are some that have managed to crack the code, or maybe just right place, right time, but eg kurzgesagt has a team of 60 to run their channel, and also they get a lot of outside funding for their channel. (they have 20M subscribers, but my question is how they got there, not why are they successful now that they are there)

Black Swan aka long tail. Most people starve. It's not a valid career choice, it's a lottery.

I disagree. There is an algorithm and some people analyze the trends to crack it.

Re: How much can you earn creating content on Youtube?

#119

Post by psanford »

chongli wrote: post #78
hahamrfunnyguy wrote: post #7

I started a YouTube channel at the end of 2017 and published on YouTube on a regular basis for a bit over a year. My best year was about $1,500. I've made $4,600 since I started the channel. At the channel's peak, I was trying to publish a DIY video where I would build something two or three times a month. I started the channel because I enjoy making stuff and thought I would be able to do more of it and maybe get pa…

Making videos taking time away from actually making stuff and making the projects take 10X longer. So I stopped. Check out Kenji Lopez-Alt [1]. He’s an award-winning chef who makes cooking videos by strapping a GoPro to his head and going to work in his home kitchen. He has basically none of the fancy production you see on cooking TV shows. Yet his videos are very popular because he’s a great chef and he tells you th…

Even with Kenji's minimal setup he still said recently he spends on average 6-8 hours per video on editing[0].

[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxOlI6QB0oI

Re: How much can you earn creating content on Youtube?

#120

Post by oblio »

system2 wrote: post #118
oblio wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Black Swan aka long tail. Most people starve. It's not a valid career choice, it's a lottery.

I disagree. There is an algorithm and some people analyze the trends to crack it.

And those people are the 0.01% and many admit they got lucky, and at a certain point fame is close to self sustaining.
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