How YouTubers like mom accused of child abuse make money off popular videos

Click to expand

UP NEXT

Why David Letterman once thought he would go to prison

Foul ball, indeed! David Letterman admitted that he once worried he might go to prison after he accidentally threw a baseball out of a 14th story window in New York City. "Honest to God, it was the worst day of my television life and maybe the worst day of my life," the former Late Night […]

Amy Schumer says her husband is on autism spectrum

Amy Schumer is getting a big thumbs-up for revealing her husband is on the autism spectrum. On Wednesday evening, Schumer, who first made the reveal on her Netflix special, "Growing," appeared on "Late Night With Seth Meyers" to speak about why she and her husband, Chris Fischer, had decided to reveal the diagnosis. "He was diagnosed as high-functioning autism spectrum disorder," Schumer said. "We both wanted to talk about it because it's been totally positive."

Woodstock 50 lineup announced

The full lineup for the upcoming Woodstock 50 festival has been announced.

UP NEXT

With more than 240 million YouTube views, Machelle Hobson stood to make a lot of money off the Fantastic Adventures series, a channel starring seven children living in her home.  

Now, she's been arrested and the popular YouTube channel appeared to be taken down as of Wednesday afternoon. 

Hobson was arrested Friday on suspicion of repeatedly abusing the seven children, whom Maricopa police say Hobson had adopted, if they didn't perform well in the videos. Officers initially identified Hobson by another last name.   

The Department of Child Safety has removed the seven children from her custody.

© Provided by Gannett Co., Inc. Machelle Hobson

In its title, the YouTube channel promised "Fantastic Adventures" and featured children acting out fantastical scenes, like a "super hero" battle posted in February 2018.

Just over 800,000 people subscribe to the channel, and many of the videos have more than 2 million views. One has more than 21 million views. Most are about 10 minutes long, and a new video was updated about once a week over the past year. 

YouTube statistics calculator SocialBlade estimates Hobson's channel made between $8,900 and $142,000 a month, and $106,800 to $1.7 million a year. 

Behind the scenes, however, the children reported being locked in a closet for days without food, water or access to a bathroom, according to police. They told officers they were punished if they forgot lines when they appeared in the YouTube videos, and were sprayed in the face and genitals with pepper spray. 

MORE: YouTube mom, accused of abusing 7 adopted kids, held on $200K bond

YouTube told The Republic that as soon as the organization heard of the arrest, it demonetized the channel. 

 "We work closely with leading child safety organizations and others in our industry to protect young people. When we're made aware of serious allegations of this nature we take action, which may include suspending monetization, or, upon conclusion of an investigation, terminating channels."

But that means it's very likely Hobson made money off the channel before the company flipped the monetization switch. Some popular channels can make millions off their content through ads and subscribers, making the website an alluring enterprise opportunity. 

How do you make money off YouTube? 

YouTube lists a few requirements for users to start making money.

The videos need 4,000 hours watched in the last 12-month period, channels should have more than 1,000 subscribers and YouTubers should follow all partner program policies, according to the organization's support page. 

The program policies include following YouTube's community guidelines, which prohibit "content that endangers the emotional and physical well-being of minors." Those guidelines encourage people to reach out to local law enforcement if they believe a child is in danger.  

Ultimately, YouTube decides in a review process whether a channel makes the cut for monetization. The organization states in its policy that human reviewers are involved in making sure content follows all YouTube guidelines. 

How much do YouTubers make? 

It's unclear exactly how much Hobson made from YouTube. SocialBlade's range is broad, but estimates the channel earned at least six figures a year, if not more than $1 million. 

Profits vary depending on advertisements, according to YouTube. Channel-owners can receive advertising revenue, monthly payments made by subscribers in exchange for membership perks, money from branded merchandise showcased on the channel, money paid by fans to get messages highlighted in chat areas, and subscription fees.  

Some of the most popular YouTubers make millions off their content, according to Forbes. For instance, Jefree Starr is estimated to have earned $18 million in 2018 off his YouTube career. 

Fantastic Adventures' number of subscribers was just a fraction of Starr's 13 million subscribed fans. But the channel's membership, is still significant enough to bring in money. 

Reach the reporter at Lily.Altavena@ArizonaRepublic.com or follow her on Twitter @LilyAlta.

Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today. 

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: How YouTubers like mom accused of child abuse make money off popular videos

Read More

YouTube or Twitch? Which is better to make money?

Find out where to make the most money: YouTube or Twitch

Before we dive into the mechanisms that enable content creators to make money through YouTube or Twitch; let's take a look at a few key differences.

1. Platform popularity

Twitch has been a live streaming platform since 2011. YouTube started out with VoD in 2005 and joined the live streaming party in 2013. YouTube is still a giant in terms of active monthly users. Twitch has 140 million compared to YouTube's 1.8 billion monthly active users!

2. Content discoverability

A key factoid to remember about YouTube is that it is owned by Google, the largest search engine in the world. It then follows that, with YouTube's popularity, it is the second largest search engine in the world.

Why is this important? Well, YouTube uses an algorithm to find what you're searching for. This means there are a number of variables used to determine how search results are ordered which means better discoverability.

Twitch is more like a directory where search results are based on video views. This means that search is skewed towards established streamers. If you've just started streaming the chances of being found through Twitch's search is basically impossible.

On YouTube you could make one video and get millions of views. This is unlikely yes, but still possible. In short YouTube is a lot more discoverable, which can help you to grow your channel even if you aren't consistently uploading content.

3. Channel growability

This brings us nicely to the next point. Growing your channel. If you want to make money you will need to have a decently sized audience.

Without discoverability, on Twitch, you need to be live and streaming a lot! Your Twitch channel will grow the most when you are live. So if you want to grow, you need to be constantly connected to the platform, which makes it very time consuming.

Here again YouTube has the edge. With strong discoverability and video archives (that are actually watched by viewers; not so on Twitch) you don't have to be constantly streaming to grow your channel. Once your videos are out there, they are like little foot soldiers, forever finding new viewers.

3. Monetization

Finally! Well done for getting this far. Now that we have the background we can get into the question every streamer has asked at some point. 'YouTube or Twitch? Which is the best platform for making money?'

Both platforms require that you reach certain thresholds to be eligible for channel monetization.

When it comes to ease of monetization, Twitch wins! In order to monetize your channel you just need to become an Affiliate or Partner. To become an Affiliate is relatively easy, becoming a Partner takes longer and offers additional benefits.

In order to qualify as an Affiliate and enable monetization you need:

500 minutes broadcast in the last 30 days

7 unique broadcast days in the last 30 days

An average of 3 concurrent viewers in the last 30 days

50 Followers

To monetize your YouTube channel you need to become a Partner. To become a partner you need:

4,000 watch hours in the last year

1,000 subscribers

Your content is approved by YouTube

You an approved AdSense account linked

With YouTube you will probably have to bust your butt for a good few months before you can even turn on monetization. And then you discover that you only earn around $1 per day on ad revenue!

1. Earn ad revenue

The most popular form of monetization is still displaying ads on your videos. Once you are a Twitch Affiliate or YouTube Partner you will be able to set this up so you can start to earn money on your content.

To make a decent amount of money from ad revenue alone you will need to be, not just big, but huge. And at that level there are far more lucrative ways to make cash!

Bottom line is, that though popular, ad revenue is not a big money maker on either YouTube or Twitch and should not be your sole income source.

2. Subscriptions and channel memberships

Subscriptions were initially introduced on Twitch only for Partners, but recognizing that the smaller streamers also needed a way to monetize Twitch introduced the Affiliate program in 2017. Through the Affiliate program smaller streamers were given access to advertising, subscriptions and currency payments.

Subscriptions are a game changer for many streamers as they provide access to a stable income stream. YouTube followed Twitch in 2018 and introduced channel memberships for Partners.

Outside of YouTube and Twitch there are other subscription based support sites like Patreon that take far less of a cut of the revenue than the two main streaming platforms.

3. Twitch bits and SuperChat

The last form of monetization you will get access to through eligibility, is site specific donations.

On Twitch you get Twitch Bits that can be purchased through Amazon. Viewers use bits to support and cheer in a streamer's chat.

YouTube has recently taken a leaf from Twitch's book and started SuperChat. SuperChat allows viewers to pay to highlight their chat messages. The more you pay the more prominent and longer lasting the highlight.

These are both great monetization strategies, but just like ad revenue and subscriptions both platforms take a sizable share of the revenue.

Whether you meet the eligibility requirements of each platform or not, you can monetize your channel with external tools.

4. Use cost-free donations tools and live alerts

My first choice is Rechaaarge. With one click setup it's a no brainer and, in addition, it helps you monetize the portion of your audience that are not able to support you financially.

Just by trying an app or game, your viewers can donate to you cost-free!

To get started:

Connect your Twitch or Youtube account with one click to activate your profile

Share your personal Rechaaarge link on social media and during your streams or videos

You're all set and ready to go!

5. Use paid donations tools and live alerts

Streamlabs OBS and Streamelements are both stream management tools that have been widely popular among streamers to setup donations. They support the main payment methods and both don't take any of your revenue.

Muxy is a tool dedicated exclusively to Twitch. And, of course, it adds personalized alerts on screen, with a modern and cool design.

6. Sell merchandise

Fans love stuff, and if you do your job well, eventually they will love you too! Convert their enthusiasm into dollar bills by selling physical products like mugs, t-shirts, hoodies etc. emblazoned with your personal brand.

Streamlabs Merch and Teespring are good options if you need a company to handle the entire process of merchandising from beginning to end. If you already have your own design another option is to head over to Merch by Amazon and they will handle everything else.

7. Get brand sponsorship

Finding and getting brand sponsorship usually will make up the majority of a successful content creator's income. As such this is an important part of monetizing your channel.

If you are lucky, you will be approached by brands with sponsorship deals. Either they will pay you to promote their brand or to use their products in your content. If you don't get approached; don't worry.

There are agencies whose sole purpose is to connect brands and content creators. If you want sponsorship then you can approach one such agency and get on their books. YouTube purchased Famebit to help their creators connect with brands. Twitch has the Bounty Board Program which allows streamers to connect with brands directly through their dashboard.

So … which platform is better for your wallet?

My rule of thumb before I wrote this article was: if you are a streamer use Twitch, and if you are a content uploader use YouTube.

I still think Twitch is best for streaming and YouTube for Vod. But now I recognize the differences in each platform and how they can complement each other to increase your payout.

Particularly if you are a streamer on Twitch, YouTube has capabilities to help you grow your channel and exposure. If I wanted to make money streaming I would stream on Twitch and upload short (under 15 mins) highlight videos to YouTube to grow my following on both platforms.

If I were a content uploader and make money on YouTube, I would create a Twitch channel and stream at scheduled times to grow and deepen my relationship with my viewers. And of course, increase my audience monetization.

Read More

Google Introduces New Ways for YouTube Advertisers to Make Money

Google has introduced new capabilities for YouTube ads that will help advertisers drive more conversions.

The new features combine the creative solutions offered by YouTube with the machine learning and measurement solutions offered by Google Ads.

Ad Extensions

YouTube advertisers will soon be able to drive more conversions with a wider variety of video ad extensions.

In the example below, Google shows how a movie studio is using one of the new ad extensions to drive ticket sales.

Other actions that can be taken from the new ad extensions include downloading an app and booking a trip.

These extensions will join the existing location and form extensions for TrueView in-stream ads.

New Measurement Solutions

Google is evolving its Brand Lift solution for YouTube ads in an effort to make it easier for advertisers to measure and act upon upper- and lower-funnel metrics.

Advertisers will soon be able to set up Brand Lift studies directly in Google Ads or Display & Video 360 and view reporting alongside other ad metrics.

Brand Lift studies will also be sent throughout the duration of an advertiser's campaign so they can understand how video ads are influencing viewer perceptions in near real time.

YouTube's Brand Lift studies will include two new metrics:

Lifted users: The number of people who were influenced by an ad.

Cost-per-lifted-users: Advertisers can use this metric to optimize their campaign's effectiveness and cost-efficiency.

Lastly, Google is ramping up investments in its Measurement Partners to ensure advertisers can measure YouTube media with measurement solutions that meet a stricter set of standards.

Read More

‘Egg Boy’ Is Now Donating Money to the Families of Christchurch Shooting Victims

Last weekend, an Austrlian teenager won the hearts and minds of people all around the world when he cracked an egg over the head of Fraser Anning, a far-right Australian politician who implied that immigration and "Muslim fanatics" were responsible for the shooting.

Now, William Connolly, 17, a.k.a. "Egg Boy," (sometimes spelled "EggBoi") has further endeared himself to the public by announcing that he will donate most of the proceeds of a GoFundMe page set up in his honor to the family members of the Christchurch shooting victims. TheGoFundMe page was created to help fund Conn olly's legal fees after he was arrested for egging Fraser.

Related stories

Why Did the Christchurch Shooter Name-Drop YouTube Phenom PewDiePie?

What Mark Meadows Did Was Racist

It's Not Just Steve King

According to the organizer of the GoFundMe page, Connolly told him via text that he "plans to send a majority of the money to the victims of the Christchurch terrorist attack." The GoFundMe page in support of Connolly originally said donations would go toward "legal fees" and "buying more eggs." As of this writing, it has raised more than $50,000.

Egg Boy became a hero on social media last Saturday, when he attended a far-right rally in support of Anning and egged the politician mid-speech. Following the egging, Anning attempted to strike him and Connolly was tackled to the ground by some of the politician's supporters.

Connolly was later arrested and released without facing any charges, according to Al Jazeera.

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Anning, who is well-kno wn for making inflammatory and racist comments, attracted ire on social media with a statement saying that "whilst this kind of violent vigilantism can never be justified, what it highlights is the growing fear within our community, both in Australia and New Zealand, of the increasing Muslim presence. Anning added that "the real cause of bloodshed on New Zealand streets today" was the immigration policy that enabled "Muslim fanatics to migrate to New Zealand in the first place."

Anning's statement was prompted by the horrific Christchurch mosque shootings last Thursday, which resulted in 50 people dead and at least 50 wounded. An Australian man, 28-year-old Brenton Harrison Tarrant, has been arrested in connection to the shootings and charged with murder.

Although Connolly has said that he is under strict instructions not to speak out on social media due to the legal proceedings against him, he nonetheless posted a video in which he thanked his fans for their support. The account has since been taken down by Twitter, though some users managed to re-share his video.

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

In addition the GoFundMe circulating in support of Connol ly, there is another petition demanding Anning's removal from public office. "Senator Fraser Anning's views have no place in the government of our democratic and multicultural country," the petition reads. "Within the bounds of Australian law, we request that he be pushed to resign from his position as Senator, and if appropriate, be investigated by law enforcement agencies for supporting right wing terrorism." It currently has more than 1.2 million signatures.

Sign up for Rolling Stone's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Read More

How to be a YouTube star in South Africa

YouTube has established itself as the premier video sharing platform on the Internet.

This has encouraged people to publish videos regularly, gathering a following in their niche. Some of these YouTubers have millions of subscribers and make a good living from their channels.

South Africa is not left out of this trend, and boasts popular YouTube stars with hundreds of thousands of subscribers.

These YouTubers have made it online despite not being from Europe or the United States – showing that you can garner a global following from anywhere in the world thanks to the Internet.

To learn more about what it takes to make it big online, MyBroadband spoke to vlogger Caspar Lee, and Rob Vamplew of the Rob The Ranger channel about being popular South African YouTubers.

Hard work and hustle

Vamplew said that one of the key elements to his success was that he had consistently been uploading videos to his channel for over 10 years, building up a slow and steady subscriber base.

He added that due to the timeless content he produces, focusing on wildlife, his videos continue to gain views years after they were uploaded.

Caspar also highlighted how he developed his following over 7 years of content creation.

Key to his success, he said, was that he started at the right time and found the right audience for his videos.

Vamplew said it is possible to make a living as a South African YouTube star, but "not without some major hustle."

While YouTube offers you money from the ads it runs on your channel, Vamplew said that only channels with incredibly high views can make a living from this income.

Fortunately, there are other ways to make money from YouTube.

"One very common way is having sponsored videos where a company pays to have a product advertised by you in your video," said Vamplew.

Another means of monetisation is through crowdfunding platforms such as Patreon, which "allow viewers to donate to you in return for various rewards".

Don't do it for the money

Vamplew said that if you go into YouTube content creation for the money, however, you're doing it wrong.

"My advice to others is this: Do what makes you happy, make what you enjoy making, expect nothing in return, put the 'You' back in YouTube and with time and consistency your channel will grow," he said.

He added that a good idea is to seek out other YouTube creators so that you can grow together.

Caspar echoed this suggestion, and said that one of the keys to him achieving his success was his collaborations with other YouTubers.

He added that his biggest piece of advice to aspiring YouTube stars is to collaborate with other creators.

Obstacles in South Africa

Caspar believes that the most difficult part of being a YouTuber from South Africa is finding a South African audience.

"Data costs are very high compared to other markets, making it more difficult for locals to stream YouTube on mass," he said.

Vamplew agreed, and said that "those producing content for a largely local audience are restricted by reach and those that are trying to compete internationally are restricted by speed".

Vamplew added that the rise of Indian YouTubers, for example, is down to their cheap, accessible high-speed Internet access – something we "seemingly won't have for another couple of years".

South Africa's most popular YouTubers

Caspar Lee is the most popular South African YouTuber, while Vamplew is the 9th most popular, according to SocialBlade.

Other famous YouTubers from South Africa include rap duo Die Antwoord, fitness buff Peter Carvell, and foodie Liezl Strydom.

Top YouTubers in South Africa Position YouTuber Subscribers 1 Caspar Lee 7,481,623 2 Die Antwoord 2,697,555 3 Peter Carvell 1,441,703 4 Seether 822,138 5 Dan Mace 720,079 6 Liezl Jayne Strydom 706,362 7 Michael Jamison 659,967 8 Pastor Alph Lukau 565,948 9 Rob the Ranger 493,930 10 Caitlin De Ville 440,922 Now read: Vodacom to livestream English FA Cup – How much it costs to watch a game

Read More

Meet the YouTube star who's de-radicalizing young, right-wing men

The far right is the dominant political community on YouTube. It's a flourishing world of men's rights activists, libertarians, anti-feminist atheists, and white nationalists. There are whole channels dedicated to showing "social justice warriors" getting "owned" by various conservative provocateurs. And this has gone largely unanswered by the left.

Enter Natalie Wynn, who's trying to de-radicalize this part of YouTube with an unexpected mix of philosophy and elaborate costumes. And she's making some headway.

"One thing the right wing has done pretty effectively in the last few years is, they've managed to frame the discussion as a kind of puritan, moralistic, sermonizing left versus a kind of edgy, rebellious, punk-rock right," says 30-year-old Wynn. "And I refuse to allow them to get away with that."

On her YouTube channel, Contrapoints, Wynn tries to reframe the debate around issues like free speech, the alt-right, incels, and transgender pronouns in a way that "makes [the far right] reveal their puritanism and their phobias, and has me as the, like, libertine."

Wynn said this as she was holding a giant headpiece trimmed with red and black feathers and a sheep skull. She makes 20-to-45-minute videos that unpack the ideas behind the culture wars, using the philosophy education she got in grad school and the makeup education she got on YouTube. And they're popular. Her top videos get more than 1 million views. She makes enough money for YouTube to be her only job. She's in the top 20 creators on Patreon, a site where fans can give monthly donations to artists.

The skull headpiece is for a character that delivers a trigger warning at the start of a recent video. It's one of four costume changes and three wigs she uses to dissect a popular meme on the far right, "Are Traps Gay?" It means, Is it gay to have sex with a trans woman? While this meme might seem like an offensive but unimportant piece of internet ephemera, Wynn explores what it means for trans women and straight masculinity.

It's fascinating because she takes the internet seriously. After all, that's where political ideas spread these days.

The YouTube algorithm tends to recommend content that gets progressively more extreme, so in just a few clicks, you can go from a mainstream to extreme. That might not be so bad when it takes you from videos about vegetarianism to veganism, but it's dangerous when you go from explanations of the history of the West to racist pseudoscience posted by white nationalists.

University of North Carolina professor Zeynep Tufkeci says that makes YouTube a kind of radicalization machine.

"It seems as if you are never 'hard-core' enough for YouTube’s recommendation algorithm. ... Given its billion or so users, YouTube may be one of the most powerful radicalizing instruments of the 21st century," he said.

In that universe, Wynn is intentionally targeting young white men who've been pulled down a YouTube rabbit hole. And it's working â€" she has a "success" folder on her computer of people whose minds she has changed.

"I see myself as sort of like left’s immune system," Wynn said. "I am fighting against the kind of reactionary forces that will cause people to double down on their reactionary ideas. I’m changing people’s minds. I’m softening them to these issues."

This segment originally aired March 6, 2019 on VICE News Tonight on HBO.

Read More

How to Make Money as a YouTube Celebrity

Credit: rvlsoft/Shutterstock

If you pay attention to famous YouTubers, you'll likely see them take lavish vacations and attend exclusive events. For successful YouTube influencers, it becomes their job. YouTube can make regular people famous. While not everyone can make it on YouTube, the influencers with the most views and subscribers can easily earn a six-figure income.

Do you love creating videos, but aren't sure how to monetize them or make money on the popular video platform? Here's how you can make money as a YouTube celebrity.

What is a YouTube influencer?

Social media influencers may seem like everyday people, but they have a large following online. People care about what they say and are likely to take their recommendations. Since people trust what they say, brands are willing to pay a lot of money for influencers to promote their products.

"A YouTube influencer is anyone who creates content on the YouTube platform, has a significant following and influences a group of people," said Beca Alexander, founder and president of influencer casting agency, Socialyte.

How to make money as a YouTube influencer

There are a couple ways to make money as a YouTube influencer. If you have a big enough following, you can money through sponsorships, affiliate links and advertisements.

Advertisements

In the past, anyone could sign up to make money on the platform, but YouTube announced new requirements for its YouTube Partner Program in January 2018. According to Google Support, when a channel reaches 4,000 watch hours in the previous 12 months and 1,000 subscribers, it will be considered for the partner program.

The YouTube Partner Program allows creators to monetize their videos on the platform. YouTubers make money from advertisements played during their content and when YouTube Premium subscribers watch their videos.

"Making money through ads is still one of the primary ways of monetizing your channel, with YouTube providing … different options for generating ad revenue on your videos," said David Ambrogio, SEO and content strategist at Online Optimism.

Sponsorships and affiliate links

The most effective way to make money on YouTube is through partnerships with brands. If you have an engaged following that trusts you, brands will pay you to endorse their products or services.

"Most YouTube celebrities make money from brand endorsement deals," Alexander said. "This is usually done through the creation of content, which will be published and promoted to their [the influencer's] following or audience."

You can create entire videos focused on the sponsored brand or incorporate the products within your video. For example, beauty YouTubers create videos about how to apply makeup using specific sponsored products.

"Sponsorships get you paid by signing you up as a spokesperson for their brand, putting you on their own YouTube videos and paying you to plug in their products to your own content," said Ambrogio.

When you're partnering with a brand, you can also make money through affiliate links, which is when you receive a commission when a viewer clicks on a link and makes a purchase. Just include the link in the video's caption and encourage viewers to click on it after the video.

How to build a following

While posting a video every week may seem simple enough, becoming an influencer takes much more work. You must be willing to put in the time and work to build your audience's trust.

"To gain a following on YouTube, or any digital platform, the content created should be organic and authentic," said Alexander. "Storytelling that connects the creator to the audience and makes them care about what the creator has to say is how influence is built."

Read this Business News Daily guide to learn about how to become a social media influencer.

Read More

5 Best Ways To Make Money On YouTube

How do you make money on YouTube? That's the burning question that everyone is asking, but luckily, it's super easy and difficult at the same time. What we mean by this is that you very easily setup your YouTube for monetization, but actually earning a living wage off of it is a very difficult and long process. To make money off of YouTube, you need subscribers, and you need a lot of people watching your videos. The more people you have watching your videos, the more opportunity you'll have to make money.

If you follow along below, we'll show you the five different methods that will help you make money on YouTube.

Advertisements

First up, advertisements are a great way to make money with YouTube. Once you sign up for Google Adsense and turn monetization on within your YouTube account, you can start earning revenue from a CPM model. This will give you advertiser money per 1000 impressions. We don't know how much that advertiser money is, as it does depend on what each advertiser wants to spend. But, if you get enough YouTube viewers, you can actually make a substantial amount of cash. For example, a $10 CPM could net you $100 per 10,000 impressions your advertisement gets.

Unfortunately, ad blocker extensions can ruin your revenue, but their are a lot of people turning off their ad blocker for the websites and creators that they want to support. Some people will even donate to their favorite creators instead of disabling their ad blocker, which will give you a little bit more money than what you'd get for that single advertisement view.

You can also consider making YouTube Red-specific content, which will give you a whole lot more money than exclusively advertising will.

Sponsorships

If you get enough viewers, you can consider taking on sponsorships as well. A sponsorship is when you partner with a company to get their product in front of your viewers' eyes. Depending on the amount of viewers you have, the company will pay you a fairly decent amount of money, especially if you can get your subscribers into the millions. That's pretty rare, but it's not impossible — it takes a lot of dedication and hard work. There are some YouTubers who make a hundred thousand or more per year just off of sponsorships. Keep in mind that you'll want to find a decent balance for sponsorships, as you don't want to spam your viewers, either.

Affiliate Programs

You can also earn money off of YouTube through affiliate programs. If you're on YouTube, you can advertise your favorite products in your videos, and include, say, an Amazon link in the description with your affiliate marketers code. That said, you'll earn a little bit of money for every person that purchases the product  by clicking the link in your YouTube description. You can do this for Amazon, as well as other websites, to maximize your revenue potential.

Dedication

Of course, we cannot stress how much dedication and hard work plays into your earning potential as a YouTuber. It is extremely difficult to get noticed as a YouTuber, and nothing will help you more than sticking with it, even when you're feeling discouraged. You may only get a couple of views per video, but if you keep up with it, eventually your channel will grow — you just have to stay with it. If you really want to be dedicated, you might want to consider doing Twitch and YouTube at the same time, and try to funnel viewers between platforms to increase your earning potential.

Great Content

Last, but certainly not least, you also need to have great content. One of the things that all YouTubers stress is that viewers can see through you faking it. If you don't love what you're doing, you're probably not going to be very successful at it. You need to care about what you're doing, care about the viewers, and be able to put your heart and soul in the content that you curate. If you don't, you're going to have a hard time gaining subscribers, and thus, a hard time making revenue off of your channel.

Verdict

As you can see, it's extremely hard work to make YouTube a profitable platform for yourself. It'll take thousands of hours, as entrepreneurship of all kinds always takes. But, if you stick with it, you could soon be earning at least close to a hundred thousand per year in revenue — but if you quit, you'll never find that out.

Read More

13 Underground Strategies to Make Money From the Comfort Of Your Home

1. Write for Medium's Partnership program:

Probably the easiest way to get up and running with making money online. Medium's Partnership Program encourages writers just like you to write content that is going to help the world. Content is King (with a captial "K") here. Only the best content that scales the algorithm through user engagement will yield higher payouts.

2. The Quora Partner Program:

Again, similarly to the aforementioned endeavor, the Quora Partnership Program encourages people to generating the best transformative questions for the world by paying the participants.

3. Affiliate partnerships: Photo by rawpixel

One of the easiest ways to make money from the comfort of your home. Affiliate partnerships are partnerships with companies that pay you to be a promoter of their service/product.

Probably the biggest here is with Amazon. Do you run a successful photography blog and know you'd love to recommend some camera equipment to your audience?

Signing up for Amazon's partnership program is free and will grant you commissions on every sale through your unique link.

4. Ghostwriting for a company:

After the decision to just sit my ass down and write, a buzz about this decision began to grow within my network. Through word-of-mouth (though sites like Fiverr and Upwork also work) I was able to secure two ghostwriting jobs that have yielded me thousands of extra dollars.

Some of the jobs have amortized me out at a pay rate of $100/hour. That's unbelievably invaluable work for a considerably low amount of time and effort. Ghostwriting even lead me to having my work published on Forbes!

5. Miscellaneous freelancing:

I like to consider myself a visual artist. However, I believe my talents are suited for words.

However, I know plenty of friends who are making part-time and full-time incomes with freelancing. Whether it be graphic design, copywriting, motion picture effects etc, there are limitless possibilities.

6. Online coaching: Photo by Kristopher Roller

Have you been persuaded to join a free webinar? I know I have. What the creators of the free webinar don't always want you to be aware of is the pitch that will come at the end.

Why? Because the webinar is only a small taste of the real service that is going to come — and that service always brings in the dollars. Marketers who run these webinars know they will only get a small percentage of people to sign up, however, those small people are going to open up their wallets.

Let's say the free webinar brings in 100 people and 10% pay for the service at $200. That's $2,000 for about an hour's worth of work.

7. Sell advertising on your Youtube channel:

While I don't have first hand experience in this realm, I know it's possible to bring in side-cash through Youtube advertising.

According to BusinessInsider a user can bring in $2,000 for every million views of their content with advertising, not the best revenue model, however it tees us up for the next option.

8. Sell affiliates through Youtube:

Similar to the earlier mentioned option, affiliate through Youtube helps bring in the bucks. If you have a modest channel of about 1,000 people you can still bring in money through advertising products you have an affiliate partnership with through your content.

9. Payments through Patreon or other donation services:

If you have a loyal following, often times that audience will open up their wallets and offer donations in support.

Patreon can be used in conjunction with a Youtube channel as well as a blog. According to Patreon the average creator with a following of 30,000 subscribers can make $315 on the low end and $1575 on the high end in terms of a monthly income (source).

10. Write and publish a kindle book: Photo by Kinga Cichewicz

Did you know that one of the best-selling books of the last 10 years started as a digital download? Fifty Shades of Greywas first written as a fan-fiction response to Twilight and before being published as a paperback was downloaded millions of times through Kindle making it a virtual-overnight success.

While your results probably won't achieve as such, if you have a viable audience already that will purchase and download your ebook, you have a goldmine waiting for you.

11. Start a Shopify ecommerce store:

Internet entrepreneur, comedian and personal friend of mine Jordan Kay had an idea one night when thinking about going to a sports game. She didn't like either of the teams and felt left out with everyone else wearing team-affiliate garb.

She had an idea of a hat she wanted to make. On the hat read, "Here for Beer" and it became a popular seller on her Shopify page. With zero inventory and little upstart financing you can turn your idea into reality with drop shipping and an ecommerce store.

12. Create a store on Etsy:

Creating a store on Etsy is similar to an ecommerce store with Shopify, however you are responsible for the inventory. This is more geared for individuals/business owners who are extremely passionate and knowledgable about the product they are selling. Another entrepreneur I know, Gabby, sells her hand made jewelry on Etsy and it makes a nice side-hustle for her.

13. Sell your old things from an eBay store:

Unless you have the bandwidth to turn this venture into a full-time gig by "flipping" items you go out and find, this is a temporary venture. Instead of going through your closest and throwing out or donating your old clothes, sell them on eBay. Heck, in Los Angeles, 90s vintage clothing is all the rage (and I know it's not the only city). This is PERFECT for the Millennial generation to capitalize on all those old threads we don't wear anymore that our parents just didn't have the time or wherewithal to throw out.

This is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of opportunities you have at your disposal to bring in side money or turn your life around.

So many people are in search for freedom. That could be:

Freedom of expression.

Freedom to live where they want.

Freedom from financial pressures.

Freedom to pursue what makes them happy

The internet is a gift and a tool to help you get there.

And you should try as hard as you possibly can to get there.

Because the world needs it now.

The world needs you now, more than ever. We need your gifts. We need your unique voice. We need your creativity.

So unshackle yourself to the rigmarole of a trapped and unfulfilling life and step into your power.

This story is published in The Startup, Medium's largest entrepreneurship publication followed by +431,678 people. Subscribe to receive our top stories here.

Read More

Meet Auburn grad Caleb Hyles, YouTube’s rising cover song superstar

Three years and 100 million or so views ago, Montgomery native and 2016 Auburn media studies grad Caleb Hyles decided to see what he could doâ€"to test the limits and break through. So he started posting videos of himself singing cover songs from cartoons and Disney movies in the corner of his home office full-time. It worked.

Thank God for that "Frozen" song.

That's still his biggestâ€""Let It Go." It hasn't made him a dime, not directly; you can't earn anything from covers if you're just singing along with the official soundtrack. But it definitely made his career.

He posted it on Jan. 24, 2014, halfway through what he thought would be his senior year of college. It's just him and a mic in a darkened room somewhere in Auburn. It was Friday. By the end of the weekend, it was pushing 500,000 views.

Going viral was practically guaranteed, of course. Here was a dudeâ€"pitch perfectly, and without going falsettoâ€"hitting the song’s impossibly high notes, something not even Broadway legend and “Frozen” songstress Idina Menzel could pull off that New Year’s Eve. Three weeks later, Time Magazine put it fifth on its list of the Best 11 “Let It Go” coversâ€"the highest spot for a video that had someone actually singing the song rather than just playing it on the piano or something. Entertainment Weekly had it at 7th. People Magazine put it 13th on a list of the 35 best “Let It Go” parodies. (It’s not a parody. It’s amazing.)

A couple of months back, on its five-year anniversary, the view count for "Let It Go - Male Vocal Cover - Frozen (Soundtrack)" stood at 11.5 million. The thing has 22,000 comments. The one that Hyles pinned to the top of the column came fairly early on. It's from 7-million subscriber YouTube superstar Tyler Oakley (and it has more than 4,000 likes of its own).

"HOLY FRICK FRACK GOOD LORD YES THIS IS EVERYTHING."

"I'd been doing YouTube since 2006," says Hyles, who now lives in Fort Worth, Texas. "I'd post videos with my brother of us singing songs. But when the whole 'Let It Go' thing happened, I started caring even more than I already did."

He kept putting out videos. He took a break from school, but came back and eventually graduated. He kept putting out videos. He took a job with Auburn Athletics' video production team, War Eagle Productions. He got married. He kept putting out videos. His stats kept climbing. More and more money kept coming and coming. He kept singing. He kept putting out videos. The big song from "Mulan," Pokemon songs, Fall Out Boy tracks....

Pretty soon, it actually seemed possible.

"Back in Auburn, I was just keeping a keen eye on the finances," Hyles says. "Just seeing, OK, do we (he and wife Kara) have enough to put aside to save money, are we outpacing our bills. I was working at War Eagle Productions all while still doing YouTube, but YouTube started outpacing all that and so we eventually just pulled the trigger."

Bull’s-eye.

Not only was the money from YouTube going farther than his paycheck, he was actually outperforming his employer.

The only video with more than a million views on Auburn Athletics' official YouTube channel is the Kick Six. Hyles, meanwhile, has a whopping 48 videos with more than a million views, four of them (including a "Prince of Egypt" cover, no less) more popular than Auburn's official tribute to the greatest play in football history.

Auburn's total view count is at 29,333,576.

Hyles? 184,308,920.

Auburn Athletics' official YouTube channel has 38,998 subscribers.

In the next few monthsâ€"it'll probably be sometime in Mayâ€"the UPS truck will pull up with a plaque from YouTube celebrating his 1 millionth subscriber. (One of his current 968,175 recognized him at Wendy's the other day; when he posted “Let It Go,” he’d just celebrated his 1 thousandth.)

He’ll be at least the third Auburn alum to receive the big golden play button. Over the past decade, several former Tigers have struck social media gold, most notably Ricky Dillion and Megan McCarthy, who between them have nearly 6 million YouTube subscribers.

Of course, following social celebrity best practices, Hyles quickly diversified his brand's portfolio. YouTube remains the cash cow, but there's plenty of cash calves out there.

His Spotify stats? 308,538 monthly listeners. Some songs have thousands of plays. Some have millions. Even with conservative streaming royalties--even with performing rights organizations taking their cut--that adds up fast. Ditto the download revenue from iTunes and such. Then there's Apple Music, Google Play…

Companies also occasionally pay him to showcase their products for his 23,000 Instagram followers; he most recently did something for Kodiak pancake mix.

He also sells shirts and mugs and stuff, most bearing the slogan “Peace, Love and Metal.” Then there are the crowd-funding sites like Ko-fi andâ€"the big oneâ€"Patreon. Ko-fi is good for sporadic $3 pick-me-ups throughout the day, but the yearly earnings from his Patreon patrons alone are probably pushing media studies major starting salary levels. He’s up to $499â€"not per month, per video. He puts out a video every week.

Let the storm rage on.

“This is pretty much our livelihood,” Hyles says. “It’s our main source of income. My wife helps me work on it as well, so pretty much our full-time job is YouTube. Job-wise, we don’t do anything else.”

Read More

Create a YouTube Channel That Helps Your Small Business Make Money

You're a star, baby! The camera loves you – and your business.

If you want to make your small business famous – YouTube famous – now is a good time to start.

According to Brandwatch, "among millennials, YouTube accounts for two-thirds of the premium online video watched across devices," but they also see that only "9% of U.S small businesses use Youtube."

In order to bridge the gap, and start using video content to your advantage, it's time to get your business on YouTube. Create a channel homepage that reflects your brand, release videos on a routine basis, and listen to your viewers to make your videos better.

With the right strategy, YouTube can be a powerful channel to attract new customers, and drive them to make a purchase on your website.

Showcase your brand consistently

Before you create a YouTube channel, you need to set a goal. While it would be nice to get famous for your videos, that shouldn't be the focus. Instead, use YouTube as another marketing channel that contributes to your overall marketing strategy. The focus should be to attract customers, and drive them to your business website.

Once you've signed up for YouTube, make your channel homepage match the branding of your website, and all other marketing channels, like email marketing. Match your brand colors and use the same style of photos on the header image that you use on your website. Once you pick a video concept, like an educational series or customer testimonials, stick to that concept so your audience knows what to expect when they land on your channel.

Recommended for You

Webcast, March 13th: How to Activate High-Value Customers Leveraging Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning

Release videos on a consistent basis

Just like using a consistent video framework to keep your viewers interested, you should also release videos consistently. Choose one day of the week, say Tuesday, and then release videos every Tuesday. If you can only create a video once a month, make sure the quality is high enough that customers want to watch it, and also share it with their friends. Send an email to viewers, and your email list, each time you release a new video.

If your viewers are watching your video each Tuesday, that means potential customers are thinking about your business every week, giving you a window of opportunity to promote your products or services. Use the same calls-to-action in your videos that use in your marketing campaigns to drive the message home. That repetition may be all you need to change a viewer into a customer.

Listen to your viewers (at least most of them)

YouTube comments are famous for being nasty, but there still may be useful criticism that can help your videos get better. Plus, answering comments and having conversations shows the real person behind the business, helping customers build a relationship with you. You may even see some positive feedback that inspires you to keep going.

If your videos speak to potential customers, because you're using their feedback to make them better, they're more likely to share your content with friends, growing your audience. Using customer feedback and showing your customers that you value their opinion also makes it more likely for them to support your business.

Don't rely on YouTube for all your revenue

While there are a few millionaires on YouTube, your goal should not be to use YouTube as a source of revenue. Instead, think of it as an acquisition channel. It's also another place to showcase your brand, so if you have apparel with your logo on it, make sure to wear it in the videos. Then, offer customers the chance to purchase that same apparel, by following a link back to your website.

Cross-promote your YouTube videos on your website, showcase them in blog posts, and partner with other brands, both to feature other people in your videos and to be featured in partner videos. As your videos stack up, so does your average view count, and your potential audience size grows. When viewers spend more time with your brand, they see your products more often, and your chance of making a sale increases.

Add a YouTube revenue stream to your small business strategy

You don't have to be a celebrity to build a YouTube following for your small business. If you want to make your small business YouTube famous, start by creating a channel homepage that reflects your brand, release quality videos consistently, and make sure to listen to your viewers so you can create videos they want to watch. More customers are watching video than ever before. It's time to get your small business into the spotlight.

Read More

How to make money from YouTube: A 7-year-old boy shows the way by earning ₹155 crore

New Delhi: A seven-year-old American boy has topped the list of highest-earning YouTubers by earning $22 million from June 2017 to June 2018. Ryan is the top earner on the Forbes' list of 'Highest-Paid YouTube Stars 2018' with earnings from his channel 'Ryan ToysReview', which has more than 17 million followers.

The seven-year-old's YouTube videos serve as reviews for new toys and viewers comprise mostly of users his age. Like most children, Ryan's favourites include Legos, trains and cars but his enthusiasm for new toys has earned him $22 million, which translates to about Rs154.84 crore. His earnings for the review period have doubled compared to 2017 when he was placed eighth on the list.

Here are top six highest-earning YouTubers of 2018 and how they make money:

1) Ryan ToysReview — Since the launch of Ryan's main channel, Ryan ToysReview, in 2015, he has amassed more than 17 million followers and close to 26 billion views.

2) Jake Paul — $21.5 million: The younger brother of controversial YouTube star Logan Paul, who is no 10 on the list, has made additional income from his merchandise business. He had more than 3.5 billion views of his rap songs and pranks.

3) Dude Perfect — $20 million: It is an American five-man sports entertainment crew. The group consists of twins Coby and Cory Cotton, Garrett Hilbert, Cody Jones, and Tyler Toney, who film themselves performing extraordinary sporting tricks.

4) DanTDM — $18.5 million: He was the first on the 'Highest-Paid YouTube Stars 2017' list with an earning of $16.5 million. Daniel Middleton, a Minecraft gamer, has more than 20.7 million followers. He also sells merchandise including baseball caps and hoodies.

5) Jeffree Star — $18 million: He is a makeup artist, who made $18 million in 2018. Star is also founder and owner of Jeffree Star Cosmetics. Not only on YouTube, Star was also one of the most followed people on MySpace. His company makes an estimated $100 million annually, selling eyeshadow, lipstick and highlighters.

6) Markiplier — $17.5 million: He has been known for his sensationalized video game commentary. The 29-year-old describes himself as 'Professional Screamer' on his Twitter bio, which has more than 11 million followers. Till August, Markiplier had over 10 billion total video views and 22 million subscribers on YouTube.

The Forbes magazine has measured YouTubers' earnings from 1 June 2017 to 1 June 2018, without deducting fees for agents, managers and lawyers.

Read More

Change Your Screen Habits From Time-Wasting to Money-Saving

[unable to retrieve full-text content]If you find yourself wasting too much of your day on your phone or tablet, here are some ideas for how to use your time and devices for something more productive - like saving money ... three to four ...

Read More

YouTube to ban comments on kids videos

© PA Wire/PA Images (John Stillwell/PA)

YouTube is to ban comments from videos featuring children.

The move was announced as part of an effort to crack down on "predatory behaviour" targeting children on the world's most used video site.

It comes after persistent reports of paedophile comments being openly left within comments sections of videos featuring children.

"Over the past week, we disabled comments from tens of millions of videos that could be subject to predatory behaviour," a post on YouTube's administrator site said. "These efforts are focused on videos featuring young minors and we will continue to identify videos at risk over the next few months."

The online platform, which has billions of video views on a weekly basis, will roll the measure out more fully to all videos "featuring young minors and videos featuring older minors that could be at risk of attracting predatory behaviour".

The subsidiary of Google is also to incorporate a more advanced algorithm that will let it automatically "identify and remove predatory comments" and will be "more sweeping in scope."

The tech giant believes that this will result in up to twice as many predatory comments from individuals being caught.

"No form of content that endangers minors is acceptable on YouTube, which is why we have terminated certain channels that attempt to endanger children in any way," said the company post. "Videos encouraging harmful and dangerous challenges targeting any audience are also clearly against our policies."

YouTube's move comes after Irish authorities look likely to scale back their warnings about the so-called 'Momo' meme that was alleged to be scaring children. While officials from schools and police forces issued warnings about the internet-based meme over the last week, there has been little evidence of its existence, leading many commentators to decry it as a hoax.

"Nothing is more important to us than ensuring the safety of young people on the platform," said Susan Wojcicki, YouTube's chief executive.

NOW READ:

Man, 30, jailed for three-and-a-half years for assaulting Irish Liverpool fan Seán Cox (The Journal)

'Crown jewel' Byrne fortress with €740k improvements including games room, bars and state-of-the-art security seized by CAB (Independent.ie)

Feds feared alleged 'neo-nazi' Benjamin Bogard could be next mass shooter (The Daily Beast)

Read More