YouTube has long been a place where you can watch endless hours of cat videos or countless clips of people doing stupid things that result in injury. But what about those who can actually make a career from it?
As much as people hate sitting through adverts, for some, they can be a main source of income. The more views you get, the more money you can make from the adverts on your video. A video with 100,000 views makes roughly $300 for the uploader, depending on the type of advert they use: the 30-second ad, the advert you can skip after five seconds or the roll-over advert at the bottom of the video.
There is also the other option of the YouTube partnership programme, which allows users to join a company that will deal with advertisers directly for you, streaming the ads that are targeted to your audience, bringing in a higher income.
Grace Helbig of Daily Grace chose this option with My Damn Channel, allowing her to maximise her income with a few other perks such as PR people. To even apply for partnerships you usually have to have over one million channel views and must sign a five-year contract which may no longer be suitable after six months due to the changing nature of the internet, as Grace realised.
But money is not the only benefit YouTube can bring. For most people it isn’t their primary job, but it has certainly allowed them access to a wider audience giving them more career options.
Dan and Phil started their YouTube channels in 2009 and now have their own Sunday night radio slot on BBC Radio One. Alex Day shot to online fame when he started reading excerpts from Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight and now has an independent record and book deal. And Starkid posted their Harry Potter musical online for friends and family to see which became so popular they now have their own production company and have been on two North American tours.
Curt Mega, actor on web series Buffering, believes that the biggest part of YouTube is the communities it creates. “When your idea becomes real to an audience, and they latch onto it and make it their own, that’s the magic at work.”
Mary Kate Wiles experienced this community feeling when she joined the cast of the Lizzie Bennet Diaries – video blogs based on Pride and Prejudice - which then went on to win a Creative Arts Emmy. “I didn’t even know this whole world existed before I joined LBD.”
But she thinks the success of YouTube comes from the active online communities it creates. “The difference is we are right there with our audience online – and that’s not something you can experience with TV or movies. You can leave comments, tweet at us or upload fan art to Tumblr. That’s very neat for both sides, it can help our audience to grow and get invested in and it helps us as creators to have that feedback and instant communication.”
It is a sentiment Hank Green, one half of the Vlogbrothers channel, agrees with. “In the world of infinite content and free distribution, the relationship between the content and the viewer is the only thing that matters.
“If you want to be a vlogger, you have to start with something you are interested in because it’s that passion that gets viewers.” So if you’re looking to be the next YouTuber, keep in mind that it’s not the
quantity, but the quality of what you produce.
