Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “How Do YouTubers Make Money? (And Other Questions We Have to Answer)”.
Hey Uber, yes, yeah uh, you’re, Marquez yeah. It’S me great, it says here in New York City. Is that right, yeah New York sweet? What are you going to the city for uh work for work? Ah, of course yeah. What do you do for work? All right? We’Re doing this uh, I’m a YouTuber yeah foreign hi, so my name is Marquez and I am a YouTuber which is a pretty well understood job at this point. But I feel like a lot of my peers, don’t like using that word just because. Well, it doesn’t fully explain all of what we do. It’S kind of like painting yourself into a box a little bit, but also there are some connotations to that word in 2021 and it also comes with this baggage of having to explain what exactly that means and what you do and how it works.
So that’s what this video is. That’S I’m going to use this video to just answer. All of those most frequently asked questions.
This video is going to answer the top 10. I think that I get asked the most often, and so I’m gon na send this video to anybody who asked those questions in the future. Maybe you will too enjoy, ah, okay, so so what is a YouTuber? What is a YouTuber and I feel, like you, kind of – have to start there right, because you know, maybe you and me were in this world.
We know YouTubers exist and we know the Creator economy is bigger than ever, but there are lots of people who are not in this world who don’t know that. So fundamentally I make Tech videos and put them on YouTube, but behind that there’s a whole delicate balance with an algorithm and search engine, optimization and content strategy and there’s a whole lot that people don’t see that goes into it. But behind the iPhone 12 review you see that comes out in September. It is a job – okay, okay, but also okay. So how? How do you make money? How do you make money? Ah one of the classics: how does that make money? How do you make money, so it’s a little different for every Creator, but fundamentally I’d say you could divide it into three different buckets for every Creator on YouTube, so the first bucket is just the ads that you see that are built into YouTube. So this is one of YouTube’s biggest advantages over every other video platform, but the ads that show up alongside a video you might watch are paid for so let’s say Clorox wants to come along and put their ad alongside a YouTube video.
They will pay YouTube to put it there and YouTube will split that payment with the uploader of the video, that’s kind of basically how it works and, if you’re a tech company specifically, you can pay a little more to just be alongside Tech, videos and Tech channels And there’s a whole Google AdSense program for how this works, but that’s the basics of it and that’s a huge part of YouTube’s revenue and YouTube’s business model. So in the second bucket is creators can sell ads themselves, and so they can sell more specific ads and read them inside of their own videos a lot of times. This is better integrated and these work better and more tailored to specific audiences and can have better analytics and there’s all sorts of advantages and that’s why they often cost more. But that’s number two is creators doing that sale themselves, but then number three outside of ads is creators can sell things they have a direct relationship with their audience and so products or things that are not just free content, which is what we make on YouTube, can Be additional sources of revenue for a Creator So Paid content, for example on only fans or patreon.
I don’t do those, but you know they’re available and then you can do products things like icons, things like lttstore.com or a beast Burger. There’S plenty of great examples of this and it’s definitely just the beginning, so I won’t even get into all the taxes and insurance and payroll and all the the super fun stuff. But fundamentally we make free content that is supported in various ways, either by ads or by the audience directly. I see I see okay, so so companies you will just send you stuff.
Is that right? So, yes, honestly, it’s a pretty structured relationship now in 2021, it hasn’t always been this way, but now in Tech YouTube or with tech, video creators, we’re often basically treated essentially the same way as Tech journalists have been so when a new piece of technology some product Is coming out, for example, the company that makes it, of course they want as many eyeballs on it as possible, but they’ll send it out to Tech media, which includes video creators on YouTube a little bit early just so they can test it out and use it. Now there is a risk to this because hey if the product turns out to be not very good, then there will be a lot of negative things said about it right when it comes out, but generally this is good for the company. If it’s a good product, because then you get a nice wave of positive coverage right at the Embargo, yeah, okay, that makes perfect sense. But that word: what is an embargo? Okay? So if you’ve paid any attention to Tech news for any length of time, you’ve probably noticed every once in a while. If it will be a moment a certain time when a bunch of things all get released at once about the same device when, like all of the reviews or all the unboxings, for something drop at the same time and every time there’s a bunch of comments about It like thinking was this orchestrated. How did you plan this? Is this a coincidence so to try to keep it simple uh when we test something early before it’s been revealed to the world, we all have to sign a document that says that when we’re testing it, we will also keep it a secret so that we don’t Reveal it to the world before the company does, and so we’re allowed to do all our testing and use it and figure out what’s good and bad about it, but this document has a date and a time when it expires.
That’S when we’re also allowed to say what we found and our thoughts, and so naturally, if you want to be in that first wave of coverage, you’re publishing your stuff right at the beginning. That’S when people will search for it and we’ll view it, but the document itself is called an NDA, a non-disclosure agreement and generally that moment, when the door is open, when we’re allowed to talk about our experience is an embargo. There’S lots of them so do get to keep all that stuff.
So sometimes, yes, sometimes no like it depends on the company and like what the thing is like I’ve reviewed several cars here on the channel in the past. Of course, it doesn’t make sense for cars to just be sitting around here. So of course, they’ll go back to the company and they’ll move them on to the next reviewer who can use it, but sometimes they do sometimes they do sit around here. It is useful to have things, maybe one or two generations older, to physically compare them when we’re doing our testing, but generally yeah, we uh, we find a good use for stuff and if your next question was well, can I have one of the things uh? We don’t really just give them away, so we make good use of it. Also. We do often end up buying the thing after the review process, so we get the thing we review it. We send it back and then we buy one, which means we can compare it later when the next gen comes out.
So, okay, I got a question: how do you decide what to make a video about, so this is different for every single creator for sure, like I kind of find it’s like asking a basketball player, how he chooses what shot to take, you know you’ve got your Go-To’S you got your go-to’s, but you’re definitely always probing for the best available options. Now the thing about being a tech Channel is, we have a pretty big Advantage, which is we make videos about products, and so the subject of the video is the product. So it’s not really on me to be interesting, like it’s a bonus if the the host of the tech video is interesting, but it’s really on the tech industry to keep making the most interesting compelling new stuff.
That’S their advantage. They’Ve got to make a great new folding phone electric car motors gadgets. There’S kind of there’s stuff happening all the time, and so I can point a camera at it and if we get good at that, then we’re doing our job honestly.
Sometimes the biggest challenge isn’t coming up with the video to make, but actually making the video itself a lot of people watch a 12 minute video and think well, how long could that have taken to make 12 minutes like people really think that, but that you know There’S a process of writing and research and testing before shooting before editing, and it can often take days sometimes weeks for videos and so yeah. It does take quite a bit of time. There’S lots of videos I’d like to do but we’re working on other stuff. So that’s I mean how do you learn to do this? Do you go to school for this? So with most people I know no, they didn’t go to school for it.
Now today you know in 2021 there are some video production classes. There are some social media classes, there are some entrepreneurship and and business classes, and I’m sure you could combine them all in just the right way to make a sort of creative major, but generally from what I’ve seen uh yeah. Most of it is self-taught closest thing. I can think of actually is we actually made a skillshare course that goes over the creation of one of these MKBHD videos, of one of these reviews from scratch from the pre-production and coming up with ideas to actually shooting it and editing it I’ll leave a link Below, if you want to check it out, but yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised if in the next couple years – or maybe this already exists, if there is like you know – YouTube creation as a major in college that that might be a thing someday.
If it isn’t already be pretty sick actually, so that’s a that sounds like a fun job, but are you? Are you gon na do this forever until you’re old, you’re gon na do this for a long time? I think that’s a hard question, probably for anybody to answer, but I do know they say if you love what you do you never work a day in your life partially true uh. It’S definitely still work, but I’d like to do this as long as I enjoy it as long as it’s fun, I might have already heard that Creator. Burnout is a real thing, very real, don’t get me wrong. Um, like I said, I feel fortunate that the thing that is the subject of my videos is its own thing.
It’S Tech and I’m interested in that, but yeah, there’s uh. If you get tired of regular job, you can kind of keep going, but if you’re an independent Creator – and you run out of ideas or you – you have this writer’s block or or creative burnout, it can feel like. Oh, if I step off the path, how do I get back on so it is a. It is a particular concern 2021, but as long as I’m having fun, I’m gon na keep doing it. I think, if there’s a day that I ever I’m not having fun making Tech videos, something went very wrong. You know what that sounds like a lot of fun.
That sounds fun good. I want to do that. Could I do that? I want to do that.
You know what absolutely yes, yes, anyone! Yes, you can be a YouTuber today. I actually read that uh the number one new job, the number one job. A lot of young people want today, isn’t astronaut it isn’t pro athlete it is an actor or policeman anymore.
It’S YouTuber, which is crazy to me because in 2009 you know, starting this literally zero people had this as a job. Nobody was making a living making videos on the internet, but here’s what I’ll say turning YouTube into a job is kind of like sports kind of like basketball, take basketball, for example. Right.
It’S never been easier to play basketball to pick up basketball for the first time. All you need is a ball and a hoop. Basically, and you can go play you can play in a park you can play in your backyard. You can play in a league in a gym somewhere, but that’s not doing it as a job, and it’s the same. It feels the same as with any creative Endeavor, but especially with making videos and putting them on YouTube.
It’S never been easier to grab a camera, the one you have on your smartphone to start making shooting videos, editing videos all of that. The barrier for entry has never been lower, but like basketball, there’s a very small number of people relatively that have combined luck and timing and, of course, hard work and dedication and skill to be able to turn it into their job and doing it for a living. But it’s it feels almost like, like two different categories of the same activity, so my advice for people asking is always if you want to start doing YouTube uh. Imagine it like basketball in the park like if you could have fun doing that every day and never making a dime off of it.
You’Re gon na have a great time it’s fun, but I wouldn’t set that expectation of turning that into a job. There’S a lot more that comes with actually deciding you want to be a YouTuber instead of just uh signing up and getting right going from the from the get-go. So something to keep in mind. Oh yeah, you know what I did see. I saw your video about the this S21, but okay. What do you really think about it? It’S actually real I’ve.
Had people literally come up to me and say they’ve watched a video and want to know what I think of the thing. But that’s the thing. That’S the review, that’s I did that for you.
I made that so you could know what I thought of the thing now, if you’re ever curious about the nuances or want to dig into the details of how coverage works or what’s what’s paid versus what isn’t paid on this channel uh recommend this video. You can check out that I made specifically about that, but yeah, that’s it. That’S that’s pretty much the top 10 questions that I get about being a YouTuber, and now this is the video I’m going to send to people who ask me those questions so that they can get all the information in one place.
Maybe you’ll send it to them too thanks for watching catch, you guys in the next one. What are you going to the city for uh work for work? Ah, of course yeah. What do you do for work? I do I do video production, I’m a cameraman.
I do news radio .