Why don't I just grab this right now
because we're about to spill some tea.
Hey guys! (cough) Although this isn't tea. It's coffee.
And we're not going to so much be
dishing dirt as we are providing helpful
and useful information to other creators.
At least that's my hope with this video.
mmmmmm
Traditional media, mainstream media,
I don't know why they're so committed to
trying to convince the world that
this community and the work that we do is so harmful?
But that's for a different video.
In this video I would like to focus on
one thing that mainstream media
likes to "report" on
when it comes to YouTubers and
that is how much money we make.
My reason for making this video is twofold:
one, I just want to open up the
conversation. Even within the YouTube
community, money isn't something that we
really talk about amongst ourselves
and I think that's kind of normal. I don't think a lot
of colleagues at a lot of different jobs
would spend their time comparing how
much money they make. But the difference
between YouTube as a job and most
other jobs is that there are little to no
protections put in place for YouTubers or
online content creators, influencers,
whatever you want to call us. And so
that's my second reason for making this
video. I think this is an important
conversation to have because I think we
all deserve to know our value and a lot
of creators don't. If no one's ever told
you how much you're supposed to ask for
a brand deal, if no one's ever told you
how much is normal for a network to take
if no one's ever told you that Patreon's
a thing, how are you supposed to know?
so that's what i'm here today.
Yes, I am actually going to tell you how much
money do YouTubers make. I'm going to
explain everything that I know from my
own experience to the best of my ability.
Let's go. The first and most basic way
that youtubers make money is through
AdSense, so these are the little ads that pop up
at the bottom of the screen
or the video ads you see playing before the video starts.
Advertisers are paying Google,
Google owns YouTube, to post those ads on
our videos, so Google is then paying us
a share of that revenue, and that's AdSense.
Google, or YouTube, keeps about
fifty-five percent of this revenue. What a creator
actually ends up with at the end of each
month in their pocket is about a dollar per
thousand views. One dollar.
Per thousand.
Sometimes you can make a dollar fifty,
sometimes you can make two dollars,
but usually between a dollar dollar fifty
per thousand views. That's right.
This video this 10,000 views I make ten dollars.
And that's not even taking into
account how much a network might take
if a creator is signed with a network.
Networks take anywhere from ten to thirty
percent of the creators AdSense. And this is american
dollars so however much that translates
to wherever you're from. I just finished filming and I
realized that I totally forgot to
mention something. Taxes!
YouTubers have to pay taxes just like everybody else.
So on top of the share the Google takes,
on top of the share that your network might take,
income tax is also taking another twenty to
twenty-five percent of your total wages.
Which brings me to my next point which
is benefits. Being a YouTuber means that you are
self-employed, which means that you
do not get benefits. You are paying for
your own dental, your own healthcare,
out-of-pocket my friend. Back to the bedroom.
For the majority of creators out there,
AdSense revenue is just not enough to
live on. The place where you actually can make
some money is brand deals.
Brand deals happen in a number of different ways,
but generally it's when a brand pays you
to promote or talk about or show
their product in your video. They are
paying you for access to your audience.
But how much do they pay you? If I'm a
creator, how much should I ask them for?
I don't understand why nobody talks about this,
and that is why I'm going to answer your
question right now.
The general rule of thumb that I follow
is ten cents per view, so that means if you
think your video is going to be viewed by
a thousand people you ask the brand for
a hundred dollars.
This is where, depending on your channel
size, depending on the kind of views that
you get, your paycheck here can vary
drastically. It can be more than ten
cents per view, it can be less than ten
cents per view, it totally depends on the type
of content that you're making for the
brand, for example creating a dedicated
video or a video that's completely
centered around their product, you would
charge more for that or stick more
rigidly to the ten cents per view quote,
and you might be paid less than that for
something like a 30-second plug, you
might accept five to seven cents per view.
If you're watching this as an aspiring creator
or as an aspiring full-time YouTuber,
just please remember that
the most important thing is that you're
only doing brand deals that you actually
believe in. Like I said before, the brand
is paying you for access to your
audience. You and your audience have
built trust -I hope- and brands want in on that,
but in a career like this,
in a relationship like this, I really feel
like your integrity is all you have.
If your audience doesn't trust you or
if you are promoting every brand that comes your way constantly,
your word is going to lose all value.
Believing in the products and
believing in the brands that you're
partnering with is more important than
the money. Just keep that in mind.
A third way that content creators of all
kinds make money is Patreon.
I've talked about Patreon over a thousand times on my channel
because I have a Patreon
-it's linked in the description if you're interested-
anyone who enjoys your content and want to
support it can sign up to be a monthly patron.
They choose how much money they
provide each month, and you provide rewards in exchange.
Next we could talk a little
bit about merch because merch is another
way that creators make money
So this is when YouTubers create their own products
whether it's t-shirts or stickers or tote bags
or cat leashes, I don't know,
and they sell those products.
I can't really speak on exactly how much
money creators would make with something
like that because it's so different for
every creator whether you're doing it
all yourself,
the ordering, the shipping, the designing, the printing,
or if you're going with a
company like Tee-Spring or District Lines.
Also people have to buy the products, so.
That one's totally up in the air,
totally different for each creator.
Sorry I can't be of more help. For me those are
the main things that I do, but after that
there's a whole host of other ways that
creators make money.
These include: live streaming where you
can make money through tips, public
appearances or speaking events -some
creators go on tour-, and then appearing
another productions. A production company or
another youtube channel might pay you to
appear in their videos or to host their
show or something like that. At the end of
the day, there are a hundred ways that
creators make money but those are the basics.
Being a full-time creator is a hussle.
What you guys see is two to four videos a week
for me, which may not seem like a lot, but
you're not seeing all the stuff that's
going on behind the scenes, and this is
the same for every creator. Unless you're
lucky enough to have a
bunch of famous friends, this is not
a job that's handed to you on a silver
platter. And so while I recommend it to
everyone, I think this is the best job in
the world, it does take some grit.
That's all I've got for you today. I really hope
this was helpful. If you have questions
about absolutely anything on this topic,
leave them in the comments down below.
If there are enough or there's enough
interest, I'll make a follow up video to
answer some questions or clarify anything I
might have been super clear on this.
My memory is terrible I have no idea
which cat has been saying goodbye the most.
I think it's Bear? So here's Quitan.
That's it for today's video!
I hope you guys enjoyed it.
Please give it a thumbs up if you appreciate my honesty.
I hope this helped. I love you very much,
and I will see you guys next week. Bye!
(kissing noises)
How much money are you going to pay me for being in my video? Hmm?
Yeah, that's right, I expect you to pay me for the honor of being on my screen!
If you kiss me then you don't owe me anything.
mmmmmm
That's... that's kind of sleazy, I'm not that kind of agent.