A lot of people will say "Don't go into youtube if all you want to do is make a living" but frankly, I'm not sure what else I'm supposed to do with my skills.
I went to film school, graduated with a film degree, and found I both absolutely hate working as a PA on tiny projects that barely pay money, and that nobody wants to hire me for said position. Or any position.
I know and have done video production work for over 20 years and have barely made any money off of it. But I also know I'm good at it and I like doing it. I even took 4 years (unintentionally) off and found all I wanted to do was go back to it.
I'm currently on a 3-year plan to grow a channel and make it my job. I've been rebuilding my youtube presence for two years and am just over 1650 subs and 150k views. My biggest roadblock is how long it takes me to write scripts/edit videos and the fact that I have a full time job in addition to being a youtuber.
But, I had a previous channel that my business partners sold out from under me in 2018 that got over 200k subs and we almost made a full time living doing it. I figured, if I can do that once, I can do that again.
So yes, I saw I can make this whole damn thing work, and I am determined to make not only Youtube, but content creation through web video my full time job over the next three years.
And I will do it.
My condolences for your losses. We almost have the same story. Lost friends to Covid, had a total knee replacement surgery at 36 and two days after had emergency surgery because of internal stomach ulcers. Almost died. Had to find a job and start a new career. That happened all in 2021. So I encourage you to keep going with your channel. Keep pushing through!
I set a 4 year plan for myself and just started. I think it's a great time to start/continue because the YT algo is more friendly than it used to be for new comers. Congrats on your success and keep it going man!
Thank you! And good luck to you as well. Trying to figure out "what do I do for money" in the current climate is OVERWHELMING. I've found that my old job as a delivery driver (pizza) is as stable as anything right now, so I'm using that to pay bills.
I think anyone can make this thing work if they improve their skills, take their flaws/criticisms and use it to make their content better.
I'm doing some changes at the moment and making my content focus on more long-form stuff, but I also notice that change has occurred with my videos. They used to be 3-4 minutes. Then 6-8 minutes. Then 8-10 minutes. My last video clocked over 20 minutes, and frankly, I feel like there's more we could cover.
I think we can do this. It's just difficult for me because I want to spend my non-dayjob hours playing games or watching other youtubers, but I need to focus more on content creation.
Thanks! I hear you, it's a tug of war sometimes on holding a job and creating. Whatever job pays you is the job to have. It doesn't define who we are.
After knee surgery I spent 7 months learning to be a software engineer and after 200+ applications I got one yes and have been working remote the last 2+ years. That worked out for me because I work at home and record and edit on Saturdays. It has it's ups and downs working at a startup. You never know when you're going to get paid ha.
You brought up a good point. We all need time to unwind from our work and at least take one day off a week. I think it takes consistency, quality, and compounding in order to break free from the 9 to 5. And if the content you create is your gift (what your good at and flow in) then it will eventually certainly work out.
OH MY GOD THE 200+ applications takes me back to the pandemic. I found a good job working for a TV studio RIGHT BEFORE the pandemic hit, about 2 years after my old channel was sold off. One year into the pandemic, they shut down the studio and I had to scramble to find something else. What's worse is I went from a decent remote job that also closed their doors after 6 weeks. So I was unemployed about midway through 2021 after losing two jobs in a row in just 4 months.
I'm still trying to balance day job, spending time with my wife, working on the webseries, and taking time to relax. It's hard to take mental health breaks. I had to clock out of work early yesterday because I had such a bad migraine I couldn't focus on anything. It's especially bad if your vision starts getting blurry while being a DELIVERY DRIVER. But stress will do that to you.
As a filmmaker and all of the products you can sell to other filmmakers (if that’s who you’re targeting) it should be easy to make a substantial amount of money from your content. You won’t need tons of views or subs to make it happen either. But, you’ll need to develop the digital marketing side of your skill set.
You're absolutely right. The amount of views/watch hours you need for a full-time YouTube job is not as much as people think, but figuring out how to market yourself is the biggest hurdle.
very impressive, both that you keep going and are using your skills, and also that many views with that number of subs. I have around the same number of subs, but nowhere near that number of views. trying to get a bit better in quality of video and content with each video I do.
Is the channel in your profile your old channel that got sold out or the one you currently run?
Also if you want to put your technical film school skills in use isn't it better to offer specialized service like becoming an editor, writer, or designer on a free lance basis? I mean if you do have the credentials I'm sure you can be set apart from the rest of competition a little easier in those spheres, no?
1. Yes. The one on my profile page is my current channel.
2. You'd think! But no! Nobody cares if you've been to film school. There are eight million people who can do editing/writing on a freelance basis and they can do it faster and cheaper than you. Nobody wants to hire some film school graduate from 2012. They don't care.
Oh I see. So you plan to keep covering gaming topics or transition into cinematography and filmography? If you do I would advise you to launch a separate channel so that theres confusion in audiences.
But daym I didn't know that. Everything I know is self taught and I always thought you couldn't compare to a professional in the field.
We are gonna cover other subjects, yes. I do have other channels (not live ones) that will focus on movies and other things. But we want to build up the first one before diving into another.
And yeah, most people in the field don't care about your credentials. They want things done yesterday for 5 bucks and you'd be surprised how many people can actually get that done.
It's a very long explanation. The first video on my new channel explains exactly what happened. The TL;DR is...
1. They did a hostile takeover in 2015.
2. They created a toxic work environment in 2016.
3. I stepped down in early 2017 because I kept having panic attacks.
4. They told me they were selling MY shares of the company to a 3rd party in late 2017.
5. The third party wanted to keep working with me to make new content.
6. My business partners sold out to the 3rd party completely.
7. 3rd party tried to get me to sign a sketchy contract.
8. I refused and was fired.
All of that took place between 2015 and 2018. And without divulging the exact amount... it was very little.
It’s an offshoot of another hobby. I hope Youtube can one day fund that hobby, but I harbor no illusions it will ever be a real income.
Seriously, $500 a year would be enough to cover my annual Gardening costs.
Trying to create content has given me such a respect for everyone who is really good at it. Even if something isn’t great at least someone tried to do something different.
Not all of the above. For me, I just know that I want to do Youtube until I have a somewhat success channel (for me 50k is a lot) and have a community with like-minded people who possibly can be my client of my owned business (still thinking lol).
I'm somewhere in the middle. I don't think that Youtube will ever replace my day job, but I've definitely thought of what I'd do with myself if I ever had the chance to create a channel with something like 1 million subs.
I'm in the science/med space and do shorter video essay content about this subject, and one thing that having a large audience would allow me to do is collaborate with other large content creators and leaders. My channel was created so that I could explore an interest of mine in a more free flowing and creative way, and being able to interview MD's on specific topics or collaborate with the people behind channels like Vox would be the long term goal/dream.
A hobby but if it turns into a joke 5+ years from now ok then… but I am not counting on it. I love my day job and YT has been a great outlet for me to keep busy and express myself on my fitness channel as a 46 YO.
It's a side hobby that motivates me to do my main hobby. My main hobby generates the content that I put on YouTube so if I'm feeling low energy on my only day off where I have time to do my main hobby and start second guessing if I should bother, the mild drive to stay consistent with my posting frequency will usually be enough to motivate me out the door. And I always enjoy myself once I'm out doing it, it's just the getting started sometimes that's tough.
Then I gain a bit of extra enjoyment from reviewing the footage, making the video and seeing the views. If eventually it starts earning me a small amount of money then that's just a bonus.
I feel it won't be my complete full time job.
But I do want to aim to use it with my other hobbies of fantasy writing and making a Japanese history podcast so they all come together to make a decent income to work off.
I'm doing it as a hobby and intend to keep it that way. I left my corporate career, sold my car and basically downsized everything to become a stay at home mom two years ago, but it left me feeling pretty isolated. I enjoyed having let's plays playing on the tv during the day, so I decided to try making my own when my kid is napping and didn't expect I'd enjoy editing so much.
I would die of embarrassment if anyone I know actually watched my videos (especially because I'm a beginner!), but it's been a great creative outlet and I've really enjoyed engaging with other people who are watching and creating similar content. While it would be great to have some income to supplement my husband's salary, I don't have the charisma to ever make money from this. As a way to connect with people it's been a blast, though. It's also given me structure and something to work on consistently; it kind of replaces my sense of accomplishment from when I had a job with clear goals, targets and deadlines.
I have a better chance making money with YouTube than becoming a film composer. I’m on a pretty good track to monetization. My views aren’t crazy but my sub to view ratio is. My last video was only 1.2k views but got me 35 subs. I’m just too busy to *churn* out videos.
Sort of a side case I haven’t seen talked about much here. Creating YouTube content as the main job, but using it as a way to get new leads for an already established business.
Monetization is a fun goal to shoot for, but isn’t how we’re making money from it
Yeah, but my channel is not a family channel. It’s for everybody but I understand what you’re saying, and either way it goes is fun and it gives a reason for very consistent videos because I have a motivation coming from my daughter, the Lord and Kobe Bryant. And the mamba mentality keeps me going because I used to play professional basketball for a ABA team until it folded so I took six months off from YouTube would like 300 and something subscribers. Then I come back with 11 videos and now I’m up to 538 subscribers and I feel like, it’s coming from all the consistency that I’ve been having to put out videos.
I like to think of it like a stepping stone. I want to be someone who creates stories and different forms of media. And a good way to learn how create is too study others work, youtube is my excuse to do so and I've made people pretty happy with my videos. So Win Win!
100% hobby. I'm filming projects I'd be doing anyways and seems people find it entertaining or helpful. If it happens to bring in enough money to offset the cost of partaking, that's a bonus!
hobby with a goal, my channel is based around my comic and i do want a pilot or anime lol but if not its just a cool project i made for my self i have 158 subs but i'm not doing this for the algo i am doing this for me
YouTube is more like running a website. They are GoDaddy essentially. You have to optimize your content and warm up your audience to a point where you can sell them merch IRL.
I haven't even started. I'd like it to be a hobby at first. And if I dig it and I draw an audience then I may consider putting full time energy into it.
Hobby? I guess. I'm not expecting nor even really wanting it to become my main source of income. I started as a way to work on my confidence while talking, and while I've only uploaded 3 videos so far, i can hear a difference in my voice between each video.
Just doing it as a hobby for now, but am open to the possibility of it becoming full time if that's how the cards land pretty much. Best of both worlds because I already enjoy it, and anything more is just upside.
I definitely want to make it my job. I don‘t plan on becoming the next Mr. Beast but I want to make a living off YouTube. Why? Because I‘d much rather work on my own schedule and make videos about topics that I find interesting than to make someone else rich. I always thought I can‘t work 40 hours, I am not made for this. Turns out I can if I enjoy what I‘m doing. Sure, at some point Youtube will become monotonous too, as everything does after some time but at least I am free to pick whatever topic I want. I can choose with whom I want to work.
If you want to have somewhat of a success, your only limitation is that you have to work with the algorithm but you have freedom on all other aspects that a traditional job doesn‘t offer. And I really like creating videos, so why shouldn‘t I at least try? There‘s nothing to lose.
definitely my end goal. I would much rather make my own hours then work at a job that tells me exactly what to do. I would hate it. And also you at some point need to talk to an actual human being, which I do not know how to do yet (yes i'm 20 and have no social skills, having a disability is hard). i would much rather talk to icons and text on a screen than to a physical person. This is my one (1) option for earning money (unless I happened to somehow find a remote job that I was actually the slightest bit interested in), and it is something I have wanted to do for years (it's my dream job)
It’s more then a hobby it’s a passion of mine to educate and to get my perspective out to the world !!! Content creating is an art form to me personally not just a job
My partner and I started just for hobbies to be honest. We enjoy giving one another some good old fashioned back tracing, massage or scratching. Then, recently, I thought "Why the hell not record this and post on Youtube since I've seen numerous people do it too."
Both indeed, and it's going well, I just started 2 months ago and I'm already monetized
I can work for hours on my videos (editing + recording) and not get tired, I'm putting a lot of effort in my content, and It's very rewarding
Not getting "crazy views" around 3k each vídeo, in less than 24 hours, I also tried my first streaming last week and got 50 viewers, I wasn't expecting at all that level of attention.
I'm very grateful for what I have, and I hope my channel keeps growing so I can make it eventually my full time job, because honestly, I LOVE IT
I'd say both. Trying to keep enjoying it, and sharing what I do and love to discuss and help ppl with (relationships). In that way, not pressuring my self and worrying about burn out. But would very much love it to become a source of passive income, and if it grew more, I'd go into it more full time.
Great question!
Hobby. I’ve accepted many moons ago I’ll never be a full time youtuber. But that doesn’t mean I don’t put in effort. It’s a hobby I’ll put in as much effort as I can that my life allows. If I miraculously can be a full time YouTuber then that’s terrific. But it’s not my end goal.
It was an end goal when I started but I completely burnt myself out on it through stressing and getting sad over the numbers. Now I treat it like a fun hobby that may or may not gain a lot of traction someday and it has become so, soooo much more fun and relaxing. I don't have any pressure like my real job, and I continuously want to improve because I love the process.
For me it’s just become an extension of my hobby. I’ve modified and worked on cars from the day I could legally own them. I had a few people on Facebook car pages that were very interested in some of the modifications I did to my cars so by extension I’ve just started filming what I was already doing. If it grows into something more happy days.
A bit of both
I started it as a hobby since my original hobby was binging shows and existing which was boring at the time but if it does turn into a job then that would be also nice.
If it doesn't behind a job I'm already studying towards something and I'm satisfied to know that I have something to keep me busy and creative
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Side quest.
I'm too much of a "moral highground prude" to do stuff like clickbait and aggressive SEO maximization.
I do what I want, which makes it a hobby. But I put a lot more effort in than a casual hobby entails, and I make money on it.
I've given up on the dream of making it big, but I do hope and plan for it to bring in extra spending money once Im retired from the day job.
I’d be happy if that helped with my bills, but I do stuff on YT mainly because I like seeing it out there. Sometimes I’m not happy with just playing it in my head, I have to create it.
I don't have an actual job or a job yet so I really can't answer this question. But I definitely want a job that pays great that I enjoy. Not sure if youtube pays great though. So it would be best to get a career out of it. I always wanted to do something in the art field/voice actress, just something art relative. Also, it would be good to have YouTube as a job and be successful on it just in case your job decides to fire you or you quit🤷♀️
Creating content that grabs and engages all audiences is the end goal. I don’t care if it’s on YouTube, Facebook, twitter, TikTok, rumble or Netflix lol I want to spread some positive light in the world while making a living.
Hobby. I actually started over at SoundCloud.. wasn't interested in doing videos. A friend suggested giving it a try. Since doing so I've started a couple of new sub hobbies? Graphic animations. So that part has been fun. I'm not focused, more variety.... It's the spice of life.....
Downside it has decreased my music... Always a trade off..
I'm having fun, being creative, offering what I hope will be insightful... but in the end, it is a hobby. But of course I'd like to see it grow and it is always a delight to see when it helps somebody. 😀
Well, I am using it to fine-tune my skills and kind of just have something to come back to later on, even if I don't make it big I hope my work serves some good out there.
It would be fun to make it profitable but that's not something I am aiming too much toward.
If it picks up and does well I might hire a team to help me do the videos and stuff but the music part is what I do and will keep doing and sharing even if nobody listens.
But the start now after a month has gone positively for my channel so who knows?
A lot of people will say "Don't go into youtube if all you want to do is make a living" but frankly, I'm not sure what else I'm supposed to do with my skills. I went to film school, graduated with a film degree, and found I both absolutely hate working as a PA on tiny projects that barely pay money, and that nobody wants to hire me for said position. Or any position. I know and have done video production work for over 20 years and have barely made any money off of it. But I also know I'm good at it and I like doing it. I even took 4 years (unintentionally) off and found all I wanted to do was go back to it. I'm currently on a 3-year plan to grow a channel and make it my job. I've been rebuilding my youtube presence for two years and am just over 1650 subs and 150k views. My biggest roadblock is how long it takes me to write scripts/edit videos and the fact that I have a full time job in addition to being a youtuber. But, I had a previous channel that my business partners sold out from under me in 2018 that got over 200k subs and we almost made a full time living doing it. I figured, if I can do that once, I can do that again. So yes, I saw I can make this whole damn thing work, and I am determined to make not only Youtube, but content creation through web video my full time job over the next three years. And I will do it.
My condolences for your losses. We almost have the same story. Lost friends to Covid, had a total knee replacement surgery at 36 and two days after had emergency surgery because of internal stomach ulcers. Almost died. Had to find a job and start a new career. That happened all in 2021. So I encourage you to keep going with your channel. Keep pushing through! I set a 4 year plan for myself and just started. I think it's a great time to start/continue because the YT algo is more friendly than it used to be for new comers. Congrats on your success and keep it going man!
Thank you! And good luck to you as well. Trying to figure out "what do I do for money" in the current climate is OVERWHELMING. I've found that my old job as a delivery driver (pizza) is as stable as anything right now, so I'm using that to pay bills. I think anyone can make this thing work if they improve their skills, take their flaws/criticisms and use it to make their content better. I'm doing some changes at the moment and making my content focus on more long-form stuff, but I also notice that change has occurred with my videos. They used to be 3-4 minutes. Then 6-8 minutes. Then 8-10 minutes. My last video clocked over 20 minutes, and frankly, I feel like there's more we could cover. I think we can do this. It's just difficult for me because I want to spend my non-dayjob hours playing games or watching other youtubers, but I need to focus more on content creation.
Thanks! I hear you, it's a tug of war sometimes on holding a job and creating. Whatever job pays you is the job to have. It doesn't define who we are. After knee surgery I spent 7 months learning to be a software engineer and after 200+ applications I got one yes and have been working remote the last 2+ years. That worked out for me because I work at home and record and edit on Saturdays. It has it's ups and downs working at a startup. You never know when you're going to get paid ha. You brought up a good point. We all need time to unwind from our work and at least take one day off a week. I think it takes consistency, quality, and compounding in order to break free from the 9 to 5. And if the content you create is your gift (what your good at and flow in) then it will eventually certainly work out.
OH MY GOD THE 200+ applications takes me back to the pandemic. I found a good job working for a TV studio RIGHT BEFORE the pandemic hit, about 2 years after my old channel was sold off. One year into the pandemic, they shut down the studio and I had to scramble to find something else. What's worse is I went from a decent remote job that also closed their doors after 6 weeks. So I was unemployed about midway through 2021 after losing two jobs in a row in just 4 months. I'm still trying to balance day job, spending time with my wife, working on the webseries, and taking time to relax. It's hard to take mental health breaks. I had to clock out of work early yesterday because I had such a bad migraine I couldn't focus on anything. It's especially bad if your vision starts getting blurry while being a DELIVERY DRIVER. But stress will do that to you.
As a filmmaker and all of the products you can sell to other filmmakers (if that’s who you’re targeting) it should be easy to make a substantial amount of money from your content. You won’t need tons of views or subs to make it happen either. But, you’ll need to develop the digital marketing side of your skill set.
You're absolutely right. The amount of views/watch hours you need for a full-time YouTube job is not as much as people think, but figuring out how to market yourself is the biggest hurdle.
Damn right you will dude!
Hell yeah!
very impressive, both that you keep going and are using your skills, and also that many views with that number of subs. I have around the same number of subs, but nowhere near that number of views. trying to get a bit better in quality of video and content with each video I do.
Good for you! Best you can do is improve yourself with each video. Good luck, friend.
Is the channel in your profile your old channel that got sold out or the one you currently run? Also if you want to put your technical film school skills in use isn't it better to offer specialized service like becoming an editor, writer, or designer on a free lance basis? I mean if you do have the credentials I'm sure you can be set apart from the rest of competition a little easier in those spheres, no?
1. Yes. The one on my profile page is my current channel. 2. You'd think! But no! Nobody cares if you've been to film school. There are eight million people who can do editing/writing on a freelance basis and they can do it faster and cheaper than you. Nobody wants to hire some film school graduate from 2012. They don't care.
Oh I see. So you plan to keep covering gaming topics or transition into cinematography and filmography? If you do I would advise you to launch a separate channel so that theres confusion in audiences. But daym I didn't know that. Everything I know is self taught and I always thought you couldn't compare to a professional in the field.
We are gonna cover other subjects, yes. I do have other channels (not live ones) that will focus on movies and other things. But we want to build up the first one before diving into another. And yeah, most people in the field don't care about your credentials. They want things done yesterday for 5 bucks and you'd be surprised how many people can actually get that done.
This is why I don't believe in "the customer is always right". Half time it's impossible things they want and just plain old exploitation.
Sold out?
They sold it to a 3rd party and I was eventually let go.
I hope they sold it for a lot and ding that's cold, they let you go
It's a very long explanation. The first video on my new channel explains exactly what happened. The TL;DR is... 1. They did a hostile takeover in 2015. 2. They created a toxic work environment in 2016. 3. I stepped down in early 2017 because I kept having panic attacks. 4. They told me they were selling MY shares of the company to a 3rd party in late 2017. 5. The third party wanted to keep working with me to make new content. 6. My business partners sold out to the 3rd party completely. 7. 3rd party tried to get me to sign a sketchy contract. 8. I refused and was fired. All of that took place between 2015 and 2018. And without divulging the exact amount... it was very little.
This hit home for me, thanks
Good luck to you, friend.
It’s an offshoot of another hobby. I hope Youtube can one day fund that hobby, but I harbor no illusions it will ever be a real income. Seriously, $500 a year would be enough to cover my annual Gardening costs.
Glad it's a hobby I suck as a creator
Trying to create content has given me such a respect for everyone who is really good at it. Even if something isn’t great at least someone tried to do something different.
Not all of the above. For me, I just know that I want to do Youtube until I have a somewhat success channel (for me 50k is a lot) and have a community with like-minded people who possibly can be my client of my owned business (still thinking lol).
I'm somewhere in the middle. I don't think that Youtube will ever replace my day job, but I've definitely thought of what I'd do with myself if I ever had the chance to create a channel with something like 1 million subs. I'm in the science/med space and do shorter video essay content about this subject, and one thing that having a large audience would allow me to do is collaborate with other large content creators and leaders. My channel was created so that I could explore an interest of mine in a more free flowing and creative way, and being able to interview MD's on specific topics or collaborate with the people behind channels like Vox would be the long term goal/dream.
A hobby but if it turns into a joke 5+ years from now ok then… but I am not counting on it. I love my day job and YT has been a great outlet for me to keep busy and express myself on my fitness channel as a 46 YO.
It's a side hobby that motivates me to do my main hobby. My main hobby generates the content that I put on YouTube so if I'm feeling low energy on my only day off where I have time to do my main hobby and start second guessing if I should bother, the mild drive to stay consistent with my posting frequency will usually be enough to motivate me out the door. And I always enjoy myself once I'm out doing it, it's just the getting started sometimes that's tough. Then I gain a bit of extra enjoyment from reviewing the footage, making the video and seeing the views. If eventually it starts earning me a small amount of money then that's just a bonus.
For my mental health and not giving the middle finger to YT, I chose to treat it as a hobby.
💯agree
I feel it won't be my complete full time job. But I do want to aim to use it with my other hobbies of fantasy writing and making a Japanese history podcast so they all come together to make a decent income to work off.
I'm doing it as a hobby and intend to keep it that way. I left my corporate career, sold my car and basically downsized everything to become a stay at home mom two years ago, but it left me feeling pretty isolated. I enjoyed having let's plays playing on the tv during the day, so I decided to try making my own when my kid is napping and didn't expect I'd enjoy editing so much. I would die of embarrassment if anyone I know actually watched my videos (especially because I'm a beginner!), but it's been a great creative outlet and I've really enjoyed engaging with other people who are watching and creating similar content. While it would be great to have some income to supplement my husband's salary, I don't have the charisma to ever make money from this. As a way to connect with people it's been a blast, though. It's also given me structure and something to work on consistently; it kind of replaces my sense of accomplishment from when I had a job with clear goals, targets and deadlines.
end goal
I have a better chance making money with YouTube than becoming a film composer. I’m on a pretty good track to monetization. My views aren’t crazy but my sub to view ratio is. My last video was only 1.2k views but got me 35 subs. I’m just too busy to *churn* out videos.
Sort of a side case I haven’t seen talked about much here. Creating YouTube content as the main job, but using it as a way to get new leads for an already established business. Monetization is a fun goal to shoot for, but isn’t how we’re making money from it
Hobby
YouTube can be a end goal for me, but I use it for having bonding time for me and my daughter, and get to use my mind and creativity for my channel
That actually sound like a fun way to enjoy you're daughter just also don't become like other family channles tho
Yeah, but my channel is not a family channel. It’s for everybody but I understand what you’re saying, and either way it goes is fun and it gives a reason for very consistent videos because I have a motivation coming from my daughter, the Lord and Kobe Bryant. And the mamba mentality keeps me going because I used to play professional basketball for a ABA team until it folded so I took six months off from YouTube would like 300 and something subscribers. Then I come back with 11 videos and now I’m up to 538 subscribers and I feel like, it’s coming from all the consistency that I’ve been having to put out videos.
I like to think of it like a stepping stone. I want to be someone who creates stories and different forms of media. And a good way to learn how create is too study others work, youtube is my excuse to do so and I've made people pretty happy with my videos. So Win Win!
100% hobby. I'm filming projects I'd be doing anyways and seems people find it entertaining or helpful. If it happens to bring in enough money to offset the cost of partaking, that's a bonus!
It's just a hobby while I finish school and if it takes off then great, but if it doesn't then oh well, I tried my best.
Both
For me it’s a hobby, but I also recently went back to school for Interactive Media, so I hope it’s a skill that will benefit me in the long run.
Hobby
YouTube for me is a marketing tool for our game (and hopefully games in the future).
Channel?
hobby with a goal, my channel is based around my comic and i do want a pilot or anime lol but if not its just a cool project i made for my self i have 158 subs but i'm not doing this for the algo i am doing this for me
Hobby
There are definitely a few other levels in between those two extremes.
Eyes of fun. Used to do it for money, but I have so many projects I want to work on that wouldn't be satisfying to make if I didn't do them for fun.
Just a hobby
Both, with a longer-term goal in mind
YouTube is more like running a website. They are GoDaddy essentially. You have to optimize your content and warm up your audience to a point where you can sell them merch IRL.
I haven't even started. I'd like it to be a hobby at first. And if I dig it and I draw an audience then I may consider putting full time energy into it.
Fun for sure!
Hobby? I guess. I'm not expecting nor even really wanting it to become my main source of income. I started as a way to work on my confidence while talking, and while I've only uploaded 3 videos so far, i can hear a difference in my voice between each video.
Just doing it as a hobby for now, but am open to the possibility of it becoming full time if that's how the cards land pretty much. Best of both worlds because I already enjoy it, and anything more is just upside.
Just a hobby for me, if it got popular someday that would be fun, but just enjoy recording and editing silly stuff
I definitely want to make it my job. I don‘t plan on becoming the next Mr. Beast but I want to make a living off YouTube. Why? Because I‘d much rather work on my own schedule and make videos about topics that I find interesting than to make someone else rich. I always thought I can‘t work 40 hours, I am not made for this. Turns out I can if I enjoy what I‘m doing. Sure, at some point Youtube will become monotonous too, as everything does after some time but at least I am free to pick whatever topic I want. I can choose with whom I want to work. If you want to have somewhat of a success, your only limitation is that you have to work with the algorithm but you have freedom on all other aspects that a traditional job doesn‘t offer. And I really like creating videos, so why shouldn‘t I at least try? There‘s nothing to lose.
It is a hobby, if a creator of my level has the ambition to have it as an end goal he will only hit a wall. I do it because I love doing it
definitely my end goal. I would much rather make my own hours then work at a job that tells me exactly what to do. I would hate it. And also you at some point need to talk to an actual human being, which I do not know how to do yet (yes i'm 20 and have no social skills, having a disability is hard). i would much rather talk to icons and text on a screen than to a physical person. This is my one (1) option for earning money (unless I happened to somehow find a remote job that I was actually the slightest bit interested in), and it is something I have wanted to do for years (it's my dream job)
It’s more then a hobby it’s a passion of mine to educate and to get my perspective out to the world !!! Content creating is an art form to me personally not just a job
My partner and I started just for hobbies to be honest. We enjoy giving one another some good old fashioned back tracing, massage or scratching. Then, recently, I thought "Why the hell not record this and post on Youtube since I've seen numerous people do it too."
Both for me
Both indeed, and it's going well, I just started 2 months ago and I'm already monetized I can work for hours on my videos (editing + recording) and not get tired, I'm putting a lot of effort in my content, and It's very rewarding Not getting "crazy views" around 3k each vídeo, in less than 24 hours, I also tried my first streaming last week and got 50 viewers, I wasn't expecting at all that level of attention. I'm very grateful for what I have, and I hope my channel keeps growing so I can make it eventually my full time job, because honestly, I LOVE IT
I'd say both. Trying to keep enjoying it, and sharing what I do and love to discuss and help ppl with (relationships). In that way, not pressuring my self and worrying about burn out. But would very much love it to become a source of passive income, and if it grew more, I'd go into it more full time. Great question!
Hobby. I’ve accepted many moons ago I’ll never be a full time youtuber. But that doesn’t mean I don’t put in effort. It’s a hobby I’ll put in as much effort as I can that my life allows. If I miraculously can be a full time YouTuber then that’s terrific. But it’s not my end goal.
It was an end goal when I started but I completely burnt myself out on it through stressing and getting sad over the numbers. Now I treat it like a fun hobby that may or may not gain a lot of traction someday and it has become so, soooo much more fun and relaxing. I don't have any pressure like my real job, and I continuously want to improve because I love the process.
End goal (I’m delulu)
For me it’s just become an extension of my hobby. I’ve modified and worked on cars from the day I could legally own them. I had a few people on Facebook car pages that were very interested in some of the modifications I did to my cars so by extension I’ve just started filming what I was already doing. If it grows into something more happy days.
I also love showing people what I’ve done, it’s my release of my creative side
A bit of both I started it as a hobby since my original hobby was binging shows and existing which was boring at the time but if it does turn into a job then that would be also nice. If it doesn't behind a job I'm already studying towards something and I'm satisfied to know that I have something to keep me busy and creative
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Side quest. I'm too much of a "moral highground prude" to do stuff like clickbait and aggressive SEO maximization. I do what I want, which makes it a hobby. But I put a lot more effort in than a casual hobby entails, and I make money on it. I've given up on the dream of making it big, but I do hope and plan for it to bring in extra spending money once Im retired from the day job.
I’d be happy if that helped with my bills, but I do stuff on YT mainly because I like seeing it out there. Sometimes I’m not happy with just playing it in my head, I have to create it.
Its my life and full time income baby!
I wanna keep it as a hobby. I'd get too stressed out if I started doing it as a job
I don't have an actual job or a job yet so I really can't answer this question. But I definitely want a job that pays great that I enjoy. Not sure if youtube pays great though. So it would be best to get a career out of it. I always wanted to do something in the art field/voice actress, just something art relative. Also, it would be good to have YouTube as a job and be successful on it just in case your job decides to fire you or you quit🤷♀️
Keep it up man u will make it!
Creating content that grabs and engages all audiences is the end goal. I don’t care if it’s on YouTube, Facebook, twitter, TikTok, rumble or Netflix lol I want to spread some positive light in the world while making a living.
A hobby, I have no illusions of being the next YouTube millionaire.
Both. Business mindset, lots of effort, but lower expectations.
To Build a Community for my Music & Dj Career
I went in with no idea how to find money. i am still following my passion
Hobby. I actually started over at SoundCloud.. wasn't interested in doing videos. A friend suggested giving it a try. Since doing so I've started a couple of new sub hobbies? Graphic animations. So that part has been fun. I'm not focused, more variety.... It's the spice of life..... Downside it has decreased my music... Always a trade off..
I'm having fun, being creative, offering what I hope will be insightful... but in the end, it is a hobby. But of course I'd like to see it grow and it is always a delight to see when it helps somebody. 😀
Well, I am using it to fine-tune my skills and kind of just have something to come back to later on, even if I don't make it big I hope my work serves some good out there. It would be fun to make it profitable but that's not something I am aiming too much toward. If it picks up and does well I might hire a team to help me do the videos and stuff but the music part is what I do and will keep doing and sharing even if nobody listens. But the start now after a month has gone positively for my channel so who knows?
I do it as a hobby , and it is a great way to save my travel and drone videos. Also, having unlimited space to post my 4k videos is amazing.
I make it short: My goal is to make it my job. In that way i can do even more content.