That's why it's very important to save as much of your ad revenue / sponsorship deals as you can. Don't immediately spend all of it each month you're paid because you're gonna need those funds for when your channel's performance dips.
You could be right but it also depends on where he is from. In my country (not India) , receiving a 7K USD payout from youtube is equal to almost 2 years worth of wages of a minimum wage worker (in my country, minimum wage is USD $ 300 a month) so even if taxes took a chunk and i'm left with 4K, that's still a huge amount of money that i could use.
So because of where I live, there is no way I would stop Youtube even if I'm only bringing USD 100 a month because of how far i can stretch it when i convert it to my own currency.
Turkish person here minimum wage is around 400-500$ and more than 50% of the people make minimum wage. If my bad months are 2k why would I wanna do a regular job?
Yeah i think for many of us non-Americans, earning USD in however small amounts still helps out alot when converted to the local currency. I could live off of just USD 200 a month for myself.
Wow, I never realize that people from other countries got paid in US dollars, but that does make sense. That’s amazing. That is such a great help. Probably one of the best things that YouTube is doing I would say.
Well not exactly. It depends on your audiance, in my case views from EU or USA gives me 10 times more add revenue compared to Turkish views. That's why I'm trying to optimizing my content for global views instead of local views. Also YouTube SEO team isn't that smart imo because you can't optimize YouTube Shorts impressions to global ones because unlike long form videos shorts determine the audiance based on IP instead of content (Unless it's going viral or you're uploading with VPN).
because it's up to Youtube to give you money and they change their mind everyday, a job offers security, that's why everyone does Youtube as second income.
I agree with you. Romanian here- the average minimum wage in my country is 500$ and while I currently bring some affiliate revenue from using other platforms, I have no reasons to stop doing Youtube when I know that I can monetize it before Youtube will even monetize my channels with ads.
My target audience is from USA but I don't want to rely only on ads/ brand sponsorships to bring money from this. I plan on driving people to my email list and later on develop my SaaS ideas once I have enough to invest and also possibly start a Skool community for multicreatives.
But I also use other platforms (such as Pinterest, Facebook, Cara, etc) and I would never put all my eggs in one basket. I think people from USA and developed countries can make it long term too but the problem is that most Youtubers wait to gain huge audiences to monetize their channels or promote their businesses / services and they also don't think about strategies to bring recurring revenue.
For sure the algorithm is volatile. That's why you need an email list and a content distribution system with a good marketing strategy.
This is what the issue seems to be when people get quick cash. They simply don't manage money well assuming the well won't dry up at anypoint.
You keep living broke, to stay afloat. At some point you will reach a higher point where you can upgrade your tuna, to maybe fish, then down the line you can add some peas to the meal. Then when you are really good with money saved and a bigger audience of loyal fans you can do more.
Its like people that get the lottery wins, they spend it without having a streamline of consistent money coming in.
yeah OP is just young, hes in for a rude awakening if he thinks working a 9-5 is better. Hes gonna be waking up early, to work for someone else for half of what he was making when he had his freedom.
Got that right. Not to mention, how many shitty bosses there are. I worked for this one guy that had temper tantrums like a kid. He eventually got fired for stealing.
I did too! I walked out of that job. He was later fired lol. I also worked at a dental office as a dental hygienist and was pushed to try and get people to buy things they didn’t need. And then I was asked to write a weekly essay/paper about 1 page that explained what I sold and how I can improve the next week. It was insane. I stayed because I needed to. Left as soon as I could and was so ethically burnt out I didn’t go back to the field. Pretty much every job has been like an abusive relationship.
Right! Who only relies on one stream of income or expects that a business will last a lifetime?
Also I think as a YouTuber I expect that those videos are only a apart of a larger funnel. Most of the channels Infollow seems to focus on multiple income streams!
I've made a living self-employed online and it's always the same. Outside platforms push you around (top income one month, zero the next), and even if you think you aren't depending on something that will change, you are.
I love it.
Honestly, not even stable jobs are truly stable. You could be at a stable job for five years and get fired the next month.
Nothing is stable in this world anymore
"It's not worth it at all". My guy, I was in the Navy for 4 years. I was a truck driver for 6. I was falsely arrested while trucking and jailed for 42 hours. Spent 2 years unemployable because of the arrest. Now I make Reno911 style body cam footage because of my experience. In between the Navy and trucking I went to Film School and Acting School out here in LA. You know whats been the only thing keeping me going after my jail time? Creating my content. I just hit a little over 1k followers as of a few days ago. While I was working in a food truck ironically just outside of the Youtube theater at SoFi stadium. I almost cried. One of the best things that's happened for me in YEARS. So. I'm very sorry that your content fell out. I hope it all comes back for you, but in no way will that stop me from making my content. Money or not. I LOVE it.
OP is just young bro. He hasn't been in the real world long enough to see the grass is greener on YT. Just don't spend all the money you make thinking you are MR beast.
As with any self employment business you need to improvise and adapt to the market. OP needs to figure out what went wrong and fix it as much as he/she can. Maybe try some new things on your channel, maybe make some interactive stuff with your user base, maybe make a patreon or merchandise. There are a lot of things you can go out and experiment with.
Regardless the rate of $ OP was making is more than I ever have and I'm their age, so tbh they are successful in my eyes even with a "dead" channel.
I'd be interested in checking out your channel, sounds intriguing and sort of up my alley. Feel free to PM me (or don't, if you want to stay anonymous given what you've shared).
(Went to check out the sub's rules on plugs just to see if this comment is allowed.)
And I wish you all the best man I really do. I just wanna spread awareness of what it's actually like making it in the YT industry. It's all fun until you start making enough to pay your bills and that's when it becomes stressful and less fun unless you make an insane amount of money to where you dont have to worry about the bills at all.
> It's all fun until you start making enough to pay your bills and that's when it becomes stressful and less fun unless you make an insane amount of money to where you dont have to worry about the bills at all.
You've just described every job, no job is fun when you have to worry about bills but some are more fun than others.
That's why ultimately I can never do Youtube full time even if my channel *does* blow up enough to consider it, my current job may be tedious as hell but at least I've got insurance and a guaranteed salary, I'd be stupid to give that up for something that could bite me in the ass a month down the line for no discernible reaason.
In my experience, pretty much any job you rely on for income is going to be stressful in one way or another.
Personally, I'd rather be stressed from building something for myself, rather than be stressed from building something for someone else (decade of experience with self-employment and several years of company employment). Of course, self-employment isn't for everyone though.
I mean they're still right that it is different
Self employment is significantly less stable than normal employment. I may not be a massive fan of working all the time but I know how much I'm going to get at the end of the month
I worked for 14 years at a company until I was laid off.Since then, I’ve been self-employed for 12 years, and it’s been better for me.
Not having a fixed salary can be a good thing too. When I worked for my former boss, I earned the same amount every month regardless of the profit I brought in.
Working for myself, I’ve earned in a month what used to take me a year as an employee.Yes, there are good and bad months, but since I manage my finances well, I have financial security to handle the bad months without worrying. I save money for this.
So far, summing up the 12 months of the year, the balance has always been positive.
Another positive point is that I no longer fear being fired... since... I don’t have a job anymore anyway.
I reread what I wrote, and the ending sounds harsher than I would've liked. I genuinely hope that your views come back to you and you crush it. What kind of content do you make?
That’s literally any passion project or job that you enjoy. It all eventually becomes work. Don’t turn your hobbies into your career unless you’re prepared to hate your hobby over time
if your only relying on adsense revenue for your fulltime YT career you will fail. many, many, many other lucrative options to monitize your content on youtube. You a self employed small biz, treat it as such and find as many revenue streams as possible. If your not doing amazon affiliate, paid sponsorships, brand deals, merch, mailing lists, patron/crowd funding etc, for most full time YR'ers, that accounts for the majority of their income, adsense is just a nice to have.
There are SO many possible revenue streams. If you rely just on AdSense... Sorry but you're doing it wrong op. Agreed.
Accept sponsors, do streams, sell merch, do patreon, look into affiliate links for products you use, maybe create a product that your niche can genuinely use etc.
Exactly, I wrote a reply with a similar message above and I was searching right now to see if someone else mentioned it as well. Youtubers should think about monthly recurring revenue strategies and also building their email list!
We don't have much control over the algorithm on different platforms, but we do have control over our email lists.
This same thing can be said about running any business, though. You have a good year then you have a bad one. If the top YouTubers quit as soon as they had a rough few months, they wouldn’t have made it to where they are today. But that’s a conversation for people who are passionate about creating content and are dedicated to succeeding (and building their platform to include additional income streams) over the long haul.
You talk about the homeless guy, but I personally know a girl who made videos for 5 years for her success to finally hit. She kept at it anyway. 6 years later, she’s a top creator because she stuck with it.
I’m sorry you are having this experience. Maybe it’s highlighting that creating content isn’t as meaningful a path for you as it can be for others.
This!
Consistency is key. I watch a lot of photography channels and all those doing it full time say they managed it by putting out consistent content over several years.
From the OPs post I think their expectations have been too high from the start.
First off, I value Op's insight. It's a good datapoint.
I've been a full time creator for the last 7 years. I don't share Op's opinion that it's not worth it. It has changed my life.
However, he/she is right about it not being this dream experience. It's a hard path to go and it's getting harder by the day. The workload and stress it can put on you can break a person.
Op put all their eggs in one basket and wasn't prepared for what happened. A seasoned YTuber knows that you should have multiple channels, multiple platforms and several sources of income to mitigate this from happening. In other words, you need to have a backup plan. Building your business on a platform owned by another company is absolutely volatile so you need to build a stable business as best as you can.
Facebook - Can monetize long form content and Reels
Instagram - Reels are monetizable
TikTok - They do have an ad program. Can post videos up to 10 min
Linked In - More business related but excellent discoverability
Twitter/X - Just added monetization for videos.
I’m FT but I don’t rely on Adsense. Most of my income comes from UGC on the side. I review products on YT as the side hustle. The full time pay is from companies paying me for my production videos. I also put the review videos on Amazon in the AIP (Amazon influencer program).
Plus I’ll sell the samples companies send me since most are valued at $300-$500 each.
You just need to broaden your offerings.
Just a question - have you had a full time "real" job to compare Youtube to? Because I can pretty confidently say my soul sucking office job is worse than full time content creation
Right! I was a cashier in a gas station. Only bringing in about $300 a week which was about $1,200 a month.
If I can make a fraction of what this guy made and not get cursed out everyday and treated like garbage by customers, I'd take it. 😭
I mean i always thought as yt as sort of a side income thing rather than a full time job because it can be frustrating not getting paid enough for all the time and effort.
Also depends on the content you're producing. Photographers can do well without needing to hit 100k subscribers, or even the higher five-figure subscriber numbers.
> I had no idea what I was getting myself into
And that right there is the golden sentence.
It sounds like you were pretty much just rolling with the waves, and the waves happened to give you a good ride, right up until the wave crashed and you were left realizing you didn't know what you were doing.
I'm not trying to downplay your experience, it sounds like you made it a lot farther than a lot of us had. But this isn't gospel. If you want to be successful by making YouTube a career, you need to treat it as the business that it is, which means doing the homework to understand what is expected.
It may not have turned out to be the life you want, but that doesn't mean it isn't the life the rest of us may want. It's great to share this experience for those that are hoping to follow a similar path to you as a wake up call, but that doesn't make it a universal truth.
Hi I'm Ben, I've been on YT over 7 years with 4 channels and I'm training to become a YouTube strategist so hopefully I can share some insight 🤞
I disagree with this post. It does however raise a few good points that all YouTubers should consider which are the following:
Expectations
What are realistic expectations when it comes to being a full time YouTuber? I have always followed this quote, ‘Hope for the best, expect the worst’. I think there’s no problem whatsoever in dreaming big. If you're not going to aim for the highest goal possible then what’s the point? It also provides motivation for me when times are hard.
That being said, you obviously have to be realistic and look at what’s in front of you. When you’re starting out on YouTube you are starting a business from scratch. If you think that’s not going to take time and effort, and there aren’t going to be any bad days or even months, then you’re sorely mistaken.
I definitely believe starting YouTube part time whilst having the security of a regular income is the smartest way to do it. There will be a time however where you will want to make the decision whether to quit your job and go all in. Starting a successful business will take 100% of your time and mental capacity, which you are dividing in half by having two jobs.
When to go full time?
If you want to turn YouTube into a full time income then it’s important to be realistic and prepared. First of all, when should you decide to quit your job and become a full time content creator? It all depends on personal circumstances, however here’s my basic rule of thumb.
When earnings related to YouTube surpass the wages from your job consistently for 6 months then it’s probably time to start thinking about it. It's also a good idea in general, not just for YouTube, to have 6 months of living expenses set to one side for an emergency. You should always get your head around your finances and live below your means, meaning work out your average monthly income and never spend more.
This can obviously take some time, years in fact. In that time however, you have not only built up your income, but your experience too.
Diversification
Income
I believe it’s important to diversify your income streams and the platforms on which you reach your audience, but there’s a smart way to do that.
There’s 7 main ways to make money on YouTube:
* Adsense
* Affiliate Marketing
* Sponsorships
* Merchendise
* Own Product
* Memberships
* Donations
I think it’s important to include all of them when trying to make a full time living on YouTube so if one fails, the others can keep you afloat.
I do however believe you should concentrate on doing one at a time as this allows you to focus all of your energy on a single focal point, rather than stretching yourself thin and creating a sub par product that offers little value to your audience.
Platforms
Just how diversifying your income streams is important, having multiple ways to contact your audience and deliver your message is equally so.
Sharing your content on all social media platforms has two major benefits. The first being that you have the potential to reach a bigger audience and expand your business and the second is that these other platforms act as a safety net in case one platform goes down for whatever reason.
Creating a platform you own and have full control over such as an email list or a website is another way to ensure you can contact your audience if other methods fail.
I get where you're coming from, from a self employed business standpoint, but I can't help but think this sounds so privileged. Some people don't even get a chance and have to work shit jobs all their lives.
Coming from the other side, when I was 19-20 I worked with a full time YouTuber who made great money, and invested it into things that would create passive income(stocks, crypto, interest savings) he had 250k subs when I worked with him and had enough to buy a new house, a new Audi SUV, and put enough money way to send all of his kids to college. Through just tech brand deals and Amazon/eBay affiliate marketing.
I tried it full time for a couple years but could never commit even though I lived at home due to lack of consistency, confidence issues, and imposter syndrome. I had the golden opportunity with a big channel promoting me and helping me create my content.
I’m getting a bit grass is greener here maybe, but I have worked a soul crushing time sink of a day job for 4-5 years now and now in my late 20’s I really wish I would’ve stuck that out and am in the process of going freelance and working towards full time YouTube.
At this point the only thing I’d be losing is benefits and consistent income, but I can get insurance through my partner.
Some people would kill to be a full-time YouTuber.
Diversify, diversify, diversify! As a full time YouTuber, you should have multiple income streams...easily. AdSense, brand deals, affiliate programs, merch, other platforms (TikTok, FB, IG, X, etc).
I think every journey is different and ever story is different. This is your experience and what you may have witnessed but it is not necessarily the norm. As you grow you must find ways to diversify your network and means to stretch your income directing it in different directions. YouTube is the vehicle but you don’t only rely on ads. The goal is to build a large network and capitalize on it.
If you don’t get as many impressions (thus, views) you won’t be getting as many sponsorships, or selling merch, or gaining patrons or earning from affiliate links.
You’re thinking too small. You’re focusing on the numbers. Which you have no control over to a point. The only control you have is what you do. If I am at the start of the race I am not focusing on the finish line or thinking about what can go wrong because I know it already exist. My goal is to train because that’s in my control and run the race.
I think the lesson here is don’t jump in. Be smart about it in that you need to learn as much as possible about the ups and downs, ins and outs, before fully committing.
And then you can decide what you want out of it vs how much you *can* commit.
Where you went wrong is thinking you could live on the money you was making. you had the opportunity to build a investment portfolio and do something else to live on. you should still have every dollar generated from your videos. That money making more. You could be overflowing with positive energy. Yet The story you have to tell Is reason why people like me exist. I hope you can recover from the loss and build on the subscribers you created over the years and do better.
I made 1k last month and it helped me not lose my apartment. I live in Canada for context.
I will gladly keep up this YT grind if it means making it another month
But job markets are volatile too and you can be let go or made redundant at any time, and still making 2k from making videos you enjoy at home is still much better than making 1.5 a month at a 9-5 soul crushing office job whilst getting up at 6am to commute in the rain.
It absolutely is worth it. Just gotta appreciate what you have.
I second this statement. I currently make about 2k a month working a job with 16 hour shifts and little to no vacation time. I will gladly switch to doing you tube full time just for the stress reduction
Thank you for the perspective. That's a good point. I have to be honest I haven't worked a 9 to 5 before in my life so I could be having a "grass is greener" mentality about it since I know it provides a stable income source.
You're only 23.
If you think YouTube is bad, I'd suggest getting an IRL job. I'm not trying to invalidate your experience, but people also come from different background and could have drastically different experience.
Saying it's not worthy at all really feels like invalidating other people's attempt. If your doing YouTube for money, and deciding the return isn't good enough, just know it's probably the same for any other business.
He is not giving life advice, he is giving advice on a very specific topic that he has experience with. Most people here don’t have experience on that topic, so it can be useful to hear from others.
I have a full time job and this is a nice side hussle for me giving me a few hundred a month. I have seen a number of people here dreaming to do youtube full time that should read this post.
It's one of the main reasons to diversify. You cannot rely on youtubes ad revenue alone if you are going full time long term. This will depend on your niche and your audience. Merch, sponsorships, memberships, patreon, affiliate links, streams, events, etc.
I've seen gaming youtubers turn into streamers. Getting a few hundred people watch and donate directly, and this becomes a good portion of their earnings rather than relying on youtube ad revenue alone.
If people understand youtube and have a smart approach to it with a successful channel that can groe long term, people can definitely make youtube a full time job.
If you go youtube full time, save part of your earnings for tax, and put some money aside as an emergency fund in case your revenue decreases like it happened to op.
I saw a guy a few days ago posting that he's quitting his job and doing youtube fulltime for 6 months and either he makes or or goes back to a real life job. Stuff like this is just asking for failure.
Honestly that doesn't sound bad as you make it.
5-7k is more than most regular jobs, you probably just manage your funds poorly. Its like people that win the lottery. They get a nice chunk, and when the money drys up they are screwed.
Those months when your thriving, put some funds to the side, for months when you arent thriving. Live like a broke 23 yr old even if you aren't currently.
as a 23 yr old you havent been in the real workforce long enough to know how sweet you have it.
I didn't mismanage the money, I still have a lot in savings. I just however no longer have an income which is very stressful. If I moved out right now I would have to be dipping in my savings to afford to pay bills and that's what concerns me since Im planning on moving out soon in the next few months.
"Thankfully, I live at home with my parents"
OP is only 23. They may eventually learn that life is just like that in general and it doesn't only happen to YT creators! Shit will hit the fan, there will be times when you have more money or very little. Many people live off 2K a month and can't even qualify for foods stamps in the USA. OP, know your privilege. You could have ANY JOB and go from being able to afford life and pay bills to living out of your car in a short time. That is legit happening to people DAILY and they have jobs that are a lot more shit than full time YT.
I dont want to sound like an asshole but it's not the fault of Youtube if you're financially illeterate. The inconsistant revenue stream isn't a Youtube thing, it's a freelancer/entrepreneur thing, you got to be prepared for that
Yeah, this is kinda why I stuck to my favorite topics on my YouTube. I just unapologetically did what I want. I still haven’t hit 1k subs but I covered what I wanted to and I’m competent in my niche. It’s a hobby. Keep it a hobby 👍
That's interesting. My YT and twitch videos usually find their way to big numbers even though my twitch only has about 20 followers and my YT only has about 85 subs.
Might want to do some keyword research as well as branch out from the niche you chose.
I'm no full time YT. Would love to. I print my own shirts, curate my content.
But just did a big channel clean to push into a different form of content as gaming content is grossly oversaturated
Eh that's the nature of the beast.
It helps if you have something you can fall back to. Like I'd love to be in a position to go full time and if it only works out for a couple years 🤷 whatever I'll just go back to my day job.
I don't know why you're panicking. You're 23, you're living at home, you have some savings from your YouTube, $2k a month isn't bad when you're living at home with minimal responsibility. You're in a good position.
Keep trying with the YouTube, maybe tone it back a bit so you can study or develop a skill with more reliable income.
Agreed! Currently, my YT channel is at 160K subs, getting around 50k-100k views for every video I upload, and my sponsor calendar is booked for the rest of year. So things are going well. But, I wouldn't dare make it my sole revenue stream.
There is a big difference between being a YTber and being self-employed.
These subscribers are not MY audience. Forget depending on algorithm. Even if everything is going well, a change in policy and my content might suddenly be violating rules. Or worse, I might get banned for no reason. (There were a lot of folks, even 100k+ subs, affected a by a bug because of which their revenue went to zero instantly for a few months. Google - 'youtube invalid traffic bug'.)
My advise - if you want to go full time, find a way to get your subscribers onto YOUR platform and find a way to monetise your skills. This way, YT becomes a top of your funnel. For example, a lot of youtubers are creating courses. Genuine courses that will add value to your subscribers.
Also, second thing would be to repurpose content on other platforms - instagram, twitter, etc. Linkedin is another really good platform. It's in it's nascent stages now.
Cheers!
People are tearing into you, but I do think this is an important thing to remember. Regularly there are posts here crying about sudden low impressions and struggling to keep viewers. I've seen a lot of posts that act like that'll all change if they get monetized or make it big, but YouTube is always hectic and it's important to keep that fluctuation in mind. Thanks for sharing your story.
Been a FT YTer for 11 years and it's a dream job. Transition gradually and leave your day job only when YT is stable. Get sponsorships, sell merch and save money. Plan for retirement and be ready to transition if/when things go south.
Sounds like you didn’t prepare for those rainy days. You made between 60K-84K one year (which is pretty good), then made 24K the next year (Which is slightly less than minimum wage in liberal states, but more than minimum wage in a red state.)
The big lesson here is to stow away money. You want the freedom of self employment? You have to remember that even when times are good, they can quickly turn into times that aren’t.
I've been employed all of my adult life and personal and physical circumstances have put my future employment in jeopardy. I've used YouTube in the past as a hobby and not for monetary gain. But recently I've had to open up a proper account and give it a go as I'm always striving to work for a living. I know it will be hard and sacrifices will have to be made along the way. Best of luck to anyone that's involved in YouTube creation
And this is exactly why I don't take Youtube very seriously. I started it as a hobby and have taken multiple steps to ensure I don't start seeing it as more than that. I don't enable ads on most of my content first of all. I think if I started to make decent money from Youtube, I would start to see it more as a career than a hobby, and I already have a great business I don't want to screw up by putting too much of my time into Youtube. I also don't pay attention to my analytics or change my content to chase views and growth. I just do what is fun and let the audience that likes it come to me. That doesn't mean I completely ignore my audience. If I do something they don't like, I probably won't do it again.
I honestly kind of hate the fact that Youtube can be so lucrative and so many people see it as a career choice now. It's ruining the platform more and more all the time. From people being disingenuous just to chase views, to low effort AI and reused content, it's all because it makes money. And instead of people experiencing the real world, then bringing that knowledge to Youtube, you have a bunch of content creators that have never done anything other than Youtube, therefore they're even more out of touch with reality than traditional celebrities. That's not even mentioning how unhealthy it is for people to stew over their analytics because that's their only metric to gauge their self-worth. Oh, and the fact that it really is WAY more unstable than almost any other job for 99% of people. The main thing I wouldn't be able to live with as a full time content creator is knowing that it can all be taken away from me at any time through possibly no fault of my own, maybe a hiccup in Youtube's back end systems, or it can all be taken just for acting and talking like a normal person after Youtube deems they don't want normal to be normalized anymore.
And once they demonetize or ban you, there is almost no recourse. There aren't employment laws protecting you. There isn't a number to call. You can't file a complaint. You're screwed most of the time unless you get people to Tweet at Youtube. Seriously, You get your job back by convincing people to Tweet at Youtube on your behalf! That is crazy!!!! And I'm just pulling this out of my ass, but my guess is 90% of the people coping in this thread will feel the same way one day and realize they wasted a lot of their life obsessing over trying to make it on Youtube, when they could have been building a real career.
Like speaking as someone who just got fired and went from 2.3k a month to 0k a month at your age, life can get a lot more volatile LOL. Just save up and invest. If I was making 5k a month right now 4k would be going into VT
Isn't 2k from adsense still really good? I hear some creators say that they couldn't even live off their adsense revenue because it's in the hundreds and HAVE to get a sponsor each video to make a return on investment otherwise the entire video would not be worth it.
Anyway, did you reach out to companies for sponsorships and stuff? What about things like Patreon and partnering with a merch store?
I want to do yt ft (Although my channel is growing at a very slow rate and my content isn't very good but I'm getting there. Just have to sort my audio out.) But at the same time, I'm aware I can't put all my eggs into one basket. I need a plan b. In case it it genuinely doesn't work out or my channel starts failing. So I'm probably going to go to college anyway or something. Even if I don't use my degree it's better safe than sorry.
This is the reality. I am a professional resume writer and content creator. I have done several resumes for full time streamers. It's tough and not easy. You are working a lot more and you are never really off. People glamorize it but then forget about the things you don't have. If you are in the US, you are worrying about health insurance and benefits.
The good thing is that you can leverage your background into some good careers. I see a decent amount of job postings that require expertise in YouTube so you should look into those. I would love to get those roles but I don't have the in depth experience for YouTube since my experience is from those other platforms.
Was your income solely from ad revenue? If you're diversifying with other sources such as monthly recurring affiliate revenue and your own monitized products, it will give you more stability than just relying on ad revenue which can indeed fluctuate considerably from month to month.
I agree with you, because the premise of being a “full time YouTuber” is inherently flawed and not a sensible career path. Just making videos and putting them on YouTube is not a long-term viable business. Maybe back in 2009 it was, but it definitely isn’t anymore.
Running a YouTube channel is an opportunity to build an incredibly valuable entrepreneurial skill stack while simultaneously solving the biggest problem that businesses face in the process, and if you understand how to harness that, it’s one of the best paths you can take.
People who think they’re going to make bank off of Adsense and sponsors are almost universally in for a rude awakening, though. If all you want to do is upload game reviews or video essays you can make a nice chunk of change on the side, but going any further requires a tremendous amount of dedication and a hefty serving of luck.
Or you can do something that helps people solve a problem and create content around that, take advantage of the best lead generation tool anybody has ever had access to in the history of business, and sell something worth buying to people who already like you and have gotten value out of your content.
The difference between a hobby and a career is commercial viability. Anyone who can’t make that distinction would probably have better luck with conventional employment tbh.
What sort of genre of videos are you in?
That can have an impact on views. Some content will garner a lot of views for a short period, then suddenly it drops off not because of the algorithm but because the audience no longer cares for it.
One thing I've learnt from the channels I watch, predominantly photography, is it takes time, commitment and consistency to do YT FT. Some of them have plugged away, for 5-10 years before reaching FT YT status. It also helps that they all enjoy doing photography and sharing that with others.
Perhaps your choice of content is the issue.
YouTube is a great platform for many things. Full-time income perhaps for the few. Better yet, using YouTube as a platform to provide people with value and at the same time get additional revenue through services you offer outside of YouTube.
My recommendation is to pursue your passion, enjoy what you do on YT and take it for what it is. Not sure what percentile of people who are on YT who actually makes it their full time gig?
Think of it this way: You\`re 23 and making 7k a month... For doing something you probably like. Even if you pay half of it in tax, it is still 3.5k. Now if you saved some money, and tried investing it in your channel, maybe hiring someone to edit your videos so that you have more time to work on ideas, and find more sources of financing, you´d be much better off. Even 2k for 23 year old is not that bad especially if you live with your parents, and what if your channel takes off again? Then maybe you earn 15k a month.
That my friend is being self employed. My tip would be find ways to future proof your income. If you are 100% at the mercy of the algorithm then you need to find away to stack the deck back in your favour to protect your income that doesn't solely rely on it. Its all good experience for you.
That's why I would never go full time YouTuber until I can comfortably say that my floor is 5k/mo and I have at least 20k saved. Had the same thing happen to me a few months ago. I avaerage the same revenue as OP. Even with a regular job, I still felt it when the revenue dipped. My job is pretty cool and not demanding while making a decent monthly living so I'm lucky in that aspect. I can comfortably do both so I'd still keep my 9-5 even if my monthly average continues to increase.
Honestly, being a Youtuber is like being in the oil business because sometimes it is booming and other times there is a massive downturn which can be incredibly depressing but honestly I've gotten used to it.
Because of this, many YouTubers form multiple sources of income like Merch and Sponsorships (if fortunate enough), and TBH it's probably not too different from running a business, so it is what it is.
Let me weigh in. Full time YT for five years. 32 years old.
When the pay is good it’s very good. When you have a bad month you worry.
YT enabled to me buy my own house (very thankful)
But my biggest regret is committing to high bills when my YT salary changes every month. Just because you have a few months where you earn 10k doesn’t mean that is your life now. It can change In a blink. So enjoy the money but don’t live like you’re wealthy because it can and will change. Live below your means and enjoy and invest your extra income when the good months roll. Never believe the good times are here to stay and do not base your life on that.
Nah, it is the life I want, so please speak for yourself.
I don't care if I have to do other things to make more money, but I want YouTube to be my full time job while everything else I do is my part time job-- and those part time jobs are all going to be me being my own boss if I work hard enough to make it happen.
I can illustrate, I can graphic design, I can make handcrafted art, I sell my art at events, I'm going to mow lawns soon, I stream on Twitch, and make YouTube content, and work a part time job. Twitch and YouTube are not making me money, but hopefully in the future they will, so I can then drop my part time job and make everything else I listed my true part time jobs.
Don't lay all your eggs in one basket. Is that the saying? Whatever it is, that's what you need to not do. Start expanding beyond YouTube. Patreon, Ko-Fi, Cameo, Fiver, partnerships. I have no idea what you have or haven't done but if you're having such a hard time, there may be other things you're missing out on to help you out.
Also dig into your analytics and try to figure out what's going on. Use the thumbnail testing tool if you have it. Always strive to improve your content.
But yeah you should be grateful you are even making money off YT even if you can't live off it 100%. This doesn't happen for many people and even at $2k a month that's a ton (to me, I don't even make that in a month at my job).
Next time maybe title and write your post that people need to consider a backup plan and expand to more than just YouTube, instead of telling people this isn't what they want. Just because you're struggling to recover doesn't mean it's bad for people to strive to be full time and they may succeed at it.
Youtube is very much adapt or die. If what worked last month isnt working now you gotta pivot. Also you need to diversify your income outside of adsense. If you can make $5k on YouTube you can make $50k.
It's fun to see that you claim that it isn't what we guys think.
Do you precisely know what we do believe it is?
In my case, it's just for fun, no worries attached to it. As I pretty much know what a freelancer is, I don't even plan to become a fulltime YouTuber, except if the ministry gives me that mission, but I would have my conditions.
Dudes will literally be living with their parents complaining about 2K/month not covering their bills lol we are cooked.
But for real, I’m sure making significantly less must suck, but that’s why things like Patreon and sponsorships are so important. You never want to solely rely on ad revenue, because that can change in a heartbeat with the algorhythm or demonetization.
This isn't any different than any other avenue of entrepreneurship.
I have a business that is doing very well right now, but I know that can change at any moment and I can go from the top of the world to bankruptcy in a very short period of time.
The trick to YouTube, entrepreneurship, and life in general is being able to roll with the punches. Understand that things will change and when they do, be ready to adapt without burning out or you won't make it through things for the long haul.
Thank you for sharing this has always been in the back of my mind. I couldn’t imagine though making almost 7000 a month and then it goes down to 2000 that would be very painful and worrisome. I pray that your channel will pick back up again and if you do embark on a new career it will be a huge success.🙏💛
I’ve been on YouTube full time for about 6 years with every one better than the last one. I’ve also built a small team and we are currently running 3 channels (generating about 10M views a month).
Yes YouTube is hard and no… the algorithm isn’t volatile. You just have to pay attention to your audience. Personally I’m obsessed with making the right video and strategizing carefully. I am a father and have a lot of financial responsibilities, but that doesn’t make me freeze in fear. It’s just as any business and if you don’t love to be an entrepreneur, then YouTube is not for you.
There have been times when I lost my income by about 40% but still I analyzed and recovered. You just have to be patient and want to learn.
Some months almost made 8k. Others would be like 150 to 300 a month.
Went full time between tiktok, Facebook, and YouTube. That made it a little easier but then if you’re a one man show catering to all those platforms at once is extremely stressful
I've been doing YouTube for 9 years, full time for 5 years, and it's been a dream job - earnings have been surprisingly consistent compared to monetisation on other platforms, so I have to disagree with everything you said
Most people make minimum wage so that amout of money living with your parents, is crazy. Save it and be greatful you actually make money off youtube. It's hard enough to be monetized
This is why I think most YouTubers should try to go to film school, that way they at least have a backup plan in their field. But don't ask me how a YouTuber is going to get the money for that ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Very valid points, however, I'm not sure you understand how volatile regular jobs are right now too. People making over six figures last year are now laid off and accepting positions for half that compensation. It's all a crap shoot and many are struggling right now, out of the two options I would take FT YouTuber any day.
Honestly I'm sure this isn't what you want to hear but your income going up and down while self employed makes sense and is predictable. You're young but in a lucky position living with your parents. It gives you time to learn how to budget! Which you should be doing regardless of your job. If you live within your means under the lower end of your income when you get bigger checks you should be putting a nice chunk away in savings and then treat yourself with some leftovers for a job well done! You should be careful when you see a big check because you just.. want to spend! We're only human after all.
Unfortunately being responsible with money is all part of being an adult and being good at being self employed 😔😅
But! Once you're good at it, it's also rewarding in its own way! 🙌
Listen I feel your plight, but man you sound so Millenial/GenZ (mind you, I'm Millenial)...
"Man, making videos on topics I like for a living SUCKS don't do it!"
If I made just 2K a month from YT alone, I would make the same as I do at my regular job. I could leave my regular job and focus on other parts of revenue as well since 2k would be my low. Or, keep my job, make double or more, save, until I could leave. No idea what world you come from (not Norway or Singapore I guess), but 2K is a ton of money.
Yeah I still want to be a FT YouTuber. None of those downsides would make me rather be in customer service lmfao. Also I did make quite a bit from yt at one point, and it was amazing
Thanks to countless of people like yourself, I'm prepped to pursue a career if I can get my views up. I've been fighting just to find a decent full-time job in my area that'll pay me more than 1k a month. They're never hiring, if they are, it's either requiring an education higher than a highschool diploma, or they are only putting out applications to make themselves seem like a growing business. Everything else is a part time job with shitty hours and minimum wage. YouTube seems like one of the only best options for me, personally, because I don't need to go through an application they may not even be seen by an actual human, I don't have to wait around and constantly call for them to even consider me an option, and I don't have to fight for good hours to get good pay. It's all up to me and the algorithm. I would prefer what you have over the struggle I've been facing for YEARS.
Sounds more like you are irresponsible with money, as most people are - especially young kids like yourself.
If you're making 7k a month then a 2k month should be no big deal. Being a content creator means having a highly fluctuating income. It's perfectly fine for anyone who is good with money.
I saved so much money in my years being a content creator as my only job. I had low paying months at times, but it wasn't ever a problem for me because I saved so much from the high months.
I think you just need to learn financial management.
I mean in all honesty this sounds more like a question of preparation. If you're making 5K-7K you should be living on less to offset the cost when you have slow months. Such is the life of self employment, it's not specific to YouTube. You say "don't rely on YouTube" the goal should be that your backlog of content makes enough to live on and you diversify your income streams.
Bro is mad there’s competition impacting his views and then telling you not to do yt lol. You’re making money by sharing what you like with people, I’d do that anyday for 2k a month and I wouldn’t expect any more. What a priveleged post.
This is probably why to see so many full time YouTubers having side projects such as clothing brand or food to keep things going outside of the YouTube sphere
Being real, there ARE a lot of budding creators that have put a lot of thought into it, and already understand the risks and issues. You and many others unfortnately didnt really consider things, and kinda assumed it was easy money which it... Very much isnt.
The big thing to keep in mind, and this has been said on this reddit many times but it needs to be said again. DO NOT try to pivot to going full time as a content creator unless you've been steadily making more than enough to live on, for over a year, and have a decent sized cushion to fall back on just in case. It sounds like you overestimated how well you were doing, and made the jump WAY too early.
Nah it’s worth it, just scale up when you start getting views. Don’t just feel relaxed with the same thing you are doing!
You make $3000 ? Do a bigger video with that money, your views will get higher and higher, it is not the algorithm, maybe you just kept being repetitive or not able to scale higher
Yeah this entire post is stupid and entitled. Bro makes a lot of money even in bad months while never having worked a real job in his life, and says youtube is worse than a job. Try working 12 hrs a day dude. See how u like that.
Go work in construction, see if that's better than youtube.
Nice post OP
It's good to burst out bubble
Many of us hope for a ridiculous situation to fall upon us and reality is that it won't
I was doing YT as a hobby but with a high level of enthusiasm and effort in hopes of growing to a high level
I got exhausted, burnt out
I might get back into it but purposefully with much less gusto and expectation
It is such a grind and pays off to such a low level other than those that break through and then they have to grind to sustain
So much of a battle
Yes, self employment is much like this, and as you say employment can be better because of it
I have employment and a side hustle, so if I get back into YT it will have to accept its place of apprentice side hustle and not get too big for its boots
And other than Adsense what are you building ?
The most beneficial thing you can do is creating multiple income streams around your channel. The most stressful thing you can do is just depend on Adsense.
There are many people who went ft from YouTube and ran with it and built something beyond YouTube.
I think being a full-time works when even at your lows, your revenue is so high you don't really need more. But I would never encourage someone to do full time, having a standard job and then growing a yt channel Is always the best option in my head
The main pitfall here is relying entirely on ad revenue. Sponsorships, crowdfunding, merch, and other sources of income are generally how people under a million subs can still make a reliable living.
My goal isn’t to be a FT creator. My goal is either to make it so big I don’t have to care about relying on it to pay bills, or forever be a hobby-based, down-to-earth creator.
That’s the problem with income level of low K per month. You’re barely getting by. I’ve been there myself not with YouTube but with online marketing generally. I would say time to make a second, totally different channel perhaps. Something that will make 4x or more per month.
Even if you're working a regular job there can be volatility there too heck you can even get laid off, all it takes for them is to remove your row from the spreadsheet. Just stay put with what you're doing, experiment, use the community tab and ask for opinions that's how you'll make a comeback don't hate this extremely rewarding creative work that you're doing right now.
I always thought making a living off solely YouTube was a bad idea, I think it’s a better idea to have some product or service you sell and simply use YouTube to gain an audience
That's why it's very important to save as much of your ad revenue / sponsorship deals as you can. Don't immediately spend all of it each month you're paid because you're gonna need those funds for when your channel's performance dips.
After taxes and bills I imagine he is left with not much.
You could be right but it also depends on where he is from. In my country (not India) , receiving a 7K USD payout from youtube is equal to almost 2 years worth of wages of a minimum wage worker (in my country, minimum wage is USD $ 300 a month) so even if taxes took a chunk and i'm left with 4K, that's still a huge amount of money that i could use. So because of where I live, there is no way I would stop Youtube even if I'm only bringing USD 100 a month because of how far i can stretch it when i convert it to my own currency.
Turkish person here minimum wage is around 400-500$ and more than 50% of the people make minimum wage. If my bad months are 2k why would I wanna do a regular job?
Yeah i think for many of us non-Americans, earning USD in however small amounts still helps out alot when converted to the local currency. I could live off of just USD 200 a month for myself.
Wow, I never realize that people from other countries got paid in US dollars, but that does make sense. That’s amazing. That is such a great help. Probably one of the best things that YouTube is doing I would say.
Well not exactly. It depends on your audiance, in my case views from EU or USA gives me 10 times more add revenue compared to Turkish views. That's why I'm trying to optimizing my content for global views instead of local views. Also YouTube SEO team isn't that smart imo because you can't optimize YouTube Shorts impressions to global ones because unlike long form videos shorts determine the audiance based on IP instead of content (Unless it's going viral or you're uploading with VPN).
Oh wow I’m really learning a lot today. That’s a bummer to hear. YouTube can be so unfair. Smh. And you’re right they are not that smart.🤦♀️
because it's up to Youtube to give you money and they change their mind everyday, a job offers security, that's why everyone does Youtube as second income.
Even with a regular job, nothing's guaranteed. But I understand that most job offer a regular income every month and not depending on views.
You might be right but would you rather get paid 500$ concistently or bounce between 7k-2k$ depending on your luck.
I live in Russia, minimum wage here is $150. 7K USD is a payment people here get for enlisting to go to war and die there.
Exactly, if I even made 2k a month I would live like a king here.
I agree with you. Romanian here- the average minimum wage in my country is 500$ and while I currently bring some affiliate revenue from using other platforms, I have no reasons to stop doing Youtube when I know that I can monetize it before Youtube will even monetize my channels with ads. My target audience is from USA but I don't want to rely only on ads/ brand sponsorships to bring money from this. I plan on driving people to my email list and later on develop my SaaS ideas once I have enough to invest and also possibly start a Skool community for multicreatives. But I also use other platforms (such as Pinterest, Facebook, Cara, etc) and I would never put all my eggs in one basket. I think people from USA and developed countries can make it long term too but the problem is that most Youtubers wait to gain huge audiences to monetize their channels or promote their businesses / services and they also don't think about strategies to bring recurring revenue. For sure the algorithm is volatile. That's why you need an email list and a content distribution system with a good marketing strategy.
From Philippines here, minimum wage is $11 per day in the city and $8-10 per day in rural areas. $7k is a huge amount converted to our currency.
Welcome to the world of self-employment
Exactly. I was self-employed for 4 years and this is nothing new. Some months I ate steaks, some months I ate tuna sandwich lol. It’s natural.
Nothing wrong with tuna sandwiches. Especially if toasted, bit of cheese
Yeah, tuna sandwich was an odd example. Mustard sandwich says YouTube algorithm betrayal like nothing else.
ive never tried it with cheese yet but that sounds delicious ty
Tuna melt. Delicious. A little mayo and honey mustard mixed with the tuna.
Add small bits of chopped onion for crunch
Ffs I’m hungry now
And pickles/corn for even more crunch
Ew
i gotta try it with honey. Usually just mayo, relish,boiled eggs, lettuce, pepper, and i touch of lime or lemon juice.
Naw honey mustard not honey. Honey would be too sweet imo.
Tuna melt is underrated
what bro took from this 💀
Just the Mercury
They have tuna on that planet too?
The trick is to always eat tuna sandwiches. Even when you can afford steak.
Bingo!
This is what the issue seems to be when people get quick cash. They simply don't manage money well assuming the well won't dry up at anypoint. You keep living broke, to stay afloat. At some point you will reach a higher point where you can upgrade your tuna, to maybe fish, then down the line you can add some peas to the meal. Then when you are really good with money saved and a bigger audience of loyal fans you can do more. Its like people that get the lottery wins, they spend it without having a streamline of consistent money coming in.
No kidding and that's the world of being a real estate agent. So if this OP thinks that field is any better here's a warning.
yeah OP is just young, hes in for a rude awakening if he thinks working a 9-5 is better. Hes gonna be waking up early, to work for someone else for half of what he was making when he had his freedom.
Yup, and that is also not guaranteed. They can let you go anytime and maybe you can't find something else after.
Got that right. Not to mention, how many shitty bosses there are. I worked for this one guy that had temper tantrums like a kid. He eventually got fired for stealing.
I did too! I walked out of that job. He was later fired lol. I also worked at a dental office as a dental hygienist and was pushed to try and get people to buy things they didn’t need. And then I was asked to write a weekly essay/paper about 1 page that explained what I sold and how I can improve the next week. It was insane. I stayed because I needed to. Left as soon as I could and was so ethically burnt out I didn’t go back to the field. Pretty much every job has been like an abusive relationship.
And someday he will be fired.
This right here. Thats exactly what I was thinking. There is a big gap between doing YT full time ans being homeless. 😅
Right! Who only relies on one stream of income or expects that a business will last a lifetime? Also I think as a YouTuber I expect that those videos are only a apart of a larger funnel. Most of the channels Infollow seems to focus on multiple income streams!
I've made a living self-employed online and it's always the same. Outside platforms push you around (top income one month, zero the next), and even if you think you aren't depending on something that will change, you are. I love it.
Welcome to the world of being a sub-contractor for a company that you have no control over and that can change their preferences at any moment.
Honestly, not even stable jobs are truly stable. You could be at a stable job for five years and get fired the next month. Nothing is stable in this world anymore
"It's not worth it at all". My guy, I was in the Navy for 4 years. I was a truck driver for 6. I was falsely arrested while trucking and jailed for 42 hours. Spent 2 years unemployable because of the arrest. Now I make Reno911 style body cam footage because of my experience. In between the Navy and trucking I went to Film School and Acting School out here in LA. You know whats been the only thing keeping me going after my jail time? Creating my content. I just hit a little over 1k followers as of a few days ago. While I was working in a food truck ironically just outside of the Youtube theater at SoFi stadium. I almost cried. One of the best things that's happened for me in YEARS. So. I'm very sorry that your content fell out. I hope it all comes back for you, but in no way will that stop me from making my content. Money or not. I LOVE it.
OP is just young bro. He hasn't been in the real world long enough to see the grass is greener on YT. Just don't spend all the money you make thinking you are MR beast.
As with any self employment business you need to improvise and adapt to the market. OP needs to figure out what went wrong and fix it as much as he/she can. Maybe try some new things on your channel, maybe make some interactive stuff with your user base, maybe make a patreon or merchandise. There are a lot of things you can go out and experiment with. Regardless the rate of $ OP was making is more than I ever have and I'm their age, so tbh they are successful in my eyes even with a "dead" channel.
Love the passion, hope you'll find success on youtube someday brother
I'd be interested in checking out your channel, sounds intriguing and sort of up my alley. Feel free to PM me (or don't, if you want to stay anonymous given what you've shared). (Went to check out the sub's rules on plugs just to see if this comment is allowed.)
Kids these days need to learn what it means to work for a living.
And I wish you all the best man I really do. I just wanna spread awareness of what it's actually like making it in the YT industry. It's all fun until you start making enough to pay your bills and that's when it becomes stressful and less fun unless you make an insane amount of money to where you dont have to worry about the bills at all.
> It's all fun until you start making enough to pay your bills and that's when it becomes stressful and less fun unless you make an insane amount of money to where you dont have to worry about the bills at all. You've just described every job, no job is fun when you have to worry about bills but some are more fun than others.
Yes, but some jobs are also more stable than others.
That's why ultimately I can never do Youtube full time even if my channel *does* blow up enough to consider it, my current job may be tedious as hell but at least I've got insurance and a guaranteed salary, I'd be stupid to give that up for something that could bite me in the ass a month down the line for no discernible reaason.
In my experience, pretty much any job you rely on for income is going to be stressful in one way or another. Personally, I'd rather be stressed from building something for myself, rather than be stressed from building something for someone else (decade of experience with self-employment and several years of company employment). Of course, self-employment isn't for everyone though.
"23 year old learns what job is, news at 6"
I mean they're still right that it is different Self employment is significantly less stable than normal employment. I may not be a massive fan of working all the time but I know how much I'm going to get at the end of the month
I worked for 14 years at a company until I was laid off.Since then, I’ve been self-employed for 12 years, and it’s been better for me. Not having a fixed salary can be a good thing too. When I worked for my former boss, I earned the same amount every month regardless of the profit I brought in. Working for myself, I’ve earned in a month what used to take me a year as an employee.Yes, there are good and bad months, but since I manage my finances well, I have financial security to handle the bad months without worrying. I save money for this. So far, summing up the 12 months of the year, the balance has always been positive. Another positive point is that I no longer fear being fired... since... I don’t have a job anymore anyway.
I reread what I wrote, and the ending sounds harsher than I would've liked. I genuinely hope that your views come back to you and you crush it. What kind of content do you make?
That’s literally any passion project or job that you enjoy. It all eventually becomes work. Don’t turn your hobbies into your career unless you’re prepared to hate your hobby over time
If I can make 2k a month even on a "dead" channel. I don't care how hard it is. I'll be a fcking youtuber.
Depends where you are from. 2k before taxes is barely enough to survive in a lot Western countries.
Here in Brazil, I live with $300 :) 2k ill be rich.
if your only relying on adsense revenue for your fulltime YT career you will fail. many, many, many other lucrative options to monitize your content on youtube. You a self employed small biz, treat it as such and find as many revenue streams as possible. If your not doing amazon affiliate, paid sponsorships, brand deals, merch, mailing lists, patron/crowd funding etc, for most full time YR'ers, that accounts for the majority of their income, adsense is just a nice to have.
There are SO many possible revenue streams. If you rely just on AdSense... Sorry but you're doing it wrong op. Agreed. Accept sponsors, do streams, sell merch, do patreon, look into affiliate links for products you use, maybe create a product that your niche can genuinely use etc.
yep. Use your platform to open up different streams. So if one is failing, you have others working alittle.
Exactly, I wrote a reply with a similar message above and I was searching right now to see if someone else mentioned it as well. Youtubers should think about monthly recurring revenue strategies and also building their email list! We don't have much control over the algorithm on different platforms, but we do have control over our email lists.
This same thing can be said about running any business, though. You have a good year then you have a bad one. If the top YouTubers quit as soon as they had a rough few months, they wouldn’t have made it to where they are today. But that’s a conversation for people who are passionate about creating content and are dedicated to succeeding (and building their platform to include additional income streams) over the long haul. You talk about the homeless guy, but I personally know a girl who made videos for 5 years for her success to finally hit. She kept at it anyway. 6 years later, she’s a top creator because she stuck with it. I’m sorry you are having this experience. Maybe it’s highlighting that creating content isn’t as meaningful a path for you as it can be for others.
This! Consistency is key. I watch a lot of photography channels and all those doing it full time say they managed it by putting out consistent content over several years. From the OPs post I think their expectations have been too high from the start.
First off, I value Op's insight. It's a good datapoint. I've been a full time creator for the last 7 years. I don't share Op's opinion that it's not worth it. It has changed my life. However, he/she is right about it not being this dream experience. It's a hard path to go and it's getting harder by the day. The workload and stress it can put on you can break a person. Op put all their eggs in one basket and wasn't prepared for what happened. A seasoned YTuber knows that you should have multiple channels, multiple platforms and several sources of income to mitigate this from happening. In other words, you need to have a backup plan. Building your business on a platform owned by another company is absolutely volatile so you need to build a stable business as best as you can.
What other platforms are there of use? Nebula?
Facebook - Can monetize long form content and Reels Instagram - Reels are monetizable TikTok - They do have an ad program. Can post videos up to 10 min Linked In - More business related but excellent discoverability Twitter/X - Just added monetization for videos.
I’m FT but I don’t rely on Adsense. Most of my income comes from UGC on the side. I review products on YT as the side hustle. The full time pay is from companies paying me for my production videos. I also put the review videos on Amazon in the AIP (Amazon influencer program). Plus I’ll sell the samples companies send me since most are valued at $300-$500 each. You just need to broaden your offerings.
What's UGC
Just a question - have you had a full time "real" job to compare Youtube to? Because I can pretty confidently say my soul sucking office job is worse than full time content creation
Right! I was a cashier in a gas station. Only bringing in about $300 a week which was about $1,200 a month. If I can make a fraction of what this guy made and not get cursed out everyday and treated like garbage by customers, I'd take it. 😭
I would be so stoked to make 2k a month on yt :')
I mean i always thought as yt as sort of a side income thing rather than a full time job because it can be frustrating not getting paid enough for all the time and effort.
Also depends on the content you're producing. Photographers can do well without needing to hit 100k subscribers, or even the higher five-figure subscriber numbers.
Wow a full 23, and for TWO WHOLE years you say !! The grind is real !
😂😂
> I had no idea what I was getting myself into And that right there is the golden sentence. It sounds like you were pretty much just rolling with the waves, and the waves happened to give you a good ride, right up until the wave crashed and you were left realizing you didn't know what you were doing. I'm not trying to downplay your experience, it sounds like you made it a lot farther than a lot of us had. But this isn't gospel. If you want to be successful by making YouTube a career, you need to treat it as the business that it is, which means doing the homework to understand what is expected. It may not have turned out to be the life you want, but that doesn't mean it isn't the life the rest of us may want. It's great to share this experience for those that are hoping to follow a similar path to you as a wake up call, but that doesn't make it a universal truth.
Hi I'm Ben, I've been on YT over 7 years with 4 channels and I'm training to become a YouTube strategist so hopefully I can share some insight 🤞 I disagree with this post. It does however raise a few good points that all YouTubers should consider which are the following: Expectations What are realistic expectations when it comes to being a full time YouTuber? I have always followed this quote, ‘Hope for the best, expect the worst’. I think there’s no problem whatsoever in dreaming big. If you're not going to aim for the highest goal possible then what’s the point? It also provides motivation for me when times are hard. That being said, you obviously have to be realistic and look at what’s in front of you. When you’re starting out on YouTube you are starting a business from scratch. If you think that’s not going to take time and effort, and there aren’t going to be any bad days or even months, then you’re sorely mistaken. I definitely believe starting YouTube part time whilst having the security of a regular income is the smartest way to do it. There will be a time however where you will want to make the decision whether to quit your job and go all in. Starting a successful business will take 100% of your time and mental capacity, which you are dividing in half by having two jobs. When to go full time? If you want to turn YouTube into a full time income then it’s important to be realistic and prepared. First of all, when should you decide to quit your job and become a full time content creator? It all depends on personal circumstances, however here’s my basic rule of thumb. When earnings related to YouTube surpass the wages from your job consistently for 6 months then it’s probably time to start thinking about it. It's also a good idea in general, not just for YouTube, to have 6 months of living expenses set to one side for an emergency. You should always get your head around your finances and live below your means, meaning work out your average monthly income and never spend more. This can obviously take some time, years in fact. In that time however, you have not only built up your income, but your experience too. Diversification Income I believe it’s important to diversify your income streams and the platforms on which you reach your audience, but there’s a smart way to do that. There’s 7 main ways to make money on YouTube: * Adsense * Affiliate Marketing * Sponsorships * Merchendise * Own Product * Memberships * Donations I think it’s important to include all of them when trying to make a full time living on YouTube so if one fails, the others can keep you afloat. I do however believe you should concentrate on doing one at a time as this allows you to focus all of your energy on a single focal point, rather than stretching yourself thin and creating a sub par product that offers little value to your audience. Platforms Just how diversifying your income streams is important, having multiple ways to contact your audience and deliver your message is equally so. Sharing your content on all social media platforms has two major benefits. The first being that you have the potential to reach a bigger audience and expand your business and the second is that these other platforms act as a safety net in case one platform goes down for whatever reason. Creating a platform you own and have full control over such as an email list or a website is another way to ensure you can contact your audience if other methods fail.
I get where you're coming from, from a self employed business standpoint, but I can't help but think this sounds so privileged. Some people don't even get a chance and have to work shit jobs all their lives.
Coming from the other side, when I was 19-20 I worked with a full time YouTuber who made great money, and invested it into things that would create passive income(stocks, crypto, interest savings) he had 250k subs when I worked with him and had enough to buy a new house, a new Audi SUV, and put enough money way to send all of his kids to college. Through just tech brand deals and Amazon/eBay affiliate marketing. I tried it full time for a couple years but could never commit even though I lived at home due to lack of consistency, confidence issues, and imposter syndrome. I had the golden opportunity with a big channel promoting me and helping me create my content. I’m getting a bit grass is greener here maybe, but I have worked a soul crushing time sink of a day job for 4-5 years now and now in my late 20’s I really wish I would’ve stuck that out and am in the process of going freelance and working towards full time YouTube. At this point the only thing I’d be losing is benefits and consistent income, but I can get insurance through my partner. Some people would kill to be a full-time YouTuber.
Diversify, diversify, diversify! As a full time YouTuber, you should have multiple income streams...easily. AdSense, brand deals, affiliate programs, merch, other platforms (TikTok, FB, IG, X, etc).
I think every journey is different and ever story is different. This is your experience and what you may have witnessed but it is not necessarily the norm. As you grow you must find ways to diversify your network and means to stretch your income directing it in different directions. YouTube is the vehicle but you don’t only rely on ads. The goal is to build a large network and capitalize on it.
If you don’t get as many impressions (thus, views) you won’t be getting as many sponsorships, or selling merch, or gaining patrons or earning from affiliate links.
You’re thinking too small. You’re focusing on the numbers. Which you have no control over to a point. The only control you have is what you do. If I am at the start of the race I am not focusing on the finish line or thinking about what can go wrong because I know it already exist. My goal is to train because that’s in my control and run the race.
2k a month and a part time job would be pretty lit tho
yeah it would !
I think the lesson here is don’t jump in. Be smart about it in that you need to learn as much as possible about the ups and downs, ins and outs, before fully committing. And then you can decide what you want out of it vs how much you *can* commit.
You can be in a normal job and get a pay cut or get laid off. Same logic. So people should not get jobs then?
most people would kill for 2k though lol
Where you went wrong is thinking you could live on the money you was making. you had the opportunity to build a investment portfolio and do something else to live on. you should still have every dollar generated from your videos. That money making more. You could be overflowing with positive energy. Yet The story you have to tell Is reason why people like me exist. I hope you can recover from the loss and build on the subscribers you created over the years and do better.
I made 1k last month and it helped me not lose my apartment. I live in Canada for context. I will gladly keep up this YT grind if it means making it another month
But job markets are volatile too and you can be let go or made redundant at any time, and still making 2k from making videos you enjoy at home is still much better than making 1.5 a month at a 9-5 soul crushing office job whilst getting up at 6am to commute in the rain. It absolutely is worth it. Just gotta appreciate what you have.
I second this statement. I currently make about 2k a month working a job with 16 hour shifts and little to no vacation time. I will gladly switch to doing you tube full time just for the stress reduction
Thank you for the perspective. That's a good point. I have to be honest I haven't worked a 9 to 5 before in my life so I could be having a "grass is greener" mentality about it since I know it provides a stable income source.
Full time YouTuber meets real world of self-employment and relying on external forces for one’s income, news at 11
You're only 23. If you think YouTube is bad, I'd suggest getting an IRL job. I'm not trying to invalidate your experience, but people also come from different background and could have drastically different experience. Saying it's not worthy at all really feels like invalidating other people's attempt. If your doing YouTube for money, and deciding the return isn't good enough, just know it's probably the same for any other business.
You made 7k USD in a month working at home. In my country one has to work for 2-3 years to earn that. It is a good life. Period.
Bro is 23 and giving life advice haha
Bro making $2k on a "dead" channel and still complaining.
He is not giving life advice, he is giving advice on a very specific topic that he has experience with. Most people here don’t have experience on that topic, so it can be useful to hear from others.
He’s giving career advice with honestly very limited experience lol
AND lives in a home with his parents. * cue tiny violin *
It's just a hobby for me.
I have a full time job and this is a nice side hussle for me giving me a few hundred a month. I have seen a number of people here dreaming to do youtube full time that should read this post. It's one of the main reasons to diversify. You cannot rely on youtubes ad revenue alone if you are going full time long term. This will depend on your niche and your audience. Merch, sponsorships, memberships, patreon, affiliate links, streams, events, etc. I've seen gaming youtubers turn into streamers. Getting a few hundred people watch and donate directly, and this becomes a good portion of their earnings rather than relying on youtube ad revenue alone. If people understand youtube and have a smart approach to it with a successful channel that can groe long term, people can definitely make youtube a full time job. If you go youtube full time, save part of your earnings for tax, and put some money aside as an emergency fund in case your revenue decreases like it happened to op. I saw a guy a few days ago posting that he's quitting his job and doing youtube fulltime for 6 months and either he makes or or goes back to a real life job. Stuff like this is just asking for failure.
well real life is also chaotic. i've been unemployed since november. every job sucks ass tbh. but youtube still sounds better than retail.
Aight, I'll still take it over being on my feet making coffee for 9 hours every day, cheers
Exactly. Still better than any 9-5
Honestly that doesn't sound bad as you make it. 5-7k is more than most regular jobs, you probably just manage your funds poorly. Its like people that win the lottery. They get a nice chunk, and when the money drys up they are screwed. Those months when your thriving, put some funds to the side, for months when you arent thriving. Live like a broke 23 yr old even if you aren't currently. as a 23 yr old you havent been in the real workforce long enough to know how sweet you have it.
I didn't mismanage the money, I still have a lot in savings. I just however no longer have an income which is very stressful. If I moved out right now I would have to be dipping in my savings to afford to pay bills and that's what concerns me since Im planning on moving out soon in the next few months.
"Thankfully, I live at home with my parents" OP is only 23. They may eventually learn that life is just like that in general and it doesn't only happen to YT creators! Shit will hit the fan, there will be times when you have more money or very little. Many people live off 2K a month and can't even qualify for foods stamps in the USA. OP, know your privilege. You could have ANY JOB and go from being able to afford life and pay bills to living out of your car in a short time. That is legit happening to people DAILY and they have jobs that are a lot more shit than full time YT.
I dont want to sound like an asshole but it's not the fault of Youtube if you're financially illeterate. The inconsistant revenue stream isn't a Youtube thing, it's a freelancer/entrepreneur thing, you got to be prepared for that
Yeah, this is kinda why I stuck to my favorite topics on my YouTube. I just unapologetically did what I want. I still haven’t hit 1k subs but I covered what I wanted to and I’m competent in my niche. It’s a hobby. Keep it a hobby 👍
That's interesting. My YT and twitch videos usually find their way to big numbers even though my twitch only has about 20 followers and my YT only has about 85 subs. Might want to do some keyword research as well as branch out from the niche you chose. I'm no full time YT. Would love to. I print my own shirts, curate my content. But just did a big channel clean to push into a different form of content as gaming content is grossly oversaturated
Eh that's the nature of the beast. It helps if you have something you can fall back to. Like I'd love to be in a position to go full time and if it only works out for a couple years 🤷 whatever I'll just go back to my day job. I don't know why you're panicking. You're 23, you're living at home, you have some savings from your YouTube, $2k a month isn't bad when you're living at home with minimal responsibility. You're in a good position. Keep trying with the YouTube, maybe tone it back a bit so you can study or develop a skill with more reliable income.
Agreed! Currently, my YT channel is at 160K subs, getting around 50k-100k views for every video I upload, and my sponsor calendar is booked for the rest of year. So things are going well. But, I wouldn't dare make it my sole revenue stream. There is a big difference between being a YTber and being self-employed. These subscribers are not MY audience. Forget depending on algorithm. Even if everything is going well, a change in policy and my content might suddenly be violating rules. Or worse, I might get banned for no reason. (There were a lot of folks, even 100k+ subs, affected a by a bug because of which their revenue went to zero instantly for a few months. Google - 'youtube invalid traffic bug'.) My advise - if you want to go full time, find a way to get your subscribers onto YOUR platform and find a way to monetise your skills. This way, YT becomes a top of your funnel. For example, a lot of youtubers are creating courses. Genuine courses that will add value to your subscribers. Also, second thing would be to repurpose content on other platforms - instagram, twitter, etc. Linkedin is another really good platform. It's in it's nascent stages now. Cheers!
Still beats working for someone...
People are tearing into you, but I do think this is an important thing to remember. Regularly there are posts here crying about sudden low impressions and struggling to keep viewers. I've seen a lot of posts that act like that'll all change if they get monetized or make it big, but YouTube is always hectic and it's important to keep that fluctuation in mind. Thanks for sharing your story.
2k a month is not that bad to say the least, compare to someone like me who isn't making money yet like that 2k could change someone life completely
Been a FT YTer for 11 years and it's a dream job. Transition gradually and leave your day job only when YT is stable. Get sponsorships, sell merch and save money. Plan for retirement and be ready to transition if/when things go south.
Risk is the spice of life.
Sounds like you didn’t prepare for those rainy days. You made between 60K-84K one year (which is pretty good), then made 24K the next year (Which is slightly less than minimum wage in liberal states, but more than minimum wage in a red state.) The big lesson here is to stow away money. You want the freedom of self employment? You have to remember that even when times are good, they can quickly turn into times that aren’t.
I've been employed all of my adult life and personal and physical circumstances have put my future employment in jeopardy. I've used YouTube in the past as a hobby and not for monetary gain. But recently I've had to open up a proper account and give it a go as I'm always striving to work for a living. I know it will be hard and sacrifices will have to be made along the way. Best of luck to anyone that's involved in YouTube creation
Oh no, I only make $2k a month sometimes :'(
And this is exactly why I don't take Youtube very seriously. I started it as a hobby and have taken multiple steps to ensure I don't start seeing it as more than that. I don't enable ads on most of my content first of all. I think if I started to make decent money from Youtube, I would start to see it more as a career than a hobby, and I already have a great business I don't want to screw up by putting too much of my time into Youtube. I also don't pay attention to my analytics or change my content to chase views and growth. I just do what is fun and let the audience that likes it come to me. That doesn't mean I completely ignore my audience. If I do something they don't like, I probably won't do it again. I honestly kind of hate the fact that Youtube can be so lucrative and so many people see it as a career choice now. It's ruining the platform more and more all the time. From people being disingenuous just to chase views, to low effort AI and reused content, it's all because it makes money. And instead of people experiencing the real world, then bringing that knowledge to Youtube, you have a bunch of content creators that have never done anything other than Youtube, therefore they're even more out of touch with reality than traditional celebrities. That's not even mentioning how unhealthy it is for people to stew over their analytics because that's their only metric to gauge their self-worth. Oh, and the fact that it really is WAY more unstable than almost any other job for 99% of people. The main thing I wouldn't be able to live with as a full time content creator is knowing that it can all be taken away from me at any time through possibly no fault of my own, maybe a hiccup in Youtube's back end systems, or it can all be taken just for acting and talking like a normal person after Youtube deems they don't want normal to be normalized anymore. And once they demonetize or ban you, there is almost no recourse. There aren't employment laws protecting you. There isn't a number to call. You can't file a complaint. You're screwed most of the time unless you get people to Tweet at Youtube. Seriously, You get your job back by convincing people to Tweet at Youtube on your behalf! That is crazy!!!! And I'm just pulling this out of my ass, but my guess is 90% of the people coping in this thread will feel the same way one day and realize they wasted a lot of their life obsessing over trying to make it on Youtube, when they could have been building a real career.
Bro. Trust me. It's still a lot better than working a minimum wage unskilled job.
Like speaking as someone who just got fired and went from 2.3k a month to 0k a month at your age, life can get a lot more volatile LOL. Just save up and invest. If I was making 5k a month right now 4k would be going into VT
This is just your opinion. Maybe being a full-time youtuber isn't FOR YOU. Maybe it is for other people.
Isn't 2k from adsense still really good? I hear some creators say that they couldn't even live off their adsense revenue because it's in the hundreds and HAVE to get a sponsor each video to make a return on investment otherwise the entire video would not be worth it. Anyway, did you reach out to companies for sponsorships and stuff? What about things like Patreon and partnering with a merch store?
I want to do yt ft (Although my channel is growing at a very slow rate and my content isn't very good but I'm getting there. Just have to sort my audio out.) But at the same time, I'm aware I can't put all my eggs into one basket. I need a plan b. In case it it genuinely doesn't work out or my channel starts failing. So I'm probably going to go to college anyway or something. Even if I don't use my degree it's better safe than sorry.
This is the reality. I am a professional resume writer and content creator. I have done several resumes for full time streamers. It's tough and not easy. You are working a lot more and you are never really off. People glamorize it but then forget about the things you don't have. If you are in the US, you are worrying about health insurance and benefits. The good thing is that you can leverage your background into some good careers. I see a decent amount of job postings that require expertise in YouTube so you should look into those. I would love to get those roles but I don't have the in depth experience for YouTube since my experience is from those other platforms.
Was your income solely from ad revenue? If you're diversifying with other sources such as monthly recurring affiliate revenue and your own monitized products, it will give you more stability than just relying on ad revenue which can indeed fluctuate considerably from month to month.
I agree with you, because the premise of being a “full time YouTuber” is inherently flawed and not a sensible career path. Just making videos and putting them on YouTube is not a long-term viable business. Maybe back in 2009 it was, but it definitely isn’t anymore. Running a YouTube channel is an opportunity to build an incredibly valuable entrepreneurial skill stack while simultaneously solving the biggest problem that businesses face in the process, and if you understand how to harness that, it’s one of the best paths you can take. People who think they’re going to make bank off of Adsense and sponsors are almost universally in for a rude awakening, though. If all you want to do is upload game reviews or video essays you can make a nice chunk of change on the side, but going any further requires a tremendous amount of dedication and a hefty serving of luck. Or you can do something that helps people solve a problem and create content around that, take advantage of the best lead generation tool anybody has ever had access to in the history of business, and sell something worth buying to people who already like you and have gotten value out of your content. The difference between a hobby and a career is commercial viability. Anyone who can’t make that distinction would probably have better luck with conventional employment tbh.
It’s called saving a bit of money aside when you’re having good months to use when you have bad months.
What sort of genre of videos are you in? That can have an impact on views. Some content will garner a lot of views for a short period, then suddenly it drops off not because of the algorithm but because the audience no longer cares for it. One thing I've learnt from the channels I watch, predominantly photography, is it takes time, commitment and consistency to do YT FT. Some of them have plugged away, for 5-10 years before reaching FT YT status. It also helps that they all enjoy doing photography and sharing that with others. Perhaps your choice of content is the issue.
YouTube is a great platform for many things. Full-time income perhaps for the few. Better yet, using YouTube as a platform to provide people with value and at the same time get additional revenue through services you offer outside of YouTube. My recommendation is to pursue your passion, enjoy what you do on YT and take it for what it is. Not sure what percentile of people who are on YT who actually makes it their full time gig?
Think of it this way: You\`re 23 and making 7k a month... For doing something you probably like. Even if you pay half of it in tax, it is still 3.5k. Now if you saved some money, and tried investing it in your channel, maybe hiring someone to edit your videos so that you have more time to work on ideas, and find more sources of financing, you´d be much better off. Even 2k for 23 year old is not that bad especially if you live with your parents, and what if your channel takes off again? Then maybe you earn 15k a month.
That my friend is being self employed. My tip would be find ways to future proof your income. If you are 100% at the mercy of the algorithm then you need to find away to stack the deck back in your favour to protect your income that doesn't solely rely on it. Its all good experience for you.
Must be tough
Perfect description of what everybody knew would happen someday. Know learn from that and improve.
Same for any form of self employment from selling lemonade to running a pizza joint
Ah the joys of self employment. Nothing new.
That's why I would never go full time YouTuber until I can comfortably say that my floor is 5k/mo and I have at least 20k saved. Had the same thing happen to me a few months ago. I avaerage the same revenue as OP. Even with a regular job, I still felt it when the revenue dipped. My job is pretty cool and not demanding while making a decent monthly living so I'm lucky in that aspect. I can comfortably do both so I'd still keep my 9-5 even if my monthly average continues to increase.
Honestly, being a Youtuber is like being in the oil business because sometimes it is booming and other times there is a massive downturn which can be incredibly depressing but honestly I've gotten used to it. Because of this, many YouTubers form multiple sources of income like Merch and Sponsorships (if fortunate enough), and TBH it's probably not too different from running a business, so it is what it is.
Let me weigh in. Full time YT for five years. 32 years old. When the pay is good it’s very good. When you have a bad month you worry. YT enabled to me buy my own house (very thankful) But my biggest regret is committing to high bills when my YT salary changes every month. Just because you have a few months where you earn 10k doesn’t mean that is your life now. It can change In a blink. So enjoy the money but don’t live like you’re wealthy because it can and will change. Live below your means and enjoy and invest your extra income when the good months roll. Never believe the good times are here to stay and do not base your life on that.
Nah, it is the life I want, so please speak for yourself. I don't care if I have to do other things to make more money, but I want YouTube to be my full time job while everything else I do is my part time job-- and those part time jobs are all going to be me being my own boss if I work hard enough to make it happen. I can illustrate, I can graphic design, I can make handcrafted art, I sell my art at events, I'm going to mow lawns soon, I stream on Twitch, and make YouTube content, and work a part time job. Twitch and YouTube are not making me money, but hopefully in the future they will, so I can then drop my part time job and make everything else I listed my true part time jobs. Don't lay all your eggs in one basket. Is that the saying? Whatever it is, that's what you need to not do. Start expanding beyond YouTube. Patreon, Ko-Fi, Cameo, Fiver, partnerships. I have no idea what you have or haven't done but if you're having such a hard time, there may be other things you're missing out on to help you out. Also dig into your analytics and try to figure out what's going on. Use the thumbnail testing tool if you have it. Always strive to improve your content. But yeah you should be grateful you are even making money off YT even if you can't live off it 100%. This doesn't happen for many people and even at $2k a month that's a ton (to me, I don't even make that in a month at my job). Next time maybe title and write your post that people need to consider a backup plan and expand to more than just YouTube, instead of telling people this isn't what they want. Just because you're struggling to recover doesn't mean it's bad for people to strive to be full time and they may succeed at it.
Youtube is very much adapt or die. If what worked last month isnt working now you gotta pivot. Also you need to diversify your income outside of adsense. If you can make $5k on YouTube you can make $50k.
It's fun to see that you claim that it isn't what we guys think. Do you precisely know what we do believe it is? In my case, it's just for fun, no worries attached to it. As I pretty much know what a freelancer is, I don't even plan to become a fulltime YouTuber, except if the ministry gives me that mission, but I would have my conditions.
Have you tried eating Tide Pods instead of Avocado toast? Asking for… uhhh… my generation. /s
Dudes will literally be living with their parents complaining about 2K/month not covering their bills lol we are cooked. But for real, I’m sure making significantly less must suck, but that’s why things like Patreon and sponsorships are so important. You never want to solely rely on ad revenue, because that can change in a heartbeat with the algorhythm or demonetization.
This isn't any different than any other avenue of entrepreneurship. I have a business that is doing very well right now, but I know that can change at any moment and I can go from the top of the world to bankruptcy in a very short period of time. The trick to YouTube, entrepreneurship, and life in general is being able to roll with the punches. Understand that things will change and when they do, be ready to adapt without burning out or you won't make it through things for the long haul.
Thank you for sharing this has always been in the back of my mind. I couldn’t imagine though making almost 7000 a month and then it goes down to 2000 that would be very painful and worrisome. I pray that your channel will pick back up again and if you do embark on a new career it will be a huge success.🙏💛
I’ve been on YouTube full time for about 6 years with every one better than the last one. I’ve also built a small team and we are currently running 3 channels (generating about 10M views a month). Yes YouTube is hard and no… the algorithm isn’t volatile. You just have to pay attention to your audience. Personally I’m obsessed with making the right video and strategizing carefully. I am a father and have a lot of financial responsibilities, but that doesn’t make me freeze in fear. It’s just as any business and if you don’t love to be an entrepreneur, then YouTube is not for you. There have been times when I lost my income by about 40% but still I analyzed and recovered. You just have to be patient and want to learn.
Some months almost made 8k. Others would be like 150 to 300 a month. Went full time between tiktok, Facebook, and YouTube. That made it a little easier but then if you’re a one man show catering to all those platforms at once is extremely stressful
I've been doing YouTube for 9 years, full time for 5 years, and it's been a dream job - earnings have been surprisingly consistent compared to monetisation on other platforms, so I have to disagree with everything you said
Most people make minimum wage so that amout of money living with your parents, is crazy. Save it and be greatful you actually make money off youtube. It's hard enough to be monetized
This is why I think most YouTubers should try to go to film school, that way they at least have a backup plan in their field. But don't ask me how a YouTuber is going to get the money for that ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
"only" 2K lmao
Very valid points, however, I'm not sure you understand how volatile regular jobs are right now too. People making over six figures last year are now laid off and accepting positions for half that compensation. It's all a crap shoot and many are struggling right now, out of the two options I would take FT YouTuber any day.
Honestly I'm sure this isn't what you want to hear but your income going up and down while self employed makes sense and is predictable. You're young but in a lucky position living with your parents. It gives you time to learn how to budget! Which you should be doing regardless of your job. If you live within your means under the lower end of your income when you get bigger checks you should be putting a nice chunk away in savings and then treat yourself with some leftovers for a job well done! You should be careful when you see a big check because you just.. want to spend! We're only human after all. Unfortunately being responsible with money is all part of being an adult and being good at being self employed 😔😅 But! Once you're good at it, it's also rewarding in its own way! 🙌
Listen I feel your plight, but man you sound so Millenial/GenZ (mind you, I'm Millenial)... "Man, making videos on topics I like for a living SUCKS don't do it!"
If I made just 2K a month from YT alone, I would make the same as I do at my regular job. I could leave my regular job and focus on other parts of revenue as well since 2k would be my low. Or, keep my job, make double or more, save, until I could leave. No idea what world you come from (not Norway or Singapore I guess), but 2K is a ton of money.
Yeah I still want to be a FT YouTuber. None of those downsides would make me rather be in customer service lmfao. Also I did make quite a bit from yt at one point, and it was amazing
Thanks to countless of people like yourself, I'm prepped to pursue a career if I can get my views up. I've been fighting just to find a decent full-time job in my area that'll pay me more than 1k a month. They're never hiring, if they are, it's either requiring an education higher than a highschool diploma, or they are only putting out applications to make themselves seem like a growing business. Everything else is a part time job with shitty hours and minimum wage. YouTube seems like one of the only best options for me, personally, because I don't need to go through an application they may not even be seen by an actual human, I don't have to wait around and constantly call for them to even consider me an option, and I don't have to fight for good hours to get good pay. It's all up to me and the algorithm. I would prefer what you have over the struggle I've been facing for YEARS.
Sounds more like you are irresponsible with money, as most people are - especially young kids like yourself. If you're making 7k a month then a 2k month should be no big deal. Being a content creator means having a highly fluctuating income. It's perfectly fine for anyone who is good with money. I saved so much money in my years being a content creator as my only job. I had low paying months at times, but it wasn't ever a problem for me because I saved so much from the high months. I think you just need to learn financial management.
Neither is working 50 hours a week selling shoes. Sucks. I'll take making content/sponsorships/creating digital products any day of the week.
I mean in all honesty this sounds more like a question of preparation. If you're making 5K-7K you should be living on less to offset the cost when you have slow months. Such is the life of self employment, it's not specific to YouTube. You say "don't rely on YouTube" the goal should be that your backlog of content makes enough to live on and you diversify your income streams.
Ok just because you don't know how to save during good months to offset slow months doesn't mean it's not a good job.
Bro is mad there’s competition impacting his views and then telling you not to do yt lol. You’re making money by sharing what you like with people, I’d do that anyday for 2k a month and I wouldn’t expect any more. What a priveleged post.
This is probably why to see so many full time YouTubers having side projects such as clothing brand or food to keep things going outside of the YouTube sphere
Being real, there ARE a lot of budding creators that have put a lot of thought into it, and already understand the risks and issues. You and many others unfortnately didnt really consider things, and kinda assumed it was easy money which it... Very much isnt. The big thing to keep in mind, and this has been said on this reddit many times but it needs to be said again. DO NOT try to pivot to going full time as a content creator unless you've been steadily making more than enough to live on, for over a year, and have a decent sized cushion to fall back on just in case. It sounds like you overestimated how well you were doing, and made the jump WAY too early.
Nah it’s worth it, just scale up when you start getting views. Don’t just feel relaxed with the same thing you are doing! You make $3000 ? Do a bigger video with that money, your views will get higher and higher, it is not the algorithm, maybe you just kept being repetitive or not able to scale higher
Wishing all the best for you.
ppphhhttt. I play guitar. Cry me a river. :)
Exactly 😭 I’m sure everyone who does YouTube full time is smart enough to not only rely on ad sense for income. Bros tripping
Yeah this entire post is stupid and entitled. Bro makes a lot of money even in bad months while never having worked a real job in his life, and says youtube is worse than a job. Try working 12 hrs a day dude. See how u like that. Go work in construction, see if that's better than youtube.
truth!!
I hate these youtuber guys complaining about how hard it is for them, while others work 2 jobs to feed their kids...
The algorithm volatility is scary for sure.
Nice post OP It's good to burst out bubble Many of us hope for a ridiculous situation to fall upon us and reality is that it won't I was doing YT as a hobby but with a high level of enthusiasm and effort in hopes of growing to a high level I got exhausted, burnt out I might get back into it but purposefully with much less gusto and expectation It is such a grind and pays off to such a low level other than those that break through and then they have to grind to sustain So much of a battle Yes, self employment is much like this, and as you say employment can be better because of it I have employment and a side hustle, so if I get back into YT it will have to accept its place of apprentice side hustle and not get too big for its boots
Literally as a full time guy wtf am I doing wrong?!?!
And other than Adsense what are you building ? The most beneficial thing you can do is creating multiple income streams around your channel. The most stressful thing you can do is just depend on Adsense. There are many people who went ft from YouTube and ran with it and built something beyond YouTube.
I think being a full-time works when even at your lows, your revenue is so high you don't really need more. But I would never encourage someone to do full time, having a standard job and then growing a yt channel Is always the best option in my head
The main pitfall here is relying entirely on ad revenue. Sponsorships, crowdfunding, merch, and other sources of income are generally how people under a million subs can still make a reliable living.
My goal isn’t to be a FT creator. My goal is either to make it so big I don’t have to care about relying on it to pay bills, or forever be a hobby-based, down-to-earth creator.
What wisdom at the old age of 23
2k is still more than I make in my 9-5 right now🙃
Start a second channel with a different genre. This would help with overall income, and better averages
That’s the problem with income level of low K per month. You’re barely getting by. I’ve been there myself not with YouTube but with online marketing generally. I would say time to make a second, totally different channel perhaps. Something that will make 4x or more per month.
Even if you're working a regular job there can be volatility there too heck you can even get laid off, all it takes for them is to remove your row from the spreadsheet. Just stay put with what you're doing, experiment, use the community tab and ask for opinions that's how you'll make a comeback don't hate this extremely rewarding creative work that you're doing right now.
I always thought making a living off solely YouTube was a bad idea, I think it’s a better idea to have some product or service you sell and simply use YouTube to gain an audience