I was very nervous about this 😅 Edit: I wasn’t sure it was going to make it into the video, but since it did I wanted to say that I am currently in the process of selling some of the filming gear I’ve accumulated over the years to help pay the bills. I felt very guilty asking for more Patreon support while I was sitting on a few hundred bucks of equipment I could at least try selling first. Thank you for this great video, Vera! 💜
I personally don’t think you should sell equipment you regularly use for making your videos. Stuff that sits on a shelf only being used once every 2 years or more? Sure if you REALLY have to. But I don’t think anyone would begrudge you keeping and using the equipment you already have while asking for support on patreon. It’s not the same as spending that money on new kit.
I have to echo what @CulturePhilter said. As someone who has been a Patron of yours multiple times on and off over the years, I see no reason you should be selling off the equipment you're actively using to make videos in lieu of a Patreon drive. Those who support you end up benefiting from the nice lights and nice camera in the form of nicer content. And I don't think anyone would accuse you of being anything like Somerton.
Don't sell your kit. If you had a 9-5 job would you sell your desk, pc and chair? Those are essential tools needed to do the job, regardless of how often you reach for them.
I won't tell you what I think you should do, but I will offer some solidarity as someone who, even as the primary income-earner for my family, also suffers from guilt and frequently has to be reminded it's okay for me to buy things for myself.
Thanks for this Vera and thanks for none of the “If I can do it, you can do it to” nonsense and having real stories. Sometimrs TH-cam success is really the right video at the right time. Much appreciated for the realness here. I’ve been prepping content for a new channel, right now its a hobby for some creative energy I have. I limped along surviving on youtube before and it wasn’t for me. Stressed me out and drained my creativity to have to worry about hitting the algorithm and I felt trapped in a niche I had grown away from on top of that. So I really just wanna put out some videos for fun while having a salary elsewhere.
What Pillar says around 55:00 is apt, and relates to a lot of the TH-cam retirements we've seen. Whatever one can say about TV, there is a reason they have teams and teams of people to do stuff - trying to do everything on your own (creative, production, marketing and distribution), not to mention on a fraction of the budget, is a stressful nightmare.
To keep your throat from being strained, drink some tea with lemon, ginger, honey, or a mix of them. Based off of the "Gollum Juice" they made for Andy Serkis when filming the Lord of the Rings.
The thing about TH-cam that always brings me back to trying to “make it” on TH-cam, despite the drawbacks such as instability, demonetization, hate comments, etc. is the freedom. No matter how much you make from a regular job, you’re always expected to act, dress, work, speak a certain way. TH-cam however, the only penalty is just making less money. Sure it may not be secure, but it’s probably objectively the only decent job that the world has. I don’t care if I’m not financially secure, I just wanna be free. Something about being a TH-camr feels so… idk humanizing? Essentially you have 2 bosses, the algorithm and your viewers. The algorithm is just impossible to please sometimes, but your viewers? Unlike your boss, they’re real humans with genuine emotions. They will understand if something happens in your life that could make you less productive or hinder your content creation process. I may not have the biggest, well-established community, but when I said to my audience that my next video might take a while due to unfortunate events, their comments were heartwarming. Unlike any comments from bosses, managers or consumers that I ever had. TH-cam is probably the only place where I feel like a human, while also making money. One of the biggest dealbreakers of becoming a TH-camr is the unstable income and how you could lose your platform if someday TH-cam starts acting up. A music channel called Brad Taste in Music is on the brink of losing his livelihood because of copyright issues. While it is terrible and unfair, losing your platform is basically just like getting laid off and employees get laid off everyday. I’m not trying to downplay the issue, but if the so-called “secure” regular job isn’t so secure that you could also lose your livelihood any time for any reason, like nothing is truly financially secure, then just might as well become a TH-camr. Both TH-cam and regular job have a chance to lose everything, but with TH-cam you can make as much as you want.
By the way, did y'all know Channel Pup is the creator of the Abzorballoff from Doctor Who? No joke! One of my favourite 'Tubers, great to have him here! 😃
This was enlightening in so many ways. And hearing from some.of my favorite TH-camrs is sobering and also realistic. Thank you for taking the time and effort to make us understand what it takes to help us get through our day or week. We love you all!
I think the important takeaway is that when you try to grow as an creator, you should try to just focus on what works best for you both for your finances and your mental health, and not stressing yourself out and not worrying too much.
Thank you for the video, Vera! I really hate the mindset of "anybody can easily start a TH-cam channel and become a (financial) success". So why the person who thinks that way does not do that? Because it is actually not easy at all. As a non-creative person, and also not being capable of creating proper essays, I do find the idea of producing videos at certain quality and regularity "forever" to be very scary! In "regular" jobs, under non-exploitative conditions, people usually have protections in place in order to support employees (if these labor protections are good enough is a different conversation). However, people who work as digital influencers (any figure with a considerable number of followers in social networks) do not have these same protections. Without mentioning how the exposition of that kind of job makes them easy targets for online harassment, especially when they are people-of-color, queer, disabled or belong to any marginalized group of people. That is why I have extreme respect for small and medium-sized creators of content who are able to reach financial estability in their jobs (for the literal millionnaire/billionnaire ones, I do not wish bad things over them, but rich people in general deserve no praise at all)!
I don’t want to make it on TH-cam or any social media but I’m interested in TH-camrs living situation, because I don’t think it’s as easy as people claim it to be.
Great video! If only there was a way to cut it up in short clips I could show to my teenage nephews who are all convinced that they'll be millionaire influencers in no time :)
This was a very interesting video, I really appreciate the strong editing of the interviews, creating solid parallels or contrasts. I appreciate the guests you got - Scott Niswander is one of my favourite TH-camrs, I've long loved NerdSync, and have been happy to support Scott over the years, whether it was during the more comics-focused era or the more Scoobfluencer times. I had to tighten my belt recently but Scott is one of the people I've tried to continue supporting through Patreon - I do wish that I could support more, too, but I've had to sadly choose. Your own comments were also really insightful. I've seen and heard enough to terrify me at the prospect of trying to be a TH-camr, and I admire the courage/bravery/foolhardiness of many who try. The point around 26:00 is something that really bothers me (actually, angers me) about TH-cam. I don't like how it forces TH-camrs to split up their channels just because they want to do somewhat disparate stuff. I think the one example that's bothered me the most was the Extra Credits channel, which started as gaming-focused then later added history and eventually myths and more, then found that wasn't the most algorithm-friendly so they split the stuff into different channels and rebranded the original channel into the history part. I definitely prefer the single channel style, and I'll admit that means I wouldn't always watch every video, but I like being able to jump between the different stuff on a single channel, but maybe it's just me. I like to encourage TH-camrs to make videos they want to make because you can usually see/feel that enthusiasm and interest, making for a better video, but I'll also admit that not everything is my bag, so - while I want to be encouraging - I can't guarantee I'll watch it (especially not a continued series or a long video). That's sadly where I sat with the MCU Body Count series: I'm just not that interested in that kind of thing, though I respect the effort/work put into it, and I'm sure other people like that kind of thing, I won't begrudge them that.
One question you didn't quite get to that I always wonder as someone whose capacity for financial backing is minimal and therefore someone who prioritizes it being highly targeted: What backing systems send the most money to a content creator. Say I have $10 and want to get the most of that to you - do I use Patreon? OnlyFans? Ko-Fi (for the people who use it)? Channel membership on TH-cam? Twitch subscriptions? Direct Paypal (again for the folks who have that set up)? And there's probably at least half a dozen avenues I'm forgetting, and a completely unknown number of ones I've never heard of. I don't entirely begrudge the fact that every system takes its cut. Even direct bank transfers have fees, because the finance system costs money to interact with. All these services have some degree of web presence they need to fund on top of that, and they're all businesses too. But I do begrudge stuff like a 50-50 split when one of those groups is a person barely making ends meet and the other is a multi-billion dollar corporation...which is almost as bad as some of these sites get.
On a dollar amount kept basis ko-fi or PayPal probably gets me the most. So if you’re planning a one-off tip those are best personally Patreon is my preference because it’s easier for me to track support and what I can expect month to month.
Thank you much for making this :) I’ve been watching a lot of videos about being a TH-camr over the past 6 months while starting my channel, but nothing that talks about the reality and the experience of it in this way, as it’s mostly specific TH-cam advice channels or videos about how much people earned in their first month (or how it changed their life without monetisation) which don’t really get into the day to day reality of doing it for a living. This was a really helpful insight into how real TH-camrs make a living out of it, thank you!
Great video! I've always enjoyed these types of videos. I'm sure there are multiple youtubers who've done these types of videos, but the only other one that comes to mind is Hannah Witton, who does yearly videos going over her finances and where her money's coming from. It's nice to see this type of video coming from a different type of youtuber/group of youtubers! This video is more interview-y and asks more questions besides the stats of it all, and it's cool to hear everyone talk about their own finances. Your videos have always been super cool to me I hope you have a good day!
1000 youtubers make a video about the same topic the same day and post it almost at the same time and then they wonder why they have not many views. Can you spot the problem? Also some, who should know better, think that there is infinit growth on youtube but in fact there's a peak for every channnel and from there it goes down. Some people age out of or just lose interrest in specific content. For example when I played a specific multiplayer online game I watched a bunch of channels that covered (in my eyes) relvant info on that subject. When I stopped playing the game I had no more need for that informations so I stopped watching and unsubscribed. TH-cam is extreamly bad in recognizing those patterns that's why the suggestion feed is useless for anyone who's not a media zombie. Viewers have two rather limited resources, time and money. In my case two of the creators I watch regulary are real life friends of mine who do this full time so they get my money budget and have a fixed amount of my time budget. Also I will stop watching a creator when it turns out that they will do anything for money like, for example, supporting products or companies that benefit the far right, anti LGBTQAI+ people and "religious" nut jobs. Sadly not many youtube channels have the constant quality of Philosiphy Tube, Cass Eris, Jessie Gender or this one 😞 Still time doesn't allow it that I watch everything that gets publishedjust on those 4 at the time when it comes out. To some I'll get back later to some, never. Daylie or Weekly content is nice when it's news like for example (daily) Beau of the Fifth Column or (weekly) Gamers Nexus Hardware News.
Honestly a really interesting video, love getting different perspectives on stuff like TH-cam and how it is for different creators. Even this smaller sample size is still an interesting insight, and hopefully future videos in this vein continue (also hopefully they just do well, per the discussion at hand)
I don't think I'm interested in ever doing TH-cam, but I've often wondered about this. This was very thoughtful and thought-provoking; I appreciated this!
I really liked seeing the curtain pulled back on this one! It might not do well, but I like the more journalistic content, especially because I don't have access to new Doctor Who stuff because, well, an incoming college student having streaming? in this economy? I hope that the bots also like good pop culture/TH-cam journalism that isn't drama focused, so yeah
My lady, I never noticed how niche you were. The level of quality is so amazing. A tragedy of modern society, to say the least, that more do not know of you. You being the smallest channel of the bunch is a testament to your appeal.
I did enjoy watching this. Another youtuber that I follow went over the financials from her first year and disclosed that her first year on youtube ten years ago she made around $34.
This is a fascinating video and a real insight into the lives of content creators. Thank you for doing this, it must have taken quite a bit of time and effort.
This is a good resource. I once considered doing TH-cam, since I wanted to share my thoughts. I would like to do it, but time and other things in my life come first. Great guests you had on. I may consider doing it, but making time for it is my biggest challenge
Vera I love your content ❤ and I think this vid is the kind of stuff that has evergreen engagement and that other creators in the space may want to quickly refer their audience to when covering broader topics. Keep it up and thank you so much!!
This video was really insightful. It's really easy to assume that the youtubers with higher views or higher subscribers are therefore 'in the money' when yeah youtube is a crapshoot and as usual 'the purity of arts' isn't as valued as the view-chasing of trends, which makes it really hard for youtubers big and small to wrestle between responsible business and the dreams of making something meaningful (and the third category i hope no one goes with, completely screwing everyone else over for profit) I missed the first 10 minutes, who made the opening countdown music? They should replace call-waiting music with that, it's really cool.
This is very insightful, I want to start streaming because I play alone mostly, and it would be a good way to connect with other people since I don’t quite like multiplayer games, but I’m very aware that it has to start as a hobby first, something that its done for fun, and it probably will stay like that because making it profitable enough to make it a full-time thing is not easy, much less maintaining it.
One question I worry about for you all, is how many costs you must have. I see money being spent on equipment, but, gosh, your monthly outlay for things to review must be huge. I love your reviews because I love Dr Who, but can't afford Disney Plus. You are the closest I will get to watching episodes until someone is willing to sell them as DVDs. So far Disney is keeping a tight grip on it. I just don't enjoy the other Dr Who reviews as much as I do yours. So, thank you for all your hard work, Vera! Thank you to all those who responded to your questions about earning money on TH-cam. This is a very fascinating video and subject.
This was excellent. I'm working on re-launching my own channel, while also re-relaunching all of my novels. My aim is to create multiple revenue streams that can loop back on one another and supplement my day job. I don't know if it will all coalesce and be able to replace having a day job, but if it at least gives me some freedom to seek out a more rewarding day job without having to match my current salary, that will be a win.
Wow, I learned a lot in this video. I've never wanted to do TH-cam videos in any way, but it's really interesting to hear how it works. I was struck by how burnout is a very, very, very real possibility.
Love you so much, viewer for ages, patreon for a while now. Wish for you a big boost! Esp with newest Who, which is pretty good so far. One of my fave parts of keeping up is watching esp great reviews. Been wondering to myself Vera why your channel (s) hasn’t grown even more before this. Maybe now’s the time. I think you’re hilarious & brilliant. Tell people about you all the time - like that’s gonna matter, but hey you never know. Helped I was a Doctor Who fan & following for a long time, then I learned my daughter is trans. You & Jessie helped make my response as a mom so much better back then. So I guess I’m in a niche now lol. This older lady will always support the two of you as best I can. Curious how much commenting helps? Always “like” yr vlogs of course, but does commenting rly matter? I do enjoy adding my .02 bc yr subs are so smart (and y’all probably work hard to keep things tidy) and won’t stop, but would be interesting to know.
It’s hard to quantify how much comments and likes boost things but they do help, and even if they didn’t I personally appreciate it. Especially when the comments are this lovely.
I can’t see ever earning enough to make this my job. It’s just a bit of extra pocket money every so often. Best I would expect to hope for is if the money I make from it could get 10 times bigger I might be able to drop to 4 days at my current full time job. Haven’t tried a Patreon as yet but have considered it. Don’t know what I’d offer or if anyone would be interested. In it though.
I was a TH-camr back when it was very young still. Had nearly 200K subs until I deleted the channel completely without a word in 2016. Simply because the new generation of TH-camrs focused on clickbait hate bait and drama, and it was not about creating fun things nor community anymore (cause parasocial bad). I do miss it, but also in this landscape I wouldn't do it again. Everything is toxic and bad so nah. I was lazy with my content and didn't use Twitter or any of that to boost the views nor to build a business out of it. Back when I started you had to actually get approved to become an affiliate and earn money lol Some of my videos are still available by other channels and a few of them were used in a UK based program about TH-cam. I personally never watched it cause I'm sensitive like that but I heard it was okay. When I look at my recommended, every single video is negative. The rise and fall, The accusations of, This person needs to be stopped, This film and game ruined a franchise, Why you're (insert something clickbaity) and how to fix it, People need to stop doing this etc .. The algorithm sucks yes, but thats also 90% of TH-cam now. I have a brain and life experience, I do not need a video to tell me how to feel about a film, or a heavily edited hit piece to convince me someone is a bad person because someone once accused them of something. Just no. Life sucks as it is.
This video is fascinating, hats off to Y'all for having to juggle all of this varying income each month. I'm afraid this hamster wheel of having to put out a video each week combined with the ad revenue fluctuating this wildly is done on purpose by TH-cam. A dark pattern to keep the content creators creating. If they wanted to, they could reconfigure the algorithm to reward less frequent upload schedules and spread out ad revenue spikes over the following months to reduce the fluctuation. But the TH-cam CEO wants it to be like this, where it puts creators under constant pressure and financial anxiety.
Here's what I'll say: I couldn't live in a major metropolitan area on what I make without a roommate, if not two. I'm ok because I live in rural Vermont and my living expenses are mostly on the lower end compared to any actual city or the surrounding suburbs.
TH-cam appears to be trying to hurt smaller channels. Or has add revenue fallen for everything? There used to only be one commercial at a time. Now there are two or three ads every few minutes.
When I started my channel I had dreams of it being an income stream- after 4 years I have not even reached monitisation. It is hard to get subscribers!
Good on you for acknowledging your privilege in comparison with others of your generation. So many people do not, Instead, they sit and spout "I'm self made" when, in reality, their parents gifted them the deposit on a house and gave them a late model car for their birthday, and then they dunk on "lazy people" who fail to be as successful as them... for being, y'know, _too lazy_ to have someone gift them the deposit for a house or give them a car. It's telling that, even without the level of debt many people are experiencing, it's still not *_easy_* to have TH-cam as a full-time job. My channel's just a hobby channel - never any consideration that it would become my "job" or primary source of income - and damned good thing, too, given the events of the last 10 years.
We get to see a breakdown of how much we've earned from premium compared to ads, but only as a total, not any sort of per-view breakdown. The understanding I have, though, is that a premium view pays considerably more than a monetised non-premium view - somewhere in the region of 4 to 8 times as much. (Take that with a grain of salt, though, because as with most of it, we're never actually _told_ that outright)
With Patreon I know I'd rather back a smaller creator since they are getting less through TH-cam. I feel like a bigger creators don't need my support at much.
Only just started watching and I'll likely have to split it into 2 viewings, so this may be somewhat off topic. From my outsiders perspective, I've been using a sci-fi TV and movie staple analogy for a long while. It seems like those scenarios where the elite offer food, shelter and work to the lower classes, pull loads of people into the scheme and for awhile it all works and seems great. Then the people realise the walls have gone up, the food has stopped and the work has dried up. The elites control everything and if you do exactly what they say, you might get some scraps on occasion. The rest are irrelevant to the elite. I wouldn't recommend anyone to do YT as a job these days. Do it because you love it, then anything positive you get is a bonus but don't go in looking for a career. It's not worth it IMO.
"To visit the various partners that I have" - I don't mean to dig into your personal life more than you're comfortable, but this threw me a bit. I thought you were still with Liz. Anyway, don't mean it to shame, just not part of your life that I had heard about before
If you’re on Patreon, you’re doing fancy e-begging. It’s no different from the people that post in Queer Exchange groups asking for money to go to the grocery store or for bus fare. It makes sense that Patreon goes down in hard times because you’re not actually providing a service that anybody needs. A lot of creators probably work harder than most people do at their 8 to 430 jobs. I kind of feel like this a waste of effort a bit because I don’t think TH-cam actually cares whether people make a living and actually would prefer they didn’t. Granted I don’t think the company that I work for for my desk job cares either but they’re limited by the law beyond firing me with what they can actually do to affect my income. They can’t just decide to calculate my wages differently because in lot of cases that’s illegal. This is in contrast to TH-cam, which can just decide to change the algorithm overnight and make everybody try to deal with it.
the debt that is typical for an AMERICAN millennial. We don't have no student debt in my part of town(planet) and car debt is pretty optional, we don't really by things we can't effort, maybe cars and obviously for a house you have a mortgage if you don't rent. But no, crushing debt isn't universal to millennials at all.
Student debt is a big thing in the UK as well, but yeah, the (mostly?) American contributors to this video can only tell about their situation, so it might just be a problem for millenials in certain capitalist countries.
From my perspective it seems like you need an incredible amount of economic privilege to live off of TH-cam. from being able to afford the cameras and other equipment, the props/clothes (can't get an audience dressed in rags), a decent looking space to film, etc. As well as the economic security to be able to take such a risk. None of which I have. For reference, I make around 2 dollars an hour (which is considered a good salary here) working a dead end job that doctors have more or less told me will probably kill me at some point, but I'm disabled and there aren't that many jobs I can do from home. On top of that, a good chunk of my paycheck goes to buying medicine, since the IMSS (Mexican healthcare system) is an establishment for eugenics and they systematically discriminate and neglect disabilities and chronic illnesses so I have to buy the medicine I need to live. Living off of content creation is a dream, in the sense that it would make my life so much easier, but also in the sense that it's an unattainable goal, considering my cirsumstance. There is a conversation to be had about how so-called "pettite burgeois" jobs are a tool of neoliberal capitalism, allowing people of certain economic conditions to participate in the "free market" for a chance at climbing the ladder at the cost of the inherent instability of such things. There is a real concern that marginalized "crowdfunded" channels might become a mechanism for wealth accumulation at the expense of marginalized audiences (the Somerton effect, if you will). Please consider that this is systemic critique, not a personal attack against any one youtuber.
So in Mexico you make only $2 want to be hire by me to write on my blog? I will pay $15 for 3 good blog posts per week. If we do well I could up your pay to $30 for 3 blog posts per week. I want writers. I do food and drinks and home decor and money apps and novel chapters and Christian Bible verses and commentary. You can pick which 3 you want to do each week. I will pay an extra $5 if you also post it on your social media as well twice a week. What do you say.
I'm definitely here for your commentary and you, but I'm also here for the tiny ratty hands and noses (maybe just here until the very very end of every video for them). Thanks for what you do!
What does one do when one "follows the algorithm"? Is that kind of like being a slave to the audience? Sorry, youtube 101, I know. But I'm youngish Gen X, ;)
Sort of? Trying to please the algorithm is about doing the things that will get TH-cam to push your video in front of more people, which or may not actually please your audience. It’s kind of two related but different things: pleasing the algorithm vs pleasing the existing audience.
Vera! I can't believe you have Avelo (F.k.a Dreamsounds on here - I was following her before she even came out and is tremendously under-appreciated. Not even 5 minutes in and and I'm ready to chomp into this awesome selection of creators I haven't had a chance to discover yet.) Also...my notification didn't go off, no idea what that's about...
I was very nervous about this 😅
Edit: I wasn’t sure it was going to make it into the video, but since it did I wanted to say that I am currently in the process of selling some of the filming gear I’ve accumulated over the years to help pay the bills. I felt very guilty asking for more Patreon support while I was sitting on a few hundred bucks of equipment I could at least try selling first.
Thank you for this great video, Vera! 💜
I personally don’t think you should sell equipment you regularly use for making your videos.
Stuff that sits on a shelf only being used once every 2 years or more? Sure if you REALLY have to. But I don’t think anyone would begrudge you keeping and using the equipment you already have while asking for support on patreon.
It’s not the same as spending that money on new kit.
I have to echo what @CulturePhilter said.
As someone who has been a Patron of yours multiple times on and off over the years, I see no reason you should be selling off the equipment you're actively using to make videos in lieu of a Patreon drive.
Those who support you end up benefiting from the nice lights and nice camera in the form of nicer content. And I don't think anyone would accuse you of being anything like Somerton.
Don't sell your kit. If you had a 9-5 job would you sell your desk, pc and chair? Those are essential tools needed to do the job, regardless of how often you reach for them.
I won't tell you what I think you should do, but I will offer some solidarity as someone who, even as the primary income-earner for my family, also suffers from guilt and frequently has to be reminded it's okay for me to buy things for myself.
Looking forward to seeing how this project turned out!
Thanks for inviting me to take part in this! Wonderful vid ❤
Thanks for this Vera and thanks for none of the “If I can do it, you can do it to” nonsense and having real stories. Sometimrs TH-cam success is really the right video at the right time. Much appreciated for the realness here. I’ve been prepping content for a new channel, right now its a hobby for some creative energy I have. I limped along surviving on youtube before and it wasn’t for me. Stressed me out and drained my creativity to have to worry about hitting the algorithm and I felt trapped in a niche I had grown away from on top of that. So I really just wanna put out some videos for fun while having a salary elsewhere.
What Pillar says around 55:00 is apt, and relates to a lot of the TH-cam retirements we've seen. Whatever one can say about TV, there is a reason they have teams and teams of people to do stuff - trying to do everything on your own (creative, production, marketing and distribution), not to mention on a fraction of the budget, is a stressful nightmare.
Holy shit this is like my Infinity War what a crossover
To keep your throat from being strained, drink some tea with lemon, ginger, honey, or a mix of them. Based off of the "Gollum Juice" they made for Andy Serkis when filming the Lord of the Rings.
I’ve been debating TH-cam for 5 years. I’m almost stable enough to do this. Thanks for this!
The thing about TH-cam that always brings me back to trying to “make it” on TH-cam, despite the drawbacks such as instability, demonetization, hate comments, etc. is the freedom. No matter how much you make from a regular job, you’re always expected to act, dress, work, speak a certain way. TH-cam however, the only penalty is just making less money. Sure it may not be secure, but it’s probably objectively the only decent job that the world has. I don’t care if I’m not financially secure, I just wanna be free.
Something about being a TH-camr feels so… idk humanizing? Essentially you have 2 bosses, the algorithm and your viewers. The algorithm is just impossible to please sometimes, but your viewers? Unlike your boss, they’re real humans with genuine emotions. They will understand if something happens in your life that could make you less productive or hinder your content creation process. I may not have the biggest, well-established community, but when I said to my audience that my next video might take a while due to unfortunate events, their comments were heartwarming. Unlike any comments from bosses, managers or consumers that I ever had. TH-cam is probably the only place where I feel like a human, while also making money.
One of the biggest dealbreakers of becoming a TH-camr is the unstable income and how you could lose your platform if someday TH-cam starts acting up. A music channel called Brad Taste in Music is on the brink of losing his livelihood because of copyright issues. While it is terrible and unfair, losing your platform is basically just like getting laid off and employees get laid off everyday. I’m not trying to downplay the issue, but if the so-called “secure” regular job isn’t so secure that you could also lose your livelihood any time for any reason, like nothing is truly financially secure, then just might as well become a TH-camr. Both TH-cam and regular job have a chance to lose everything, but with TH-cam you can make as much as you want.
Looking forward to seeing if my peers are faring better than I am and maybe gleaning some tips. 😅😮💨
By the way, did y'all know Channel Pup is the creator of the Abzorballoff from Doctor Who? No joke! One of my favourite 'Tubers, great to have him here! 😃
This was enlightening in so many ways. And hearing from some.of my favorite TH-camrs is sobering and also realistic. Thank you for taking the time and effort to make us understand what it takes to help us get through our day or week. We love you all!
This is a really, really cool video idea, thanks for that Vera and thanks to all who contributed !
I think the important takeaway is that when you try to grow as an creator, you should try to just focus on what works best for you both for your finances and your mental health, and not stressing yourself out and not worrying too much.
Thank you for the video, Vera!
I really hate the mindset of "anybody can easily start a TH-cam channel and become a (financial) success". So why the person who thinks that way does not do that? Because it is actually not easy at all. As a non-creative person, and also not being capable of creating proper essays, I do find the idea of producing videos at certain quality and regularity "forever" to be very scary! In "regular" jobs, under non-exploitative conditions, people usually have protections in place in order to support employees (if these labor protections are good enough is a different conversation). However, people who work as digital influencers (any figure with a considerable number of followers in social networks) do not have these same protections. Without mentioning how the exposition of that kind of job makes them easy targets for online harassment, especially when they are people-of-color, queer, disabled or belong to any marginalized group of people. That is why I have extreme respect for small and medium-sized creators of content who are able to reach financial estability in their jobs (for the literal millionnaire/billionnaire ones, I do not wish bad things over them, but rich people in general deserve no praise at all)!
This video is the most Council of Geeks video from this channel. More than that and you must be sitted to discuss what to do with the One Ring.
I don’t want to make it on TH-cam or any social media but I’m interested in TH-camrs living situation, because I don’t think it’s as easy as people claim it to be.
Great video! If only there was a way to cut it up in short clips I could show to my teenage nephews who are all convinced that they'll be millionaire influencers in no time :)
This was a very interesting video, I really appreciate the strong editing of the interviews, creating solid parallels or contrasts. I appreciate the guests you got - Scott Niswander is one of my favourite TH-camrs, I've long loved NerdSync, and have been happy to support Scott over the years, whether it was during the more comics-focused era or the more Scoobfluencer times. I had to tighten my belt recently but Scott is one of the people I've tried to continue supporting through Patreon - I do wish that I could support more, too, but I've had to sadly choose. Your own comments were also really insightful. I've seen and heard enough to terrify me at the prospect of trying to be a TH-camr, and I admire the courage/bravery/foolhardiness of many who try.
The point around 26:00 is something that really bothers me (actually, angers me) about TH-cam. I don't like how it forces TH-camrs to split up their channels just because they want to do somewhat disparate stuff. I think the one example that's bothered me the most was the Extra Credits channel, which started as gaming-focused then later added history and eventually myths and more, then found that wasn't the most algorithm-friendly so they split the stuff into different channels and rebranded the original channel into the history part. I definitely prefer the single channel style, and I'll admit that means I wouldn't always watch every video, but I like being able to jump between the different stuff on a single channel, but maybe it's just me.
I like to encourage TH-camrs to make videos they want to make because you can usually see/feel that enthusiasm and interest, making for a better video, but I'll also admit that not everything is my bag, so - while I want to be encouraging - I can't guarantee I'll watch it (especially not a continued series or a long video). That's sadly where I sat with the MCU Body Count series: I'm just not that interested in that kind of thing, though I respect the effort/work put into it, and I'm sure other people like that kind of thing, I won't begrudge them that.
One question you didn't quite get to that I always wonder as someone whose capacity for financial backing is minimal and therefore someone who prioritizes it being highly targeted:
What backing systems send the most money to a content creator. Say I have $10 and want to get the most of that to you - do I use Patreon? OnlyFans? Ko-Fi (for the people who use it)? Channel membership on TH-cam? Twitch subscriptions? Direct Paypal (again for the folks who have that set up)? And there's probably at least half a dozen avenues I'm forgetting, and a completely unknown number of ones I've never heard of.
I don't entirely begrudge the fact that every system takes its cut. Even direct bank transfers have fees, because the finance system costs money to interact with. All these services have some degree of web presence they need to fund on top of that, and they're all businesses too. But I do begrudge stuff like a 50-50 split when one of those groups is a person barely making ends meet and the other is a multi-billion dollar corporation...which is almost as bad as some of these sites get.
Kofi is probably the best option cause Vera will get all the money you send
On a dollar amount kept basis ko-fi or PayPal probably gets me the most. So if you’re planning a one-off tip those are best personally Patreon is my preference because it’s easier for me to track support and what I can expect month to month.
Thanks for pulling back the curtain and showing us how the machine works 👍👍😊
Thank you much for making this :) I’ve been watching a lot of videos about being a TH-camr over the past 6 months while starting my channel, but nothing that talks about the reality and the experience of it in this way, as it’s mostly specific TH-cam advice channels or videos about how much people earned in their first month (or how it changed their life without monetisation) which don’t really get into the day to day reality of doing it for a living. This was a really helpful insight into how real TH-camrs make a living out of it, thank you!
Great video! I've always enjoyed these types of videos. I'm sure there are multiple youtubers who've done these types of videos, but the only other one that comes to mind is Hannah Witton, who does yearly videos going over her finances and where her money's coming from. It's nice to see this type of video coming from a different type of youtuber/group of youtubers! This video is more interview-y and asks more questions besides the stats of it all, and it's cool to hear everyone talk about their own finances. Your videos have always been super cool to me I hope you have a good day!
1000 youtubers make a video about the same topic the same day and post it almost at the same time and then they wonder why they have not many views.
Can you spot the problem?
Also some, who should know better, think that there is infinit growth on youtube but in fact there's a peak for every channnel and from there it goes down.
Some people age out of or just lose interrest in specific content.
For example when I played a specific multiplayer online game I watched a bunch of channels that covered (in my eyes) relvant info on that subject. When I stopped playing the game I had no more need for that informations so I stopped watching and unsubscribed. TH-cam is extreamly bad in recognizing those patterns that's why the suggestion feed is useless for anyone who's not a media zombie.
Viewers have two rather limited resources, time and money.
In my case two of the creators I watch regulary are real life friends of mine who do this full time so they get my money budget and have a fixed amount of my time budget.
Also I will stop watching a creator when it turns out that they will do anything for money like, for example, supporting products or companies that benefit the far right, anti LGBTQAI+ people and "religious" nut jobs.
Sadly not many youtube channels have the constant quality of Philosiphy Tube, Cass Eris, Jessie Gender or this one 😞 Still time doesn't allow it that I watch everything that gets publishedjust on those 4 at the time when it comes out. To some I'll get back later to some, never.
Daylie or Weekly content is nice when it's news like for example (daily) Beau of the Fifth Column or (weekly) Gamers Nexus Hardware News.
Honestly a really interesting video, love getting different perspectives on stuff like TH-cam and how it is for different creators. Even this smaller sample size is still an interesting insight, and hopefully future videos in this vein continue (also hopefully they just do well, per the discussion at hand)
I don't think I'm interested in ever doing TH-cam, but I've often wondered about this. This was very thoughtful and thought-provoking; I appreciated this!
Love the honesty and openness about this topic! Great roundup of creators
I really liked seeing the curtain pulled back on this one! It might not do well, but I like the more journalistic content, especially because I don't have access to new Doctor Who stuff because, well, an incoming college student having streaming? in this economy? I hope that the bots also like good pop culture/TH-cam journalism that isn't drama focused, so yeah
My lady, I never noticed how niche you were. The level of quality is so amazing. A tragedy of modern society, to say the least, that more do not know of you.
You being the smallest channel of the bunch is a testament to your appeal.
This was very interesting. Thank you for doing this.
Really illuminating video! Thanks for making it Vera.
Edit: loved seeing so many of my favorite content creators guesting in the video! ❤
I did enjoy watching this. Another youtuber that I follow went over the financials from her first year and disclosed that her first year on youtube ten years ago she made around $34.
Great video! Thanks for the info. Commenting for the algorithm lol
This is a fascinating video and a real insight into the lives of content creators. Thank you for doing this, it must have taken quite a bit of time and effort.
This is a good resource. I once considered doing TH-cam, since I wanted to share my thoughts. I would like to do it, but time and other things in my life come first. Great guests you had on. I may consider doing it, but making time for it is my biggest challenge
Awesome video! I have zero intention of living off of content (and it’s not like I’m ready to do so) but this was very informative
And to add to the conversation I’m at 2300… and I can’t pay ONE bill with it. (I could pay for Netflix though)
Great video. I have been thinking about making youtube something i do when i retire...so this gives me a lot to think about.
Thank you.
Vera I love your content ❤ and I think this vid is the kind of stuff that has evergreen engagement and that other creators in the space may want to quickly refer their audience to when covering broader topics. Keep it up and thank you so much!!
This video was really insightful. It's really easy to assume that the youtubers with higher views or higher subscribers are therefore 'in the money' when yeah youtube is a crapshoot and as usual 'the purity of arts' isn't as valued as the view-chasing of trends, which makes it really hard for youtubers big and small to wrestle between responsible business and the dreams of making something meaningful (and the third category i hope no one goes with, completely screwing everyone else over for profit)
I missed the first 10 minutes, who made the opening countdown music? They should replace call-waiting music with that, it's really cool.
Ahh, that third catergory where people like the Paul brothers exist.
I really enjoy when you do these kinds of videos! (Not just ones about youtube but like collaborations and stuff)
This is very insightful, I want to start streaming because I play alone mostly, and it would be a good way to connect with other people since I don’t quite like multiplayer games, but I’m very aware that it has to start as a hobby first, something that its done for fun, and it probably will stay like that because making it profitable enough to make it a full-time thing is not easy, much less maintaining it.
This was interesting, thanks!
Always interesting to see this sort of topic get discussed.
One question I worry about for you all, is how many costs you must have. I see money being spent on equipment, but, gosh, your monthly outlay for things to review must be huge. I love your reviews because I love Dr Who, but can't afford Disney Plus. You are the closest I will get to watching episodes until someone is willing to sell them as DVDs. So far Disney is keeping a tight grip on it.
I just don't enjoy the other Dr Who reviews as much as I do yours. So, thank you for all your hard work, Vera!
Thank you to all those who responded to your questions about earning money on TH-cam. This is a very fascinating video and subject.
Love seeing Pup, PoG, Jessie, Avelo and Vera in one video!!
No love for my favorite Agender nerd?
@@lucyinchat hey they’re all great, but I’m just mentioning the ones I’m most familiar with.
This was excellent.
I'm working on re-launching my own channel, while also re-relaunching all of my novels.
My aim is to create multiple revenue streams that can loop back on one another and supplement my day job. I don't know if it will all coalesce and be able to replace having a day job, but if it at least gives me some freedom to seek out a more rewarding day job without having to match my current salary, that will be a win.
Thank you so much
Scott Nissan Niswander, in a Vera video???? What is this, a crossover episode?
This was such an amazingly relatable and transparent piece from all of you!
criminally under viewed, criminally under subbed, kick ass video, i love it❤️
This was very interesting! Thanks for sharing and to the other contributors.
Wow, I learned a lot in this video. I've never wanted to do TH-cam videos in any way, but it's really interesting to hear how it works. I was struck by how burnout is a very, very, very real possibility.
I don't think I've noticed that Kamen Rider W on your shelf until now.
fascinating
What an insightful video!! Super interesting
Great video, pretty great insights.
Thanks, this was fascinating, even to someone who has no plans to make videos and put them on TH-cam.
I donated to your ko-fi page for this great video. Cheers!
Love you so much, viewer for ages, patreon for a while now.
Wish for you a big boost! Esp with newest Who, which is pretty good so far. One of my fave parts of keeping up is watching esp great reviews.
Been wondering to myself Vera why your channel (s) hasn’t grown even more before this. Maybe now’s the time. I think you’re hilarious & brilliant. Tell people about you all the time - like that’s gonna matter, but hey you never know.
Helped I was a Doctor Who fan & following for a long time, then I learned my daughter is trans. You & Jessie helped make my response as a mom so much better back then. So I guess I’m in a niche now lol. This older lady will always support the two of you as best I can.
Curious how much commenting helps? Always “like” yr vlogs of course, but does commenting rly matter? I do enjoy adding my .02 bc yr subs are so smart (and y’all probably work hard to keep things tidy) and won’t stop, but would be interesting to know.
It’s hard to quantify how much comments and likes boost things but they do help, and even if they didn’t I personally appreciate it. Especially when the comments are this lovely.
council of geeks and nerdsync crossover!
i mean i know of some of these other creators as well, but nerdsync is one of my favs
It was an honor for me!
@@NerdSyncProductions love your videos scott, keep it up!
Thank you for this, it's a nice reality check
great video! I learned a lot!
I can’t see ever earning enough to make this my job. It’s just a bit of extra pocket money every so often.
Best I would expect to hope for is if the money I make from it could get 10 times bigger I might be able to drop to 4 days at my current full time job.
Haven’t tried a Patreon as yet but have considered it. Don’t know what I’d offer or if anyone would be interested. In it though.
Engagement for the engagement god!
The gruff voice reminds me of a character from that MadTV skit “lower expectations”.
Scott!!! We love you!!!!
Who me?
@@NerdSyncProductions YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I wish I could patronize all of you guys. Trying to get my finances in order, but it's a tall order.
How does the ad revenue work with people who pay for ad free TH-cam?
We actually make more per view.
@@CouncilofGeeks well sounds like I have to do a rewatch day.
I was a TH-camr back when it was very young still. Had nearly 200K subs until I deleted the channel completely without a word in 2016. Simply because the new generation of TH-camrs focused on clickbait hate bait and drama, and it was not about creating fun things nor community anymore (cause parasocial bad). I do miss it, but also in this landscape I wouldn't do it again. Everything is toxic and bad so nah. I was lazy with my content and didn't use Twitter or any of that to boost the views nor to build a business out of it. Back when I started you had to actually get approved to become an affiliate and earn money lol Some of my videos are still available by other channels and a few of them were used in a UK based program about TH-cam. I personally never watched it cause I'm sensitive like that but I heard it was okay.
When I look at my recommended, every single video is negative. The rise and fall, The accusations of, This person needs to be stopped, This film and game ruined a franchise, Why you're (insert something clickbaity) and how to fix it, People need to stop doing this etc .. The algorithm sucks yes, but thats also 90% of TH-cam now. I have a brain and life experience, I do not need a video to tell me how to feel about a film, or a heavily edited hit piece to convince me someone is a bad person because someone once accused them of something. Just no. Life sucks as it is.
This video is fascinating, hats off to Y'all for having to juggle all of this varying income each month. I'm afraid this hamster wheel of having to put out a video each week combined with the ad revenue fluctuating this wildly is done on purpose by TH-cam. A dark pattern to keep the content creators creating. If they wanted to, they could reconfigure the algorithm to reward less frequent upload schedules and spread out ad revenue spikes over the following months to reduce the fluctuation. But the TH-cam CEO wants it to be like this, where it puts creators under constant pressure and financial anxiety.
I wish this video talked more actual numbers. I understand why people might not want to share all that, but I’m just super curious.
Here's what I'll say: I couldn't live in a major metropolitan area on what I make without a roommate, if not two. I'm ok because I live in rural Vermont and my living expenses are mostly on the lower end compared to any actual city or the surrounding suburbs.
This will be interesting to watch. I was hoping to make extra income eventually from my videos so this will be educational.
TH-cam appears to be trying to hurt smaller channels. Or has add revenue fallen for everything? There used to only be one commercial at a time. Now there are two or three ads every few minutes.
When I started my channel I had dreams of it being an income stream- after 4 years I have not even reached monitisation. It is hard to get subscribers!
Good on you for acknowledging your privilege in comparison with others of your generation. So many people do not, Instead, they sit and spout "I'm self made" when, in reality, their parents gifted them the deposit on a house and gave them a late model car for their birthday, and then they dunk on "lazy people" who fail to be as successful as them... for being, y'know, _too lazy_ to have someone gift them the deposit for a house or give them a car.
It's telling that, even without the level of debt many people are experiencing, it's still not *_easy_* to have TH-cam as a full-time job.
My channel's just a hobby channel - never any consideration that it would become my "job" or primary source of income - and damned good thing, too, given the events of the last 10 years.
Question for creators: how exactly do youtube premium views affect your youtube income?
Do you get metrics for this?
That's a good question!
We get to see a breakdown of how much we've earned from premium compared to ads, but only as a total, not any sort of per-view breakdown. The understanding I have, though, is that a premium view pays considerably more than a monetised non-premium view - somewhere in the region of 4 to 8 times as much.
(Take that with a grain of salt, though, because as with most of it, we're never actually _told_ that outright)
@@PillarofGarbage thank you for responding :)
Great video, very interesting.
I would buy almost any thing from that intro voice
I’m only halfway through, but asking whilst I remember! If I pay for TH-cam premium then does that mean the creators get less?
No. On a per view basis we actually make more
@@CouncilofGeeks thank you! Great video! ❤️
Damn, that VA was top notch.
I understand that you would want to get paid directly to hurt your voice for your art.
Liked in the first 10 seconds just for that voice 😂😂😂
This intro was golden btw 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽
With Patreon I know I'd rather back a smaller creator since they are getting less through TH-cam. I feel like a bigger creators don't need my support at much.
what i would love to do is primarily be a video editor, making some money on the side from my channel, but we shall see 🤞
Only just started watching and I'll likely have to split it into 2 viewings, so this may be somewhat off topic.
From my outsiders perspective, I've been using a sci-fi TV and movie staple analogy for a long while. It seems like those scenarios where the elite offer food, shelter and work to the lower classes, pull loads of people into the scheme and for awhile it all works and seems great. Then the people realise the walls have gone up, the food has stopped and the work has dried up. The elites control everything and if you do exactly what they say, you might get some scraps on occasion. The rest are irrelevant to the elite.
I wouldn't recommend anyone to do YT as a job these days. Do it because you love it, then anything positive you get is a bonus but don't go in looking for a career. It's not worth it IMO.
"To visit the various partners that I have" - I don't mean to dig into your personal life more than you're comfortable, but this threw me a bit. I thought you were still with Liz. Anyway, don't mean it to shame, just not part of your life that I had heard about before
What is the difference between AdSense and views from TH-cam Premium? What is better for you all?
On a per view basis, TH-cam premium pays out better.
If you’re on Patreon, you’re doing fancy e-begging. It’s no different from the people that post in Queer Exchange groups asking for money to go to the grocery store or for bus fare. It makes sense that Patreon goes down in hard times because you’re not actually providing a service that anybody needs.
A lot of creators probably work harder than most people do at their 8 to 430 jobs. I kind of feel like this a waste of effort a bit because I don’t think TH-cam actually cares whether people make a living and actually would prefer they didn’t. Granted I don’t think the company that I work for for my desk job cares either but they’re limited by the law beyond firing me with what they can actually do to affect my income. They can’t just decide to calculate my wages differently because in lot of cases that’s illegal. This is in contrast to TH-cam, which can just decide to change the algorithm overnight and make everybody try to deal with it.
Patreon is about fans paying for more content and choosing to support an artist. Patronage has always been part of the art world
the debt that is typical for an AMERICAN millennial. We don't have no student debt in my part of town(planet) and car debt is pretty optional, we don't really by things we can't effort, maybe cars and obviously for a house you have a mortgage if you don't rent. But no, crushing debt isn't universal to millennials at all.
Student debt is a big thing in the UK as well, but yeah, the (mostly?) American contributors to this video can only tell about their situation, so it might just be a problem for millenials in certain capitalist countries.
From my perspective it seems like you need an incredible amount of economic privilege to live off of TH-cam. from being able to afford the cameras and other equipment, the props/clothes (can't get an audience dressed in rags), a decent looking space to film, etc. As well as the economic security to be able to take such a risk. None of which I have. For reference, I make around 2 dollars an hour (which is considered a good salary here) working a dead end job that doctors have more or less told me will probably kill me at some point, but I'm disabled and there aren't that many jobs I can do from home. On top of that, a good chunk of my paycheck goes to buying medicine, since the IMSS (Mexican healthcare system) is an establishment for eugenics and they systematically discriminate and neglect disabilities and chronic illnesses so I have to buy the medicine I need to live.
Living off of content creation is a dream, in the sense that it would make my life so much easier, but also in the sense that it's an unattainable goal, considering my cirsumstance.
There is a conversation to be had about how so-called "pettite burgeois" jobs are a tool of neoliberal capitalism, allowing people of certain economic conditions to participate in the "free market" for a chance at climbing the ladder at the cost of the inherent instability of such things.
There is a real concern that marginalized "crowdfunded" channels might become a mechanism for wealth accumulation at the expense of marginalized audiences (the Somerton effect, if you will). Please consider that this is systemic critique, not a personal attack against any one youtuber.
So in Mexico you make only $2 want to be hire by me to write on my blog? I will pay $15 for 3 good blog posts per week. If we do well I could up your pay to $30 for 3 blog posts per week. I want writers. I do food and drinks and home decor and money apps and novel chapters and Christian Bible verses and commentary. You can pick which 3 you want to do each week. I will pay an extra $5 if you also post it on your social media as well twice a week. What do you say.
I didn't even know you had an only fans 😹😹😹
I'm definitely here for your commentary and you, but I'm also here for the tiny ratty hands and noses (maybe just here until the very very end of every video for them). Thanks for what you do!
What does one do when one "follows the algorithm"? Is that kind of like being a slave to the audience? Sorry, youtube 101, I know. But I'm youngish Gen X, ;)
Sort of? Trying to please the algorithm is about doing the things that will get TH-cam to push your video in front of more people, which or may not actually please your audience. It’s kind of two related but different things: pleasing the algorithm vs pleasing the existing audience.
Vera! I can't believe you have Avelo (F.k.a Dreamsounds on here - I was following her before she even came out and is tremendously under-appreciated. Not even 5 minutes in and and I'm ready to chomp into this awesome selection of creators I haven't had a chance to discover yet.)
Also...my notification didn't go off, no idea what that's about...