Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/09/17/how-much-money-does-a-youtuber.html
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Any idea what YouTube nets from the same 1MM views?
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How much money does a YouTuber make from 1,000,000 views? Anywhere between $500 - $10,000, but the average is $2,000
Wow that’s far higher than I would have predicted.
- at $500 that’s ~0.05 cents per view?
- at $2000 that’s ~0.2 cents per view?
God I suck at math! Here’s another calculator which also measures “average engagement (ctr)” too
https://influencermarketinghub.com/youtube-money-calculator/
Above link also answers your question @DurhamO
This estimates your earnings before Youtube’s cut. (Although YouTube traditionally kept its share of advertising income secret, it is now common knowledge that Google keeps 45% of YouTube advertising revenue. So you receive 55% of every dollar paid by advertisers) The estimated earnings that the average YouTube creator could expect to receive from ads on a new video on their channel if EVERYBODY watched the ad on their video and the advertiser paid the average $7.60 CPM is 55% x $7.60, equaling $4.18 per 1,000 views.
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Is it ok that I don’t care?
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I’ve been watching some content creators on YouTube lately. I haven’t checked their subscriber totals, so I can’t judge their levels of success. (One just celebrated 500,000 subscribers, so he’s doing pretty well.)
It seems like none of them are solely relying on YouTube monetization. They utilize any or all of:
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Official sponsorships with companies. Skillshare is popular, but I’ve seen an artist who promotes her favorite paper manufacturer.
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Merchandising, either created by the artists themselves and sold via their own store or a platform like Etsy, or t-shirts and gear produced by other companies.
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Direct support from viewers. This is usually through Patreon, though I saw one creator who had a wish list on Amazon.
So nobody seems to be counting on YouTube to make ends meet. 
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I remember around 1998 realizing that someday soon, everybody could have their own TV channel on the internet.
Woo. 
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If only compensation was tied to quality!
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I care only insomuch as it proves that the promise of Youtube - indie television shows - will never be fulfilled to any real degree. The number of views required to support even a small television production are obviously beyond what anyone can get for that kind of content.
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I needed clarification, and you gave it.
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$0, because some ass hat made a copyright strike against it for 1 second of music you hear in the background. After removing the strike YouTube demonetized it any way.
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I do agree, and I don’t. Most YouTubers won’t ever hit the kind of subscriber numbers a television show would, but they still reach a lot of people. And some of them are definitely putting out quality product. So I’m not sure comparing TV to YouTube is an apples-to-apples situation to begin with.
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What keeps it from being comparable are the economics, though. The economics of it mean you’re not going to have documentaries, not going to get fiction; you get a talking head and even that content exists largely as a hobby. (Or you get content that’s actually a sponsored advertisement. Like early television, but without the actual program.)
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Look, I’ve been watching a cat video a lot, and I think I’m up to 587 views.
It’s going to be years before I get anywhere close to a million.
How do people do it? Is there any way to get the money in advance?
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Her advice for making more money on YouTube? Make videos that are over 10 minutes long (because you can include more ads).
That explains the vids that take seemingly forever to get to the point.
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I watch a number of fishing shows on YT that appear to be online-only, and they make it work. There are a number of caveats:
- start out with all your equipment, including boats, before you make your first video
- have lots of sponsors
- direct fans to merch
- direct fans to use your guide service or guests guide service (some of the travelling shows hop from one guide to another, trading exposure for free guiding)
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I’m going to tell viewers that I’ll give them half of my 55% to watch my soothing videos of the sunset every day. Or the charity of their choice.
Maybe some nice videos of rain or crashing waves to help them sleep - play them all day and make more money!
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Most people seem to have no clue how much youtubers make
Hell, I barely have a clue about what a youtuber is.
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I remember a Techmoan video where he restored some obscure tape recorder that had been used at a radio station, then got a copyright warning for 8 seconds of a John Lennon song that played while he tested the machine.
Like, what is Youtube trying to say there? That he’s spent months of his life working on this machine, documented the whole process, edited and produced a 20 minute video, but that it was actually a cunning plan to let people listen to the intro to Imagine without buying the rights? Can you imagine some record company lawyer in a shiny-arsed suit standing outside a courthouse and actually saying that out loud?
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2 minute long intro. 2 minutes of random chatter before they get to the meat of the video. 4 minutes of content. 2 more minutes of asking for likes/subscribers/visit their Patreon. Exactly 10:01 minutes to maximize that monetization.
Once you see the pattern it’s hard not to see it everywhere.
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