YouTube Money: The Top Of The Funnel
Here’s a quick one today… I saw this tweet when I logged in this morning:
Now, I’ve seen people debate this sort of thing before with all their ifs, buts and maybes.
But I imagine the reality is that Rob is accurate with the figures.
Most YouTubers don’t make any money.
And many don’t make any real money, but enough to pull the wool over the naïve eye.
(Funny side story: I can’t believe how many totally naïve people there are on the internet. You’ve got guys running around on the internet with personal stories that are literally taken from movies and other people. People who are world champion this, world champion that, self-made billionaires at twenty and so on… and people believe this without pause because of a slick Instagram account. Come on, folks. That said, 90% sure none of those people read this site. So whatever.)
This is the case among most of the “celeb” fields: music, acting, YouTube, IG modelling.
I’ve known many musicians over the years and even the successful ones have real jobs on the side – that they don’t tell you about.
I’ve worked with model girls on Instagram and a lot of them are broke. If you understand the potential money to be made as a hot girl on Instagram, this fact is astounding.
But most people… they don’t make any money. I can’t imagine YouTube is different.
There are two points I want to make about this.
If You’re Aiming For Average… It’s Already Over
If you see that statistic and cry because your YouTube dreams are dashed… you need some fire in your spirit.
Most people don’t make any money at YouTube and they shouldn’t make money at YouTube.
Why is some guy who uploads a video of him unboxing a video game controller supposed to make money?
And that’s what you’re looking at in terms of the competitive landscape.
Most people don’t make any money because they don’t produce money making content. This is true of most platforms, most people and so on.
My point with this section: the 97% of people that fail at stuff are irrelevant. Count them out before they begin.
Why would you aim to be in the bottom half of the distribution bell?
Concern yourself only with whether you can produce a product to rival the people that are succeeding.
That’s general life advice. Let’s talk about YouTube (and social media, I guess,) specifically.
YouTube Is The Top Of The Funnel
A lot of people want to be bloggers, Twitter personalities or Instagram models.
And a lot of people want to be YouTube stars.
Here’s what the gurus don’t tell you: None of those are “businesses.”
They are the top of your sales funnel.
I blog a lot. Aside from the niche site thing, (although increasingly this follows the same rule,) my blogging isn’t a business.
It’s part of the business, but it’s not the business.
And that’s the same with whatever weapon is your choice.
You can start a YouTube channel.
You can write fifty tweets a day.
Your girlfriend can probably start an Instagram channel.
None of those things will bring you much money.
YouTube pays a few dollars per million views. Instagram shout outs make you $25 a time as an “influencer.” Blogging… you get that affiliate income if you’re smart and otherwise Adsense pays you twelve pence per billion views.
You aren’t going to make a comfortable living with those monetisation schemes.
But you don’t have to.
Your YouTube channel, IG profile or blog is the first step towards making someone a customer.
I’ve worked with Instagram girls (and increasingly I seriously recommend not doing this,) and it’s a revelation to them when you say, “You know… maybe you should sell something.”
Let’s say you’re a YouTube/Pinterest/Instagram fitness girl.
You can make $7 per million views on YouTube (or whatever the rate is.)
You can sell shout outs on Instagram for $15.
And good luck… you can have 30,000 followers and you’ll still be working at McDonalds on the income you earn.
Or you can treat all of those things as marketing. Get a Patreon, sell a diet plan, create YOGA HIPPY GIRL t-shirts.
And suddenly you make more in a single sale than you will all month with residual earnings from YouTube.
Final Thoughts
You have to think of business like a business.
Too many people go for the glitz and glamour and don’t know that there needs to be substance behind it.
This is a great thing if you’re willing to be in the small percentage of people who do the work and get it.