Making $100,000+ a year from YouTube

[Dien Rice]

Hi,

Thanks to Phil for reminding me about this thread...

If you recall, here are the estimated top 10 earners on YouTube (as of a few months ago)...

Originally Posted by Dien Rice

Top 10 YouTube earners in the past year

1. Shane Dawson - $US315,000

2. The Annoying Orange - $US288,000

3. Philip DeFranco - $US181,000

4. Ryan Higa - $US151,000

5. Fred - $US146,000

6. Shay Carl - $US140,000

7. Mediocre Films - $US116,000

8. Smosh - $US113,000

9. The Young Turks - $US112,000

10. Natalie Tran - $US101,000

In an earlier post, I talked about no. 10 - Natalie Tran... (See here.)

Now, no. 3 on that list, Philip DeFranco, has recently shared more details (on the Reddit website)...

He creates a news-based opinion show on YouTube, which you can see here - http://www.youtube.com/user/sxephil .

His videos seem to get between 500,000 views and 2,500,00 views!

Here are some of the things he's recently written (in response to questions)...

kangaroo123:
Do make any money off being a professional YouTuber? If so, how much?

PhillyDeFranco:
My companies make some nice revenue. I pay myself 60-100k though. Most of the money is reinvested. Thats the first time I've even kind of answered that question.

SwenKa:
What software do you use for video-editing? What type of camera do you have? Curious, because you always complain when you have to hold it! :P

PhillyDeFranco:
oo. Good question.
Video Editing: Final Cut Pro
Camera: Canon 5D with a 17mm-40mm lense (a bit of an overkill but it gives us nice depth of field)

MrEdwardNigma:
phil ive been watching your show for years... love it man. how much time do you have to put into each video (just the sxephil one)? editing and all

PhillyDeFranco:
Well for the first 3-4 years I edited myself, but in the past 10 months I've been able to hire editors so, 2 hours to research minimum and then 1 hour of talking to the camera.
It takes a while. I wake up at 6am to catch up to the east coast news.

twinwish:
PHIL!
I've always wanted one of the bigger youtubers to do an AMA. You're definitely one of my faves.
Just wanted to show my support for the show, but I do have one question to ask, if you don't mind answering: Back when the show was first started, up until about a year into it, was Youtube enough to provide steady income?
Thanks for doing this AMA

PhillyDeFranco:
Early YouTube it was haaaaard to survive on the income, but now a few tubers are making 7 figures before taxes.
I remember the sleeping in a car or couch surfing days.

slick50zd1:
I have watched your show off and on for the past year or 2.
With that being said, how much have you had to change the style / content of your show to fit the audience, if at all?

PhillyDeFranco:
I don't change to fit the audience. I change to keep myself entertained. If the content is right you'll never have to conform. The biggest hassle was figuring out how to include sponsorships, but I feel like I have that down now. Good Content is good content.

ThatsMeNotYou:
Sorry, to be honest I dont really know your show, but its interesting that you would be able to actually make a job out of it. So following questions:
1) Where do you get your income from?
2) About how much would that be a month?

PhillyDeFranco:
Ads/Sponsors/Merchandise.
It starts off slow, but once again people have been able to make 100k a month a regular thing. I can't verify who those people are though.

GrimLP:
What's it like being rich?

PhillyDeFranco:
Im not rich. I do well though.

gorillazbmx6:
Besides luck, how do you think you came to be in the position you are now?

PhillyDeFranco:
Hustling and taking advantage of any situation I saw in front of me.

Here's a link to all the questions, answers, and comments (it's a lot to wade through, since 99% of it are other people's comments)...
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comment...er_that_means/

I think one key point from all this is that he doesn't only make money from Google/YouTube itself paying him (since Google/YouTube also make money from the ads they show as well). He also makes money from external sponsors too. (He mentions these sponsors in his videos - I believe, either as news items or as reviews of their products. The sponsors, in turn, pay him directly.)

The estimate that Philip DeFranco makes around $181,000 from YouTube does NOT include sponsorships - which suggests he actually makes more than this... This is also strongly hinted at in his comments above! In fact, he hints that he regularly takes in over $100k a month... However, elsewhere he also mentions that nowadays, he hires 5 staff for his YouTube business (including 2 video editors), so it's not all pure profit.

He also holds competitions for giveaways - people have to leave comments on his videos to enter the competition. I'm sure that - over time - this helps to boost his number of viewers even more!

It is a very clever business model for making money from YouTube!

Best wishes,

Dien