How much money do YouTubers make?

MAKING a mint from YouTube videos can be highly profitable, for a lucky few.

Big bucks can be made from the internet’s second most-visited website after Google.

Instagram / @mrbeastAmerican YouTuber Mr Beast aka Jimmy Donaldson[/caption]

How much money does a YouTuber make?

While some YouTubers make a fortune most, however, don’t.

Millionaire YouTubers are the exception rather than the rule.

A YouTube star usually makes their money in five different ways:

Advertising – the channel owner gets 55 per cent of the revenue generated through the ads that invariably bookend a clip.

Affiliate links – if videos feature products money can be earnt by sending viewers to buy them on online sites such as Amazon. They can earn a commission from the sales.

Sponsorship – Big corporations, eager to attract the attention of the youth market, can sponsor a YouTuber to promote their products. Although there are tight rules around this and any published content that features sponsored material must be clearly labelled.

Merchandise – Many famous YouTubers can also generate income from merchandise such as clothing, mugs and other items. Usually an online shop is set up for this.

Donations and paid content – YouTubers who have a loyal and dedicated following may be able to generate income through donations from their fans or via a subscription fee to their videos.

Ryan ToysReviewAt only 9 years old, Ryan Kaji has become the highest paid YouTuber in 2020[/caption]

Who is the highest paid YouTuber?

Ryan Kaji might only be 9-years-old but he earned a whopping £21.3million in 2020 from his YouTube clips in 2020, according to Forbes.

Figures were from Statisa using data from Captiv8, SocialBlade and Pollstar.

Kaji’s videos cover toy reviews, science experiments and family storytime.

The kid has amassed 41.7million subscribers and his clips have been viewed 12.2billion times.

The bulk of his income though comes from licensing deals for more than 5,000 Ryan’s World products.

Mr Beast (aka Jimmy Donaldson) grabbed second place, earning £17.4m in 2020.

Instagram/dudeperfectComedy group Dude Perfect has become famous on YouTube[/caption]

He is YouTube’s single biggest star with 47.8m subscribers and his videos, which mainly feature him doing stunts, have been seen 3bn times.

Taking third place was Dude Perfect, which is made up of five guys – Coby Cotton, Cory Cotton, Garret Hilbert, Cody Jones and Tyler Toney.

They raked in £15.9m last year from their videos which see them mainly messing about with paintballs, light sabers and Nerf guns.

They have 57.5m subscribers and their videos have been seen 2.77bn times.

Do YouTubers get paid monthly?

All content creators can expect to be paid monthly for their work.

YouTube commits to sending either a check by mail or via a direct deposit.

Typically, this is done between the tenth and fourteenth day of each month although some vloggers may receive payment on the 21st.

However, each creator has to meet a payment threshold, which depends on their currency. In the case of US dollars, this threshold is fixed at $100.

This means that an American YouTuber has to earn at least $100 before Google pays them.

Payment also depends on how the audience engages with the ads, a key feature for YouTubers which allows them to have a better income, much like a high subscriber count.

THE SUN GRAPHICSThe 10 highest-earning YouTubers of 2020, according to Forbes[/caption]

Do YouTubers get money when you skip ads?

A skipped ad has a huge impact on a YouTuber’s revenue for the month as the platform does not count a skipped ad as a view.

A content creator will therefore not make a single penny from a skipped ad, although some ads cannot be skipped by users.

In some cases, however, YouTube does consider this a good sign for the ad promoter as it shows the user’s involvement in the content they have originally clicked on.

As some creators expect for the ads they promote to be dismissed by their viewers, they manage to find other ways to make a living, as mentioned above.

This can sometimes manifest in sponsorships, when a YouTuber partners up with a company they believe in and would like to promote.

This is a win-win situation as companies are often eager to reach out to a younger audience, often difficult to access via mainstream media. They then turn to YouTubers in the hopes that viewers will be interested in their businesses.

Affiliate links can also be a big financial help for content creators as they can a commission from sales they allow a company to make by promoting their products.

Other YouTubers resort to another, more creative, option in the form of merchandise, often including clothes or other trinkets.

The “merch” is typically sold via an online outlet and all creators have to do is simply submit their own designs.

The final option for creators who know they will be making little to no ad revenue also turn to calling their fans to actions by making donations.

This often goes through the Patreon platform, where YouTubers convince dedicated fans to pay for a subscription for additional content they won’t be able to fin on YouTube.