How I Make Thousands on YouTube, Without Being YouTube Famous
Here’s how I’ll make thousands of dollars this year
It’s 9:30 in the morning, and I’m talking about a fan. Specifically, I’m creating an in-depth video review of a Honeywell HYF290B tower fan. Pulling up the camera on my phone, I hit record and spend the next four minutes and 22 seconds discussing the fan in intimate detail — what all its buttons do, how loud it is, how much I paid for it, what I like about the way it swivels, and what I dislike about its front grill. For this, I’ll be paid $46.03.
Welcome to the life of a small-time YouTuber. My video about the Honeywell HYF290B is one of more than 720 videos I’ve created over five years for my YouTube channel Do-It-Yourself Home Automation. I’ve also reviewed Fitbits, Android apps, and toilet plungers. I rarely appear on camera—though this is changing—and it’s a safe bet that most of my 3,200-plus followers would have a hard time recognizing me on the street. Yet I’ll make a comfortable low-five-figure income on the platform in 2021.
Most coverage of YouTube focuses on exceptional channels — the nine-year-old who makes $26 million per year or the vlogger who made a horrific video in Japan’s suicide forest. But YouTube has expanded so dramatically since its launch in 2005 — and attracts so many views and so much advertising revenue — that it’s now possible to make a good living on the platform without ever becoming internet famous or even going viral.
I can rank 2 millionth among around 30 million total YouTube creators in terms of overall subscribers and still make thousands of dollars per year on the platform.
YouTube’s audience and viewership statistics are staggering. According to research company Omnicore, YouTube attracts more than 2 billion monthly active users, who watch more than 1 billion hours of video per day. In a world where the average website visit lasts just two to three minutes, YouTube is remarkably engaging — a typical user spends 40 minutes on the site each time they visit. And it seems that nearly everyone uses YouTube — including 77% of Americans age 25 to 36 and more than half of those age 75 and up…
