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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…
