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AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter)
AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) MegaDork
12/30/21 7:14 p.m.

Like the subject says. PM if you don't want to put it out here. I'd like to know:

how many subscribers do you have?

how often do you upload content?

how much $ does it bring in, how often?

thanks!

Javelin
Javelin MegaDork
12/30/21 7:35 p.m.

Channel - youtube.com/playswithcars

Subscribers - 1,640

Uploads - 2-5 per month average

Income - Although the channel is over 11 years old, you have to have 1,000 subscribers before monetization. Once you hit that threshold, the channel has ads whether you make the money or not, so you might as well.  The income is 100% AdSense and is dependent upon how intrusive you will allow and how good you are at hitting the algorithm. I am not in it for the money, so I do very poorly. Every $100 they send it to me, and I get that about once every 3 months. I have only been monetized for a year (literally 1/1/21) and have made about $350 total. I spent more than that on the pair of cheapo action cameras I use for filming. I try to be very open about this as my channel is not an income generator, nor do I want it to be. I have received three offers for sponsored content, all of which I have turned down. 

I think that YT is a great platform for a hobby outlet like mine. It is also a great outlet for building a brand that can make real income with sponsorships, merchandise, and AdSense optimization. You have to choose which you want to be. I will also say that videos that are shot well technically tend to do much better than ones with great content. You really have to be a filmmaker first, and a content creator second. 

I also have a much smaller second channel for Warhammer, mostly to interact with the community. The hobby channels I watch all have subscriptions, Patreons, and Discords. YT seems to be a way to get eyeballs, but translating those eyeballs into $$$ is up to you.

classicJackets (FS)
classicJackets (FS) SuperDork
12/30/21 7:35 p.m.

I'm just now filming/trying to edit together my first video - so curious to hear any responses here. I am already doing the projects, sounded fun to learn editing and also maybe make a little side income

Javelin
Javelin MegaDork
12/30/21 7:39 p.m.

Oh, and DaVinci Resolve is what I use for editing when I bother.

90% of my content is shot right ona Galaxy smartphone and uploaded to directly to YT these days.

Keith Tanner
Keith Tanner MegaDork
12/30/21 8:09 p.m.

We don't monetize our channel as it's advertising for us. But they roll the ads anyway. Maybe I should look into having it pay some bills :)

Javelin
Javelin MegaDork
12/30/21 8:25 p.m.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

You should. Better FM gets it than Google. 

bearmtnmartin (Forum Supporter)
bearmtnmartin (Forum Supporter) UltraDork
12/30/21 8:29 p.m.

I have some videos showing the work I have been doing on the Fossil, and one has around 15000 views. The videos are very bush league with zero attempt at editing and I make no attempt to make any money. But I do notice that one popular video now has ads before it can be watched. I dislike that and was not consulted. 

GameboyRMH
GameboyRMH MegaDork
12/30/21 10:13 p.m.

I remember that Mr. Electric Supercar, probably the most popular YouTuber on here (Edit: Oh wait, apparently that would be Javelin?), showed how much he was making with his channel in one episode and he was barely into the 3 digits (grand total). Making meaningful money on YouTube is for a small collection of the biggest superstars in the world, all the people who do it could probably fit on a medium-sized airliner.

Brake_L8 (Forum Supporter)
Brake_L8 (Forum Supporter) Reader
12/30/21 10:30 p.m.

As others have said, you need 1,000 subscribers to get monetized on YouTube. You also need 4,000 "watch hours" - i.e. people have watched your content for 4,000 hours. Some people have an easier time getting one than the other. It took about four or five months to meet both milestones once I started taking the whole thing seriously.

The more you create, the more you'll earn. I try to upload one video per week, but if I'm busy then I don't really worry about it thaaaat much. It is not strictly about subscriber count. Out Motorsports has about 5,400 subscribers and over 90% of our video views come from people who aren't subscribed (but like... it's free, click the button). Regardless of sub count, you will earn money for every view. The nice thing is that old videos can still earn money - videos I made over a year ago are still some of my biggest revenue drivers each month.

I also run a website that conveniently shares the same name as the YouTube channel. We have ads there and they earn real money thanks to a pretty neat ad network I was invited to once I got views/traffic past a certain point.

This is all absolutely a second job and I'd love for it to be a primary job. Will take another few years, I think, but it's getting there. Right now, my monthly income is enough to cover a pretty nice car payment. Next milestone is paying DC-area rent. Past that I guess I'd quit my day job and go full-time, maybe.

Feel free to PM if you want more specifics! I'm a data nerd and happy to share or answer questions.

SV reX
SV reX MegaDork
12/30/21 10:36 p.m.

Creating YouTube content looks like a tremendously difficult way to earn a tremendously small amount of money. 
 

I wish my wife didn't spend countless hours doing it. 

Keith Tanner
Keith Tanner MegaDork
12/30/21 11:33 p.m.

You don't need to spend a lot of money to get the views. On my personal (moribund) channel, I have a short clip of the MG backing out of the garage and idling around. Later I did a multi-camera drive video showing the car from different angles on an awesome road. You know which one has the most views by far :)

One of the more popular videos on the FM channel is me prattling on about sway bars. It was probably the second one we did in lockdown, which means it's just me. The equipment was an original iPhone SE zip tied to a transmission support tripod. Lighting was the LED lighting in my shop. It was a live video so there's no editing other than adding title cards. It looks like hell. But it's good content, and that's what matters. 

BoxheadTim
BoxheadTim MegaDork
12/31/21 1:03 p.m.

My channel is about 930 subscribers away from being monetizable, so right now my returns are negative, mainly because I needed some lights and got a "real" video camera as that was cheaper than getting a good camera phone with enough storage.

californiamilleghia
californiamilleghia UltraDork
12/31/21 1:28 p.m.

 is TikTok  better or worse  , can you send eyes to your YouTube channel with short TikToks ?

I follow a guy  on TikTok building a custom  Porsche 996 , making his own front fenders and valance and also the back , 

nocones
nocones UberDork
12/31/21 1:40 p.m.

I am not currently monetized and am only at 345 subs. Honestly I'm not trying to hard either.  It's been a fun way to document the build but I underestimated the amount of time it takes out of building.  I need to get a better style to document quickly and particularly reduce the time it takes to edit.

Of course YouTube still puts ads on my videos..

I've thought about TikTok but I'm not sure I have the right personality to make short videos interesting.

 

Captdownshift (Forum Supporter)
Captdownshift (Forum Supporter) MegaDork
12/31/21 2:12 p.m.

Does income from YouTube from videos involving your challenge car count towards recoup? 

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter)
AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) MegaDork
12/31/21 6:19 p.m.

In reply to Captdownshift (Forum Supporter) :

YouTube is a tool, therefore does not count against your budget.

AClockworkGarage
AClockworkGarage Dork
12/31/21 7:26 p.m.

Pffft... none. Hasn't stopped youtube from slapping ads on it though.

stuart in mn
stuart in mn MegaDork
12/31/21 9:50 p.m.

There's a woodworker guy on YouTube, his channel is Shop Nation.  He's posted a couple videos on much he makes there and explains the process pretty well.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1zwy4lV-zE

ddavidv
ddavidv UltimaDork
1/1/22 9:20 a.m.

877 subscribers, so no moolah for me yet.  I do it for my own pleasure, because I like to share the projects I'm working on with other like-minded (read: foolish) people in the world. The project videos do just okay. The couple I've done just reviewing my cars or bikes do much better.  Only one has done exceptionally well (Should you buy a V6 S197 Mustang?).  Pretty much anything Mustang related does better than the ones of more 'niche' oddities like my working on old motorcycle ones. 

Learning the YT algorithms is really where the money is at. Yes, subscriptions matter, but uploads, video duration, length of views and so on all factor in.  It is better to make several 10-15 minute videos than hour long 'shows' unless you develop a real following. 

It would be nice if it would take off and supplement my income as I approach retirement but I'm probably not mainstream enough to appeal to a large audience. 

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter)
AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) MegaDork
1/1/22 11:17 a.m.

In reply to stuart in mn :

Thanks for that video link, it was very informative!

Captdownshift (Forum Supporter)
Captdownshift (Forum Supporter) MegaDork
1/1/22 11:38 a.m.

In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :

But if your vehicle came with tools, (think spare tire/jack/tire iron) you can sell them off of the vehicle for recoup). 

 

This would be content created due to the vehicle. YouTube as a resource is obviously free (with ads) 

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter)
AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) MegaDork
1/1/22 11:58 a.m.

In reply to Captdownshift (Forum Supporter) :

Did your car come with a YouTube?

docwyte
docwyte PowerDork
1/1/22 12:12 p.m.

Interesting that that woodworker makes more money from click thru affliations (Amazon product links) than the actual YouTube ads.  He sure did well in 2020, 6 figure income is a pretty awesome "side hustle", although at the end of the video he did pretty say that to keep it up it's a second job.  So maybe not so much of a side hustle anymore, but if you're getting 6 figures from it, it's worth the effort.

stuart in mn
stuart in mn MegaDork
1/1/22 5:20 p.m.
docwyte said:

Interesting that that woodworker makes more money from click thru affliations (Amazon product links) than the actual YouTube ads.  He sure did well in 2020, 6 figure income is a pretty awesome "side hustle", although at the end of the video he did pretty say that to keep it up it's a second job.  So maybe not so much of a side hustle anymore, but if you're getting 6 figures from it, it's worth the effort.

The point is, it's a lot of work to make that much.

preach (dudeist priest)
preach (dudeist priest) Dork
1/1/22 5:40 p.m.

ridgerunner914

Maybe 4 subscribers

$0 money

I hate editing video.

I really should do it more as there is money to be had.

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