There are still plenty of skeptical people in this world who do not believe that it is possible to make money on the Internet. In reality, there are numerous success stories of people who have made their fortune online. YouTube is just one of many ways you can become an Internet sensation, and if you are lucky an Internet millionaire.
The below provides a guide to How Much YouTubers actually Make:
- In 2022, the typical compensation for YouTube content creators in the United States was approximately $1,154 per week, which equates to $4,616 per month.
- Content creators receive approximately 55% of the revenue generated on their channels, which means that for every $100 an advertiser spends, Google pays $55 to the creator.
- On average, a YouTuber earns around $0.018 for each view, which amounts to $18 for every 1,000 views.
In this post we discussed how people make money on YouTube. However, just how much do they make? Well here's a Youtube Earnings Estimator you can give a spin - to find out how much Youtubers make exactly, read on;
Of course, for thousands of YouTubers, the answer is “nothing,” or “very little.” However, there are many YouTubers who make a comfortable living off their video channels. Moreover, of course, there is a small elite group who make an extraordinary income from the videos they create and post online as you can see from this infographic.
When it comes to earning a YouTube income success breeds success. You will find that the hardest dollar to earn is your first. The more subscribers you have, the more people will click on your ads. The more people click on your ads, the more you make a name for yourself, the higher the likelihood of brands offering you sponsorship or merchandise deals. The better known your channel becomes, the greater your chance of joining a multi-channel network. It is like being on a giant upwards-climbing spiral.
How Much can YouTubers Make?
What Can You Earn In Your Channel’s Early Days?
You are unlikely to be earning anything as you place your first video on YouTube. You are a video fledgling, and certainly a long way from being considered an influencer. YouTube influencers get the best deals, the best opportunities, and often partner with influencer marketing platforms for new ways to generate revenue. However, everyone has to start at the bottom. Even PewDiePie was an unknown uploading his first video in 2010. He is now so famous that people make videos interviewing PewDiePie’s early subscribers, about whether they feel famous. Back at the beginning, he was still making niche videos in Swedish.
In theory, you can sign up for an Adsense account and enable your channel for monetization from the moment you create a YouTube channel. However, in practice, you are unlikely to make any real money until you have built up traffic to your site - and by that, I mean genuine traffic from people who watch your videos, not by taking the shortcut method of paying for views.
Although there are some adverts that are CPM (cost per thousand views), many are CPC (cost per click). For you to earn anything from a CPC ad, you need a viewer to click on the ad. In reality, only a small percentage of your viewers will click on the ads surrounding your videos. Even the CPM ads in the video itself require more than just a cursory glance. For it to be counted for payment, a viewer must watch them for at least 30 seconds (or half the ad for a very short video). Think how many people skip past the ad at the start of a video, thus wiping out any chance of payment to the channel. If viewers do click on or view your ads for long enough to earn income, you share any advertising revenue with YouTube. You will only get paid once your AdSense account reaches $100.
One area you might start to make money with a relatively small number of subscribers is if you pick a popular topic and participate in affiliate marketing. For instance, if your videos review a popular type of product, and you link to an affiliate sales page for that product you may begin to earn money that way.
For a rough idea of how much Youtubers make use the earnings estimator below and import the user's Youtube channel
Estimated Total Earnings by Channel
Estimated Total Earnings by Video
Of course some niches are easier than others to make money in, so if you are hoping to one day live off your channel’s proceeds it would probably help if you created your channel on a topic that interests people. Probably the most successful niche is gaming. Let’s face it, gaming is a huge industry in itself, and many gamers have reasonable levels of discretionary income to spend. Other successful niches include:
- Gaming
- Funny Videos and Random Videos
- Music Videos
- Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR)
- Educational Content
- Life Hacks
- Personal Finance
- Lifestyle
- Fashion and Try On Hauls
- Software Reviews
- Making Money Online
- Tech, Cars, and Gadgets
- Makeup Tutorials
- Fitness and Bodybuilding
- Home Improvement
- Cooking
Moderately Successful Channels
With enough perseverance, not to mention on-camera talent, you should eventually pull yourself out of YouTube’s graveyard of poor performers. You should by this point be receiving some AdSense revenue every month, with affiliate marketing income too if you have chosen to go down that track.
However, at this stage, you are still mainly producing videos for love, with some other source of income paying your daily survival bills. By now you could be considered a minor influencer in your particular niche.
There isn't a required minimum number of subscribers on YouTube if you wish to establish your own paid membership on Patreon. The average Patreon contributor donates $7, with Patreon keeping varies from 5% to 12% depending on the plan you pick. There is an additional payment processing fee of 2.9% + $0.30 for donations over $3. 5% + $0.10 for donations of $3 or less. It must be remembered, however, that if you are uploading videos on a regular basis, you are likely to receive recurring payments from your Patreon supporters. One example is The Comedy Button who currently has 3,872 patrons paying them $8K - $23K per month. This is a YouTube channel that has around 21,300 subscribers.
Once these channels begin to recognize success, they should be looking to do more with their AdWords, for instance deliberately chasing phrases with a relatively high cost per click (CPC). If they are a review channel, for instance, you could focus on reviewing products that attract ads with a higher CPC.
By now they could be famous enough for smaller brands to be asking the channel to endorse their products. Yet, these channels are still small, by YouTube’s standards, so income earned from sponsorship and product placement will still not be enough for the channel holders to live off.
Indeed, as Gaby Dunn writes about on Fusion, the middle years of a YouTube channel’s life are often the most difficult. The channel owners often need to work full time creating video content, but people only see them as mildly influential, and the channels certainly aren’t generating a full-time income. Dunn operates a channel with a friend, Just Between Us. You would think that would be enough to ensure financial survival. Yet, Dunn says that “despite this success, we’re just barely scraping by…but it’s not enough to live, and its influx is unpredictable. Our channel exists in that YouTube no-man’s-land: Brands think we’re too small to sponsor, but fans think we’re too big for donations. ”
Of course, it depends on who your audience is. One issue faced by quite a few YouTubers is that their supporters are naturally anti-establishment, anti-capitalist, and anti the idea that their YouTube heroes might be selling themselves out. Other types of channels, such as the review channels, the gaming channels, and of course anything business-related have it easier. Their fans expect these channels to make money, so don’t resist helping them out.
Shelby Leimgruber 
Ed Lawrence 
Gretta Van Riel 
Pat Flynn 
Gretta Van Riel 
Nathan Chan 
David Perell 
Hayley Paige 
Angie Gensler 
Elise Darma Success Begins at 1,000,000
Once a YouTube channel’s subscriber-count reaches the millions, life becomes easier for the owners. These channels are beginning to find fame and begin to become recognized as being influential in their niche.
1,000,000 subscribers sounds quite a few, but these channels are still not in elite company. There are now approximately 25,000 to 30,000 channels in the 1,000,000 + club. Some of these are official channels for offline superstars, particularly official music channels for the likes of Justin Bieber and Rihanna, but quite a few are simply everyday people who have built themselves a YouTube following.
Once you have a following of this size, you have the traffic to earn good money.
Obviously, it is important for a channel to keep coming up with new videos, at least one to two videos per week. If a channel were able to get its entire fanbase of 1,000,000 to watch two new videos per week it would receive each week: $18 x 1,000 x 2 = $36,000 per week from AdSense alone.
Clearly, by this level a channel is also likely to have sponsorship opportunities, endorsements, and product placements. Many of these YouTube stars will also be well enough known that they can merchandise products to their fanbase, Any review-type channels of this size will often make good money with affiliate marketing, even if they are only tied in with Amazon, and their comparatively low 1 - 20% advertising payment rates to affiliates.
The YouTube Superheroes
Then there are the true stars of YouTube, some of whom receive a stellar income from their activities on the social network.
It is impossible to source exact incomes on YouTube - there are too many variables and undisclosed figures. However, there are plenty of websites that provide a “best guess” of the incomes earned by the leading YouTube channels. It was perhaps inevitable for someone with a name like MrBeast to achieve the level of success he has now attained. Currently, MrBeast holds the top spot in terms of earnings, while Jake Paul ranks second despite previous controversies.
Top 10 Earning YouTube Stars of 2023 were:
- MrBeast – $54 million
- Jake Paul – $45 million
- Markiplier – $38 million
- Rhett & Link – $30 million
- Like Nastya – $28.1 million
- Ryan Kaji (Ryan’s World) – $27 million
- Ninja - $20 million
- Dude Perfect – $20 million
- Logan Paul – $18 million
- Preston – $16 million
With a net worth of $120 million, MrBeast is a prominent American YouTuber, internet personality, and entrepreneur. He has achieved immense success in a relatively short period of time and is widely recognized as a notable figure. Also known as Jimmy Donaldson, MrBeast is not only an internet personality and businessman but also a philanthropist. He is an example of how you can build your income both directly from YouTube, and also the flow-ons as a result of your success there, over a series of years. His Net Worth has grown since he started his channel, as follows:
2018 | $25 Million |
2019 | $40 Million |
2020 | $60 Million |
2021 | $80 Million |
2022 | $100 Million |
2023 | $120 Million |
As a YouTube and internet sensation, MrBeast has made a significant impact. The man behind the channel, Jimmy, is known by the same name and has been active on YouTube since 2012. In his early days, his content mainly consisted of gaming videos and discussions about the fortunes of other YouTubers, which were not very popular.
Nonetheless, in 2017, MrBeast gained widespread recognition, and his popularity only continued to grow from thereon. MrBeast is an incredibly successful and popular American YouTuber, known for his mastery of various genres, including expensive stunts, gaming, and entertainment. Initially starting his channel under the name MrBeast, Jimmy Donaldson quickly became known as MrBeast himself.
With millions of followers worldwide, MrBeast has become an icon in the world of YouTube. He holds the title of the most subscribed person on YouTube from America and is ranked as the second most subscribed in the world. Moreover, his philanthropy and other charitable works have helped to maintain a positive public image for him. His figures should be aspirational targets for anybody starting a YouTube channel.
