Being a YouTuber is now a profession. It won’t be long before the colleges and universities are offering courses on advanced “Subscribe, Like and Comment.” In fact, “The Real World” online university course has just started a social media influencer course with several courses on YouTube channel building.
Pro – You Can Work From Home
The COVID situation had a lot of people asking what they could do from home. Stand-up comedians started writing their autobiographies, Hollywood celebrities started making woke speeches, and most other people looked to social media as a way of making money. It is true that making money on YouTube is difficult, but it is something you can do from anywhere in the world where you have an internet connection.
These days, you can buy YouTube channels from companies like Fameswap and monetize them to your heart’s content. It is pretty easy to get started successfully if you have enough money to buy other people’s successful accounts. Starting from nothing with your own account is more difficult. If you are opposed to buying other people’s accounts, then you will have to pay to promote your account, which is going to cost you a lot of money.
Con – Building Your Way Up Is Viciously Difficult
Even if you already have a few hundred followers, the YouTube algorithm is not set up to reward new accounts. Getting from 1000 to 10,000 is far more difficult than getting from 10,000 to 100,000.
The slow-burning start to a YouTuber’s career is often why people try to find shortcuts to success, such as by buying other people’s accounts or by using spam tactics. Perhaps another large con is that most people quit before they make 25,000 followers, and this is because it takes so much work and effort to get to that point. It is very disheartening to spend days and weeks creating a single video, only to see it get ignored.
Pro – The Money Becomes Partially Passive Over Time
This is an odd facet of YouTuber life, but for some reason, there are videos that keep drawing traffic for months and even years after you have posted them. There is honestly no way to know which of your videos to become passive-income earners. There is no special category, no special type of content, it just happens that some videos will keep drawing traffic long after they should have faded into obscurity.
This is not the same as becoming viral. Some will get 200 views per month for years, and some will get 2000 views per month for years. No matter what your numbers are, they each generate a little bit of income, which means that even if you quit being a YouTuber, it is still going to generate income without you doing anything at all. So long as you log in every 3 to 6 months, the videos keep drawing passive income.
Con – You Can Lose it All Without Warning
The cancel culture and woke era has proved this beyond any sort of doubt. In some cases, people will go over your old videos or even your old comments, find something they think is offensive, and then cause a fuss until you are canceled. However, the most insidious types are those who keep reporting your content over and over again. Eventually, Google’s algorithm takes over and either your content stops being recommended (so your traffic dies off), or you need to speak to the Google support team over and over again because somebody keeps reporting your stuff. There are people who have spent years building up their channels only to have some report-filer, spammer, or copyright-striker take down their account and ruin everything.
Examples – Gamers, Unboxers and Tutorials
Gamers have found their own subculture on YouTube. They have obvious things like reviews and recaps, but they also have let’s plays, live streams, walkthroughs and commentaries. Then there are those who have connections who also give first-looks, insider leaks, tips videos and lore videos.
Unboxers are perhaps one of the most inspiring subcultures because nobody saw them coming. These are people who buy new things and then unbox them on videos. Somehow, these people are pulling down thousands of views. They are from a similar subculture to the ASMR posters and those people who video themselves using power washers on filthy walls, cars, floors, etc.
Some tutorial makers have found a nice way to make passive income. Their tutorial on how to simplify your vector image on Inkscape may not draw in hundreds of viewers on its first posting, but these videos have existed for years (over ten years in many cases), and they are still being viewed and searched for. If you go down this route, make them as good and high quality as possible because even if they don’t become popular right away, they may become big earners over time as they draw in passive income for years.
