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. One of the most visible ways (no pun intended) is YouTube. In fact, there are MILLIONAIRES out there who have gotten their start making videos on YouTube, which brings up the question: <\/p>\n
Today we\u2019ll be looking at the top ten big winners on the YouTube circuit and going into how exactly they make their money.<\/p>\n
Forbes compiled a list<\/a> of the top earners on YouTube, based on information based on pretax estimates of their income for the year 2019.<\/p>\n Vanoss rose to popularity by playing Call of Duty and GTA 5 and often collaborates with other YouTubers to make videos about multiplayer games.<\/p>\n Another gaming channel, Dan plays games like Minecraft and Fortnite, two of the most popular games<\/a> among young people today.<\/p>\n Markiplier got his start making videos about the video game Amnesia: the Dark Descent in 2012. Since then, he\u2019s grown to over 26 million subscribers and primarily makes videos showcasing horror games.<\/p>\n Felix\u2019s content is mostly gameplay videos and reaction videos, where he films his reactions to news stories and even the content of other videos on YouTube.<\/p>\n While he started out as a Call of Duty player, Preston\u2019s most-viewed videos today are from him playing the popular multiplayer game Fortnite with his little brother.<\/p>\n Jeffree primarily makes videos promoting his makeup brand to over 18 million subscribers. In addition to the money he makes from YouTube, he also sells makeup for somewhere in the eight-figure range.<\/p>\n Rhett and Link host a daily YouTube show where they do taste tests, participate in little games or challenges and do \u201cexperiments\u201d (like putting things in Red Bull for three months<\/a>).<\/p>\n Anastasia (or \u201cNastya\u201d to her fans) has made a splash on YouTube at only 5 years old! Her channel was started by her parents, who wanted to show her relatives the progress of her treatment for cerebral palsy. Since then, the channel mainly showcases her playing with her dad, telling stories, and singing songs!<\/p>\n Dude Perfect was formed by a group of five friends who started out in 2009 making trick basketball shots. Since then, they\u2019ve made a reputation for performing stunts, challenges, and trying weird products.<\/p>\n Another young Youtuber, Ryan was only 3 years old when he started out making videos of himself opening boxes of toys<\/a> and playing with them. Today, he makes videos of himself playing with his dad or other friends, as well as educational videos.<\/p>\n The following are things you want to keep in mind when making a YouTube channel. It\u2019s important to know that there is a lot more that goes into making a channel besides recording videos.<\/p>\n The way you make money directly from YouTube is with ad revenue. And that comes from Google AdSense which is one of the top ways of making money with Google<\/a>. According to the parent company, Alphabet Inc. (who owns Google, YouTube and AdSense) pays out 68% of their AdSense revenue to publishers. That means, you as a YouTuber, get $68 out of every $100 that advertisers pays to Google AdSense to display their ads on YouTube.<\/p>\n Now, in order to put ads on your videos, you have to be partnered with YouTube, which has its own set of requirements<\/a>.<\/p>\n Basically, you have to have at least 1,000 subscribers and have your viewers watch at least 4,000 hours of your content to become a partner. It\u2019s not something you can just pick up in a day!<\/p>\n Once you do, though, you can start raking it in, provided you keep getting those views! On average, according to Influencer Marketing<\/a>, you can get between $0.01 to $0.03 per view. This means if all 1,000 of your followers watched a video of yours, you\u2019ll get up to $30 (more if people watch it more than once).<\/p>\n More subscribers means more views and more money!<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve ever watched a big-name YouTuber, you\u2019ve probably seen an example of a sponsorship. It\u2019s those little shout-outs made during the video, usually spoken by the YouTuber like old-timey radio ads.<\/p>\n You can find brands that are willing to sponsor you through websites like Channel Pages<\/a>, Famebit<\/a>, or Grapevinelogic<\/a>.<\/p>\n Brands are usually on the lookout for established personalities with a loyal viewer base. The kind of people you would listen to if they were talking up a product.<\/p>\n Most of the top ten YouTubers, as well as the people lower on the list, have a line of merchandise that they sell. Ryan Kaji has a line of toys on sale at Walmart<\/a>, VanossGaming has a line of clothing and accessories<\/a>, and Good Mythical Morning has a merch store<\/a> featuring pins, accessories, and books they\u2019ve written, just to name a few.<\/p>\n A growing trend among YouTubers, especially the ones that play video games<\/a>, is to live stream their content. Viewers watching along can throw in donations, usually along with a message that will flash on the screen or be read aloud by the streamer.<\/p>\n You might think this is a strange thing. YouTubers have employees? What?<\/p>\n This is actually extremely common though. When you first start off, the first thing you\u2019re going to notice is that you\u2019ll need someone to edit your videos. For a while you can do this by yourself, sure, but the editing won\u2019t be as good as if a professional had done it. Furthermore, you\u2019re going to need to be making tons of videos during this time too.<\/p>\n Eventually, you won\u2019t be able to edit all the content you make. It will just be too much for one person to do. You\u2019re going to need an editor.<\/p>\n Then when you become big enough, you\u2019re probably going to need to hire someone to handle your social media too. Then artists to help you make merch and nice thumbnails for your videos. You see where this is going?<\/p>\n Just be sure to keep all of this in mind when you start this. Save up some spare cash to invest in future editors and so on.<\/p>\n While YouTube can be big business, with the top 5,000 YouTubers having more than 2 million subscribers apiece (according to Social Blade<\/a>, a social media metrics site), it\u2019s important to know that being successful on the site takes time and work.<\/p>\n A creator doesn\u2019t get to 1,000 subscribers overnight unless they already have a big following somewhere else.<\/p>\n But if you have a winning personality, an idea for content that people would be interested in, and a camera, you can be a YouTube star someday too!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n10. Evan Fong (VanossGaming<\/a>)<\/h4>\n
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9. Daniel Middleton (DanTDM<\/a>)<\/h4>\n
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8 (tied). Mark Fischbach (Markiplier<\/a>)<\/h4>\n
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7 (tied). Felix Kjellberg (PewDiePie<\/a>)<\/h4>\n
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6. Preston Arsement (TBNRFrags<\/a>)<\/h4>\n
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5. Jeffree Star (jeffreestar<\/a>)<\/h4>\n
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4. Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal (Good Mythical Morning<\/a>)<\/h4>\n
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3. Anastasia Radzinskaya (7 different channels, primarily Like Nastya<\/a>)<\/h4>\n
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2. Coby and Cory Cotton, Garret Hilbert, Cody Jones and Tyler Toney (Dude Perfect<\/a>)<\/h4>\n
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1. Ryan Kaji (Ryan\u2019s World<\/a>)<\/h4>\n
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Making Money on YouTube<\/h2>\n
Ads<\/h3>\n
Sponsorships<\/h3>\n
Merch<\/h3>\n
Livestreaming<\/h3>\n
Employees<\/h3>\n
Final Thoughts<\/h2>\n