Seriously thinking about monetizing myself on youtube.

Small-time Youtuber with almost 19K subs here.

First of all, have you actually met the requirements for monetization? You can't just start up a new channel and apply on the spot. Gotta have a minimum of 4000 watch hours in the past year and 1000 subscribers total if you want ad revenue. A significant percentage of your content also has to be eligible for monetization (AMVs using copyrighted music are no good).

If you do meet the requirements, no reason not to go for it. It's fairly simple to set up. Taxes also aren't likely to be much of an issue unless you're making the equivalent of a part-time job (you are not going to make the equivalent of a part-time job if you're just starting out).

And the most important thing to keep in mind is that you need to be making stuff for your channel because you enjoy it. Not because it'll make money. You're doomed to fail otherwise.

you can also do a patreon, but I wouldn't start a channel and say "oh yeah, I have patreon!" right off the bat.

imo patreon's best when you have stuff to offer as part of it, like "wanna learn how I made this part?" or "want some cool after effects FX i made? get them on my patreon!"

agree w/ all of pokedude's advice, youtube monetization won't happen over night. Best to be consistent w/ it if possible like every week, every 2 weeks, etc.

Also if you're good at editing vids, esp music vids, you could always offer a service to make music videos for bands, things like advertisements for local companies, etc.

sometimes gig work isn't as fun as personal projects (okay, most of the time lmao) but it could be a good source of extra $$, esp if you treat it as something that you pick and choose which jobs you take.

either way, I think youtube's a fun hobby. I used to have a channel for runescape videos lol, and tbh I wanna get back into it for game dev stuff but I always forget to screen record whenever I'm working on my game :(

How much do editing gigs typically run? My name isn't out there, so my channel would be my only frame of reference for work/skill.

It depends on the nature and complexity of the work. Prices can vary wildly even for people of similar skill levels.

Like, I charge $10 for a YouTube Short edit of a stream clip, complete with subtitles and such. But something like a music video (with any necessary art assets provided in advance) could easily go for $35 or more. Meanwhile you may not make even half of that in a month on ad revenue with a channel of your size. (also note that Youtube only pays out when you accumulate a total of $100, so it could be a few months before you actually see your first paycheck)

There's another variable - being disabled since birth, I am an ssi recipient, and while prepared to report my wages, didn't want benefits effected by this beyond those deductions from income gained.

Given i've been dark employment wire, will it effect me filling out the monetization form? Do i gotta use tax forms to complete it?

As of now the channel gets 32k views monthly if you guys can run an est off that. Used a couple of sites already.

Damn.

Noticed the H amvs in question are subject to youtube..."blurring" the video's thumbnail they can't get enough juice on to age restrict. Wonder if yours got that treatment too.

I was making like $100 every 3-4 months until YouTube decided my commentary free just raw uploads of me playing EA's NHL games don't qualify for monetization anymore. =P

If you don't have enough content to edit on your own, you could try getting a job editing for someone else.

I was making like $100 every 3-4 months until YouTube decided my commentary free just raw uploads of me playing EA's NHL games don't qualify for monetization anymore. =P

Anyone wondering why YouTube sucks now should read this post. Creators are encouraged to be annoying with commentary

I make a decent amount off YouTube. Not enough to make a living, but enough to pay some bills. I do hate tax season, just because I have to fill out an additional form, and I always end up owing. I say "hate" very loosely though because I wouldn't trade it for anything. It's definitely worth doing YouTube, and tax day is only one small inconvenience.

Like poke dude said, if you meet the qualifications, there's no reason not to do it.

Can't i just pay jackson hewitt to do that shit? LOL My vision sucks, and i can't stand those forms.

Yeah you could do that. If I'm not mistaken, the form that YouTubers get is the same one that Doordash drivers get. It's nothing that places like that couldn't handle.

TC, you've been blessed to have pojr comment on this stuff! He's being modest. He's actually got quite a following on YT. He's one of or local celebs!

Been using sony vegas pro 13 for over a decade to make all my stuff - perhaps i'll get vegas 23 when it comes out.

what's not fun is having to contest all my limited ad videos one by one. You should have a way to ask for multiple reviews at once.

If you use the youtube shorts to cut a sample/funny/important part from a longer video, couldn't they call that reusing content?

You may want to consider checking out DaVinci Resolve. Base version is free and comparable to other high-end video editing software. Paid version is a bit pricey, but it's a lifetime license for future version updates.

Honestly, don't even bother unless it's a video that is actively getting views. It's not worth the effort and will probably get rejected anyway.

"Reused content" refers to uploading content that other people have uploaded without being transformative. "Repetitive content" is when you upload a bunch of videos that are essentially the same.

But no, making shorts out of the best moments from your longer videos is fine. That's actually an intended use for the feature.

what kind of content do you plan to produce

To be clear about the reused/repetitive content thing, that's only something you have to worry about if the bulk of your videos (or a significant percentage of your most popular ones) fall under it, and you're trying to monetize them. You always have the option of turning monetization off for videos that Youtube wouldn't like.

Something else important to keep in mind when it comes to growing your channel. No matter how many subscribers you have, it's not going to directly correlate to views on your average upload. If your most popular videos are your AMVs, chances are gameplay videos aren't going to see as much traffic by comparison. Most of my videos don't get more than a couple hundred views despite my top videos having hundreds of thousands.

Unless you're a cute girl, or a nerdy guy with a quirky personality, good luck beating the algorithm.

I work as an editor/partner for a gaming channel called BeardBear and I end up making some decent money if the jobs are frequent. I think being an editor for another channel might be fairly lucrative if you can keep finding work.

Of course, I think the more popular the channel the more the editor/editors get paid purely in thanks to the traffic, but it does depend on the person who hires you as well.

Luck

Good luck

Good luck!
I made my YouTube account over 10 years ago as a stepping off point for my cousin who wanted to be a YouTuber. Bought everything he needed and got everything set up, and we played games together and uploaded just for fun.

But then he decided we couldn't use any footage that showed imperfections. Like, he literally wanted to be elite top 1% competitive skill, and he just wasn't. So he'd refuse to let me upload anything that he was involved with.

So, that left me with either a bunch of wasted money, or playing on my own. And I figured since I was already set up for it, and playing games anyway I'd just do it myself.

It was never about monetizing for me, though that would be very nice. But I struggle to say anything on my own, I'm fine when playing with family, but alone with just the game to talk about, I'm very boring. I don't have a lot to say, and I'm not very interesting either. Which is why I have like 60 subs after 10 years. lol
Though, there was a several year gap when I either just didn't upload or was inconsistent. But the last year or so I've uploaded daily.

Sent a reply to the PM. But yeah, I also have my own gaming channel but it's very small and doesn't have a lot of views. I put a ton of effort into a lot of the videos though strictly for the love of the game. Been hoping one day I'd kick it off, but I don't have the charisma that a lot of other commentators do.

Keep being consistent, and the algorithm may spike you out of no where like what happened to me.

As a stoic man where it doesn't concern close family/friends, I recommend taking a deep breath before you hit record, and then just dial your personality up to 11 for a bit. It can be...exhilarating, and you have nothing to fear going all out.

Or we can do some collabs, so you got someone to bounce off which helps me too.

You smash?

*pause*

I tend to stay quieter because I do live with family and I kind of do this in secret. Mom is vaguely aware that I make YouTube videos, but I don't want to draw attention while I do.

Also, it takes me a very long time to become comfortable talking with someone. Which is why I kind of needed my cousin to start with.

I currently have another little cousin living with us who also wants to do YouTube/twitch, but he's only 11 and won't play with me now that we got good Internet and he has online friends to harass. He's got such a foul attitude and loud mouth that I think he'd probably actually do well. But he can't really be trusted to any of it on his own at the moment and won't cooperate either. So I'm just gonna wait on him to get old enough to do it on his own then offer help. Maybe he can make something of it.

My gf works in my living room since i'm at home tech support, and feel your pain. Can't go being loud, or swearing up a storm during her shift, but it also keeps me in check too.

Hopefully, he matures, and can be a character for the camera.

I tried that monetizing game way back in the early days of YouTube. Between 2007-2012, I put out about 1000 video game playthrough videos during that time, and about 300 of them have been removed due to copyright violations over the years. I only made $118 total from that venture, which was deeply disappointing for me. I probably should've done commentaries on them, like some comments had suggested I should be doing.

Ah yeah, even though gameplay is transformative content I guess it helps if you put in commentary or do a lot of edits to more make it your own. I do a mix of both. I shared this recent example with TC in a PM but I just want to post it here since it's one of the things I'm proud of on my channel.
https://youtu.be/bx91viNvU2I

It's not like I'm a loud person anyway, just it'd be nice to be able to do a bit more. Though, honestly, aside from speaking up a bit more and maybe just a tad more reaction to stuff I don't think much would change.

I'm fairly detached from most things, so when something awesome or crazy happens, I'm still just kind of there. No charisma at all. lol

I tried that monetizing game way back in the early days of YouTube. Between 2007-2012, I put out about 1000 video game playthrough videos during that time, and about 300 of them have been removed due to copyright violations over the years. I only made $118 total from that venture, which was deeply disappointing for me. I probably should've done commentaries on them, like some comments had suggested I should be doing.

It can be really tough being a content creator, and you definitely have to have a strategy to maximize getting people to view your content. I was more focused on pumping out content regularly, and it wasn't enough for me on that alone as an uploader of video game playthroughs.

Ah yeah, even though gameplay is transformative content I guess it helps if you put in commentary or do a lot of edits to more make it your own. I do a mix of both. I shared this recent example with TC in a PM but I just want to post it here since it's one of the things I'm proud of on my channel.
https://youtu.be/bx91viNvU2I

Can you share times you find optimal to upload?

There is no optimal time to upload. Everyone watches stuff on their own schedules. And if you upload at the same time every day, your viewers will usually know to check at that time.

That said, if you go to Analytics in Youtube Studio and go to the Audience tab, you can see the times when your viewers are most often on Youtube