Any You Tube for profit guys here?

[Steven Digges]

Just curious if any of our members operate a You Tube channel based on the you get paid for views model? I don't have one but I would like to hear about it if anyone has any type of experience with it.

Steve

[Nate Haustein]

I got an offer last week by a company that edits one of those weekly compilation videos (TOP FAILS and stuff like that). They offered to license my video of a dragster crash for $150, so I signed the papers, and sent off the original file. Still haven't seen a cent...

That same video was previously on YouTube with the ads and I haven't made any money after 40,000 views. It's pretty hard I think unless you're getting 5 million + views on a new video every week like some of the big players.

EDIT: Just got paid ;)

[Josh Bass]

Yes i think thats all true. I have a couple videos monetized but havent seen any blingy chingy. Then again i dont have the hits to expect to either.

As i understand it you need, as was said, millions of hits on a video to see anything. You know those top rated vids with millions of hits in each vid and 10000+ subscribers on their channel? Those are the folks actually making a living from youtube (whether that means $30k a year or $130k who knows). Everyone else has probably made a couple hundred dollars or nothing.

[John C. Chu]

I really liked this article about secrets to getting a Youtube video to go viral.

Dancing YouTube Sensation Karen Cheng's 10 Tips For Making Your Video Go Viral | Fast Company | Business + Innovation

[Josh Bass]

That is interesting. However when I read these types of articles I always wonder how I could apply this to my narrative short films and always come up blank.

[Jody Arnott]

I have a short documentary on YouTube with around 65,000 views, and it has made me around $130 over the past year. You really need to be getting a huge amount of views on numerous videos to make any decent money.

But hey, $130 is still $130 I didn't have before :) It's a nice little bonus.

[Matt Sharp]

I shoot for a handful of different YouTube channels of various genres. You really need to be getting 100-200K+ views per day to earn any meaningful income. Ad values also fluctuate throughout the month and year. One of the main channels I shoot for is getting ~120K views per day with about 330K minutes watched per day.

To clarify, earnings aren't directly related to video views, rather ad playbacks and minutes watched (it's still possible to calculate a rough ratio of dollars/views but there's nothing like that set in stone anywhere). There are also 6 different types of ads on YT (at least on my channels) and over the last 30 days for me those varied in CPM value from $3.63-$14.42. The most valuable ads are the skip-able ads that viewers choose not to skip.

[Ryan Douthit]

I've been a production partner since 2006 with YouTube. Three years ago I made four figures a month, now, it's down to low three figures (not allowed to discuss revenue specifics per my contract) even though my frequency and quality has improved.

The site used to be a lot more rewarding to independent creators that produced videos with wide appeal. Features like the viewing charts would help make popular videos go full-on viral. Also, the old homepage would keep maker content in front of subscribers more consistently. The new Cosmic Panda interface rewards sites that upload more frequently.

The current model of YouTube (this changes constantly) favors channels with short-form content uploaded daily. Or, content that receives heavy off-site promotion, driving traffic to YouTube. If you don't have either of these elements in place it wont be a major revenue maker. There are some benefits: like free bandwidth and, of you're a partner, the ability to direct viewers to your official site. But, to focus your production on YouTube is a folly unless your business is built FOR YouTube.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

I became a youtube partner last year. However, I didn't knew that I had to specifically add my google adsense account. So for many months, I kept on getting hits but no money. Anyway, figured it out later.

Youtube has changed its channel metrics. So they penalise long form content. They are checking the percentage of time a video is viewed and videos with higher percentage comes up in their search more and promoted more. So those make money. For example a one minute trailer makes more money and gets more hits than a 18 mins short film.

I was working on a film on elephants and put up a trailer about 3.4 mins. Then I was advised to increase the scope and stopped working on it as I had to put all the things in place. That video has got up some 79k hits. And for sometime I have seen that the hits were dropping. A couple of days back I found out that someone has downloaded my video and uploaded it and has already got 66k hits. I complained and took it down. However, that guy made money at my expense. Bad policy by youtube.

I did one short film on cock fights titled Blood betting. I was trying to raise awareness about it. That video started becoming viral and getting 2-3k hits per day and someone complained that it is animal abuse. Immediately it was blocked by youtube. Later I figured out that there is a way to complain. So I explained. The video was reinstated with and limited to above 18 audience and the ads were turned off.

So don't depend on youtube as your sole source of income. As either someone can steal your content or youtube can just block or ban something. Youtube channel is to host content and get some dollars which takes care of my webhosting charges of my website.