Teens work part-time on their own terms making money through YouTube

YouTube money calculators show the user how much money they can make based on views and engagement with videos.

According to WordStream, YouTube makes up about one third of the internet. Every month, 1.9 billion people use YouTube. Every day, 5 billion youtube videos are being watched around the world. Every minute, 500 hours of videos are uploaded to the site.

Many people ranging from musicians, TV networks, small businesses, teachers, and the self-employed all can find monetary value in posting their own content on a YouTube channel. 

Although becoming a professional YouTuber may sound fun and easy, users have to push to get it started and there is no guarantee of it working out. 

A YouTube channel is free to create through Google+ which is also free. However, before launching a channel, users have to decide what kind of profit they’re interested in. 

Collier Vozzola, a junior at Linganore High School, says “I started making YouTube videos for extra money because quarantine has made it harder to find a job.” Collier started making YouTube videos 7 months ago and makes around $50 a month on his videos. 

Collier makes a variety of YouTube videos all in the category of gaming. His videos are 3-4 minutes long on average. He has about 950 subscribers. 

There are two efficient ways to make money on YouTube: as an advertiser and as an ad platform. As an advertiser, the creators pay YouTube for Pre Roll, Bumpers, or TrueView ads that get videos out to potential buyers.

In 2019, YouTube ads produced $15.15 billion in revenue. 

TrueView ads are the standard ad type on YouTube videos. Advertisers only pay for these ads when viewers watch or interact with the ad. Preroll ads are ads that appear directly before the video that the user is about to watch. Bumper ads are short video ads that let the creator reach more customers with brief, but memorable messages. 

As an ad platform, creators post videos that are watched enough to host others content as a YouTube Partner.

The YouTube Partner Program lets popular creators monetise their videos and share the revenue that YouTube gains from advertising on their channel. 

YouTube partners have access to income from multiple different areas. Not only ads, but also YouTube premium subscription fees, merchandise,  channel memberships, and special features like SuperChat.

SuperChat lets viewers buy chat messages that stand out and occasionally get pinned to the top of a chat feed during a live stream. SuperChat can’t be used unless the user is over 18 and lives in an eligible area. 

Since Collier is under the age of 18, his dad helps him get the money he makes off of his videos by having a joint account that the money goes into. Collier has access to the account for everything that requires the creator to be over the age of 18 to use. 

To earn ad revenue, users must be 18 years old and create advertiser friendly content. YouTube Premium revenue is automatically earned if a YouTube Premium member watches the video. In order to sell channel memberships to subscribers, creators have to be 18 and have more than 30,000 subscribers. In order to sell merchandise, creators must be 18 years old and have more than 10,000 subscribers. 

When Colliers channel started growing and he was able to make money, we came up with a plan for him to be able to access it and use it,” said Steve Vozzola, Colliers father. 

On YouTube, users can make $7.60 per 1,000 views on a video. It’s getting harder to make money on YouTube because ad revenue ranges from $0.35 to $5.00 per view. Creators must make a balance of $100.00 before cashing out. 

There are now YouTube revenue calculators to help creators understand how much they can make based on views and engagement with their videos. 

When using a YouTube calculator, users enter their channel name, their average number of views, and number of subscribers. After the user enters that information, the website  calculates it and shows the user their average monthly and yearly pay from YouTube. 

Getting started on YouTube takes time, dedication, and determination, but nothing is guaranteed in the business. 

Collier said, “It took me a while to get where I am and I had to put more money into it than what I have made. I almost gave up, but I kept pushing.” 

Making money on YouTube is possible, but it is hard to make money on just YouTube alone.