Times are tough, jobs are scarce. It’s risky to be outside and around others. It looks like there are only a few ways to form extra cash during an epidemic. So I assume I’ll just hunker down and binge social media until this all blows over. Wait, don’t these people make money?
How do these people make money? Streamers, YouTubers, Twitchstars, how do they create money? Is it tons? Is it a lot of work? I do know, I need to ask somebody within the biz and that I got just the guy, Austin John Plays. this is often your full-time job now, right? As of November of last year, yes.
This was always just kind of sort of a side thing. like all money that I made up of doing my videos and whatever else, I never touched that ’cause I didn’t consider that as being like real money. then it started coming in additional and more. then it had been like, I hit my first day that I broke a grand and that I was like, this is often actually gonna be money.
How did the YouTube channel come to be? When the sport Pokemon Sun and Moon came out for the 3DS there was like things that I learned about the sport . then I wanted to only share that information with people. And at the time I didn’t have any thanks to capture a screen or anything so I found like generic footage and that i quite put it all at once with such a lot editing and that video got six views.
then two days later I made another one which one got 12 views. then I just started pumping out more and more content. and other people were like, this guy knows what he’s talking about. It really just started building on top of itself. then it had been like. My channel really focuses on tips and tricks. So I play a straight 18 hours and I’ll finish the sport ergot to about the 40 hour mark then I’ll make my first video. While I’m going through I have an enormous notepad and just scribbles everywhere. and that i make these notes of like the things that stumped me.
So i do know the items that may stump people . What does one got to believe if you’re building your YouTube channel? One, you would like to try to to something that you’re hooked in to . Not that you simply like, not that you simply think you’re going to form money on, something you’re hooked in to . Other thing are some things that people are hooked in to . It holds a special place to them. And third is, it must be something that folks are going to seek out information on.
so as to enter into the marketplace, you either got to begetter than everyone else, you either got to be faster than everyone else otherwise you got to be more accessible than everyone else. And you cannot be more accessible ’cause it’s already on the platform. Granted, if you understand how the algorithm works, which is extremely similar to Google Analytics, then yeah, you’ll have a touch little bit of a head start, but if you are not doing it faster and if you are not doing it better than everyone else then why should anyone watch your channel? So my income as a YouTube of breaks right down to three alternative ways . One, which is that the bulk ofit, which is ad revenue.
Whenever you go and you watch a video then there’s a billboard and then you wait five seconds and you hit rock bottom right corner then you go onto the next video or a non-skippable ad or the video starts immediately, you get the little banner ads at rock bottom . Or if you scroll down from the video the primary thing that shows there’s a billboard .
Those are the four differing types of ads which will appear on every single YouTube video, and every one of them pay a particular amount. It varies on lots of things just like the country of the one that posted, the country of the person who watches it, the time of year, where you’re within the quarter,if there’s anything happening with a discount in ad revenue. Like great example, COVID-19 companies weren’t spending the maximum amount on advertising so because of that, CPM went down.
CPM stands for click per thousand and using the Roman numeral for 1,000. which means for each 1,000 views you get a particular amount of cash . Now on low ads, once I first started off, my CPM was 30 cents. So every 1,000 views, I made 30 cents, on the other hand once I signed with an MCN and that i started making more quality content and more engaging content,some of my better videos and certain times of the year I can see CPMs as high as 12 to $14. and there is a big fluctuation between, you recognize if I post a video when there’s no ads being spent like January and February.
That’s a reason tons of your favorite YouTubers and also TV shows don’t post new videos therein time of year ’cause ad rates are down. Why are they gonna make content then? Instead you’re recording and you’re bulking up for when ad revenue is higher. The second way that a Troublemakers income is support, crowdfunding, things like that. once I first started off, Patreon was really the sole option on the other hand they started rolling out supporters and members for YouTube channels.
So whenever I even have a live stream you’ll click a button and then you’ll become a member. then you get special icons next to your name. i think they’re called badges or on any video you’ll hit the join button which helps support the channel.
You have to endure the times that your first video gets six views, then you post it on Reddit and they say, shut up and then an auto mod bans you. You have to go through that because until you go through that and you discover why you’re doing it, you’re not doing it for other people. You’re doing it for yourself. If you’re not loving what you do, then it’s not worth it. Huh, so make a channel about something that I’m passionate about. Oh, sweet.
I guess I can make the channel about that. Now, how do I grow an audience? How do I get popular? It’s all about diversification, right? You have to have a massive Twitter following. You have to have a massive Instagram following. You have to have a massive YouTube following. Of course, you have to be on Twitch, which is the key platform, but basically any way you can get in front of your audience, you can engage with your audience is going to drive those clicks which ultimately drives the advertising revenue that you get back from all of these platforms.
It’s me and Dan playing video games and talking funnily over them. They’re not just people who are good at games. They are actually people who are good at online engagement, online entertainment first and foremost. You have the right to remain stylish. Anything you wear can and will be used against you in the court of fashion. The streamer is either very,very talented at the game. The best player in the game is generally going to draw a crowd ’cause people like watching people who are very good. On the other hand, they’re either very, very good or funny, charismatic,whatever it is on that side.
Oh, no. You know, it becomes more of a show where they talk about other things outside of the gaming world. And gaming becomes really just a backdrop and an excuse to engage with that audience. There were those weird like Ronald McDonald, like straight to VHS movies, you remember those? I’m personable, I’m chatty. I would kind of, you know, when boring things were happening in the game, I would ramble on about, you know movies I’d watched or books I’d read on, you know or conversations I’d had and stuff like that.
And so I think being personable was a big part of that. It’s not just getting on and playing games. It’s getting on and being an entertainer. You are putting on a show. All right now, let me go ahead and grab the samurai sword that every gym has. Okay, he’s dead. To have a larger audience and to have that audience, I think, stay with you, you have to bring something extra.
You know, you have to find your niche. You have to find what works and what connects with the audience and what makes them laugh or what makes them keep coming back. You gotta make it a little more exciting, all right? Throw in a hanging Bishop, have everybody in suspense for a moment. I think the real, most important thing is, is to just get used to being on camera. Like in any sort of performance thing is get used to talking on camera. You know, my first few videos were terrible but because I sat down and did it for six to eight hours a day,I just got used to talking and I got over that uncomfortable hump. If you go into Twitch purely with the expectation that you’re going to make money, make a job out of it, have all this growth bandit’s going to be great, you’re probably going to burn out prior to getting to that point because there’s very little payoff for a long time, right?
Like, multiple years generally before you really start to see a payoff. And so, you know, those first few times you’re streaming, nobody is there. One person shows up every 30 minutes, says hi maybe and leaves, right? Like, it’s very discouraging,I think, for a lot of people.
And so you have to be there just loving it. You have to love talking to yourself when nobody is around you have to love just the game that you’re playing, all of that stuff because it takes a while. And I think a majority of people burn out prior to getting to the profitable point of it. And there you have it, my very own YouTube, Twitch, Discord, and streaming channels all ready to go live. It’s a veritable social media ecosystem just on the verge of thriving.