If anyone wants to know reqs/sacrifices for full time Youtube/Streaming, see this

Maverick2002

Diamond Member
Jul 22, 2000
4,694
0
0
Hi everyone, I used to run meatheadgaming (youtube.com/meatheadmikhail) for over 2 years and finally quit doing it full time. I started a new channel and have a video with some in-depth details on why I stopped doing it full time and specifically the requirements (views/engagement/subs/donations/hours/etc) necessary for someone to become successful doing something full-time as a youtuber/streamer and why so few are. Hope someone finds this useful, enjoy!

Self-promotion youtube link deleted.
admin allisolm
 
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sweenish

Diamond Member
May 21, 2013
3,656
60
91
I've enjoyed a few of your Diablo 3 videos.

Helped me start a season/hit a new patch with a clear goal in mind.
 

Homerboy

Lifer
Mar 1, 2000
30,856
4,974
126
Man, I couldn't even get my PS4 game to stream on Youtube the other day -- I don't get it.
 

poofyhairguy

Lifer
Nov 20, 2005
14,612
318
126
Very interesting perspective. Like many markets the first movers have a huge advantage and the rest put in double time to just survive.
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
Very interesting perspective. Like many markets the first movers have a huge advantage and the rest put in double time to just survive.

Nah, YouTube viewers are too fickle to care about "firsts". You don't need to be the first, but rather the most interesting, and -- this may be the most important one -- consistent. If there's one thing that most YouTube viewers have in common, it's that they're incredibly entitled, and if a video is late, they'll be annoyed. I'd say that you know that you have a good thing if you are able to put out videos on an infrequent basis and still have a high viewership. A good example of that would be JonTron. The guy puts out a video every month or two yet still gets millions of views.

MattPat over on Game/Movie Theorists has done a bit of work analyzing the trends in the data that YouTube provides. I think he even did a video on it.
 

xantub

Senior member
Feb 12, 2014
717
1
46
I started about a year ago, have 850 subscribers, publish videos daily (30-35 minutes long each) about games (Let's plays), they typically get around 150 views in the first week. I get about $3/month. So, do it because you love it, but not as a source of income.
Interestingly enough, I got more money in the beginning ($4/month) when I had like 100 subscribers and videos only had like 50 views. My guess is that more and more people are using ad-blockers nowadays.
 
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Harabec

Golden Member
Oct 15, 2005
1,371
1
81
Ads are so intrusive and offensive these days it is impossible to browse anything without ad blockers.
100% blame the ad makers. Most people wouldn't block simple ads that just sit there, without taking an entire page, causing 5-min load times, screaming at you and what not.
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
Ads are so intrusive and offensive these days it is impossible to browse anything without ad blockers.
100% blame the ad makers. Most people wouldn't block simple ads that just sit there, without taking an entire page, causing 5-min load times, screaming at you and what not.

Yeah, ads on YouTube are nearly counterproductive to one of the site's main purposes: browsing/searching for videos. I'm pretty sure that we've all wanted to find this one video that was on our minds, but we weren't sure exactly what it was. So, we sat there looking through searches to find it. The problem there is that every pre-roll (before the video) ad simply makes this process take longer, and worst of all, you have to sit through them even if it's not the video that you seek.

I also watch videos on Vessel, and they did something interesting. They used to run ads on mobile, but oddly enough... I had no issue with them at all. Why? Because they were these simple, 2-second-long FedEx ads. They felt like a flash in the pan, but they still managed to grab my attention partly because it was a giant FedEx logo and its brevity was actually different enough to cause me to take note.
 

Maverick2002

Diamond Member
Jul 22, 2000
4,694
0
0
Nah, YouTube viewers are too fickle to care about "firsts". You don't need to be the first, but rather the most interesting, and -- this may be the most important one -- consistent. If there's one thing that most YouTube viewers have in common, it's that they're incredibly entitled, and if a video is late, they'll be annoyed. I'd say that you know that you have a good thing if you are able to put out videos on an infrequent basis and still have a high viewership. A good example of that would be JonTron. The guy puts out a video every month or two yet still gets millions of views.

MattPat over on Game/Movie Theorists has done a bit of work analyzing the trends in the data that YouTube provides. I think he even did a video on it.

Consistency =/= success. Your example of JonTron is another example of a first (joined 2010), and fits into my estimate of 100-1000 gaming related worldwide successful (over 50k/year) Youtubers/streamers. Once you get X subs it's a snowball. YT in general is a snowball machine.
 

Blitzvogel

Platinum Member
Oct 17, 2010
2,012
23
81
Consistency =/= success. Your example of JonTron is another example of a first (joined 2010), and fits into my estimate of 100-1000 gaming related worldwide successful (over 50k/year) Youtubers/streamers. Once you get X subs it's a snowball. YT in general is a snowball machine.

Consistency isn't just about putting out content for viewers, it's also about gaining rhythm for the content creator.
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
Consistency =/= success. Your example of JonTron is another example of a first (joined 2010), and fits into my estimate of 100-1000 gaming related worldwide successful (over 50k/year) Youtubers/streamers. Once you get X subs it's a snowball. YT in general is a snowball machine.

Well, that's good and all, but I never stated that consistency was equivalent to success. However, I did state that it was important.

Although, I wouldn't really call YouTube a "snowball machine". YouTube tends to feature far more flashes in the pan (viral videos) than anything.
 

DigDog

Lifer
Jun 3, 2011
13,491
2,120
126
OP is too normal to catch anyone's attention - that's why he gets 2k views per video.