YouTube Stars Making $100,000 Plus Per Year

[obiwong]

Provided by the Business Insider, August 19, 2010:

There are 10 independent YouTube stars who made over $100,000 in the past year, according to a study done by analytics and advertising company TubeMogul.

From July 2009 to July 2010, TubeMogul used their viewership data to estimate the annual income for independent YouTube partners, which they define as anyone who is not part of a media company or brand.

Here's how they got their estimates:

* Revenue only comes from banner ads served near content (we ignored pre-roll or overlay since we can't easily isolate by publisher).

* Since YouTube banner ads have a two-second load delay, we estimate 2.59% of viewers click away before an ad loads based on separate research.

* Ads were served near all videos that loaded (since there are partners, this is generally true).

* CPM for the banner ads was $1.50 (Google auctions a lot of this inventory off; we rounded this 2009 estimate down to be conservative).

* YouTube is splitting ad revenue with partners 50-50.

Basically, take their views from the past year, assume a few don't stick around long enough for an ad to load, divide that number by 1,000, multiply by $1.50 and divide that number in half.

Conservative estimates? Sure. But with that math, you get a pretty decent estimate of how much these YouTube celebrities are making from just the banner ads on their channel. So, without further ado, here are the highest earning YouTube stars!

source: http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/meet-the-youtube-stars-making-100000-plus-per-year-535349.html

1. Shane Dawson ? $315,000

2.

3. Philip DeFranco ? $181,000

4. Ryan Higa ? $151,000

5. Fred ? $146,000

6.

7. Mediocre Films ? $116,000

8. Smosh ? $113,000

9. The Young Turks ? $112,000

10. Natalie Tran? $101,000

glad to see CommunityChannel on the list <3

[FunRoomSite]

I'm a Youtube partner and Youtube does not split it 50/50. We get more than 50%. And I also know Phil and he makes aaalllooott more than that. I don't know him personally but I use to always game with him and stuff. 6 months ago he was making 225k a year, and he is a lot more popular now...

Edit: They are also missing quite a few very popular people. I know RayWilliamJohnson is making about as much as the real annoying orange with the amount of views he gets.

[Ayepecks]

Holy crap. I picked the wrong profession.

[Lewism]

The study was for independent stars. Maybe RayWilliamJohnson didn't qualify their criteria for independent.

To get that money, you have to be dedicated and be consistent in your videos. Very impressive. They probably under estimated everyone to get more credibility.

Also this does not includes the side projects that they are doing i.e. product placement and other stuff like their own site.

[Quattrone]

I always want to know how much money Chris Pirillo make in YouTube. That idiot is damn rich.

[FunRoomSite]

I always want to know how much money Chris Pirillo make in YouTube. That idiot is damn rich.

Who is he?

[Phamtom_Bob]

Holy crap. I picked the wrong profession.

:laugh:

[M_Lyons10]

Holy crap. I picked the wrong profession.

I was thinking the same thing. LOL

[Quattrone]

Who is he?

From his website chris.pirillo.com:

Geek, Internet Entrepreneur, Hardware Addict, Software Junkie, Book Author, Once TV Show Host, Technology Enthusiast, Shameless Self-Promoter, Tech Conference Coordinator, Early Adopter, Idea Evangelist, Tech Support Blogger, Bootstrapper, Media Personality, Technology Consultant, Thicker Quicker Picker Upper.

Chris Pirillo has been participating in Internet conversations since 1992, having launched Lockergnome as a content publishing network and building Gnomedex to be one of the blogosphere?s highly regarded conferences. In 1998, he authored the authoritative book on e-mail publishing ? further establishing himself as a thought leader. WHO AM 1040, a popular Midwest talk radio station, invited him to start hosting a weekly ?tech show? broadcast in early 2000. His presence was ultimately noticed by both talent and executive producers at the television station, TechTV. He moved from the middle of Iowa to San Francisco in 2001, and began hosting ?Call for Help? for them ? driving a live, interactive program that focused on solving common technology frustrations.

[Tom]

This is wrong btw. The statistics are WAY off. Phillip Defranco said himself. Also, if these statistics don't you think Ray William Johnson would be on the listen seeing as he is one of the most viewed youtubers out there?

[djdanster]

Yea I was thinking why RWJ wasn't on the list....

[KoL Veteran]

DAMN :blink:

[MistaT40]

This people make way too much money with online videos lol....just absolutely incredible lol.

[Growled Member]

It's hard to believe these people make so much money on YouTube. YouTube has turned into quite the lucrative business.

[Quattrone]

It's hard to believe these people make so much money on YouTube. YouTube has turned into quite the lucrative business.

I wonder if I start making something with my camera... Hmmmm

[The Laughing Man]

Yea why isn't RWJ on that list?

[-Clark-]

Pretty sure RayWilliamJohnson isn't on that list because he is commercial now. His t-shirts are sold by Hot Topic(online and in-store), not very independent in terms of revenue.

[Gocom]

Pretty sure RayWilliamJohnson isn't on that list because he is commercial now. His t-shirts are sold by Hot Topic(online and in-store), not very independent in terms of revenue.

So are Shane's shirts etc. Almost all top YouTube stars (that sell shirts) can be found from Hot Topic. Anyhow, those reading are WAY off. The ads don't get enough views (and clicks) and the conversion isn't that high. The sponsors do bring them high income, but not the YouTube partnership.

RWJ was probably dropped from the list because it wouldn't seem right. As you probably know, RWJ used to live in cheap apartment with our top one Youtube newsreader. How would someone that earns 500k live in cheap old apartment and have to save for new hardware.

[Andrew Lyle Global Moderator]

Shane is #1? There really is no god. I really hope he doesn't make that much.. Cause he's very annoying.

As for raywilliamjohnson, and thecommunitychannel, they should be on that list and even a little higher.

<3 Natalie Tran.

[FunRoomSite]

Shane is #1? There really is no god. I really hope he doesn't make that much.. Cause he's very annoying.

As for raywilliamjohnson, and thecommunitychannel, they should be on that list and even a little higher.

<3 Natalie Tran.

You think RWJ should earn what he does? He is crap. He takes videos without asking and puts corny jokes with them, that doesn't deserve any money. He should be paying it to all the people he stole a video from.

[brentaal]

He takes videos without asking and puts corny jokes with them, that doesn't deserve any money. He should be paying it to all the people he stole a video from.

Isn't that what all of them do?

Anyway, the content provided on YouTube isn't that interesting to me. Vimeo ftw. (Y)

[Explore]

Holy crap. I picked the wrong profession.

[Shasoosh]

How much views a video needs in order to start getting money from youtube? Is it like an option to turn on in the youtube account for payed ads or something?

(Not changing professions just yet, I'm just curious ;) )

[Lechio]

Isn't the Shaycarl link wrong? It shows a kid at the Vidcon.

Here's the link for the shaytards channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/SHAYTARDS

[Andrew Lyle Global Moderator]

You think RWJ should earn what he does? He is crap. He takes videos without asking and puts corny jokes with them, that doesn't deserve any money. He should be paying it to all the people he stole a video from.

That doesn't mean anything. He is always the top watched video of the week.