Austin Sprague
In my last blog I talked about the wonderful life of YouTube professions. Vloggers and other stars push content out onto their channels in hopes that people like and view their content but how do they actually make any money? It is possible on YouTube to have over 100 billion views on all of your videos and not make a penny for doing it. This is because making money on YouTube is not that simple. Views in no way equals money in the bank. Are you shocked? I certainly was when I found out this information for the first time.
It’s all because of this fancy thing called advertising and monetization. According to John Vivian, “advertisers spend 2.4 to 2.9 percent of the gross domestic product to promote their wares.” That is a large sum of money for many companies. Advertising is the way that companies are able to brand their products and make a name for themselves. With one in two people in the United States going on YouTube, it is an amazing way for advertisers to reach large numbers of people and audiences. Even though this is true Advertisers can be tricky. Advertisers have turned to buzz marketing and sponsored content to also help supplement their strategies. Many people nowadays do not know if the videos on youtube are trying to tell them something or just sell them something. Youtubers will get paid to talk about products or drop hits in their videos to get people thinking about certain ideas or brands.
Before a so called YouTuber can make any money on YouTube, they have to make an agreement with YouTube to monetize their channel. Monetization simply means to allow advertisements to be run before a given video plays. Even with the Youtuber’s videos beginning with advertisements they still have the possibility to not make any money at all. See advertisers want results and they want their products or messages to me seen.
The advertisers got creative and decided to push two types of models. The first model is the Cost per Click. The advertiser will only pay the Youtuber if someone physically clicks the advertisement. The second model is cost per view, which simply states that the advertiser will only pay the Youtuber if the viewer watches the advertisement for 30 seconds or half the ad. Both models have their pros and cons but is all based on viewer engagement.
I personally never watch half of an advertisement or click on the advertisements but someone certainly is. The top salaries on YouTube average around 8 million dollars a year on YouTube. Someone of my favorite Youtubers that I watch every day and have around 800,000-1,000,000 views on each videos daily make around $150,000-$500,000 a year.
Sources:
The Media of Mass Communication by John Vivian
fumediaecon.wordpress.com 
I find this article very informative and which side you choose when it comes to Youtube and making money. Advertising, as you mentioned in the post, plays a huge part of our daily lives, especially in the video making world. Even though most people skip the advertisements at the beginning of a video, we are still aware of them and they are still there to inform us. I also found it interesting how you mentioned the vloggers and their roles in Youtube videos. Great article!
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