How Do Famous Youtube Stars Become Rich?

Do any of you guys know or heard of Pewdiepie? Or Psy, the guy who was famous for his famous youtube video, Gangnam Style? Although it seems that no one is talking about Psy these days, have you ever wondered how these youtube stars make their money?

Yeah, you probably knew that they make money from advertisements, but did you know that surprisingly, most youtubers who you think makes a bunch of money actually make less than you think? Plus, advertisements are not their only source of income.

But first, let’s list out the top 10 earners of annual income: (based on socialblade.com)

1)      DisneyCollectorBR: Generates $1.5 – $23.4 million annually

2)      PewDiePie: Generates $1.2 – $18.9 million annually

3)      LittleBabyBum: Generates $845,500 – $13.5 million annually

4)      Stampylonghead: Generates $698,100 – $11.2 million annually

5)      Popularmmos: Generates $750,900 – $12 million annually

6)      Blucollection: Generates $720,700 – $11.5 million annually

7)      Disneycartoys: Generates $642,700 – $10.3 million annually

8)      MarkiPlierGame: Generates $588,400 – $9.4 million annually

9)      TheDiamondMinecart: Generates $603,000 – $9.6 million annually

10)   Jacksepticeye: Generates $568,300 – $9.1 million annually

 

To tell you the truth, I thought PewDiePie was number 1 in this list, given that he has been all over the news and social media recently. Initially, I always thought that PewDiePie had all of the viewers compared to the other viewers, however, I know for a fact that every youtube audience who watch a particular youtuber will most likely watch another star in relation to the previous star’s content.

 

HOW ARE THESE YOUTUBER’S RANKED?

According to Damon Beres of Huffington Post, Social Blade, which is a statistical website used to track social media user’s monetary income and analysis, determines which are the most relevant in terms of ranking. The website undergoes a process where it actively looks at how active a user or youtube channel has been recently, as well as how many people react and comment on their youtube channels, as well as how people subscribe to their channels. However, it gets pretty complicated from there: Social Blade measures the earnings of a youtube channel based on the earnings generated for “every thousand ad views” however these earnings greatly vary due to a complex concept known as CPMs. CPMs or cost per thousand views vary greatly because of “the many factors that would affect it, like what country their audience is based in, how many views are from mobile, how many of their viewers have Adblock, etc.” (Beres, Huffington Post) All of these factors affect the earnings of these youtube channels.

 

THE MONEY THEY MAKE

So where is this money coming from exactly? Well, there are two sources of income that Youtubers receive currently.

1)      Ad Revenue Share: Ads that are placed before or during the video, Youtube shares revenue with the creator of that content.

2)      Native Brand Integration: Apps like Hollyfy connect Youtube creators with marketers interested in working with them.

According to Erik Norgaard of Quora, he explains that content creators appeal to a large market (subscribers of the channel/ views) or a defined niche market (people who are interested in certain things only like: gaming, sports, tech, etc.). The combination of shared ad revenue from Youtube and the number of interested brands on Hollyfy can help generate additional revenue.

 

BUT WHAT IS HOLLYFY?

Hollyfy connects entertainment and brands. For instance, they mostly connect with entertainment creators (youtube stars) make more money for their production. They also help brands get embedded in content the audience will pay attention to. What they mean by that is: Let’s take the Coca-cola brand and PewdiePie, they will ask Pewdiepie to wear a Coca-cola shirt while he delivers his content to his audience. The point of this venture is to bring awareness of the Coca-cola brand, and also hope that the audience would buy more of the Coca-cola because PewDiePie is wearing a Coca-cola shirt, that is one of the tactics they use to increase brand recognition. However, this is a great website to consider, as if you are looking to gain additional revenue, you can create an account with them, and they will guarantee that you will see growth in the content that you deliver.

 

All in all, I personally believe that these youtubers are doing a great job delivering content while helping businesses grow. As long as they keep their audience entertained, there is nothing wrong with these stars making huge amounts of money. 

Rick Alden, The Willy Wonka of Skullcandy

 

We can safely assume that most of us know what Skullcandy is right? Well, if you do skip this paragraph. If you don’t, well where have you been for the last 8 years? Well anyway, Skullcandy are a pair of headphones that has a skull as its logo. To simply put, Skullcandy is a company that sells hands free audio products that enable users to be able to listen to music at high quality, while having that hip fresh look to them. Surprisingly, the music quality is pretty good, they have very nice bass subwoofers that do not damage ears.

 

HOW DID THEY START OUT?

Rick Alden is the founder of Skullcandy, and simply started out promoting snowboarding events and began fiddling with his items. He eventually began selling bindings that holds skis and snowboards together with the user.

One day, while he was hauling to the top of a Park City peak for another powder run, he had to pull out his ear buds from his music player and use them to answer his phone. However, an idea suddenly occurred to him. “What if there were headphones that could seamlessly switch from music to phone calls? And what if they looked good as they worked? That was when Skullcandy was born.

 

 

THE BIRTH OF SKULLCANDY

One of the first products that came out before Skullcandy became official, was a set of headphones called Skullcrushers. They were designed to appeal to skateboarders and snowboarders who loved a ton of bass.

So Long story short, the Skullcandy product was a success. In a sea of black and white we became a groundswell of color and style that the world had been waiting for. Skullcandy’s commitment to counterculture and self-expression scratched the audio itch of core up-and-comers and underdogs that nobody else could reach. They have teamed up with kindred risk takers and pioneers living at full volume like artists, athletes, DJs and helped grow events that were far away from the main stage and mainstream. Skullcandy’s street cred grew and grew until they boldly secured their place on store shelves and the heads of trendsetters and innovators.

 

 

WHAT MAKES RICK ALDEN SO SUCCESSFUL?

Rick is extremely driven by his passions, just like his work with skating, snowboarding, and the art of tinkering in his garage. He is all about getting the job done and this mindset attracted many individuals who share the same mindset as him. With him and his partners, they all had the attitude of driving this headphone and phone idea into the market.

There were many guarantees with the product such as: “If it doesn’t sell, we’ll buy it all back; we’ll rotate to get the best product mix.” Luckily, they never bought anything back.

They have always wanted to build their tech into other gear. Implementing audio into helmets, backpacks etc. So they took this idea to one of the top producers of snowboard and ski helmets, Giro. They loved the idea of putting speakers into their ear pads and wiring, not just music but cell phone functionality as well and agreed to print the tagline “Powered by Skullcandy” And that’s when their business soared.

Next, Rick would going to shops asking his potential clients to sell his products. Certain stores would initially refuse the offer because they thought his product were headphones, however, he pointed out the Giro helmet with speakers for them, which changed their minds.

Next, he pitched sales to Best Buy, Target, and Circuit City. He didn’t expect these companies to say yes to his offer, and wanted to buy his product in large amounts. However, he wasn’t sure how he could build that much product to meet his demands. So he found a Chinese manufacturer from China and was able to deliver his products to his chains.

 

SKULLCANDY TODAY

Today Skullcandy is a global brand bringing the noise and pushing boundaries far and wide. They have successfully modernized audio and leveled the playing field by making high fidelity affordable and high style attainable . More importantly They have designed their headphones to be used and abused, not put on a shelf or in some fancy case. They are made to be a trusty sidekick riding with you through thick and thin as you charge hard at everything you do.