How Much Money Do YouTubers Make? – Start Your Own Channel!

So you’re wondering how much money do YouTubers make for real?

Well, some YouTubers are making MILLIONS each year sharing their entertaining content! Influencers have become a huge part of our lives, and their income reflects it.

Hearing that can sound crazy to some, but it’s true. There are beauty gurus, professional video game players, home cooks, and more who make money on YouTube!

A combination of the YouTube partner program, YouTube sponsorship deals, ad revenue, affiliate marketing, and products makes this possible for many of them.

While the top YouTubers in the game are earning that kind of money, there’s still plenty of ways for smaller channels to make decent money on there.

We are going to look at how much the top YouTubers in the game are worth and then break down how you can make money from starting a YouTube channel.

Want to join the bandwagon and make money on videos, but don’t know where to start? Take the Mastering YouTube course by Erika Kullberg, who has made over $100,000 on her YouTube channel in 1 year- and she will teach you how to do the same!

How Much Do YouTubers Make At The Top?

Identifying who is the richest YouTuber isn’t easy because they don’t just make money from video views!

Many of them have complex multi-year deals with brands and various companies.

Many also have their own products with an unknown amount of income as well as undisclosed sponsored deal amounts.

Obviously, the most viewed YouTube channels typically earn the most money from YouTube. The amount that they earn through the platform is staggering!

They have massive followings, popular videos – and goes without saying – work extremely hard.

Below we’ve shared the highest-paid YouTubers net worth amounts:

Jeffree Star Net Worth

Everywhere I turn on the internet at the moment, someone is mentioning Jeffree Star and a new makeup palette.

Jeffree Star has been around a long time now, and he didn’t just stop with making videos, he has his own makeup brand, which has made him the highest paid YouTuber

His beauty videos are extremely popular with 16.2 million subscribers, and that plus his branding skyrocketed his net worth to $200 million. Wow!

Logan Paul Net Worth

Logan Paul is an American YouTuber who posts random videos. He rose to internet fame with his Vine channel which was at 9 million followers at its peak.

His net worth is currently around $35 million.

Jake Paul Net Worth

Jake Paul is the brother of Logan Paul, a former Disney Channel actor, and has recently married fellow YouTuber Tana Mongeau.

His videos are generally prank videos, and he lives in a house with other content creators called Team 10.

Jake Paul has a net worth of $30 million, which has skyrocketed in the last few years, and he’s got 24.5 million subscribers.

Jenna Marbles Net Worth

Jenna Marbles is a YouTuber and Twitch streamer, who has been on YouTube now for almost a decade.

If you don’t know, gamers live stream their games on Twitch to make money.

Her net worth is an estimated $8 million, but she is currently not making videos anymore despite 20 million subscribers still hanging around and hoping for more.

Roman Atwood Net Worth

Roman Atwood is a YouTube personality whose videos are typically pranks.

Atwood’s net worth is reportedly $14.5 million, with 15.5 million subscribers.

Dude Perfect Net Worth

Dude Perfect is an American sports entertainment group, which is made up of twins Cory and Coby Cotton, Cody Jones, and Garrett Hilbert.

Their net worth is an estimated $50 million, with 56.9 million subscribers to their channel.

Lilly Singh Net Worth

Lilly Singh is a Canadian YouTuber, who is also a comedian and actress.

She has a reported net worth of $20 million with 17.5 million subscribers. 

Graham Stephan Net Worth

Graham Stephan is a YouTuber that we really like to watch, as he is in the personal finance space too!

He is a real estate agent and investor with 3.53 million subscribers. His net worth is an estimated $6 million.

PewDiePie Net Worth

PewDiePie is a Swedish YouTuber – real name Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg. His channel is the most subscribed to on YouTube with 110 million subscribers.

His net worth is $40 million, as of 2021, but he started out simply playing video games and has boomed into so much more.

Ninja Net Worth

Tyler “Ninja” Blevins is an American YouTuber, and one of the most popular YouTubers if you want to watch someone play video games.

His net worth is approximately $40 million, with 23.9 million subscribers.

Liza Koshy Net Worth

Liza Koshy is an American actress and YouTube personality. She started her channel back in 2015 and quickly gained millions of followers.

She now has 17.5 million subscribers and her net worth is an estimated $6 million.

CrazyRussianHacker Net Worth

Taras Vladimirovich Kulakov is a Russian American YouTuber. He is well known for his videos showing scientific experiments.

His net worth is $5 million.

Ryan ToysReview Net Worth

This 9-year-old holds the most profitable YouTube channel in the world!

Ryan asked his parents to set up “Ryan ToysReview” for him after he enjoyed watching other toy videos.

One of his videos went viral, and the channel now has over 31 million subscribers.

He’s got 11.5 million subscribers and his net worth is $32 million.

Shane Net Worth

Shane Dawson is an American YouTuber, who is also known for being a comedian, musician, film director, and screenwriter.

His net worth is $12 million, with 20 million subscribers to his channel.

MrBeast Net Worth

MrBeast is best known for his viral philanthropy videos – I just spent a good chunk of time watching one where he donated $1 million!

His net worth is an estimated $25 million with 82.1 million subscribers as of November 2021- and now doubts he’ll keep them coming for years to come!

How Much Money Can You Actually Make on YouTube?

How much do YouTubers make? Well, that’s only up to them!

The amount of money that you can make on YouTube isn’t limited to a certain amount, only by your time and efforts.

As tempting as it is to look at the top earners and assume that it won’t be long until you make a million, it will require a bit more effort than that.

The average YouTuber’s salary isn’t going to be in the millions, but there’s no reason why it can’t be in the thousands.

The good thing about YouTube though? It depends on the video.

One video can go viral, and catapult your channel to new subscribers. It’s like any type of business – it depends on the quality of the product (videos), and the marketing behind it.

So, how much does YouTube pay for 1 million video views? The answer is it drastically varies based on the audience, type of content, and duration of the video.

There is a handy YouTube earnings calculator that you can calculate earnings on.

How much YouTubers make from video views depends on a few factors. Try out the calculator to see!

YouTube Partner Program

YouTube stars all start off small and slowly reach the requirements to make money through the YouTube Partner Program.

There are some requirements of the platform that you need to hit in order on YouTube to get paid through the program:

• Minimum of 1,000 subscribers 
• 4000 hours of overall watch time in the last 12 months

If you want to get paid for your videos and content, you are going to have to put some effort into it and think about why people would want to follow you.

YouTube payment method is dependent on your location, but there are options such as checks, electronic funds transfer, bank transfer, etc.

Want to learn how to edit your YouTube videos like a pro, gain subscribers, and get more views? Up your game by taking the Mastering YouTube course and start earning money from your channel!

How Do YouTubers Make Money?

Now that you know how much YouTubers make, I’m sure you want to know how on Earth they rake in the millions!

Although the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about making money on YouTube is ads, there are a few other methods too. 

Have you been wondering how much YouTubers make per video? Well, that can depend on views and their monetization methods.

Here are the most common ways to make money on your videos:

Ad Revenue

As mentioned, ad revenue tends to be the most common way to make money on YouTube.

It’s easy on your part because someone just needs to click on the ad to get paid.

You will need to meet their minimum requirements as listed above before you are able to turn on ads.

There is no exact number for how much you earn with each view on a YouTube video, but it will be around $0.03 – 1 cent per view.

Affiliate Income

YouTubers make money from promoting products and services to their viewers.

Affiliate links are referral links, where you can earn a commission when someone clicks on your link from (your YouTube account or video description) and makes a purchase.

You could mention it within your video as an extra thing for them to look at, or your whole video could be based around the affiliate company if you have been approached by them.

The earnings from affiliate links vary from company to company, with some paying out very little – but some companies paying out huge amounts.

Donations

This isn’t the top way to get paid as a YouTuber, but if there is a large fan base who want to see the videos keep coming, they may want to donate.

Rather than making money on just a YouTube video, content creators will have donation places to gain income elsewhere.

You could ask if your subscribers would like to donate via Patreon or PayPal. Make sure it’s through legit channels, and you can make money this way too!

Sponsorships

Sponsorships are a large part of a lot of YouTubers’ income models, as there is the potential to make a lot of money through sponsors.

Sponsorships are where companies approach YouTubers and ask them to promote their company, in exchange for sponsorship e.g. paying for them to make a video.

Merchandise

If you’ve watched any kind of YouTube channel at all, you’ve probably heard them talk about their “merch”.

YouTubers get paid through many things, including their own sales.

Merchandise is something that you could sell if you have a large following who would be interested. You could sell things such as clothing, mugs etc.

Tips for Your YouTube Channel

The biggest mistake that a lot of people make when they want to start something that makes money, is to not treat it as a business.

Recording a YouTube video isn’t the only thing you need to do, there is SO much more to it!

You can bet that the top YouTubers in the game are treating their channels like a business. They work on it full time, they will have a business model and a plan.

It is important to view this as a business if you want to make money online from it and potentially turn it into your work from home job.

You want to know how to increase your number of subscribers, what merch you could sell down the road, and what affiliates and sponsors you could score with your YouTube channel.

And all of that takes planning and dedication!

Pick Your Passions

You’re going to be making a lot of videos. It may sound like an obvious piece of advice, but picking something that you are passionate about is going to help you a lot.

Choose a topic that you are happy to talk about over and over again. Not only that but if you are passionate about it, your viewers will like you.

Make Sure Videos Work For Yoo

Is it the best platform for you to be using in terms of your business?

While it may be tempting to start a YouTube channel after seeing how much some people are making from it, make sure it’s the best medium for you.

There could be other avenues that would be better for you, such as a blog or a podcast.

What Do You Need to Start a YouTube Channel?

Ok, you’ve decided that you want to start a YouTube channel!

Now what?

There are a lot of things that you can get to set up your channel, but some things that you will definitely need to look at getting include things like:

• Camera
• Lens
• Tripod
• Lighting
• Microphone
• SD Card

How to Become a YouTuber Without A YouTube Video

If you’re wondering how to make money on YouTube without making videos per se – the answer is, it’s possible.

But how do you become a YouTuber who doesn’t make videos? A few options are available. You can use creative commons to repurpose and recreate existing videos on YouTube into your own.

Another option would include you creating channel art for other creators and listing them on sites such as Fiverr or Etsy.

You’re allowed to monetize other people’s content under creative commons as long as you’re making it your own. That could include video overlays, audio dubbing, or splicing multiple clips together with your own style and design.

Final Thoughts on Making Money on YouTube

So were you surprised by how much YouTubers make through their videos? 

If you’ve been thinking about starting up a YouTube channel, we say to go for it!

Not everyone will be able to make a lot of money on there, as it is a business. But there is always the chance that one of your videos could go viral and make you money!

It is important to be realistic about your expectations and not quit your job to go full-time on YouTube yet, but it’s a fun side hustle.

You could always try out other ways of making money online such as survey sites, blogging, or other work from home jobs.