Getting Rich on Youtube

Jesse Chen • September 22, 2010 2 min read

After posting a handful of videos on Youtube to supplement my Droid X review, it has gotten to be quite an interesting activity to track.  All these videos were kind of just made during my spare time, just for fun - but it seems like they were [at least] somewhat helpful to others.  At this point, the total views on all my videos is ~32k, and I got a nice little surprise when I checked my email one day and got an invite to submit one of my videos for revenue sharing on Youtube.

For those that don't know, the revenue sharing program is when Google somehow determines [aka magic] that your video is becoming increasingly popular/viral, and would like to put ads on top of your video.  As a result, you share the revenue that Google earns from viewers looking at your ad, and when they actually click on the ad.  I have two of my videos up for revenue sharing, which is rather surprising because of the minimal effort I have put in to those videos I have been uploading.

I think this is a really cool program for Youtube to do, which hopefully assists them in becoming profitable one day.  It creates an incentive for anybody in the world to create genuine and legit videos of their own, and as a result, drive more traffic and revenue for Youtube.  A beautiful positive cycle.  I have read articles of the richest Youtubers out there, people such as nigahiga, who can earn six figures solely from making Youtube videos!  Sounds like the good life, although I do have to question how long these "celebrity figures" on Youtube can stay relevant with the Internet's shifting, diverting, 15-seconds-of-fame culture.

I am happy to announce that I am on the path of reaching six figures as well from making my brilliant Youtube videos.  If you extrapolate the rate of earnings that I am getting from my videos, it will only be about 1000 years until I hit 100,000$ from my videos. :-P Never mind, guess it won't be happening.

16$ in the first two months!  Not too shabby, it can buy me..something.

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