What is a YouTuber?
In short, a YouTuber is a person who creates and uploads videos on YouTube. Truth be told, a YouTuber means so much more. To fully appreciate the value of a YouTuber, one needs to have a sense of its origins.
Launched in 2005, YouTube quickly became the most affluential video-sharing service for anyone with video content. Creators Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karimt likely never imagined by the summer of 2006, YouTube would be hosting more than 100 million videos per day. With its Google acquisition later that year, Youtube was creating some big waves with its daily users in the millions. Today, YouTube is no longer the “Baby Shark” for video streaming. Second to and owned by Google, YouTube reaches a near 2 billion people per month.
What started as a simple and fun way to share home movies from your computer, YouTube is now a billion-dollar industry. Much like the early days of television, YouTubers, are your modern-day Hollywood producers and celebrities, creating channels to air their sought-after programs, meaning videos. Indeed, YouTube outperforms most television, entertainment, and media outlets. Millennials in America consume YouTube more than any television network.
You too can be a Youtube Influencer
For many of these social media magnets, 50% of their earnings are often from ads. For some, brand marketing, merchandise sales, product endorsements, affiliate links, and sponsorships also contribute to a substantial chunk of change. With over a billion videos in YouTube’s archives, there is money to be made, with some YouTubers earning six-figure salaries.
How does one become a YouTuber Influencer, let alone get paid? Without scaring you off with too much math, the income a YouTuber collects through Google (AdSense) varies on the number of views. YouTubers are paid per view and not by the number of subscribers. But, it stands to reason, the more subscribers, the more views. Odds-on, subscribers, your fans, will be the first to like, comment, and share your videos. They are essential to generating more views, making them invaluable, and to be honest, a little ego-boosting.
A large percentage of Millennial and Gen Z YouTube followers say they connect with YouTube Influencers more so than celebrities, which makes them more relatable and approachable, which is equally attractive for businesses looking to promote their products online. For a YouTube Influencer with the trust of a large audience, their opinion is gold.
A YouTuber’s popularity hinges on one key component, video content. To become a top influencer, you have to create both popular and original content, which can be a bit daunting given YouTube’s more than 37 million channels. It isn’t impossible though, but where do you begin?
Today’s Great YouTube Influencers
You will want to start at the top. With millions of subscribers worldwide, these YouTube Influencers are winning the hearts of fans and subscribers worldwide. Needless to say, music, gaming, and sports were in the highest rankings. Excluding the obvious, we followed Influencer Marketing Hub’s lead and didn’t include T-Series, SET India, Zee Music Company, and the likes. Instead—
• Swedish YouTuber PewDiePie, founded in 2010, has over 110 million subscribers
• Kids Diana Show on the Ukrainian YouTube channel is still strong at 88 million subscribers.
• Like Nastya, featuring a seven-year-old Russian-American girl has 86 million subscribers
• Vlad and Niki are a dynamic young brother duo with some 77 million subscribers
• KondZilla is one of, if not the most popular Brazilian YouTube channel has some 66 million subscriber
Rounding out the top-ten YouTube Influencers on this list includes MrBeast, Dude Perfect, Fernanfloo, JuegaGerman, and Whinderssonnunes.
You Too can be a YouTube Influencer
The life of a YouTube Influencer may seem alluring, but it is far from easy. When they are not in front of the camera, YouTubers are constantly creating new content, while staying in touch and building trust with their audience. Remember, content is key. With each passing day, over 700,000 hours of fresh content is being uploaded per day, all competing for attention. Find your niche and notoriety will follow.
To those keeping score, four of the most popular channels listed above featured children, which goes to show that children today rather be social media stars than firefighters or school teachers. Well, it certainly has the potential to pay more.