The Nive Nulls

Hey guys. I saw a bunch of YouTubers/media outlets talking about this article: http://fusion.net/story/244545/famous-and-broke-on-youtube-instagram-social-media/

I’d encourage you to read it first because they say more than I’ll address but I found it to be a slightly ridiculous article/outlook on life and oneself.

Let me start by saying that I 1) Don’t know the girl who wrote it and don’t know anything about her channel with her friend (other than what I see on her page/social blade stats) but I also have been in this industry a long time, worked in the business, have been inside a CMS, etc so I feel like the assessments I’m about to make are not too far off. 2) I don’t mean any harm by what I’m about to say and I actually hope that they can figure things out and be “comfortable” as a result of their hard work. I just think that they are, most likely, already comfortable and don’t even know it.

Ok let’s start at the beginning of the article…she mentions a buzzfeed actress who has been in videos viewed MILLIONS AND MILLIONS of times who is serving tables at a buzzfeed event and feels awkward (apparently she “deserves” to be at the event instead). I mean, that could be awkward, yeah, but financially it’s totally normal. She’s a hired actress for an Internet video. There’s no massive budget (compared to tv/movie budget which equal tv/movie hired actress $) and also, the number of views on the video have no correlation to her pay, and most likely, performance. This is also the life (waiting tables, primarily) of EVERY ACTOR/ACTRESS IN LA TRYING TO MAKE IT. She finishes by saying, “Why would someone with 90,000 Instagram followers be serving brunch?” Well…because they are normal humans who need to work. 90k followers makes you no better/more deserving than the other people serving brunch. It also means if some “fans” see you at work, you say hi and YES YOU DO TAKE A PICTURE IN YOUR UNIFORM IF THEY WANT ONE! (Unless you’ll get fired or something) Moving on…

She mentions other YouTubers and their experience which I won’t comment on because they each have varying degrees of success and I only want to focus on the channel of the girl writing this (who also claims to be struggling). However, she writes “Many famous social media stars are too visible to have “real” jobs, but too broke not to.”

This is a ridiculous statement (in 99% of cases). The people she mentions all have 300k subs or less. We have 300k subs and have lived in LA (aka the city where, I would hazard to guess, by most people’s YT geo analytics, you’re most likely to get stopped) and Kansas City and never ONCE have I been swarmed or couldn’t go out in public. You can work a job and, assuming you don’t plaster the location or even actual workplace online, you should never have to worry about that. 300k people GLOBALLY means nothing for you to walk down Santa Monica Blvd.

Ok now let’s address the section about her channel. She says shes “makes money from ads that play before our videos, freelance writing and acting gigs, and brand deals on YouTube and Instagram.”

Hey! So do we! Cool beans.

“But it’s not enough to live, and its influx is unpredictable. Our channel exists in that YouTube no-man’s-land: Brands think we’re too small to sponsor, but fans think we’re too big for donations. I’ve never had more than a couple thousand dollars in my bank account at once. My Instagram account has 340,000 followers, but I’ve never made $340,000 in my life collectively.”

Wait, what? You get (currently) like 3.4MM views a month (per social blade) and (looks like) 150k-200k views per video and BRANDS THINK YOU ARE TOO SMALL?! What brands are you talking to?! Here’s where I’ll mention a few numbers that are estimates but should not be far off (they can feel free to tell me I’m wrong and provide their actual numbers but it’s none of our business, ultimately).

Let’s say 3.5MM views per month. High end, that’s around $15k-$17k per month. Let’s say, for the sake of argument, we’ll cut that in half for the low end and say that’s $8k per month. Then that’s $4k for each of them.

They say their highest brand deal was for $6k (girls, please hit me up if that’s true. I’ll tell you about Social Blue Book and how you should charge no less than$10k for a small shout out and most likely $25k-$30k for a dedicated video, based on YOUR views. All estimates, of course, since I also don’t know your engagement levels) so let’s say they do one brand deal a month for half that and they charge $3k and split it. They’re both individually making $5,500 a month at this point ON THE LOW END.

You mention the supply and demand problem (pertaining to brands and YouTubers) and that’s a real thing. You also mention your audience getting upset and that’s also a real thing. But that’s an obstacle of the job and you at least can appeal to authenticity of the Internet. It’s something we’ve had to do. I literally tell people who get mad at us for working with brands, “Hey, I’m just trying to buy diapers for my kids.” It’s oversimplified, for sure, but it’s also true. All I can say to that is be innovative. It’s something we all have to work on.

She talks a lot about not selling out and I’m totally on board with this. But you can also be true to yourself and work with a brand. The trick is establishing that YOU are in control, not the brand. They want you. They reached out to you. YOU ARE IN CONTROL. Sure, you have to meet basic guidelines but you tell them when they’re idea won’t work and that they’d be paying for terrible backlash and engagement if they try to force something on you. And brands aside, it’s YOUR responsibility to communicate, authentically, to your audience how important a branded piece of content is. Authenticity isn’t lost on true supporters and if someone truly leaves because you do a branded video then why would you want them around in the first place?

I’ll finish by talking briefly about the tone of this article, which is what bothered me the most and I think is a pervasive thing within YouTube culture. Going back to the numbers I broke down earlier (again, estimates) you make a minimum of $5,500 per month and a maximum of possibly $10k per month EACH. That is NOT struggling. Sure, you probably have production costs (which can be avoided or thinned out since that’s part of the job to cut costs AND because it’s YouTube and not tv) and taxes and costs of incorporating (trust me, I know that sucks) but you still are making more than what is considered middle class in America, basically. You’re making more than 99% of your viewers most likely. Shoot, when I first moved to LA we made like $200 a month on YouTube and I had a $35,000 salary at the YouTube network I worked at and was providing for myself, my wife and our daughter and we were perfectly comfortable. IN LOS ANGELES, GUYS.

Honestly, after hearing the tone of self-pity throughout the article I’m not surprised you get hate for branded content. (I know it sounds harsh but it’s most likely part of the problem. Sorry.)

This mindset is so pervasive in YouTube culture because numbers are people’s IDOL and there is ALWAYS a bigger, better person than you. And it makes so many of us forget that what we have is WAYYYY better than what we used to have and we are blessed to have a job where we work for ourselves. I’ve done it before too. I’m guilty of it too at times. But we have to get over ourselves. Over the years I’ve come to believe that, although it’s called YouTube, it’s not about YOU at all. It’s about us. The community. And I’d argue it’s more about serving your audience by expressing yourself creatively and authentically.

To the lady who wrote the article, I understand it can be tough and there are ALWAYS tough circumstances in life. I hope you can find what you’re looking for. However, I’d suggest you may already have a comfortable life if you step back and re-evaluate things and make small changes here and there. Take care.