[blacksmithgu]

$10000/video seems crazy to me, but it makes sense if each video is averaging 10M views for ad-friendly content.

It'd be interesting to see how many Youtube channels make it to this size, and if there is anything that differentiates successful channels from obscure ones (beyond quality).

[SpelingBeeChamp]

To highlight just how crazy things can get, my highest-earning YouTube video has earned well-over $100,000 in AdSense revenue.

But that’s not the end of the craziness.

About a year ago, that video was suddenly and inexplicably deemed by YouTube as unsuitable for all advertisers. I appealed, but they stuck with their decision.

In the year since, that video has brought in ~$80.

While I have found success on YouTube, I wouldn’t recommend it to anybody who doesn’t have a strong track record of attracting and maintaining a large audience. YouTube is the most saturated market on the planet, and and at the end of the day, you are subject to the whims of a largely-opaque algorithm. It is not possible to succeed on YouTube without significant effort, but significant effort doesn’t guarantee success. Moreover, the connection between effort and reward is unpredictable, and it’s sometimes not there at all. You can be flying high today, only to have it all change tomorrow, without any explanation.

People understand that high-quality content is necessary for success on YouTube, but they often lose sight of the fact that it is not sufficient. Not only do you have to create quality content, but you have to create content that people want to watch more than everything else that is available to them on YouTube - which is obviously very, very hard.

[achempion]

> While I have found success on YouTube...

Considering HN biased towards startups, I wonder can the same reasoning be applied to starting a company. Starting a SAAS company sounds the same:

- the connection between effort and reward is unpredictable

- subject to the whims of a largely-opaque algorithm (product-market fit)

- strong track record of attracting and maintaining a large audience

> You can be flying high today, only to have it all change tomorrow, without any explanation.

Probably this one is not that harsh as it seems, Ludwig made an experiment "I made a secret YouTube channel to prove it's not luck". Many creators are using multiple platforms and income sources, so it's not all YT in the end.

[Nemrod67]

You touch upon an important point, Luck is a major part of success.

You can do everything right and still lose, if you're not lucky.

[truetraveller]

Very interesting. Link to your video?

[SpelingBeeChamp]

Unfortunately, I’m not comfortable sharing that. To whatever extent it still is, I prefer to keep my HN identity anonymous.

[truetraveller]

Makes sense!