So Now I Have Even More Reason To Hate Youtube and Its Stars...

[Julianking93]

As some of you may already be aware of, many people dislike Youtube for the countless trolls, the lack of thought put into popular videos and the shear stupidity of the community. Now you may already know that many of the video contributers make money off of videos.

Well a recent Yahoo article I stumbled across just fills me with rage as it shows the six figure incomes these people make

Spoiler: Estimates of Top 10 Youtube Contributers

There are 10 independent YouTube stars who made over $100,000 in the past year, according to a study done by analytics and advertising company TubeMogul.

From July 2009 to July 2010, TubeMogul used their viewership data to estimate the annual income for independent YouTube partners, which they define as anyone who is not part of a media company or brand.

Here's how they got their estimates:

* Revenue only comes from banner ads served near content (we ignored pre-roll or overlay since we can't easily isolate by publisher).
* Since YouTube banner ads have a two-second load delay, we estimate 2.59% of viewers click away before an ad loads based on separate research.
* Ads were served near all videos that loaded (since there are partners, this is generally true).
* CPM for the banner ads was $1.50 (Google auctions a lot of this inventory off; we rounded this 2009 estimate down to be conservative).
* YouTube is splitting ad revenue with partners 50-50.

Basically, take their views from the past year, assume a few don't stick around long enough for an ad to load, divide that number by 1,000, multiply by $1.50 and divide that number in half.

Conservative estimates? Sure. But with that math, you get a pretty decent estimate of how much these YouTube celebrities are making from just the banner ads on their channel. So, without further ado, here are the highest earning YouTube stars!

1. Shane Dawson - $315,000

Shane Dawson is so popular that he is three different YouTube channels. His most popular channel consists of his comedy skits and music video parodies. Dawson created a second channel as a vlog and for a separate series called "Ask Shane," and his third channel only has videos taken from his iPhone.

July 2009 - 2010 Views: 431,787,450

2. The Annoying Orange - $288,000

The Annoying Orange is a comedy web series that takes place in a kitchen and is about talking fruit. Dane Boedigheimer is the mastermind behind the series and is also the voice of Orange.

July 2009 - 2010 Views: 349,753,047

3. Philip DeFranco - $181,000

Philip DeFranco uploads a new video onto YouTube every Monday to Thursday for his show ? The Philip DeFranco Show. His video blogging topics range from politics to pop culture.

July 2009 - 2010 Views: 248,735,032

4. Ryan Higa - $151,000

Ryan Higa makes comedy skits and is a video blogger who turned into a viral star with his "How to be Gangster" and "How to be Ninja" videos. Even though he doesn't upload as many videos as his fellow YouTube celebrities, Higa is still the top dog at YouTube with over 2.6 million subscribers.
July 2009 - 2010 Views: 206,979,909

5. Fred - $146,000

Lucas Cruikshank plays "a lonely six year old named Fred" who uses his mom's video camera and posts videos on a YouTube channel. As the second most subscribed to YouTube channel, Lucas Cruikshank's immensely popular Fred character even has a movie coming out backed by Nickelodeon.

July 2009 - 2010 Views: 200,656,150

6. Shay Carl - $140,000

As a radio DJ, Shay Carl started making comedy skits and put them on YouTube for the world to see. He claims to have held 20 different jobs before settling down with his DJ and YouTube gigs.

July 2009 - 2010 Views: 192,309,247

7. Mediocre Films - $116,000

Greg Benson created Mediocre Films initially for a sketchy comedy TV series called "Skip TV." The show lasted for one season, and now Benson makes low budget comedy videos for the web.

July 2009 - 2010 Views: 159,030,703

8. Smosh - $113,000

Smosh is the comedy duo of Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla, and with over 1.7 million subscribers, they make up the 5th most popular channel on YouTube. They first shot to viral fame with their "Pokemon Theme Music Video" which became YouTube's most viewed video in Spring 2006. However, due to copyright reasons, the original video was removed from YouTube.

July 2009 - 2010 Views: 154,936,876

9. The Young Turks - $112,000

The Young Turks is a political talk show that also airs on Sirius Satellite Radio. Founded and hosted by Cenk Uygur, The Young Turks talk show and their vast viewership has proven that the Internet can be a viable broadcast platform.
July 2009 - 2010 Views: 153,807,362

10. Natalie Tran? $101,000

Under the user name of community channel, Natalie Tran is the most subscribed to YouTube user in Australia. Like most others on this list, she is a video blogger and occasionally uploads comedy skits.

July 2009 - 2010 Views: 138,871,829

If you didn't want to read all that, basically, people get paid a ton of money for really nothing. The top user making $315,000 a year for a weekly 3 minute video.

Now, I may be just a bit of a jealous guy but am I the only one bothered by people who make thoughtless videos yet get paid that much to do it? I know it's really no different than teen stars making money off of just being the in thing at the moment, but this for whatever reason just seems to bother me on a different level.

What does the Escapist think of all this?

Source: http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/meet-the-youtube-stars-making-100000-plus-per-year-535349.html?tickers=goog,^ixic,qqqq

 

[The DSM]

I think very Person on the top 10 list is over-rated.

Many of the most tlaented Youtubers gte no recognition, but these talentless people make cash out of it.

I dont have much faith in youtube, I only use it because its a big site.

 

[child of lileth]

I just heard about this the other day. They make money from getting a cut of the profit the advertisements on the videos or something like that? Either way, I hate it. I can't stand that so many generic people getting money for something so pointless. They make enough to live comfortably just for short videos that have absolutely no purpose at all, while people that struggle with actual jobs can't do that.

I don't really expect Youtube to be some place where I can find anything all that great to begin with, but rewarding people so highly for that kind of thing pisses me off.

 

[JourneyThroughHell]

The problem with those people is not that they get so much money for their work - if people watch Shane Dawson and enjoy his stuff, who am I to judge them? The problem is that many of those views are earned with false advertising...
Many of Shane's, Philip De Franco's and Shay Carl's videos have titles that are barely relevant to the video and thumbnail pictures of half-naked girls that appear nowhere in the videos.
That doesn't bother YouTube one bit. And that makes me really angry, because this stuff goes against their guidelines and they don't seem to give a shit.
Follow that with their reluctance to do anything about the false flaggings of my favorite video content creators and I really don't like them that much.

 

[Irridium]

And yet people with actual talent like LittleKuribo barely get anything. Sad.

I'm not really against it, since if I could make shitloads of money posting videos I totally would, but some people who get this money just plain don't deserve it. So I guess I'm just pissed off.

 

[Judgement101]

Youtube is EVIL!!!

 

[Housebroken Lunatic]

Now, I may be just a bit of a jealous guy but am I the only one bothered by people who make thoughtless videos yet get paid that much to do it?

Uh, your rage is rather misdirected. It should be directed to the stupid marketing companies who actually think it's reasonable to piss away these sums of money on basically nothing.

But don't tell anyone I said tha, because the world economy would go through significant changes if companies realised that commericals, ads and similar marketing stunts are in effect completely useless and unecessary. And I for one don't want a bunch of angry marketing experts baning at my door for "cheating" them out of their utterly useless jobs.

 

[Aggressor and Usurper]

Ugh. I hate Shane Dawson.

Youtube gave us Fred. However, it also gave us the greatest thing in the universe, Youtube Poop.

I am torn.

 

[quiet_samurai]

I've never even heard of any of these people, and I watch alot of shit on youtube. Apparently I'm not cool enough to know of these things..... or maybe too cool!!!!

Anyways, I think if you can find some way of usuing your creativity to make a buck then more power to you. If getting paid mass amounts of money to entertain idiots is your thing, then so be it. At least you and the idiots are happy, and whose to say otherwise.

 

[Timotei]

This is all going to fill these people with a sense of unwarranted self-importance, which will result in a very bad case of entitlement issues later on in life. They will all suffer a horrible case of the "When I was" in a few years from now.

They believe themselves to be on top of the world now and irreplaceable. Just they wait until they stop pulling in views and Google's YouTube branch will cast them out like a leper.

 

[KiKiweaky]

If you were earning the money for posting videos would you mind?

 

[Julianking93]

And yet people with actual talent like LittleKuribo barely get anything. Sad.

Wait what??? LittleKuribo doesn't make money off his videos?

Someone must be punished for this blaspheme.

 

[Vilcus]

Acting is hard, if you think it isn't then you obviously haven't had a part in any major performance. Most of these people put on a show, and they could spend days on a single clip. While some do lack creativity, that doesn't mean they aren't entertaining. While I'm surprised they make this much, I still think they deserve it for all of the time to put into it. Even before they made money from it, they only did it for their fans, most of them hadn't dreamed of making money off of what they do.

I dislike the majority of the people on the list, but many people love them, and if they have found a way to make money doing what they love, then all the better for them.

 

[Irridium]

And yet people with actual talent like LittleKuribo barely get anything. Sad.

Wait what??? LittleKuribo doesn't make money off his videos?

Someone must be punished for this blaspheme.

I'm pretty sure he gets donations, but don't quote me on that.

But still, talented people like him get overlooked for... for people like fred.

Its just sad.

 

[Irridium]

internet ate my post.

EDIT: Nevermind, it gave it back.

 

[Irridium]

This is all going to fill these people with a sense of unwarranted self-importance, which will result in a very bad case of entitlement issues later on in life. They will all suffer a horrible case of the "When I was" in a few years from now.

They believe themselves to be on top of the world now and irreplaceable. Just they wait until they stop pulling in views and Google's YouTube branch will cast them out like a leper.

Kind of like the stereotypical old person rant.

"Back in my day..."

 

[Small Waves]

And yet people with actual talent like LittleKuribo barely get anything. Sad.

LK also boarders awfully close to copyright infringement because the people who run youtube don't know shit about their own rules and commonly ban channels even though they are in lines with the satire and parody clause, which is why Nostalgia Critic left.

Last time I checked, he also doesn't have any ads on his page. There are many youtube stars with high subscriber counts that don't advertise anything. It's up to them to be apart of an agreement where they sponsor products in exchange for some money. If he wanted to make some easy money, he could in a heartbeat. He has enough viewers for companies to show interest. Jon Paula from "Is it a Good Idea to Microwave This?" has mentioned several times that it brings in some pretty good money and splits some of it with Jory. If LK updated more often and really wanted to make an easy one or two thousand a month, he could.

 

[oppp7]

And yet people with actual talent like LittleKuribo barely get anything. Sad.

Wait what??? LittleKuribo doesn't make money off his videos?

Someone must be punished for this blaspheme.

1. He uses videos made by other people.

2. Actually he does. Go to a convention that he's at and he's selling shirts based on the series.

OT: Marketing always seemed like a waste of time to me. I mean, do those Pepsi commercials really get noticed? Are they going to make people run out to get them? Everyone already knows half those companies already exist...

Some ads, though, are important. Entertainment ads usually determine the success of a movie or whatever, and I myself have found many good webcomics from banned ads(one of the reasons I don't see why everyone hates them so much).