What I am about to write will make a lot of YouTube celebrities angry.
First, let me say that it is, indeed, possible to make good money producing content for YouTube. It’s fairly easy for anyone to make a few hundred dollars a month, even with modest talents. It’s entirely possible to make thousands of dollars a month, even six figures a year for those who can figure out the “system.”
Our own RVtravel.com YouTube channel only earns us a couple hundred dollars a month, hardly worth the thousands of hours we have spent making videos through the years. But we really do not try very hard, going months and months without posting anything new, which is a big “no no.”
We have gotten lucky on occasion. One of our videos once went viral for a few months and earned us a quick $2,000. That same video, which years later has about 1.5 million views, earns about $25 a month now on average and will likely never do better. Most of our 550 videos earn us less than a dollar a month.
Here is what you need, number one, to make money on YouTube:
You need to make a fool of yourself.
You need to make faces on the thumbnail photo you create for YouTube visitors to see to entice them to view your video. A sensational headline is also important. If you can do both, you are on your way to success.
A very popular formula is one used by young couples and lately even some older couples, who look especially foolish. One of them should look incredibly amazed or mad, and the other should look relatively stupid or clueless.
Here are a few examples of what I am talking about. These people are doing all the right things to make money and they are probably having fun. I believe that if I were 25 years old and just hitting the road with an RV, I’d be right with them. All you need is a smartphone and an internet connection. Being young and trying to earn enough to pay for my gas and campgrounds … well, I’d probably just scream and look stupid and be thrilled with each check.
So there you go, your blueprint to riches.
No offense Chuck, but we already have a Rick Mercer. It seems like you’re trying to make a point when you share your opinions then turn and you feel sorry for yourself. For not having any viewers. Maybe because your just talking for talking. You can’t back up your Truth. Thank you anyway Chuck .
Maybe we can all help ‘drive’ the best YouTube channels to success by helping to promote the great content creators who don’t play these annoying games. I find so many of the YouTubers I’ve seen copy tactics from one another. It’s no surprise they’re taking these ridiculous shortcuts to gain viewers. Yet another keen observation by Chuck Woodbury!
I call it “RV youtuber face” I’ve sworn off any channels as soon as I see it. Even some of the legit people do it as well So I’m running out of channels. I might make it a mission to end it, If so please join me.
Reminds me of the old “come-on” seen in the classifieds of magazines like Popular Mechanics, “I make money at home without working. Send $1 to learn how.” After sending the dollar you would receive a letter with the note, “Thank you, this is how I make money at home without working.”
Thanks for making me smile Chuck.
There are just a few RV You Tubes that I subscribe to. I don’t like fake drama. I have enough in my life that I don’t really care about a stranger’s hyper-dramatization of his/her life. If you want to get to know a stranger then meet and greet your campground neighbors. In-person socialization is becoming a lost element of our society.
I don’t dramatize the core information on my RV hacking channel at ALL, but I do look plenty stupid in real life. Guess i’m only 50% right… 🙂
Be sure to say “hi guys!” At the very beginning of your video.