Do you think being a YouTuber is an easy way of making money?

It is good in that sense but there are still technically deadlines to meet and work done in preparation off camera, not to mention all the time editing videos. They kind of live their life like an artist that relies on a bit of luck to get them to stardom and hope that the money will keep pouring in. Their lives are generally better as they have no boss and freedom to do what they want when they want. They can have time off sick and just do a blog explaining what's happening. They probably do have more free time but there's definitely work put in behind the scenes!

That ship has unfortunately sailed. Unless ideas for your videos are unique, you won’t get very far. More and more people are jumping on the YouTube wave thus making it harder. A few years ago, definitely.

For every successful youtuber, there must be 100,000+ people who are unsuccessful. To only look at the top 0.0001% of Youtube and assume it's a viable method of making consist money, let alone a lot of money is naive.

Can you name one blogging channel, which makes more than the national average from youtube add money along, where all they do is "whip their phone out" (no complex editing, no music, no synced cuts, literally just random film stitched together)?

For every successful youtuber, there must be 100,000+ people who are unsuccessful. To only look at the top 0.0001% of Youtube and assume it's a viable method of making consist money, let alone a lot of money is naive.

The no boss bit is still a bit of a myth for I'd say a lot of YouTubers. I'd bet most are part of some sort of collective. Even PewDiePie will be feeling it after he upset Disney and they cut ties. They never directly told him what to do, but that doesn't mean there aren't consequences if he does something they don't like (similar to many jobs tbh). When CNN acquired Beme I think a certain amount of leverage over Casey's YouTube channel was part of the deal. Smaller gaming channels are often in partnerships with various teams and are expected to help with promo stuff, make some custom videos etc. Sports people will also be at the beck and call of sponsors, it's not as simple as "say our name in your video and we'll give you stuff" you actually have to do things for them. About the only deals which give you complete freedom in that sense are affiliate marketing gigs, where you get money based on how much product is sold using your code/link.

Even with YouTube themselves there's a lot of silly hoops to jump through. For instance put "hate" in the title of a video, even if it's something as innocent as "I hate having to get up in the morning" and it will likely be demonatised until you appeal, by which point a couple of days have passed and you've missed the initial upload impetus.

Time off sick can also hurt a channel. YouTube is very algorithm controlled in what it promotes. Upsets to a daily schedule will certainly be felt in more ways than just the missed income from those particular videos. Try and fill in with different videos to normal and the algorithm will also pick it up and not promote them as much. You can't run a channel which focuses on surfing or something and just think "I feel like **** and it's cold today, I'll just do a tour of my house". Sure, it won't result in as big of a hit as no video at all, but you'll still see a slump in promotions.

Sure, they all have more freedom than say a shop assistant, but I wouldn't say they have any more freedom than say a university fellow.

I'd say YouTube is the easiest way in the world to earn money if you have a dedicated group of fans, and you enjoy recording videos about something you're interested in.

The hard part is gathering enough followers to ensure that you get the number of views you need - and that is not easy at all.

If you manage to do it, it's an excellent way of earning money for relatively little effort (although some YouTubers do put a lot of effort into the planning and production of their work).

If you can find a niche and an audience, you're laughing.

Most don't deserve the recognition they've received there's probably some incredibly talented youtubers that are unheard of. Again it's mostly down to luck, being able to manipulate the algorithms and gaining more exposure by collaborating with bigger youtubers.

I doubt there's 100,000+ who have actually tried to make money on the platform for every successful one. 100,000+ people uploading videos of their grandkids, or videos of their classmates, maybe.

Yep, KSI & Logan Paul are some of the biggest and they don’t deserve it at all really, I think YouTube should treat smaller channels and better and look at the really hard working creators.

I'd argue KSI deserves it substantially more than Logan Paul. From a personal perspective I watched him ever since he was a very small channel and he made hilarious videos on a somewhat consistent basis. He was pretty much as organic as you can get since he was using Youtube when it was nowhere near as prominent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Zp8aRhmbvk

If you compare his demeanor in this video to his demeanor now, it's pretty obvious that from the start it was purely a hobby that he enjoyed.

Conversely, Logan Paul is in my opinion a textbook sociopath and it's a shame society gave him the attention and propulsion to get to where he is now.

Fair point, but would you agree that for every successful youtuber there have undoubtedly been copious amounts of people who failed with their endeavors? If OP was pretty young, like 12-15 I'd say go for it because you can afford to keep with it for those years and you have things to fall back on if it doesn't work out. The same shouldn't be advised if OP was 18-22 for example and in the prime of his education.

I’ve been a fan of his since he started the road to d1 series and I liked him a lot more then than I do now, as now he has an ego the size of Jupiter and his videos have gone down massively in quality. I suppose I was being a little harsh and that he doesn’t deserve it, channels now like drama alert and Ricegum are bad and just destroy quality content some creators put out there.

How is adding accompanying music in the background complex editing? From what I’ve seen a lot of them go out usually do something interesting enough to make a vlog, film themselves talking to camera, doing stuff with friends etc, then jump to another point in the day and add all the cuts together, adding music on with it is not difficult someone who has studied media before could do it, or someone who just has some creativity.

I never said adding music was complex editing, merely something else to be done in adition to. As I say, you find what you consider to be a simple video where the creator makes good money, post it here, and I'll break down what actually goes into making it. It might be an education for you.