How much does a YouTuber with 1 million subscribers earn a year?

As an interesting case study, the New York Times did a profile on YouTuber Olga Kay, who stars in 5 channels that collectively attract ~1 million subscribers.  

The article is worth a read if you're interested, but here are the main takeaways related to earnings:

As a full-time YouTube content creator, she says she has earned $100,000 - $130,000 per year ($8.3k - 10.8k per month) for each of the last three years.

She posts at least 20 videos per week, and earns money through a combination ofadvertising, sponsorships, and merchandising (e.g. Olga Kay knee socks).

According to TubeMogul, a video ad-buying software company, the average CPM on pre-roll ads is $7.60 (down from $9.35 in 2012), but most YouTube video makers do not sell an ad on every view of a video.  According to Tubemogul spokesman, David Burch, "It varies a ton, but it wouldn't usually be more than half, and for many partners it is more like two out of every 10 views will have a video ad."

So, as far as the content creator is concerned, the real CPM is in the $1.50 - $4 range.

Content creators say YouTube also takes 45% of the ad revenue.

It varies quite a bit. Money can come from a few different places, including: add revenue from CPMs, product placement, and sponsored videos. 

For those who do not know CPM means: If a website publisher charges $2 CPM, that means an advertiser must pay $2 for every 1,000 impressions of its ad. The "M" in CPMrepresents the roman numeral for 1,000. CPM is the most common method for pricing web ads.

CPM rates themselves range dramatically, from as low as $0.60 to as high as $7.00 and up. For more details, see: How to make money from YouTube: Analytics reveal video site's richlist.

Lets assume the average CPM for a YouTuber with 1 million subscribers is around $4 dollars. YouTube takes a 45% cut and sometimes the YouTuber also has Multi Channel Network representing who also takes around 45%. So the You Tuber, who gets on average 600k+ views a week, will end up with around $1-3k a week from CPMs.

Ads don't play on all videos, so that is a factor to consider, but then also older videos can keep accumulating getting views / ads (like Quora answers).

Not all subscribers and views are created equally. Many factors contribute to the variation including:

• Age, sex and country of viewers / subscribers
• Genre of video
• Type and price of ads
• % of viewers who have ad block or just skip all ads
• Actual click rate
• Audience comments, shares, etc.
• % of views on desktop vs. mobile

How much money the YouTuber actually takes home will depend on many factors, including how expensive the videos are to make, and how attractive the content is to advertisers.

Yet, ads on views aren't the only way for popular YouTubers to earn money. Many YouTube influencers also sell merchandise, apps, books, music, affiliate promotions, brand deals, etc.

And unlike advertising CPMs, dollars made through product placement and product sponsorships aren't usually shared with YouTube, although many do split with their representing MCNs.

The range for branded deals varies quite a bit, according to You Tuber, Rosianna Halse Rojas, “Someone accepts $4,000 and others say $20,000."Yet while branded deals may help the bottom line, they also hurt the brand. Most viewers really don't like product placement, and will "unfollow" if a YouTuber gets too greedy with product placement.

There are a few YouTubers making millions a year. And a few of these YouTube Stars' Huge Earnings Will Make You Question All Your Life Choices. DisneyCollectorBR, is estimated to earn between $1.4 and $21.9 million each year. She unwraps toys, like Play Doh, and just talks about it! And she never even shows her face. Her production, and wardrobe costs must be pretty low. Full disclosure: my 2 year old daughter is addicted to these videos and I've watched hours of her videos. 

Yet, for every superstar like DisneyCollectorBR, there are others stuggling to make ends meet, and unable to support themselves on their YouTube dollars alone. For more on the sad economics of a few YouTubers with over 1 million subscribers,

I had the same question. I was jealous of everyone I kept hearing about making a million a year on YouTube. 

I wrote to quite a few well known YouTubers asking to interview them.

Finally, Mimi Ikonn responded. She makes in profits over 7 figures a year. And the more I found out about her business model (non-advertising) the better I liked it.

During the interview I took notes on each step. I think anyone can do these steps to make 7 figures a year.

First off, I think I should say I'm in love with Mimi Ikonn. Oh, and also her husband Alex Ikonn. Don't want to confuse anyone!

A few weeks ago I met Mimi Ikonn and Alex Ikonn. I was insanely curious about them and how they built up a multi-million dollar business using YouTube videos.

This is a simple post. How to make a million.

I am absolutely sure the same techniques that worked for Mimi and Alex can work for anyone. I had them lay it out step by step.

A) EMOTIONS

Mimi became obsessed with beauty and hair. She and Alex watched before and after videos of women who were getting hair extensions.

"They seemed much happier after getting extensions," Alex said. "Whenever there are strong emotions about something you know there is an opportunity."

So Mimi started making videos of herself discussing hair and beauty and hair products.

"I never thought I would get more than 1,000 views," Mimi said. "But I loved doing the videos. And I wanted to share my love for the topics with as many people as possible."

Now she has had a quarter of a BILLION views on her videos with 2.7 million subscribers.

B) HUB AND SPOKE

People ask: "How do I get traffic to my blog". Or "how do I get buyers of my book." or "How do I get people to follow me on Twitter."

A lot of it is about loneliness. We sit in our house writing blog posts and then hit Publish. We want family to love them. We want friends to love them. And then we want the world to love them.

I'm really just talking about myself. I know when people enjoy things I do, I feel as if I have a family. I'm happy. At least until the next post.

Mimi loved making the videos but needed traffic.

So they did the only two-step technique that gets traffic online for anything you want to do. Well, make it a three-step technique.

1) Love

Know more, love more, express more, bleed more, than anyone else. Was Mimi the only one doing videos on beauty and hair? No. But maybe she put more passion into it.

2) Spread the Love

Alex would take images and posts and links to her videos and spread them on Pinterest, Instagram, blogs, other sites and have them all point back to her YouTube channel.

I call this "the Hub and Spoke" approach. Youtube was the hub, with a dozen or so spokes reaching out to popular sites that all would link back to the hub.

3) Make more Love

No matter what you do - some will be good and some will be bad. Not every video or post is going to have views. So you do more.

When you do more, several things happen:

a. More people find you.

b. You rank higher on search

c. You improve

d. People who find you start clicking on your older videos so now they start to get more views.

The "Make More Love" technique always works.

Michelle Phan did 54 YouTube videos before she made a massive hit.

Hugh Howey had already ten novels before he published "Wool" which became a massive bestseller. Clayton Christiansen applied for NASA for 18 years in a row before they accepted him.

Make more love.

C) 1000 PEOPLE

Note she said she only thought she was going to get 1000 viewers. The number 1000 keeps coming up with people who have HUGE audiences.

Kevin Kelly wrote about this in a great post called "1000 True Fans". He writes about itKevin Kelly. He also talks about it on my podcast.

Tim Ferriss talks about how every one of his posts he makes sure he's going to deliver value to at least 1000 people.

Of course he delivers much more value than that. But 1000 seems to be the right number that people who know seem to focus on.

Keep focusing on delivering value for a 1000 and then they tell 2 friends and so on and next thing you know you have a quarter of a billion views, five bestsellers, movies being made about you, you go into space, your own makeup lines, and on and on and on, depending on what it is you love.

D) BUY LOW, SELL HIGH

Alex and Mimi noticed that many of the other beauty videos were talking about a specific brand of hair extensions for women. So they went to my favorite place in the world - the mall.

"We saw these products were priced at $500," Alex said. "So then we went on Ali Baba and saw the same products being sold for $100. We then went to the manufacturers and saw we could buy directly for $50. The exact same products that were being sold for $500."

They borrowed from mom. Borrowed their full amount off of their credit cards. And they placed an order. Then, I imagine (they did not tell me this) they prayed.

E) SOFT SELL

Mimi talks about many products on her videos. She expressed a radiant, confident personality and talks about everything she is wearing, what her habits are, what products she uses. She NEVER sells anything.

But underneath the video is just a link. Clip-in hair extensions by Luxy Hair.

The orders came in one at a time. Then 100 at a time. They sold out of their inventory, paid everyone back, and bought more.

In their very first year (2010) they had over a million in revenues. Ever since then they've had more than a million a year in profits. Never once using the words "buy this" anywhere.

F) QVC-A

The most successful people have a model for their success. I think that's why I enjoy Peter Thiel's "Zero to One" book so much. Or Peter Diamandis's "Bold". Or Marcus Lemonis's TV show "The Profit".

Each book has a different, but very very simple, model for how to achieve success or how to judge which companies are successful.

Mimi and Alex developed their own model, they stick with it, and have used this simple model to keep jumping from success to success.

Alex explained it to me:

Q - Quality

Everything they do is quality. The cameras they use for videos ("But not overdoing it, because this is YouTube and not television," said Mimi). The setting they use and how it fits their message.

The products, etc

V - Value

Mimi is not trying to sell anything in her videos. She explains what she does and how she does it. She does the research and believes in the products. Rather than asking, she is giving.

"When you give a billion dollars in value," Alex said, "you get a billion dollars or more back."

C - Consistency

I read a book about television once by TV mega-executive Grant Tinker. He was Mary Tyler Moore's husband, ran NBC for awhile, and then ran MTM productions producing such shows as "The Mary Tyler Moore Show", "Bon Newhart", and a dozen other super hit TV shows.

I only remember one thing in the book.

He said, "whenever they changed the time or date of a show, then that show would die. If you moved a show from Tuesday at 8pm to Thursday at 8:30pm then you just lost your whole audience."

Mimi said, "if you are going to put out a video once a week, put it out once a week. Put it out the same day each week if you can. Don't do once a month. Don't do random. Your audience starts to anticipate and look forward to your shows and knows when to expect them."

A- Authenticity

Mimi only talks on the videos about what she believes in. There's no fluff. There's no pitch. She's exuberant and it shows on each video.

H) LESS

Mimi and Alex were working 80-100 hour weeks. They had the money in the bank. They had achieved their goals. They loved what they were doing but when you hit a lifelong goal you start to ask, "is that it?"

They got depressed.

Goals are a myth. Our ancestors for 200,000 years didn't have goals. Every day started from scratch: hunt, forage, eat, sex, sleep, wake up to a new day.

Then we were told to find our "goals". And now everyone asks, "I'm 17 years old and feel like I've accomplished nothing in life. What should I do?"

Learning to find happiness with less is true wealth. Claudia and I recently got rid of most of our belongings, for instance. Then we started cancelling most meetings that I had set up. Sometimes it was hard. I had agreed to an event and then I would cancel.

Ultimately we are the sum of our experiences and not the sum of our belongings. There is nothing wrong with making money but it is only one small part of living a life of comfort, of compassion, of calm.

Mimi and Alex started to focus more on the other things that were important in their lives. "And you know what happened?" Alex said. "The more we did that, the more money we made."
– – –
I really enjoyed talking to them. I am always curious how people made money through a channel like YouTube. Now I know and I think it can be replicated by anyone who is willing to do all of the above.

I'm afraid I don't have a face for YouTube. Or Instagram. And I'm not even sure I have a face for podcasting. But I think I love doing what I do.

And I like having the time to explore other interests and ideas.

And then sometimes I like doing nothing at all. There's nothing wrong with that also.