"These days, they say YouTubers earn at least $5,000 a month~"

"Oh my, the mother of my son's friend said she earned $1,000 from just one video~"

How much of this is true, and how much is just hype?

I couldn't resist this curiosity while doing housework, so I looked it up myself.

By the way, I am just an ordinary housewife with not even one YouTube subscriber yet haha.

First of all, there are conditions to earn money on YouTube.

You need at least 1,000 subscribers and over 4,000 hours of watch time per year.

You have to meet these requirements to apply for the YouTube Partner Program.

Once you pass this, ads can be placed on your videos, and that's how you earn money from those ads.

However, getting approved can take anywhere from a few days to up to three months.

The structure of YouTube earnings is more complicated than you might think.

Advertising Revenue

There are ads that appear before the video starts, right?

That's how you earn money. But there are different types of ads.

Skippable ads after 5 seconds: The viewer must watch for more than 5 seconds for revenue to be generated.

If they skip after 5 seconds, no earnings! Non-skippable short ads (bumper ads): These earn about 3,000 to 3,500 won per 1,000 impressions.

However, YouTubers do not keep all this ad revenue; YouTube takes 45%, and the YouTuber keeps 55%.

Sponsorship (PPL)

Once you gain some popularity, companies will contact you saying, "Please introduce our product~" and this can be quite lucrative.

Since it's integrated naturally into the video, the rates are higher than regular ads.

However, this is typically done by professional producers, editors, or celebrities, so it's not something an ordinary person can easily do.

Live Broadcast Donations (Super Chat)

During live broadcasts, fans send money. This is also a significant source of income for popular YouTubers.

Having many subscribers doesn't necessarily mean earning a lot - this was a real surprise.

I thought, "If you have 100,000 subscribers, you must earn at least $2,000 a month~" but it varies greatly depending on views and ad rates.

For example, if you have many subscribers but don't upload videos often? ... Almost no earnings haha.

If you have fewer subscribers but upload videos frequently and have high viewer loyalty?... Earnings can be quite good.

Also, ad rates vary by topic.

Children's content has lower ad rates, while IT, finance, and political content have much higher rates. This is due to the difference in purchasing power of the consumer base.

Can YouTubers earn $5,000 a month? Some can, and some cannot.

Truly successful YouTubers can earn over $10,000 a month. But they are incredibly diligent, creative, and constantly analyzing.

On the other hand, even with 100,000 subscribers, if they don't upload videos, have low views, and poor ad click rates, they might earn less than $100 a month.

YouTube is not just about "uploading a few videos and making money~" It requires consistency + strategy + sense + feedback analysis to truly be a profitable career.

While writing this, I thought about trying it myself, but with kids' rides, grocery shopping, house cleaning, meal prep, laundry... the reality is quite daunting haha.

Still, one day, us housewives might quietly earn income by posting 'lifestyle YouTube' videos while the washing machine is running, right?