With the rise of Youtubers throughout the 2010s, many people have thought that YouTube will be a good platform to start their careers. YouTube is a great video-sharing platform, but there are limitations to how good of a career choice it would be.
In order to understand why it might be a difficult career choice, here are some details about YouTube and what Youtubers have to do in order to be relevant.
The Darn Algorithm!
YouTube is wired so that you are consistent. If you want YouTube to be your primary source of income, then you will have to invest a lot of time and energy into it. You will have to post videos every single day. Missing a day will put you back on the relevancy list and you might not even show on your subscribers’ home pages.
Daily videos are mandatory if you want to earn from YouTube only. It gets easier if you pass a certain subscriber number. 10K is a lot and after 100K, you can start to post videos every other day, if you have other means of earning money.
The Competition is Cutthroat
While most Youtubers aren’t bad people, they have to post videos and compete. When a tech product launches, you bet that most channels will have an unboxing video first, and on launch day, everybody will make their videos public at the same time, which is usually 9 AM EST.
Then, it is up to you to see which Youtuber you want to watch, when ten of them have uploaded the same video, basically. Well, some will focus more on thermals, others on gaming performance, so even though there are ways of staying unique, the competition is huge.
Copyright Strikes and Claims
This is every Youtubers’ nightmare, particularly if they are on their second strike. Strikes can happen when a publisher decides that you have done something wrong and have taken their content and published it on your own channel. If that content is earning you money, then you are in trouble.
Copyright claims are more lenient, but the problem with claims is that anybody can make them, and some people do, just to make a creator’s life worse.
You Could Do It If…
You don’t focus solely on YouTube as a primary source of income. The platform requires you to invest a lot more before it starts giving you back. You would have to use other platforms to earn money, like Patreon and other social media. Promoting your work is essential so that more viewers will reach you. Sponsored content is also great, but not at the cost of your integrity.
It Could Be Worth It
Naysayers can get you down but if it is your passion to upload videos and create a living out of that, then, by all means, you should do it. Nobody should stop you from earning money the way you want to, but you should know the risks and obstacles before you embark on the journey.
Yes, Youtubing is a viable career choice in 2022, but it is not an easy route to take.