I’ve been watching videos from Becca for a long time. She worked for The Verge and made tech review videos for them. She’s very good at what she does.
And then about a year ago, she quit her job at The Verge and decided to focus solely on her own YouTube channel. And in this video, she summarizes how things went in her first year. It’s a bit mind-blowing to see her break down the finances of her YouTube adventure.
I guess this is how a real person lives their life. I can’t even imagine it. It think she made more money in her first year as a YouTuber than I’ve made in my entire lifetime.
The vast majority of her income came from brand deals: $113,000 US.
From her YouTube videos, she made this much: $15,500 US.
She also has a Patreon, and she earned this much: $10,000 US.
She even has a miscellaneous income category: $12,300 US.
The total: $151,600 US.
Given my current lifestyle and activities, I could live VERY comfortably on just one of her smaller income streams. Her $10,000 from Patreon alone would be a fortune to every YouTuber I’ve ever met. We’d all be delirious to make anywhere near that much, and we’d be dancing in the streets.
What I find interesting about her story is how neat and tidy and professional everything seems. Her Patreon alone seems so clean and perfect. I think I’ll have to join her Patreon as a paying member just to see how it all actually works. I didn’t even know you could do those things on Patreon. How do you post all your videos in full ad-free on Patreon? How do you send out a regular newsletter from Patreon? I thought I knew Patreon quite well, but I wasn’t even aware of those two features or possibilities.
One question I have is whether this professionalism comes from her own knowledge and skills and personality, or did all this professionalism emerge because she signed up with a brand manager and a graphics professional?
By contrast, my entire YouTube life is more like a fish pulled out of the water and just flopping around frantically on the shore, flinging itself in every possible direction just hoping that something good happens. Just praying that one random flop will land it in some water for a brief moment so it can get a bit of oxygen to make it to the next day.