Article Out Says 10 YouTube Stars Making $100,000 A Year

There's an article out stating that in all likelihood, at least 10 youtubers are raking in a minimum of $100,000 a year. Sounds sweet right? Below is the list of 10 YouTube Stars and their estimated yearly income from being in the YouTube Partnership Program.

10. Natalie Tran - communitychannel - $101,000
9. The Young Turks – The Young Turks - $112,000
8. Smosh – smosh - $113,000
7. Mediocre Films – MediocreFilms - $116,000
6. Shay Carl – Shaytards - $140,000
5. Fred – Fred - $146,000
4. Ryan Higa – nigahiga - $151,000
3. Philip DeFranco – sxephil - $181,000
2. The Annoying Orange – realannoyingorange - $288,000
1. Shane Dawson – shanedawsontv - $315,000

Now I just watched Phil DeFranco's latest Vloggity and he thinks there are several holes in the article. Like the fact that Ray William Johnson isn't even on the list. Ray's show, equals 3 gets about 25 million views a month and he's been getting new subscribers at an almost unbelieveable pace over the last year or so. Anyway, watch Phil's take on the article:



The basis on which they base their math is as follows:

- "Revenue only comes from banner ads served near content (we ignored pre-roll or overlay since we can't easily isolate by publisher).

- Since YouTube banner ads have a two-second load delay, we estimate 2.59% of viewers click away before an ad loads based on separate research.

- Ads were served near all videos that loaded (since there are partners, this is generally true).

- CPM for the banner ads was $1.50 (Google auctions a lot of this inventory off; we rounded this 2009 estimate down to be conversative).

- YouTube is splitting ad revenue with partners 50-50.

Basically, take their views from the past year, assume a few don't stick around long enough for an ad to load, divide that number by 1,000, multiply by $1.50 and divide that number in half."

Usually due to Google Adsense rules, most partners in the program are not allowed to disclose exactly what they make. You can still get some estimates around the Web, but really, only Google, YouTube and the individual YouTube Partners really know. You could use the formula given above to estimate what someone not in the Top 10 might be making, but it would still be faulty. They don't even take the ads that appear over the screen when you watch a YouTube partner's video because as the writer says because they "can't easily isolate by publisher."

So far, DeFranco's been the only one to come forward about this article but hopefully someone else will do likewise. I'd like to see what The Young Turks or Shane Dawson might have to say about it.

If you want to read the article, here's a link: Meet The YouTube Stars Making $100,000 Plus Per Year

Note: Here's Greg from mediocrefilms' video reaction to hearing he was flush with Youtube cash: Mediocrefilms Strikes Back Re: Making In Excess Of $100,000 On YouTube