YouTube is one of the largest video platforms out there today. The website is so large and successful that many people have found a following of millions on the site and are able to support themselves and their families by monetizing their videos with ads, selling merchandise and by receiving monthly donations from loyal fans.
Sounds like a sweet gig right?
Just make cheesy webcam videos in your room, upload it to the site and watch the money pour in.
Wrong!
To be a even remotely successful on YouTube these days it take countless hours of lighting, filming, editing and brainstorming. This does not even include the cost of all the equipment that you will have to use. The flagship YouTube camera at the moment, the Canon 80D, will cost you around $1,100 alone without a lens, lights, a microphone, an SD card, a high-powered computer capable of editing, editing programs and so much more. That's just to create the video though.
Most importantly, you will need people to watch your videos, which means you will need to be consistently uploading entertaining content week after week after week. Social media will then come into play by sharing your video non-stop all over Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. All you can do after this is to hope that people enjoy the video enough to share the video, and, if you're lucky, they will subscribe to be notified every time you upload.
Being a YouTube star is a very hard grind with unpredictability and constant struggle. You never know how a video is going to do until it's uploaded. You are constantly critiquing yourself trying to play up on whatever positive comments you may have are about and down playing everything that the negative comments say. Becoming a YouTube star is a physically and emotionally exhausting job that is based solely on a person's personality and dedication.
