How Much I Make With 1 Million Subscribers
What's up you guys? It's Graham here. So, three years ago I started this channel to share my enthusiasm towards personal finance, saving money, investing, and real estate. Back then when I posted my very first video, I had no idea that anyone would actually watch me, nor did I have any idea that you could actually make money doing this. But lo and behold, this channel grew more than I ever thought was imaginable.
Since then, I've always made the decision to share exactly how much I've made throughout the entire process. Not to mention, your support is the reason why all of this is possible in the first place. So I owe you nothing but full transparency and to share exactly what I have learned along the way, so we could be a part of this journey together.
So with that said, I'm going to be going over exactly how much I made throughout these last three years, starting with how much I was making with under a hundred thousand subscribers, then with under three hundred thousand subscribers, and now how much I'm making with over a million subscribers here on YouTube. And let me just preface this by saying it is not my intention to make one of these like YouTube flex videos where you go and hype up how much money you make throughout the entire time without any real substance whatsoever.
Instead, I really do my best to be as thorough as possible, go over all the details, share with you everything involved, and go over exactly what goes on behind the scenes and how it works. Because really at the end of the day, like I said, I owe all of this to you for all of your support and that deserves sincere recognition.
So I hope you find this helpful, and I hope it answers all of your questions. And if it does, I would really appreciate it if you went over to that gray little thumbs up handy button and you click it, so that it turns blue. Because the YouTube algorithm really loves it when you make that little button turn blue. So anyway, with that said, let's get into the video.
First, before I start sharing my own numbers, let me just say this: there's a lot of confusion out there as to how much money YouTubers make. And I'd like to do my best to clear things up. Because on the one hand, you have articles like this reporting that 96% of YouTubers don't earn enough to cross the poverty line. On the other, the claims that YouTube stars with almost 1.4 million monthly viewers earn an average of seventeen thousand dollars a year.
But if someone has been in the industry for a few years and has met and talked to dozens of creators throughout just about every category possible on YouTube, I have to say those numbers are really just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what's possible. How much a YouTuber makes is really entirely dependent on how well they run that channel like a business. Most likely just making a video and putting a five-second ad in the very beginning is not gonna be enough.
For most people here on the platform, how much money they're making from YouTube ads is really only just a drop in the bucket compared with how much money they could be making. But now that we're on the topic of YouTube ad revenue, let's just start right here. Almost every YouTuber you see on the platform makes money from what's called Google Adsense. Now if you aren't familiar with it, it's this 5 to 15 second skippable ads that show up in the beginning, middle, and end of the videos that you watch.
Now in order to be eligible for that type of advertising, the channel has to have at least a thousand subscribers and have accumulated four thousand hours or more of watch time. Once that threshold is hit, the channel is submitted for review to determine whether or not it is advertiser-friendly. And that's the point where we can go in two entirely different directions in terms of how much a YouTube channel can make.
For example, if the channel contains profanity, mature content, or anything else that could be a little bit risque, well, either ads are just not going to be shown on the channel, or advertisers are gonna pay significantly less. Those channels are just seen as less desirable. Not to mention if a channel is using copyrighted material in the videos, such as a song or using someone else's content in a clip, the owner of that copyrighted material can claim ownership of that video and of the rights that video has to monetize. They could take a percentage of the revenue, kind of like Sting taking eighty-five percent of the song "Lucid Dream" because the background was sampled from "Shape of My Heart."
On the other hand, if a channel is advertiser-friendly and doesn't contain profanity or mature subject matter or use copyrighted material, then advertisers will pay a premium to put themselves in front of that content. How much they pay really depends on the subject of the video and how desirable that target audience is.
Then if you want to go even further than that, ad rates can also be impacted by the time of the year, the length of the video, the watch time of the video, and whether or not the video contains multiple mid-roll ads or just one in the very beginning. Now in terms of how much they're actually making, if they're just making generic non-specific family-friendly content that doesn't really center around one specific audience in general, then I think it's safe to say on the low ends they’re probably making two to three dollars per 1000 views.
That means if this type of channel gets 5 million views a month, they're probably making between ten and fifteen thousand dollars a month just from ads. However, though ad rates only tend to go up from there. Car channels, for example, might be getting paid $5 per 1000 views, which means that if they get 5 million views, that equates to $25,000 in ad revenue. Or you have beauty channels which could get $7 per 1000 views, or you also have business or investing videos which frequently see between $15 and $30 per 1000 views or higher depending on the topic.
So the range here is vast, and pinpointing exactly how much someone is making from Google ad revenue is a little bit difficult. But expect that most channels are probably making between $4 and $7 per 1000 views, assuming you're posting clean, family-friendly content without any swearing and without any copyrighted material.
Now in terms of how much money I make as a channel with over a million subscribers, last month I did about 7.8 million views, and my take-home from that was one hundred twenty-nine thousand one hundred twenty-two dollars and 99 cents in ad revenue. I'll cover exactly how much I made throughout the entire year of 2019 towards the end of the video. But keep in mind that my channel on YouTube is one of the highest paying because of what I talk about, which is business, personal finance, and investing.
So because of that, advertisers end up paying a lot of money to put themselves in front of my videos. That's why my channel is making a lot more money compared with a lot of the other channels out there. But even then, ad revenue like this can only be a small percentage of what YouTubers can make. A very common one that a lot of people do is with sponsorships.
This is what a brand or a company will reach out and request to be mentioned in the beginning of a video for a set fee. For example, you have Shane Dawson with Honey or David Dobrik with SeatGeek, and those companies will end up paying a lot of money just for a 60-second mention in a video that gets tens of millions of views. Now I can't really speak as to how much exactly they're getting paid for those mentions because those amounts can't really be disclosed, but I can share the details from what I have allegedly heard and also based off my own experiences with sponsorships.
For a channel of my size, with just over a million subscribers in my niche, sponsors have generally offered between four thousand and twenty thousand dollars for a 60 to 90 second mention in a video. However, in my experience, the more legitimate the sponsor is, the less money they want to pay you. The ones who end up offering me a lot of money in my niche are usually the most fly-by-night, scammy, waste-of-time company I would never ever want to be involved in or give any promotion whatsoever. So I end up turning most of them down.
If it's the right company at the right time, then I'm certainly open to it, but I don't want to overdo it, and I want to make my content more focused around the information than around a particular sponsor. So because of that, I try not to overdo it. But on the other hand, for YouTubers like David Dobrik or Shane Dawson, I can't speak to exactly how much they're getting. But if I were to make an educated guess, I would say that Shane Dawson likely charges about a hundred to a hundred and fifty thousand dollars for a mention of Honey in one of his videos, and David Dobrik likely charges around 75 to maybe $125,000 for a mention on SeatGeek.
Now again, that's purely speculation in my opinion, and it could be wrong on that. But if I were to guess, I would say that's probably within the ballpark of what they would be charging. But again, as you can see, how much money a YouTuber makes can really start to add up, especially if every video of theirs is sponsored. And even though David Dobrik might not make a lot of money from YouTube ad revenue because he's using copyrighted music in his videos, he could likely still make about six hundred thousand dollars a month just from sponsorships alone, not including anything else he's doing like this and that would be selling merch.
I'm not gonna name names here, but I will say that some of the larger YouTube merch lines do exceptionally well. Those are the ones with a very recognizable brand that have a variety of products that continually cycle through limited-edition merch to continually get you buying, and those are the ones that end up doing lots of money. I've personally seen some of the larger, more established YouTubers out there in the 1 to 5 million subscriber range make about 50,000 to 150,000 dollars a month in profit for merch sales.
Now I will admit that those channels are the crème de la crème of the merch business, and most YouTubers out there won't expect to make that kind of money. But overall, expect a 20 to 30% of your merch order any time you buy something is profit for them, and that adds up. So I would say for most channels out there with 1 million or more subscribers that run their own merch line, they're probably making anywhere from three thousand to ten thousand dollars per month, depending on how much promotion they're doing and the strength of their brand.
Then obviously, it could just go up from there depending on the loyalty of their audience. And then that brings us to another really common way that almost every YouTuber ends up making money, and that would be affiliate marketing. This is where they promote a service or a company that isn't theirs, but they get a commission any time someone signs up or buys something.
For example, Amazon affiliates is by far the easiest way that most people end up getting started. Almost anyone can go and create their own store on Amazon, and you get paid a commission anytime someone clicks on the link to purchase an item. Usually, that commission will range anywhere from a few cents to a few dollars. But again, it adds up. For me, I've always just placed an Amazon affiliate link in the description of my videos; it covers all of the camera equipment that I use to film these videos.
Doing that last year, in 2019, made me ten thousand three hundred forty-two dollars and 81 cents. I've also used affiliate marketing for other services as well. For instance, last year I made about $8,000 from Acorns because when you refer a friend, they get $5 invested, and you get $5 invested. So this is a really easy one for me to mention because who doesn't want to get a free $5? Link down below in the description.
I've also done this with a free stock trading app, Webull, because when you use the link down below in the description and deposit $100, they'll give you two free stocks, and one of those stocks can be valued up to $1400. So that's a really great way to get two free stocks, and I also use them for free stock trading. So there you go, if you're interested, link down below.
And again, all of that just adds up. But wait, we're not done yet! There are still several other ways that YouTubers make money, and one of the really popular ones, especially in my niche, is by creating a product or service that your subscribers can join. For those that are not aware, I created two programs. The first one is called the Real Estate Agent Academy, which teaches people how to become a real estate agent and grow in the business.
The second one is called the YouTube Creator Academy, which teaches people how to grow on YouTube and eventually turn that into a business. I created this as a way to supplement my income and provide a one-stop shop for anyone who wants my advice without having to go and individually coach people one-on-one. And so far in the last year of 2019, both of those programs did just over $500,000 in profits without any paid advertising. I just leave a link in the description of my videos or make the occasional mention around the holidays, and if people are interested, they could get it, and if not, that's fine too.
But if you are interested, just know I offer a no-questions-asked 30-day refund policy if you want to give it a shot. There you go! Anyway, for YouTubers with a specific skill to teach, online education is a fantastic way to provide value while still making additional income. Again, I won't name names here, but I will say that some of the larger business channels here on YouTube are making close to a million dollars a month in profit from program sales, consulting, speaking engagements, and subscription services.
Education is really one of those things that's never going away, and the more value you could provide to someone else, the more money you will end up making. And lastly, one of the things I've noticed a lot of these non-advertiser-friendly channels doing lately is starting their own membership website. This is where you see all the bonus content uncensored that you can't put on YouTube.
And lucky for you, I actually found the information of the person who's thinking about it first came to mind when talking about this, and that would be Bhad Bhabie. He created a website called Bhad Bhabie Uncensored, and in an interview with Logan Paul he said he had 100,000 subscribers each paying $5 a month to see his content. That is absolutely substantial.
And also, this interview was posted quite a while ago, so there's a good chance he's making even more money now. So for any other YouTuber out there with a membership site, I have a feeling they're earning a sizable amount of money per subscriber every single month, probably even way more money than they would ever make on YouTube, and they also get to control the traffic and what they post.
But now, let's get back to what everyone clicked on this video for in the first place: how much money do I make with 1 million subscribers? And here's my entire journey starting from the very beginning. In my first year of YouTube, during the entire year of 2017, I was working 50 hours a week planning, filming, and editing videos, posting three times a week consecutively without missing an upload, and staying up until 2:00 AM almost every single night answering nearly all of the comments.
I made that entire year $26,966.69. If you break that down per hour, that was the equivalent of me making less than minimum wage for an entire year's worth of work while also working full-time as a real estate agent. But in the beginning of 2018, I hit 100,000 subscribers, and that was the point where I really started taking YouTube way more seriously.
I began reinvesting back into the channel, I created the studio that you see here, I began posting higher quality content and diversifying my income. I did that by creating a Real Estate Agent Academy to teach agents how to grow in the business, I started doing consulting and speaking engagements, and I finally started doing Amazon affiliate links. That year, I ended 2018 with almost 300,000 subscribers and I made a grand total of just over $265,000 from YouTube. Almost $170,000 of that came from YouTube ad revenue with almost 14 million views, and $86,000 came from program sales.
The rest of it was from Amazon affiliates, consulting, and public speaking. But this last year in 2019, things were wildly different and once we broke past a million subscribers, things just took off. In total, the 2019 ad revenue for just this channel alone was $1,141,231.43 with almost 80 million channel views. That also does not include my second channel, the Graham Stephan Show, which I'm just going to include here because the two channels tend to play off one another, and that was another $170,428.75 in income with just over 16 million views.
In addition to that, my program sales have really taken off, and I have a feeling it's just because as I'm building a larger audience, it just tends to sell a little bit more. That led to 2019 making over $500,000 just from the programs. Then, on top of that, last year I was able to do several sponsorships with brands including Audible, Skillshare, and Simply Safe. And even though I can't specifically mention exactly how much each brand has paid me, I will say that overall it added up to another $50,000, plus added another $40,000 for affiliate marketing, private consulting, and any other opportunities that came up throughout the year.
So as you could see, when you add all this up, during the entire year of 2019, I made just over $1.9 million from YouTube alone as a YouTuber with 1.3 million subscribers. Which as I’m saying this right now sounds absolutely absurd because that is a mind-blowing amount of money. I am beyond humbled that you find enough value from these videos to want to subscribe and watch and just be a part of this journey with me. Because I remember doing all of this in 2017 making less than minimum wage when you factored in how much time I was putting into making these videos, and to be able to go from that to this right now is just absolutely incredible.
It just makes me speechless. Thank you everyone so much for allowing me this opportunity, and I hope at the very least I can give you good content back on how to increase your credit score, save more money, increase your income, and invest in the long term. Anything you need to know about real estate, I got you.
So with that said, I'm just gonna end the video by saying this: how much your YouTuber makes is really entirely dependent on whether or not they run it like a business. How many subscribers they have doesn't really have a direct correlation with how much money they're gonna be making. I've seen channels with a hundred thousand subscribers making 1 million dollars a year selling educational products, and I've also seen channels with a million subscribers who can't make more than 30 thousand dollars a year because their content is not advertiser-friendly, and they have not found a way to diversify their income beyond Adsense.
But the YouTubers who are business savvy, who find a way to diversify and branch off to create additional sources of income can make a significant amount of money. Oftentimes, a lot of these YouTubers don't want you to know the full extent of how much money they're making because in a way it might make them seem a little bit less relatable. Often it's a lot more difficult to ask your audience to support you by buying something if your audience knows you already have millions of dollars sitting there in the bank.
So I think it makes sense from this perspective. If they want to maintain a certain image, they're not gonna want you to know how much money they're making. But for me, I built this channel on being totally open about all things money and it's also what I teach here on the channel in terms of how to make money, invest, and how to smash the like button for the YouTube algorithm, of course.
So there you go. That's how much money I make with the channel with now over 1 million subscribers. And again, if you enjoy this type of content or you're brand new here and want to learn more about personal finance, saving money, investing in real estate, all my favorite topics in the world, feel free to subscribe. I've got those 3 videos a week and would love to have you a part of the family.
So with that said, you guys, thank you so much for watching. I really appreciate it. Also, feel free to add me on Instagram. I post there pretty much daily, so if you want to be a part of it, feel free to add me there. On my second channel, the Graham Stephenson Show, I post there every single day I'm not posting here, so if you want to see a brand new video from me on YouTube every single day, feel free to add yourself to that.
And lastly, if you guys want two free stocks like I mentioned earlier, use the link down below in the description, deposit $100, and Webull will be giving you two free stocks, with one of those stocks valued up to $1400. So if you want your two free stocks, use the link down below. Enjoy! Let me know what you get. Thank you so much for watching, and until next time.