14 year old Megan Parken is shooting another video from home for her ‘Meganheartsmakeup’ YouTube channel. Today she’s modeling the cutest outfits for Spring Break.
Although she is only an eighth grader at Hill Country Middle School in Austin, Texas, Megan already has over 1,500,000 channel views and 56,515 subscribers after seven months of making videos. Already earning a few thousand dollars per month plus freebies sent in from different makeup and fashion companies, Megan now plans to launch a line of “Meganheartsmakeup” makeup bags, jewelry bags and more.
“I was one of the first gurus to be younger and [one] of the first channels for younger girls,” Megan said. Her mother graduated from SMU and Megan would like to attend the Hilltop herself someday.
Megan is one of thousands of people earning money on the video sharing website YouTube. ‘Broadcast Yourself’ is YouTube’s slogan, and it has proven to be fitting. In order to make money on YouTube, a user starts out with either a web cam or high-end camera equipment, it doesn’t matter.
Once the camera is on, one simply talks about an exciting topic, displays a great sense of humor, or maybe even just films a world record-breaking moment. Shows range from fashion to comedy. Once filmed, the video needs to be uploaded to the person’s YouTube account, and it’s then available for all to see.
After the video is uploaded, a free channel devoted to one’s work is automatically created. If a video or channel gets a lot of views, YouTube will send the owner an e-mail asking him or her to join its partnership program.
To join, one must sign a confidentiality agreement promising not to click on advertisements to be shown in conjunction with the videos. Because each click on the advertisements earns the person money, this prevents him or her from clicking on the ads to make a profit.
Once a person is partnered with YouTube, the company then places ads on his videos and splits the revenue with him. Google AdSense makes it possible for publishers to place text ads next to their content, and the advertisers pay YouTube. YouTube then sends a monthly check to the owner. The money comes from each view of the video as well as clicks on the advertisements.
YouTube has become a hot place for advertisers to place their ads. Some companies have even created their own ads, according to Steve Edwards, an advertising professor at SMU. A blender company called Blendtec makes its own videos and posts them for free.
Since people have found these videos to be particularly entertaining, like blending an iPhone, the company gets plenty of ads and views: essentially advertising for free.
Advertising is all about the audience’s interests, and YouTube helps to narrow down interests through videos and channels, Edwards said.
“I think it’s great because advertisers are embracing it and actually making [it] their own so they can make it as targeted as it can [be],” he said.
Whether a person has a makeup tutorial channel on YouTube or a video of the world’s fastest Toyota Supra, one can make money off each view of their video.
“YouTube just sent me an e-mail a few hours after the video had been up, and we had already received about 2,000 views or so,” Kuro Tawil, a sophomore at Texas State, who recently produced and posted a video of the world’s fastest Supra, said.
Tawil used his own Sanyo HD camera with no external mikes or lighting for the video. He also used Final Cut Pro to edit it, but used basic equipment for his now successful video, he said. Working with Boost Logic, an automotive fabrication company specializing in forced induction for high-end automobiles in Austin, Texas, Tawil witnessed a world record being broken in the passenger seat of the Supra. To his surprise, he only had about 50 or 60 followers on his YouTube account before he posted the video, but received over 6,000 views in a little over a day, he said.
Tawil plans to make more videos in hopes of more success. A viewer of car videos himself, he said that the solution to a successful video of any kind is distribution.
“The key to any YouTube video or new media object for that matter would all be in the distribution of it,” Tawil said. “I posted the link on about 5 different car forums, and from there I’m assuming word of mouth took off.”
A sophomore at SMU, Eme Torlai doesn’t watch YouTube and was not aware that one could make money off the site because it’s free for viewing. And Torlai is not alone.
According to a recent survey using Survey Monkey, about 51 percent of the 60 people who took the survey didn’t know it was possible to profit from YouTube. Torlai said that she was intrigued by how much money people like Megan can make off of videos on YouTube.
“The most surprising thing is that they generate enough followers to earn so much money at such a young age,” Torlai said. “I’m actually interested now because I want to see what all the hype is about.”
