From the Lens of a Former YouTuber

300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute and almost 5 billion videos are watched on Youtube every single day.

When I read those numbers, I couldn't believe the amount of viewers and uploads the platform had. I knew that YouTube was popular, but 300 hours of video uploaded each minute is crazy!

Looking at YouTube’s statistics, there are over 2 billion users on the site which, according to them, accounts for almost one-third of the internet.

Photo by Christian Wiediger on Unsplash

YouTube is my go to for almost everything, whether I’m looking for how-to videos, DIY’s, movie trailers, or just bored and want to watch someone’s morning routine, the app is usually open on my phone.

When spending hours scrolling through videos and clicking from one to the other, we don’t always think about how much time goes into making some of the videos we watch. The preparations, the hours of recording, and then the process of editing all the video, complete with intros, music, thumbnails and everything else that makes a video compelling and entertaining to watch.

Youtubers have a way of making their daily errands or putting on makeup and other common everyday tasks seem super interesting. I decided that I was going to try and start my own YouTube channel a while back. I had been watching them for years and it always looked so fun to create lifestyle videos and vlogs. I started filming routines, days in my life, and get-ready-with-me videos, but little did I know, behind the scenes of every YouTube video is lots of time consuming work. The videos quite actually took up a day in my life.

It took a few videos to get the hang of recording and talking on camera and then hours of playing with editing techniques, making my personal intros and picking the perfect audio to accompany each video.

After a few months of consistently posting, I decided that I enjoyed watching them more than making them but had acquired a new outlook on YouTube. Once I had a taste of what went into a quality YouTube channel, I developed an appreciation for all the creators that put so much work into making videos we love.

YouTube has a Creator Academy for any aspiring YouTubers . They provide courses for learning every aspect of creating videos and uploading them as well as tips to help grow your channel.

There is a lot of money to be made on YouTube once a creator has been accepted into their Partner Program. A creator has to have a minimum of 1,000 subscribers and at least 4,000 watch hours in the last 12 months to be eligible.

Since 2017, the number of YouTube content creators that earn five-figures a year is up by 35%. Those earning six-figures a year is up by 40% with the majority of that money coming from advertising. Which explains why Youtubers are always shouting out their sponsors or the video cuts to a short advertisement every 2 minutes.

YouTube is an ever-growing platform that gains new users and content creators everyday. They are always changing and updating to cater to its users, so you’re bound to find something you like.