The Reality of YouTube: What Every Aspiring Creator Should Know

YouTube can be a challenging platform for content creators, and it's not for everyone. To succeed, you need to have a passion for the process of creating and sharing your ideas that are greater than your desire for rewards. While many aspiring creators fail, there are ways to increase your chances of success (hence this newsletter).

In this article, we'll share some underwhelming facts about YouTube that may help you feel better about your low view and subscriber counts - or discourage you from continuing on your YouTube journey (hopefully the former).

1. Less than 3% of YouTube channels make over $10,000 per year from advertising revenue. (Source: Business Insider)
2. Only about 10% of YouTube channels have more than 10,000 subscribers. (Source: VidIQ)
3. The average YouTube video only receives about 100 views in its first month. (Source: Think with Google)
4. The vast majority of YouTube videos receive less than 100 views in their lifetime. (Source: Forbes)
5. Over 95% of YouTube videos are never monetized. (Source: Medium)
6. More than 90% of YouTube channels have less than 1,000 subscribers. (Source: VidIQ)
7. Only about 1% of YouTube videos go viral, meaning they receive more than a million views. (Source: Medium)
8. About 99% of YouTube creators never reach the platform's Partner Program, which enables monetization through advertising. (Source: Medium)
9. More than 90% of YouTube's advertising revenue goes to the top 3% of channels. (Source: Business Insider)
10. The average YouTube channel takes two years to reach 1,000 subscribers. (Source: TubeFilter)

With all of this data and information in mind, it's easy to understand why many aspiring YouTubers struggle to see results. However, armed with this knowledge, we can take a more informed approach to content creation. We can recognize that building an audience takes time, that we need to up our game, and that we need to develop resilience to succeed on this platform. Remember, what we're experiencing is normal for those just starting out. So give it time, and remember that anything worth having takes time and perseverance to achieve.

Here are 10 more underwhelming facts about YouTube:

1. The most popular videos on YouTube are music videos, with over 2 billion views each. (Source: Forbes)
2. Only about 15% of YouTube videos receive more than 1,000 views. (Source: Think with Google)
3. It takes an average of 22 months for a YouTube channel to reach 1,000 subscribers. (Source: Social Media Today)
4. Less than 1% of YouTube videos are longer than 20 minutes. (Source: Statista)
5. Only about 5% of YouTube channels have uploaded a video in the past year. (Source: Social Blade)
6. The most popular YouTube channel has over 191 million subscribers, but it's owned by YouTube itself. (Source: Statista)
7. The average engagement rate for YouTube videos is only 0.025%, meaning only about 25 out of every 100,000 viewers will engage with the video. (Source: Social Media Today)
8. The most common reason people watch YouTube videos is to learn new things, followed by entertainment and relaxation. (Source: Think with Google)
9. It takes an average of 1,500 views to earn $1 from YouTube advertising revenue. (Source: The Balance)
10. Only about 1% of YouTube channels have more than 1 million subscribers. (Source: VidIQ)

Again, this is not to discourage you but instead, to give you a context as to where we are and what amount of work we need to assert to belong to the top 20% of the class.

Good luck on your journey!