How a YouTuber Made Over $300k in 2023

I always find it interesting to hear how much money YouTubers are making with their videos.

Read time: 3 minutes

Howdy,

Here is your weekly dose of The Creator Stream, a list of what I’m enjoying and working on in the Creator Economy. Please feel free to forward this along to fellow creators.

Gary Vee once led the business world on YouTube, he was a pioneer in the niche with a nine-year head start. Between 2015 and 2020, his channel was a huge, go-to for insightful business content that resonated with creators and non-creators.

Yet in recent years there's been a noticeable shift with views dropping and his content moving from once missable to now forgettable largely due to how he hasn't quite kept pace with the evolving dynamics of YouTube.

Personally, I wouldn’t be where I am today without Gary, he made me love marketing and business from an early age and I’ve met him a few times before, so finding myself + others not caring about his content anymore kinda sucks.

Back when I had some hair on my head (sort of..)

Enter Alex Hormozi. He's the new face on YouTube for all things business and his content is so useful I can’t even begin to explain, which is why he’s rapidly captured the business niche. His content has evolved a lot since he started showing that he understands brand, content and how to resonate with a modern YouTube audience.

Earlier this week I saw a video on my homepage from Gary and as soon as I started to watch it I was blown away by how refreshing it was.

Very quickly I realized that this video wasn’t made by him and his team but Big Think which has a unique style of content.

It's a departure from his usual ‘document don’t create’ approach that made him huge and it's resonating massively with viewers.

This video was uploaded to his smaller corporate channel but with 162k views it’s outperforming his main channel - a channel that now struggles to get past 15k views (despite 4.3M subs).

The comments are flooded with positive words on how this laid-back style suits Gary in a new, approachable format that resonates so much more than the abash OTT style we’ve come to expect from Gary.

What I hope is that Gary and his team take note of this and it becomes a pivot point for his content as I don’t think there’s a clearer signal to adapt and evolve with YouTube's changing landscape than that.

If you’re familiar with GV check out the video and see the difference for yourself.

My Favourite Things This Week

🎥 Video I’m Watching

How I Make $300k+ as a YouTuber | My Income Streams and How I Got Started - I always find it interesting to hear how much money YouTubers are making with their videos. Taylor Bell is a great creator that I’ve been watching for many years as she’s always so transparent with how she’s grown her YouTube Channel and how she’s monetising it.

In her most recent video, she spends over 20 minutes deep-diving into her channel's monetization strategy and breaks down several income streams that are making her over $300k per year.

Whether you're an established creator or a complete newcomer, there's no doubt this video is going to inspire you and make you think about how you could monetize better.

🛠️ Useful Tool I’m Using

Transform your Productivity with WorkSpaces! - As someone who spends a lot of time on my computer working, I’ve found this tool to be really useful for streamlining my workflow.

With just a click, I can launch a customized workspace tailored for specific tasks - like recording YouTube videos, creating thumbnails or consulting with clients.

One of my workspaces is set up to automatically open my script in Notion, fire up my teleprompter, activate my mic, and set the studio lighting, all set and ready as soon as I’m about to record.

I have another workspace that simultaneously launches my client’s consulting notes, Zoom, my client's YouTube channel, and thumbnail brainstorming/creation tools instantly.

I’ve found this save so much time switching between different tasks that I’ve timeblocked in my calendar and I can't recommend it enough for those looking to optimize their digital workflow.

🎙️ Podcast I Released

YouTube Strategists React To Zac Alsop's Viral Videos - In the latest episode of ‘Making It’, George, Gwilym, and I talk about all things AI and the threat it poses to YouTube Content Creation.

You can watch on YouTube or listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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Whenever you're ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

  1. I create videos on how I’m helping my clients get more views and make money on YouTube. Check out my channel.

  2. Book a free 15-minute consulting call with me where I can give you some pointers on how to improve your YouTube Channel.

  3. If you want to improve your thumbnails, I recommend you sign up for free at The Thumbnail Vault. It's a database of over 1,000 of the best thumbnails on YouTube for inspiration with breakdowns on why they got views.

  4. Sponsor the newsletter - Get your message in front of 1,500 people!

Thanks for reading, if you want to reach out to me, just send a tweet to @WhiffenYT. Have a wonderful weekend!

Jamie