So your kid comes to you and says they want to be a YouTuber and you haven’t a clue what to think, whilst many marketers will be fully aware, they still might never consider their kids doing this in their spare time instead of other extra curricular activities.
A YouTuber is a YouTube personality…Kind of a Z list celebrity who has managed to convince the world that they have something interesting to share with the world, and in many cases they do…for example our DIY around the house would never get done if it wasn’t for various handy YouTubers giving instructions.
More recently these YouTubers have also become known as ‘influencers’ and to be fair it can be quite a lucrative career, so much so that the ‘influencers’ are getting younger and younger, all seeking to make their fame and fortune.
So, when wee Padraig goes to his Irish Mammy and says, “sod being a plumber ma, I want to be a world-famous z-lister on YouTube”….should Mammy support his dreams, or think he may just end up talking shite to random followers across the world? Is it worth all the time and effort?
Most popular YouTube channels as of June 2019, ranked by number of subscribers (in millions)
| Number of subscribers in millions | |
| T-Series | 100.87 |
| PewDiePie | 96.41 |
| 5-Minute Crafts | 56.33 |
| Canal KondZilla | 49.69 |
The top YouTube Channel is a company one, so we are more interested in the next one which was originally started by one fella… Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg (Founder of the PewDiePie YouTube Account and a big Tube…YouTuber)
It was not that long ago that the ‘PewDiePie’ founder packed in Uni and started selling Hotdogs whilst building up a bit of a profile for himself playing games….yes playing games Mammy…and as of June he had over 96million followers….if you equate that 96million views that COULD work out at 950,400 dollars in advertising revenue (9.90 dollars per 1000 views) – If we messed up that calculation, please don’t bother to correct us, we just want Mammy to release this former hotdog seller it making a shed load of money.
So yes it can be worth it, but this fella was older and had the time to put the effort in, what we would suggest to those young Irish minds looking to YouTube for a living is to engage in lots of testing and trial and error, make a healthy hobby of using your YouTube channel and try to get outside plenty.
The kids will learn loads, about video production, scripting, project management, software and if there lucky…they value of working hard to make a few. In my day I was out kicking a football against the neighbours car…or trying to figure out what badness we could get up to (Thank God we didn’t have Smart Phones lol)…Waffling aside, we are trying to say being a YouTuber can be healthy and rewarding in many levels.
But now for the safety warning…social media is dangerous if not managed properly, there are massive impacts for kids on social media, not only mentally, but there is all sorts of bullies and weirdos looking to get a kick out of knocking your aspiring YouTuber, so if you interested in supporting your kid or teenager make sure you learn more about giving them a digital education – Ironically there is plenty of YouTube videos about it.
Set boundaries and stick to them, don’t get over obsessive about views (You will learn to adapt and improve them over time) and good luck.
Upate: ‘PewDiePie’ reached over 100 million subscribers this week – and if you ever needed a good case study about being careful what you do on social media (regardless of your age) check out the media exposure around it.
