CAN you believe that there's a six-year-old Russian-American, the star of the "Like Nastya" YouTube channel for kids, who earns a whopping US$7.73 million per month?
According to the statistics on YouTubers' earnings, Anastasia Radzinskaya, fondly known as Nastya, now has 59 million subscribers and some of her videos have reached a viewership of 40 billion.
Her net worth is US$18 million. This tyke has now become the new darling of the YouTube channel for children's videos, overtaking toy reviewer Ryan Kaji of Ryan's World, who generated 22.8 million subscribers and had a net worth of US$15 million last year.
Then, there's PewDiePie, a Swedish-born vlogger well known for his "Let's Play" videos, which document him playing various video games. PewDiePie has now amassed 105 million subscribers and his net worth last year was US$13 million.
Have you ever wondered how YouTubers around the globe generate revenue? There's a common trait that successful YouTubers share —a display of their innate passion, and that they love what they do and say on social media platforms.
Not only that, they take advantage of the platforms they represent. They monetise their passion and make loads of money out of genuine passion.
Almost all YouTubers who gained millions of viewers are consistent in posting their novel videos on various subjects, from how to dish out quick meals to reviewing affordable accommodation and food in their travels and from the how-to-make-this to where-to-go tutorials.
These YouTubers cleverly gain in popularity through consistently promoting their videos on a daily basis. Only then, those good people at YouTube would take notice of the increasing viewership and subscription of the channel.
If a YouTuber reaches 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours within a year, they can start to monetise their account with advertisements. YouTubers get paid only when a viewer watches the full ad, or clicks on it.
A more interesting thing about YouTube is its subscription plan. It's a monthly subscription service that allows fans to watch their favourite content without ads. YouTubers get a cut of the subscription profits based on how many views their channels attract.
Then, we have the wants and needs of corporate sponsorship. Also known as influencer marketing, this is when brands pay content creators to promote their products. A vlogger typically needs a large following before brands are willing to work with them, but expectations from brands vary based on the company and their marketing objectives.
When all this happens, including copyright agreements are agreed and signed, the content creators can pretty much have the freedom to sell his or her own merchandise, besides promoting the company's products. If the influencers have a loyal fan base, they can make a huge income selling anything, from key chains to game consoles.
It's estimated that PewDiePie, the world's most popular YouTuber, makes more than US$6 million a month from merchandise sales.
Ranking on monthly earnings, the kids' category comes in at first place, with Like Nastya on top, earning US$7.73 million.
Second place goes to the entertainment category, with a YouTuber known as A4 earning about US$2.5 million monthly.
The gaming category comes in third place, the highest earner being jacksepticeye, who g ro sses US$990,000 a month.
While there are several options for making money on YouTube, it's nearly impossible to make a living without a large following.
According to visual capitalist.com, there are 50 million content creators on YouTube from 187 countries, but getting noticed is no easy feat.
The most popular category is entertainment, which has 72 of YouTuber top earners. Some of the biggest YouTube personalities fall under this category, such as PewDiePie and Chilean YouTuber HolaSoyGerman, who has 41 million subscribers.
The second most popular category is gaming, which has 25 of YouTube's top earners. Some big names in this category include Ireland's jacksepticeye, with 24.7 million subscribers, and Canada's VanosGaming, which has 25.2 million.
In third place is "How To" videos —18 of 187 top earners fall into this category. Life Hacks & Experiments is the most popular YouTube channel in this group, with 8.3 million subscribers.
So now I can see how YouTubers make money. Why can't the rest of us?
C'est la vie.
The writer, a former NST journalist, is now a film scriptwriter whose penchant is finding new food haunts in the country