YouTube Income Report December 2019

Thanks for checking out the first YouTube Income Report of 2020! If you want to see my breakdown of my Jan-Dec 2019 earnings please look at my previous blog post.

The format of this one is a bit different since it only covers the month of December.

I’ll be updating these YouTube Income Reports each month from you and sharing not only my earnings but a better understanding of YouTube’s systems when it comes to Adsense, Super Chat, and Channel Membership.

*UPDATE: I’ll be adding merchandise sales to these reports going forward and in the End of Year Reports I will be adding Brand Deal and Sponsorships Yearly Revenue.

FOR SPONSORSHIP AND BRAND DEALS INSIGHTS REFERENCE MY MEDIA KIT FOR BRANDS (Includes Pricing Details for 2019)

In December 2019 I only uploaded 1 video to YouTube and did 2 live streams. December is typically a high earning month due to end of year ad revenue spending and most YouTubers upload as much as they can after Thanksgiving.

Right after Thanksgiving I caught the flu and spend the entire month physically recovering and could really make any new content. At one point I even lost my voice, and it was really hard to do anything.

Thankfully I don’t rely on my YouTube income for my living and it is mostly a great way to market myself and get traffic for my other revenue streams such as affiliate marketing and digital products.

I always encourage creators to make passive income outside of YouTube because you might get sick or have issues with uploading.

Also once my Other Channel Creator Gear Guide is Monetized I will be adding the income report from that new channel to all of my monthly income reports. I’m also considering doing an income report for Amazon Affiliate Marketing since this channel will be heavily focused on recommending laptops, cameras, podcast audio gear and computer components. Let me know on Twitter if you’re interested in that sort of thing and I will look at how to add it to the blog.

DECEMBER YOUTUBE INCOME

TOP 3 EARNING VIDEOS FOR MONTH

YOUTUBE EARNINGS BREAKDOWN

WHAT HAPPENED IN DECEMBER

In the month of December, I got really sick and only uploaded 1 video and did 2 live streams on YouTube. as a result of that and taking time for the holidays between November and December there was massive traffic dropoff on the channel.

I also had to work on some stuff for my business and wrap up stuff with bookkeeping and taxes for the end of the year. Yeah, remember that you have to pay taxes on your YouTube earnings. Get an accountant or CPA for this I use BENCH. I’m planning a new YouTube video for 2020 on YouTube taxes and why they are complicated.

Leaving my MCN in November had no impact on the overall channel and its earnings. My MCN still owes me an estimated $4000+ for October earnings and for November. As of January 01, 2020, they still have not paid these past due earnings. which were due on Nov 1, and Dec 1 of 2019 respectively. Based on my previous agreement with them they took 10% of revenue, but as of January, I will be earning all of my Adsense Revenue directly from YouTube.

I’m actually planning a video titled “My First YouTube Paycheck After Leaving a YouTube MCN” where I can explain in more detail the relationship between content creators and MCNs and what my experience was like since I joined as a small YouTuber in 2014.

Oh and for the people who insist on seeing “PROOF” when making these claims of earning and income and such this is a screenshot from my Dashboard. I actually show my dashboard in my YouTube Livestreams very regularly and have been known to screenshot my earning on Twitter.

There seems to be an obsession with debunking people’s claims of what they earn and I feel that discourages people from sharing what they know and giving that information. Reference our earnings disclaimer.

While I take a ton of inspiration from people like Pat Flynn and John Lee Dumas, it’s the “debunkers” that make it uncomfortable for someone like me to ever want to share my complete earnings, its already uncomfortable to talk about money for most people in America, especially minorities and immigrants who are raised to think of it as a taboo.

These YouTube Income Reports are not for show, but to finally educate content creators in a meaningful and transparent way that the “My First YouTube Paycheck” videos that are so popular, never really could.

INVESTMENTS IN THE CHANNEL(S)

Because I want to launch a new channel in 2020 Creator Gear Guide with weekly tech videos I bought a new camera that I will be reviewing on the channel and also will be using it to help film my speaking engagements.

I bought the SONY A6600 Camera because it has no record limit and has the same batter as my main camera the SONY A7R3.

Also, I mentioned earlier that I was preparing my taxes for YouTube and my coaching business and affiliate marketing. I went with BENCH and would recommend them if you want to invest in this and save some headaches when it comes to your accounting and bookkeeping or if you’re intimidated by the idea of doing your own taxes.

Here is a video with more info on YouTube Taxes in did in 2019

MY BIGGEST TAKEAWAYS

1. Increase Channel Memberships – I’ve come to realize that channel memberships are underrated and would give creators with over 30,000 subscribers a minimum income sealing they can rely on directly from their community. Based on the 1000 true fans theory if creators (myself included) get their true and loyal fans on board they can be earning $1000-$3000 as a baseline for their channel regardless of ad revenue. So I’ve come up with some new ideas for getting new Channel Members, especially during my live streams.
2. Low View High CPM Videos – My sweet spot professionally is Marketing and Online Business, especially affiliate marketing which is a roughly $100K/year revenue stream for me. Regardless of the view counts these videos get HIGH CPM Rates of over $20 and as much as $50. Covering more videos on Business, Passive Income, and even Personal Finance. Software and Webhosting Topics also do very well with a $20-$30 average for my channel.
3. Simple Videos, Aggressive Upload Frequency- in a world of highly produced vlog content for casual viewers, there is still a demand for people who are career and income-driven, especially in Q1. In the first 3 months of the year, people are goal-oriented. An aggressive upload schedule in the first 100 days of 2020 will inject new growth into the channel and by focusing on easily produced but very INFORMATIVE content for those people, I can dominate on the platform with evergreen videos that will still get traffic year-round. I don’t need to find the latest trend, 2020 success IS THE TREND. I can just win on supply and demand.