Sienna Santer
Sienna Santer.
Happy New Year and welcome back to the Influencer Dashboard newsletter after our holiday hiatus!
This is Amanda Perelli and I'll be briefing you on what's new in the business of influencers.
Before we get started, I want to first introduce a new reporter on the business of influencers team, Dan Whateley! You can reach Dan at dwhateley@businessinsider.com and on Twitter @dwhate. He'll be covering YouTube, TikTok, and all things related to the business of internet creators and influencers.
Last week, I caught up with Sienna Santer, a second-year Harvard student and popular YouTube influencer with 302,000 subscribers about how much money she earned on YouTube in 2019.
Santer rose to popularity on YouTube in 2018, after she uploaded a video of herself moving into her dorm room. The video now has 4.8 million views.
A year later, Santer now supports herself financially with the money she earns online and it pays for her tuition and other college fees, she said.
"I have checks for AdSense coming in the mail that I have put aside for taxes, retirement, savings," she told Business Insider.
Santer treats her YouTube channel like a part-time job and broke down how much money she earned from AdSense in 2019 for Business Insider. (Read the full post here.)
You can read most of the articles here by subscribing to BI Prime. And if this is your first time reading Influencer Dashboard, subscribe to the newsletter here.
A personal-finance influencer earned over $100,000 in his first year from YouTube. He shared his strategy and what he made each month.
I spoke to Andrei Jikh, who explained why he quit his day job and in 2019 and started a personal-finance YouTube channel.
Before YouTube, Jikh was filming videos for a startup that taught people how to do magic. He grew up in a family of circus performers from Russia, and moved to the US at age nine when his dad got a job with Cirque du Soleil. He said his passion for personal finance developed after his parents acquired "crazy debt."
Jikh launched his YouTube channel in 2019 and after one year, he gained 300,000 subscribers and earned over $100,000 just from ads placed on his videos by Google - even though he didn't start making money for months.
Jikh spoke about why he decided to start a YouTube channel, how he maximized his earnings, and how much he earned per month in 2019.
Read the full post on Jikh, his strategy, and how much YouTube paid him each month in 2019 (and why).
A YouTube creator who makes reptile videos says he charges brands as much as $30,000 for a sponsorship deal
Brian Barczyk
Brian Barczyk, 50, isn't your typical YouTube star pulling pranks or playing video games for the camera.
He began posting content to YouTube in 2008 and now runs a channel with 2.4 million subscribers that shows his day-to-day life as a reptile breeder. The snakes, geckos, and alligator he owns often star in his videos.
Barczyk told me that he earns revenue through sponsorships, selling merchandise, and from the ads that play in his YouTube videos. He supports himself, his family, and the reptile zoo he owns and operates, all from the money he earns as a YouTube creator.
Barczyk's highest-earning video is one he posted in July 2017, in which he shows his viewers how to help a snake that's unable to lay it's eggs, which is referred to as "egg bound." Today, the video has over 28 million views.
Barczyk shared how much money he earns from brand sponsorships and how much his video with 28 million views earned him.
Read the full post on how much money Barczyk charges for YouTube sponsorships.
And check out this post how much Barczyk earned on his viral video with 28 million views.
A YouTube creator with 350,000 subscribers explains the 5 main ways she makes money as an influencer and entrepreneur
Amy Landino
Entrepreneur and YouTube creator Amy Landino, who has 359,000 subscribers, has - like many influencers in 2020 - expanded into multiple revenue streams to grow her business.
Landino has a YouTube channel, a podcast, two books, and a Patreon account where she offers exclusive content to her followers. She is also the cofounder and owner of the video production house AfterMarq.
She explained which online platforms and revenue streams she focuses on and why.
A YouTube video editor who works with David Dobrik's Vlog Squad told us what it's like to film top creators, from private jets to quick turnarounds
Joe Vulpis
There is a group of YouTube-specific video editors who have gained popularity online for their association to superstar creators.
I spoke to Joe Vulpis, 29, who is the video editor for top creators on YouTube like David Dobrik and his Vlog Squad. Vulpis also runs his own YouTube channel with 580,000 subscribers.
Vulpis shared what it's been like work as a film editor and videographer for YouTubers and why a shout-out from a top creator is one of the best forms of currency for him - besides money.
Read the full post on Vulpis and inside his career working with creators like Dobrik.
Send tips or feedback to me at aperelli@businessinsider.com.
Here's what else we're reading:
- 16-year-old YouTuber JoJo Siwa shared a tour of her new mansion that includes a candy bar, '7-Eleven' station, and its own merch store: Lindsay Dodgson, from Insider, reported on the new home of YouTube megastar JoJo Siwa, who has 10.5 million subscribers.
- Major security flaws found on TikTok left people's sensitive personal data and videos vulnerable to hackers: Paige Leskin, from Business Insider, wrote about how TikTok has raised cybersecurity and privacy concerns due to its ties to China.
- Hype House and the Los Angeles TikTok Mansion Gold Rush: Taylor Lorenz, from The New York Times, recently spent some time with TikTok stars and she wrote about a popular "collab house" in LA where TikTok creators live and film their videos in.