How does Linus make money? - 2020 Update

Not quite the same since it's a much larger team but Linus Tech Tips actually just released a video[1] on how they make money and it shows that diversifying your revenue stream as much as possible is key to be successful on YouTube. [1] [VIDEO]

I always thought creators made roughly as much or more from the promos they embed in the videos. See the LTT video about how they make money: [VIDEO] The time code takes you to a pie chart breaking down their revenue. YT ads are 26% and in-video promos are 27%

That's kind of an issue then - YouTube is only partly (probably a single-digit-percent given they dropped the direct share feature[0]) about sharing videos with friends - most people stick around for the recommendations, ie. the endless stream of interesting/intriguing/funny content. Most of that content currently dominating YT (at least, at the quantity that it's produced) is only possible due to these creators making YouTube their full-time job and getting paid to do it. Linus Tech Tips (which also runs Techquickie and Techlinked) attributes 26% of their total revenue to YT Ads[1], and the other categories (like merchandise/affiliate links) aren't something everyone can do if their videos aren't about products available on Amazon or can't grow their merch at the rate LTT does. If PT is just about sharing videos, then you might as well run a nextcloud instance instead since 'no ads' is a huge downside to PT for creators. 0: [LINK] 1: [VIDEO]

Linus tech tips did an enlightening breakdown video of their earnings and YouTube ads make up around 25% of their revenue. I think they have to upload to YouTube because that’s where their audience is (IIRC it’s the world’s second largest search engine). There are lots of channels that I’ve only discovered as related videos to other videos I’ve watched. [VIDEO]

So I turned off adblock, but I see no ads, even though you have some ad domains. Is imgflip pro the way you make money only? I tried again and all I saw is one banner ad, sometimes. Do you have more ads more frequently, or is it just a relatively minimal amount in general? What is the revenue split between pro & ads? For linus for example, it's about %26 youtube ads, [VIDEO] How do you deal with moderation? Is it automated, I see you even have comments? Or is it just report buttons and your takedown form? How is the support load? What is your tech stack? PHP? Python? C#? Java? Golang?

A lot of people see the usefulness of PeerTube but don't move because the creators they watch are on YouTube. It's the same for the creators, though - they can't move off of YouTube entirely, because none of their viewers will go to a PeerTube instance just to watch that one creator. Thus nobody moves to PT unless there are other factors (like extremist creators moving because their videos keep getting removed by YT). Another major problem that prevents creators from hosting on PeerTube is that there are no ads - many see direct-from-YouTube revenue driven by Premium views/Ad views generate a significant portion of their income. Even Linus Tech Tips, with their audience of gamers who mostly running an ad blocker, sees YouTube generate 26% of their profit[0], almost exactly as much as they get from sponsors spots in their videos. If everyone were to move to PT, we'd either need an intermediary for ads, or only creators with audiences that could afford to personally finance them (via Patreon or similar) would be able to survive and make a living off of running their channel. 0: [VIDEO]

> Ads is a stable revenue stream for these content creators. Ads are a revenue stream mostly for the platform e.g. YouTube itself. You can have a look at this[1] or any other "how my YouTube channel makes money" video to see that's the case. In-video ads, on the other hand, are indeed a significant revenue stream for creators, but those have nothing to do with the platform and everything to do with the single creator. [1] [VIDEO]

While YouTube still keeps a lot of your money when you pay for premium, you actually contribute more towards a creator if you watch with premium rather than ads[0]. [0] [VIDEO] (Timestamp 6:50)

> Their opinion changes depending on who is sponsoring them, no? No, to the extent humanly possible. They have reviews, which are not sponsored by anyone having anything to do with the product being reviewed. Those are their actual opinions and evaluations of products. Separately they have sponsored showcase videos, or whatever they call them, where they won't say anything untrue, but they're just showing off whatever it is, not really evaluating it deeply. These videos are _very_ obviously different, and very obviously labelled. LTT has top tier policies and openness about these issues compared to really anyone on youtube or anywhere. More anecdotally, I've seen them give takes on previous or current sponsors that were _very_ not in their financial best interests. If sponsors are paying for easy coverage, they're not getting their money's worth. > Well, no, it would work way better if he had no bias. That would just be lying. There are no humans without biases. [VIDEO] is probably a good summary on Linus's thoughts on sponsors/funding. If you trust what he says or not is up to you. I do though.

I suppose it depends on the size of the channel. If you have more subscribers than you can negotiate higher pay for in video ad placements. From channels that I have heard talk about it, google ads make up a minority of their revenue. Perhaps it is not the most representative example but Linus Tech Tips only made 26% of their revenue from YouTube AdSense in 2020. [VIDEO]

That used to be the case but it changed at some point I think about 2 years ago - couldn't find a quick reference to exactly when it changed but I remember seeing quite a few channels start publishing their earnings once it changed. This quora post quotes the terms: [LINK] "HOWEVER, YOU MAY ACCURATELY DISCLOSE THE AMOUNT OF GOOGLE’S GROSS PAYMENTS TO YOU PURSUANT TO THE PROGRAM" Linus Tech Tips has published their earnings for the past couple of years. One detailed video here: [VIDEO] Linus also posted his adsense of ~$4.6million for the last 9 months a couple of days ago: [LINK]

I know I heard a rough number at some point of the value of a Premium view vs an ad supported view. Can't find it without digging, but here's a source for them being a good amount more valuable [VIDEO]

Linus tech tips had a break down of their income. One thing Linus highlighted was that YouTube Premium revenue was much larger than most would expect. See [VIDEO] (it's a little under 20% of their total revenue from YouTube).