It’s really hard to get a solid number on what YouTube pays as there are so many factors that go into paying out their partners; from type of video to viewer demographics, subscribers with ad-block, subscribers with YouTube Red, length of video, ect… but it is possible to get an estimated number. In this article I will provide my best estimate for someone looking to have around 5k subscribers and consistent views (around 400k/month). 400k views a month may sound daunting, but as you gain subscribers you’ll also gain a higher view count per month.
With these numbers we can then calculate a larger revenue for someone with more subscribers and views. Again, this number is purely an estimate and we are going to be using the above snapshot to create our numbers. Just because one person makes X amount does not mean everyone else will too even with the same amount of subscribers and view count.
To start our calculations we are going to want to find out the value per view. In the above image, the user has made $522.23 between February 1 through February 26. During these 26 days, the user had 387,800 views. To find the per view value we need to divide the revenue by the number of views, so in this case, $522.23 divided by 387,800. This equals out to $0.00135/per view. This number is really small, so to make things a little easier let’s take this number and multiply it by 1000 views. This way we can see how much this users make per 1000 views. $0.00135*1000 = $1.35 per every 1000 views. This isn’t such a bad number. If each new video this user puts out receives 200,000 views in the first week that’s $269.33 for just that video in its first week. On top of all that, this user is still receiving views on older videos they created and will continue to receive some views on this video going forward.
As your channel grows so will your view count and subscribers. The more videos you have out the more views you’ll receive overall, however, there is still a rule on quality over quantity. If you have 100 bad videos with 100 views each that’s going to take a hit on your channel and the way YouTube promotes you. It is better to take the time to make quality videos that easily hit 1000 views each. Again, as your channel grows these view numbers will also greatly increase.
Okay, so we know how much this user makes per 1000 views. Now we want to set a daily income goal and want to see how many views we’ll need to receive a day to hit our goal. To do this we need to set the goal, for this example, let’s say $100 a day. To see how many views we need to hit $100 we take $100 and divide it by our revenue per view number we did earlier, which was $0.00135. $100/$0.00135 = 74,258 which is the number of views we’ll need to roughly make $100/day. We can also increase this goal to monthly and yearly, say you want only $100 a month then the total required views would stay the same. But if you’d like to make $3500/month then the math stays the same at $3500/$0.00135 = 2,566,046 views required.
We now know how many views we’ll need to meet our dollar amount, but what about setting a goal based on view count and seeing how much we’ll make when we hit that goal? This calculation is just like the calculation we did earlier when we multiplied our per view measurement by 1000 views. If you set a goal of having 100,000 views a month then to find out the amount of revenue you’ll make all you need to do is multiply the per view value times your goal of 100,000 views. For this case, that would be $0.00135*100,000 = $134.66.
Some of these numbers may sound daunting, but remember, as you grow your channel the views, subscribers, and everything else that comes with it grows too. What once took me a month to make in views I now receive in hours. Just keep working it and your channel will continue to grow. Remember also that the numbers used in this example are not going to be the same for you, but it is still a good base to work off of. There are so many factors that could change these numbers and once you start receiving the monetization yourself then you’ll be able to take your monthly revenue and goals to create your own calculations.
I have created a calculator so you can plug and play without having to do the math yourself. Do note that this calculator will be using different numbers than the ones we used in the above example. The calculator is using numbers off an account that was receiving less than 4,000 views a month. I used this users numbers because they are so low and anyone who gets monetized on the new YouTube monetization system will be receiving more views per month than the calculator so this is will be a really good base and absolute bare minimum for anyone wanting to see what they will be making once they do get monetized. Head to this page to see the YouTube Monetization Calculator.