I'm hardly a YT expert but I am a pretty astute observer. I'm now spending a good 90% of what used to be "TV time" on YT and I have a bunch of favorite creators that I've followed for 3-4 years and watched them grow from literally a part time fun thing in their bedroom to a full time literal network making big money. How do I know they're making big money? They explain it in detail and you can see it in their lifestyle. Just one example LegitStreetCars. I'm a long time car guy and I've been buying 10-12 year old Mercedes with high miles for years. Keep them for 4 or 5 years, sell them, buy another one.

The LegitStreetCars guy was a MB tech for over ten years. Then he went to work for the City of Chicago as a foreman working on all the city heavy equipment. He started posting basic how to vids maybe 4 years ago. Things like how to change the cabin filters, how to buff the fading off the headlights, things like that. He would buy an old Benz for himself, fix it up keep it for whatever time then sell it and he would post vids of all the details. Over the years his channel grew and grew and I noticed his small suburban house garage was getting more sophisticated. He made a big deal of the fact he could afford to buy a lift and some other expensive stuff. He started getting sponsors, mostly car related stuff. He would begin traveling to buy special old Benz's like a 2002 AMG and he would tell us that it's getting harder to do all his car vids with a full time job and he's doing well financially with YT.

Then he made a big announcement last year. He got his 10 years in with the city, his pension vested and he quit and he's now full time on YT. He talked about how he was making about 110K with the city plus bene's. He's making more than that now on YT. How do I know this? He bought, not rented, a building that used to be a detail shop and turned it into his shop with 4 lifts. It all for his channel, he's not working as a repair shop to the public. He's explained all this in detail over the last year. Could this be a slick scam to get viewers? Maybe but I doubt it because he's now doing things like he bought a classic 65 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud for $26,000 and he made a series of vids fixing it all up with zero knowledge about how to work on a Rolls. I find that interesting, YMMV. He says it all due to YT.

I've watched other people doing other subject matter do the same thing. One guy I've watched for years has 2 channels going now. I'm a vet and he's been military commentator for years on YT and the Ukraine War has just exploded his main channel called Speak the Truth. In just the last month he now has a formal studio with a cameraman, he brings in guests like a former Marine who went to Ukraine to fight as a volunteer. He was in combat for 4 months until he caught something and got very sick and had to leave. Very interesting video of him describing his experience over there and he's going back as soon as he recovers. That's not for everyone, he's talking real down and dirty combat. The creator has hired a professional journalist in Ukraine with his own cameraman to create an hour long documentary. He's another one who quit his full time job.

This is just two of about a dozen examples I can cite. In the music and movie field there are tons of "Reaction" vids. They are done by young people reacting to mostly classic music of the 60's and 70's along with movie reactions. The problem is when it comes to music it's all over the place. One guy I really like just quit because he's saying 90% of his vids have been blocked by YT and Rick Beato has talked about that too. Yet there's another guy who's been reacting for several years to the same music and he hasn't said anything about having problems with YT and his vids are all up. By reacting I mean they play the original music either off an album or a live concert then discuss and react to it. Same with movies. One girl reacted to Terminator, played many clips from the movie and commented about it. One guy says he has to quit while the other keeps on chugging along. When it comes to using copyrighted material for anything, it can be a problem but most other subjects are basically good on YT.

I just wish YT has been around 30 years ago. I have many ideas for a channel but it's too late for me now. People can complain about big tech, corporate greed and all that rot but to me YT is one of the greatest opportunities there is for an individual with some personality who likes to talk to really do something they like and make money doing it. Just not using somebody else's copyrighted material.

Bob

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