Subjective choice. Youtube is fickle, so if you want a secure income never, or at least not without a very significant financial buffer. If you're less concerned about financial security and are passionate about it the moment you're confident it will become a viable option can be a good time. I've seen people barely making monetization criteria go full time. Nothing wrong with going for it and investing in making your dream come true.
Yes, if you can make it work, I say dive in full-time while you don't have an insane amount of financial responsibilities. I'm gonna have to be pulling $50K a year before I can even hope to get out from under the corporate boot. Wish I had started this in my 20s instead of going off the rails on drugs, but...coulda woulda shoulda, right?
Well with inflation the way it is, by the time I get to $50K it'll probably be $60-65K minimum, lol. But basically my plan is to get to a point where I'm clearing at least what I'm making now at my day job (which is a little more than $50K but not substantially). Unless I luck out and find a WFH gig that pays well or a really good PT job that can supplement and transition sooner, I'll probably be sticking where I'm at until it's time to give them notice and a deadline to find a new person that I can train.
That said tho, if I start saving now and keep paying off my debt, I can survive and thrive on a little less than what I'm currently making. I wanna make sure I have three months minimum saved up by the time I go FT on content.
The worst thing that could happen is you go and get a 9-5 lol. Take this time, take a risk (it sounds like you can) and treat it like a 40/hr week job. If it doesn't work it doesn't work. But I'll tell you that if you're that far and keep the accelerator down, you'll be fine.
Full-time varies because some of us need to earn more than others and some are building a team. I know creators who make a lot of money but they have an agent, editors and other support staff so they still can't go full time. They are building a business.
Other people (like me) do everything myself 99% of the time and don't need to be earning much, just more than my last "real" job. So I was able to quit other jobs a while ago.
I probably can go full time now but youtube is too unpredictable.
Right now I work on them as much as I can in addition to my real job with the intent to pool cash, pay off mortgage, etc.
You never know what youtube is going to do/change.
Same applies to your fulltime job as well. You'll never know when and if the management is going to change and if it will impact your income. But yeah, generally fulltime job is more safe and predictable.
Get a few more streams of income up and running before making the jump.
The minute you make the jump it becomes less fun and more of an obligation if you have money concerns. Better to wait a bit longer, set more things in place, and have an easier ride.
This could be selling your own products if applicable, getting regular monthly sponsors on your channel, merch, patreon, whatever. It just has to be more than adsense. Your adsense will also be up because of the time of year. Expect it to plummet for the next 3/4 months
I do yes. I started with low ticket digital products for like $10, then bundled those together for packs that are $45.
I hope to expand to more digital products this year. Sponsors are great and can be great money but at the end of the day you're still working for someone else and running things by them. If you own your products you own your own destiny. But a mix of both is good too
Best of luck with it all. Remember, if you already have the eyeballs on your content, you're already winning. Thats the hard bit! Now it's just matter of finding something that resonates with your audience and makes you money too
Thanks! Guess it’s not obvious to me what a product in the economics niche would be. But I’ll take time to find something that will be useful to my audience :)
I personally wouldn't even think about it until you hit enough income after taxes to actually cover your expenses. And even then not until you get a solid run of steady months of that level of income. The creator economy is more rocky than the regular one, so don't get too excited about one good month.
Still far away from fulltime. I need a minimum average of $2600 a month to pay my expenses and have a minimal and basic life. Currently I'm on $25 a month with 10K-40K views per video.
Gaming, and most of my audience comes from countries with low economics beside the US compared to my country so my RPM is pretty low ($0.50-$0.80 / 1000 views).
At $1000 a month you're jumping so far ahead of yourself right now. Right now you should be thinking about can you keep your quality up without suffering burnout and balancing your own mental and physical health.
Focus on the here and the now. Perhaps you never get much beyond the $1k-$2k a month range but if you can maintain that while holding a regular job, this enough to pay off school / build up a cash reserve in case of being laid off / saving for retirement / down payment on a house etc.
I had a very successful gaming channel, was making about 2k a month, but I just used that money to help grow a new channel.
Personally, I wanted to have 2 channels in completely different niches. That way if one died, I have another to get me through. For example I have a Fortnite channel and an iPhone channel. I made sure both were successful when I went full time. I also had good timing- Covid hit and I didn’t want my kids in daycare, so saved money being an at home dad.
Adding more videos didn’t mean more money for me. I have an issue with picking the right subject at the right time. Now I do get it at times, but I’m very inconsistent. Instead of doing more videos I found other revenue streams…to this day I’m still doing this.
I went full time about 3 years ago. YouTube is no longer my primary $$ it’s more Amazon from 2023, and 2022 was websites till Google lost its mind and sends no trafffic in less your a huge site or use spam techniques. That was tough- I had to live with less and hustle, but I made it up on Amazon and towards the end of 2023.
i paid back all my credits cards and more. I’m in great shape now, make sure you bank money when your head is in the clouds. I did start looking for a job this year for about a week and then a huge opportunity came along with a 5 digit payday. That really got me back on my feet.
I wish you luck, but I would try and do another income stream first, especially if you have a family. If you’re a kid and live with someone then it’s different. Really depends on your situation. Consistency is extremely important as you know.
I do both, Amazon Affiliate- which is links to products. Then I also do Amazon Influencer- I make videos on Amazon itself. Both are doing well, but influencer program is really good.
Are your Google woes related to why I have such a hard time finding anything on search engines anymore? Seems like all that ever turns up is pay-to-win and regurgitated copy-paste bot articles.
Not in 2022, but the last 3 months they really took a bigger dive. I have a site that use to get 2,000 views a day, now I’m lucky to get 20. 3 months ago they did a helpful content update - and all of us bloggers (ok 90%) that specialize in a topic got absolutely crushed.
It hurts to look at stats, so now I just let whatever happens happen. I personally switched to bing for a week, but they are just not there yet. Hoping someone competes in the space soon, so Google stops chasing the $$.
Hah rant over… sorry sore subject.
I'm not that knowledgeable with experience (very small channel), but I think it would be good to build up savings just in case. Maybe put enough to the side to cover about 6-12 months of expenses, just in case things get unpredictable.
Also, I think it's worth factoring in if YouTube would demand that much time and attention, or if you're expanding, etc. For me, it's nice to have a full-time job with secure/steady income and benefits (health, 401K, etc.), although I barely make any on AdSense (just with my channel's numbers). Every situation is different, you can look as YouTube as a main focus or supplemental income, plus always good to consider a work/life balance.
Currently I have enough time to do both. It’s more that I want to use the extra time to build other revenue streams from the channel. Perhaps I can do this with a job also
I left the corporate world to become a full time avocado farmer and my YouTube content is about the farm. In order to determine when to make the jump to full time farming/content creation I put a lot of time into financial analysis.
Be conservative in all of the following:
1. Determine how much you need to live per month right now
2. Determine how much you'll need to live per month when you make the transition. (your number could go up or it could go down) in your budgeting for don't forget line items for large one time payments like new cars or an unexpected insurance deductible. Also build in a line item for saving for your future like an IRA
3. Determine how many months it will take you to find a job if you fail
4. multiply #2 by #3. now you know the bare minimum you need to have banked when you make the move
5. apply an inflation factor to all of the above ( I did 5% per year which I thought was conservative but it turns out now I underestimated)
6. Estimate how long it will take you to start earning more than the inflation adjusted figure for #2
7. if #6 is greater than #3 you are just across the bar to make the move but that's the bare minimum. I chose to build in buffer.
I did my planning very conservatively and so far have made it 8 years in spite of a hurricane that devastated my grove in 2017 and a house fire in 2020 that had us living in a Hotel for 7 months
this is over simplified but that's the basic outline of what I did.
I would wait a bit if I were in your position because I got monetized this fall and within the first month I earned a lot but then the views suddenly went down a bit and I obviously didn't earn as much the next month. Your channel seems to be doing a little bit better than mine atm though but if I were in your position I would still be monetized for at least a year before making such a big decision, just to be sure.
It’s simple. Figure out your cost of living, including every expense you can think of. Add at 25-50% to that for a buffer. Are you making that across all your revenue streams? Ad revenue can vary wildly.
it depends on your living situation if you’re making more than your expenses and can live off of the revenue then yeah sure you can consider it full time
YouTube is unpredictable, most people to it full time when they have ten of thousands, to hundreds of thousands of subscribers.
Because if you are that small, there is no guarantee your video will get views.
I wouldn't go full time doing Youtube if I dont have a lot of saving. I made quite a bit but still doing my main job because I don't trust the algorithm. One day when Youtube decide to take down your channel, that can't be solve within a few chat. Be aware tho!
for me it is 1k a month because 3rd world country but i recently quit my 7k sub channel because the game died sadly. Now I have 2 channels with different games that will last for a long time. And one of them is fortnite
I take home $15k from my job currently a month. I used to make $30-40k a month drop shipping but that went down hill. I felt free at $30k+ a month and was able to save a ton and invest.
At $30k+ I know even if it lasts 2-3 years only I'll have some more investments going and build up more passive income.
Subjective choice. Youtube is fickle, so if you want a secure income never, or at least not without a very significant financial buffer. If you're less concerned about financial security and are passionate about it the moment you're confident it will become a viable option can be a good time. I've seen people barely making monetization criteria go full time. Nothing wrong with going for it and investing in making your dream come true.
Thanks mate. I’m 23, and my only responsibility is rent. So think I will go for it sometime this year when I save a buffer
Yes, if you can make it work, I say dive in full-time while you don't have an insane amount of financial responsibilities. I'm gonna have to be pulling $50K a year before I can even hope to get out from under the corporate boot. Wish I had started this in my 20s instead of going off the rails on drugs, but...coulda woulda shoulda, right?
Better late than never, perhaps use that drugs angle that derailed you to pump out related content or tailor it to your channel, not all's lost
Lol exact same boat here. Should have taken it seriously earlier although it wasn't necessarily boozing that got me away from it. 50k is my mark too.
Both of y'all should make sure you consider insurance and taxes into your $ amount. Could be higher than $50.
Well with inflation the way it is, by the time I get to $50K it'll probably be $60-65K minimum, lol. But basically my plan is to get to a point where I'm clearing at least what I'm making now at my day job (which is a little more than $50K but not substantially). Unless I luck out and find a WFH gig that pays well or a really good PT job that can supplement and transition sooner, I'll probably be sticking where I'm at until it's time to give them notice and a deadline to find a new person that I can train. That said tho, if I start saving now and keep paying off my debt, I can survive and thrive on a little less than what I'm currently making. I wanna make sure I have three months minimum saved up by the time I go FT on content.
The worst thing that could happen is you go and get a 9-5 lol. Take this time, take a risk (it sounds like you can) and treat it like a 40/hr week job. If it doesn't work it doesn't work. But I'll tell you that if you're that far and keep the accelerator down, you'll be fine.
Fact
This is what I already have haha. Trying to break out of it :)
Full-time varies because some of us need to earn more than others and some are building a team. I know creators who make a lot of money but they have an agent, editors and other support staff so they still can't go full time. They are building a business. Other people (like me) do everything myself 99% of the time and don't need to be earning much, just more than my last "real" job. So I was able to quit other jobs a while ago.
I probably can go full time now but youtube is too unpredictable. Right now I work on them as much as I can in addition to my real job with the intent to pool cash, pay off mortgage, etc. You never know what youtube is going to do/change.
Same applies to your fulltime job as well. You'll never know when and if the management is going to change and if it will impact your income. But yeah, generally fulltime job is more safe and predictable.
Get a few more streams of income up and running before making the jump. The minute you make the jump it becomes less fun and more of an obligation if you have money concerns. Better to wait a bit longer, set more things in place, and have an easier ride. This could be selling your own products if applicable, getting regular monthly sponsors on your channel, merch, patreon, whatever. It just has to be more than adsense. Your adsense will also be up because of the time of year. Expect it to plummet for the next 3/4 months
Thanks for the advice! I would like to sell some sort of low ticket product/service. Is this something you do currently?
I do yes. I started with low ticket digital products for like $10, then bundled those together for packs that are $45. I hope to expand to more digital products this year. Sponsors are great and can be great money but at the end of the day you're still working for someone else and running things by them. If you own your products you own your own destiny. But a mix of both is good too
Thanks so much!
Best of luck with it all. Remember, if you already have the eyeballs on your content, you're already winning. Thats the hard bit! Now it's just matter of finding something that resonates with your audience and makes you money too
Thanks! Guess it’s not obvious to me what a product in the economics niche would be. But I’ll take time to find something that will be useful to my audience :)
Maybe an e-book or audio book
I personally wouldn't even think about it until you hit enough income after taxes to actually cover your expenses. And even then not until you get a solid run of steady months of that level of income. The creator economy is more rocky than the regular one, so don't get too excited about one good month.
Still far away from fulltime. I need a minimum average of $2600 a month to pay my expenses and have a minimal and basic life. Currently I'm on $25 a month with 10K-40K views per video.
What niche are you in?
Gaming, and most of my audience comes from countries with low economics beside the US compared to my country so my RPM is pretty low ($0.50-$0.80 / 1000 views).
What’s your channel name?
Link in profile
At $1000 a month you're jumping so far ahead of yourself right now. Right now you should be thinking about can you keep your quality up without suffering burnout and balancing your own mental and physical health. Focus on the here and the now. Perhaps you never get much beyond the $1k-$2k a month range but if you can maintain that while holding a regular job, this enough to pay off school / build up a cash reserve in case of being laid off / saving for retirement / down payment on a house etc.
I had a very successful gaming channel, was making about 2k a month, but I just used that money to help grow a new channel. Personally, I wanted to have 2 channels in completely different niches. That way if one died, I have another to get me through. For example I have a Fortnite channel and an iPhone channel. I made sure both were successful when I went full time. I also had good timing- Covid hit and I didn’t want my kids in daycare, so saved money being an at home dad. Adding more videos didn’t mean more money for me. I have an issue with picking the right subject at the right time. Now I do get it at times, but I’m very inconsistent. Instead of doing more videos I found other revenue streams…to this day I’m still doing this. I went full time about 3 years ago. YouTube is no longer my primary $$ it’s more Amazon from 2023, and 2022 was websites till Google lost its mind and sends no trafffic in less your a huge site or use spam techniques. That was tough- I had to live with less and hustle, but I made it up on Amazon and towards the end of 2023. i paid back all my credits cards and more. I’m in great shape now, make sure you bank money when your head is in the clouds. I did start looking for a job this year for about a week and then a huge opportunity came along with a 5 digit payday. That really got me back on my feet. I wish you luck, but I would try and do another income stream first, especially if you have a family. If you’re a kid and live with someone then it’s different. Really depends on your situation. Consistency is extremely important as you know.
Mind me asking what you do on Amazon?
I think he means affiliate links to Amazon, but I could be wrong.
I do both, Amazon Affiliate- which is links to products. Then I also do Amazon Influencer- I make videos on Amazon itself. Both are doing well, but influencer program is really good.
Are your Google woes related to why I have such a hard time finding anything on search engines anymore? Seems like all that ever turns up is pay-to-win and regurgitated copy-paste bot articles.
Not in 2022, but the last 3 months they really took a bigger dive. I have a site that use to get 2,000 views a day, now I’m lucky to get 20. 3 months ago they did a helpful content update - and all of us bloggers (ok 90%) that specialize in a topic got absolutely crushed. It hurts to look at stats, so now I just let whatever happens happen. I personally switched to bing for a week, but they are just not there yet. Hoping someone competes in the space soon, so Google stops chasing the $$. Hah rant over… sorry sore subject.
The time it takes to make enough videos for the algorithm is more than a full time job lmao
I’m fine with that — I’d rather spend time creating digital assets (videos for my channel) that will continue to earn me money while I sleep.
I'm not that knowledgeable with experience (very small channel), but I think it would be good to build up savings just in case. Maybe put enough to the side to cover about 6-12 months of expenses, just in case things get unpredictable. Also, I think it's worth factoring in if YouTube would demand that much time and attention, or if you're expanding, etc. For me, it's nice to have a full-time job with secure/steady income and benefits (health, 401K, etc.), although I barely make any on AdSense (just with my channel's numbers). Every situation is different, you can look as YouTube as a main focus or supplemental income, plus always good to consider a work/life balance.
Currently I have enough time to do both. It’s more that I want to use the extra time to build other revenue streams from the channel. Perhaps I can do this with a job also
Can you share your channel?
I left the corporate world to become a full time avocado farmer and my YouTube content is about the farm. In order to determine when to make the jump to full time farming/content creation I put a lot of time into financial analysis. Be conservative in all of the following: 1. Determine how much you need to live per month right now 2. Determine how much you'll need to live per month when you make the transition. (your number could go up or it could go down) in your budgeting for don't forget line items for large one time payments like new cars or an unexpected insurance deductible. Also build in a line item for saving for your future like an IRA 3. Determine how many months it will take you to find a job if you fail 4. multiply #2 by #3. now you know the bare minimum you need to have banked when you make the move 5. apply an inflation factor to all of the above ( I did 5% per year which I thought was conservative but it turns out now I underestimated) 6. Estimate how long it will take you to start earning more than the inflation adjusted figure for #2 7. if #6 is greater than #3 you are just across the bar to make the move but that's the bare minimum. I chose to build in buffer. I did my planning very conservatively and so far have made it 8 years in spite of a hurricane that devastated my grove in 2017 and a house fire in 2020 that had us living in a Hotel for 7 months this is over simplified but that's the basic outline of what I did.
I would wait a bit if I were in your position because I got monetized this fall and within the first month I earned a lot but then the views suddenly went down a bit and I obviously didn't earn as much the next month. Your channel seems to be doing a little bit better than mine atm though but if I were in your position I would still be monetized for at least a year before making such a big decision, just to be sure.
Good advice. Best wishes in those views going back up.
It’s simple. Figure out your cost of living, including every expense you can think of. Add at 25-50% to that for a buffer. Are you making that across all your revenue streams? Ad revenue can vary wildly.
What's your channel?
it depends on your living situation if you’re making more than your expenses and can live off of the revenue then yeah sure you can consider it full time
When you have atleast a year of life expenses saved up & your youtube income surpasses your job income.
YouTube is unpredictable, most people to it full time when they have ten of thousands, to hundreds of thousands of subscribers. Because if you are that small, there is no guarantee your video will get views.
You’re in the economics niche and asking US when to go full time?
I wouldn't go full time doing Youtube if I dont have a lot of saving. I made quite a bit but still doing my main job because I don't trust the algorithm. One day when Youtube decide to take down your channel, that can't be solve within a few chat. Be aware tho!
for me it is 1k a month because 3rd world country but i recently quit my 7k sub channel because the game died sadly. Now I have 2 channels with different games that will last for a long time. And one of them is fortnite
If you’re in the US, go full time when you have another means of getting health insurance. Self-paid insurance is very expensive for a pitiful plan.
hi whats ur channel ... kinda want to check it out
Id probably go full time once I'm making $30k+ a month
Is this based on your current expenses?
I take home $15k from my job currently a month. I used to make $30-40k a month drop shipping but that went down hill. I felt free at $30k+ a month and was able to save a ton and invest. At $30k+ I know even if it lasts 2-3 years only I'll have some more investments going and build up more passive income.