YouTube is big now. No one can deny that. Its commercialisation has meant a select group of youtubers have made it work, sustained a living from it and gained celebrity status.
One duo is Dan Howell and Phil Lester, who are probably amongst the longest running youtubers who have been propelled to stardom. First came a radio show on Radio 1 and now world tours, book deals and a film elusively available on YouTube’s Red subscription service. This video I’ve highlighted today shows the duo hosting a Q&A event for the promotion of their second book. I have watched their videos for a good few years now and how much they’ve build and developed the ‘Dan & Phil’ brand, which it seems more like these days.
Considering how many views and recognition they and other YouTube stars – such as Zoella, Alfie Deyes, Joe Sugg etc – receive, it’s not surprising that people want to know how to make it big in the YouTube world. The website, wearetop10.com, recently ran an article about this highlighting how much every part of channel can be used effectively to gain this goal. As they point out as well having all the social media accounts and effective channel name, who need to also be able to spend some money on the best equipment. This including cameras, lighting, recording equipment and editing software if you want to get the high quality that the community now expects.
Another part of it, has been the development of the business side of being a creator. From just monetising your videos to doing brand deals, sponsored videos, merchanising and fan funding. The latter mainly refers to the Patreon where viewers can pledge to give a certain amount of money per month in return for exclusive rewards. For me it can feel like these big youtubers can be more distance from the audience. It seems more important to have click-bait titles that are often loosely based on what real happened, compared to engaging and educational content that can help to deal with issues and provide advice.
Here is the link to the article to check it out: https://wearetop10.com/create-a-successful-youtube-channel/
And you can find the video of the event here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYcJ4N_idS0
