A number of young Irish people have been able to find a modern 21st century way of making a very good living.
The rise of internet giant YouTube has created opportunities for ordinary people to have their voices heard and become well-known in an almost unlimited number of different niches.
Many of the more business savvy video posters have been able to achieve far more than just internet fame. They have been able to convert their views and fanbases into real world income and are able to earn enough to make YouTube videos as a full time job.
It is something that wouldn’t have been possible ten years ago, with people needing to get into the relatively closed shop of television in order to make a living in this way.
One YouTube content provider is Irish woman Melanie Murphy. Melanie set up her own YouTube channel. Her videos feature her speaking about things that are important to her. She covers a great range of topics including lip gloss, nutrition, coping with eating disorders and her lifelong struggle with generalised anxiety disorder.
She has been able to strike a chord with people and has developed a large and loyal following. Her YouTube channel now gets around 1.5m views per month.
Melanie says that she can be paid anything from €0.90 to €7.20 per 1000 views. For a channel as successful as Melanie’s this could reach up to €5,700 per month.
She also has extra income from sponsorship deals with top brands. She told the Irish Times: “You have to diversify your income. You can never know from month to month what you are going to get.”
Melanie believes that simply being Irish has helped her to achieve her success. Not only does she speak English, which has helped her to gain many followers in the UK and the US, but many people just love her accent.
A large portion of her fanbase is in Asia. She said: “I get subscribers just because I’m Irish. They tell me that they love my accent.”
Melanie isn’t the only Irish person who is making money on YouTube. Another user – Daithi De Nogla – records himself speaking while playing video games, and gets an average of 16m views per month.
Playing games for a living is a dream job for many people and YouTube statistics tracker Social Blade estimate that he earns anywhere between €37,500 to €600,000 per month from his videos.
Ireland’s top YouTube video maker is Seán Mclaughlin, who is known as JackSepticEye. He also talks over video games and his videos have received a massive 1.5bn views. It is thought that he earns a minimum of €510,000 per year.
Melanie’s advice to people who want to make a living on YouTube is to get set up with professional equipment, rather than simply recording on smartphones, as this is key to attracting viewers.
She said: “The quality is such a high standard now. I’m not near the standard that most of the bigger channels are. You’d want to have the best set-up to give yourself a chance.”
People who are looking to become a YouTube partner need to accumulate at least 75,000 hours worth of viewing per 90 days. You obviously need to grow a large following in order to achieve this but it is something that over 300 Irish YouTube stars have managed.
