10 Amazing Traits from the Top YouTube Millionaires

YouTube has become the most important platform for video bloggers. For a good reason. YouTube is the second-most visited website in the world. Each day, more than 5 billion YouTube videos are watched and in every month, more than 3 billion hours are watched.

With this scale, YouTube has created millionaires who make money through Google ads and product sponsorship’s.

We spent a few days studying the top YouTube stars like iJustine, Marques Brownlee, PewDiePie, and Smosh among others.
Our goal was to find out their history and their secrets to success.

Humble Beginnings

Most of the YouTube stars we studied started from the bottom. Most were young people driven by passion and not profit.

For example, the first YouTube video by Marques Brownlee has 166K views to date. His first video to generate a million views came three years later. In the first year, his videos averaged less than 50K views. Today, his videos get a million views within the first day. The same is true for most YouTubers that we reviewed.

Driven by Passion

It is impossible to succeed as a YouTube blogger if you are not passionate about it. For example, if your passion is in fashion, you can’t succeed as a technology blogger.

This is because you will need to spend many hours every day researching content and shooting videos. Surely, you don’t want to do all this for an area that you are not passionate about.

A common mistake we noticed from people whose channels have not become consistent is that they try to be experts in everything. Today, they will upload a video on gaming, tomorrow on technology, and the following day on politics.

They Engage the Audience

YouTube is a social platform. It allows your audience to leave a comment, and like or dislike a video. Most of the stars we researched on engage their audience. They go to the comment section, read the comments, and respond.

What this does is very simple. It makes the audience feel like they are part and parcel of the channel. It makes them come back to see whether you implemented their suggestions and shared your content.

Some, like PewDiePie, are known to mention some of their audience in their videos while some are known to offer freebies to them.

They Insist on Quality

Some poorly-created videos have generated millions of views. However, most of the stars we reviewed always focus on the quality of the videos. They buy the best cameras, do high-quality edits, and lease large studios.

For example, Luke who runs Unbox Therapy, has leased a large studio which he shoots his videos. Every month, he pays thousands of dollars for the location.

He doesn’t need to do this. Furthermore, since he specializes in unboxing products, Luke can do that in his spare room at home. But, to make his videos better, he has leased that space, bought the best cameras, and hired the best assistants.

They are Honest

YouTube stars make money through Google ads and other sponsorship’s. The audience likes to watch videos that are real and organic. They only want to watch product endorsements if the YouTuber is honest enough to share his negative and positive feelings about the product.

A good example is iJustine who was paid to review the Samsung S8. While the video was paid for by Samsung, she didn’t forget to mention the areas of the phone she disliked.

Also, if they are paid by companies to do reviews, they are honest enough to tell the audience that they have been compensated.

They Welcome Criticism

Like their colleagues on other media platforms, YouTube stars are prone to criticism. A good example to this is PewDiePie, who early this year faced criticism after tweeting anti-Semitic imagery. He was criticized by the media, and at some point, he decided to make his profile private.

No matter how famous your channel is, you won’t please everybody. Some people will dislike your favorite video and others will post negative comments.

Our finding is that the most successful YouTube stars face criticism in every video they post. But, they don’t let the criticism consume them.

They are Consistent

Most YouTube stars are consistent in what they do. They upload content regularly; some every day, others every week.
The benefit of being consistent is that it keeps the users engaged. It also helps them grow their views and thus, their revenue.

If you want to become a blogger, we recommend that you upload fresh content at least once per week. Don’t do it every day because you don’t want your viewers to get tired of you.

They Engage Other Bloggers

Blogging is a different type of business. If you own a shop, you will likely not spend your money shopping in a competitor’s shop.
Our research found that many bloggers have become friends with competing bloggers. A good example is what happened three years ago.

Austin Evans, a popular technology blogger, lost his house in a fire. In response, fourteen of the biggest technology bloggers fundraised and went to his home to visit with him.

We have watched many YouTube starts feature in their competitors’ videos. This is an important way of growing audience because it exposes them to another set of audience.

They do Original Content

In the YouTube world, content is key. Some new bloggers are known to create channels which they share other bloggers’ work.
This does not work.

Google has strict policies on how bloggers can make money. Its employees and algorithms flag copied content and at times, block the channel. Also, the audience wants original content from the right owners.

The stars we reviewed spend a lot of time developing original content. They don’t plagiarize.

They Use Other Channels

The YouTube stars we reviewed don’t rely on Youtube alone. While YouTube is their primary source of income, they use other platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to reach out to more viewers. For example, Austin Evans has 400K Twitter followers while PewDiePie has more than 13 million followers.
Apart from their social media presence, they have websites which they use for corporate customers.

Making money on YouTube is not easy. For the stars we studied, it was not easy either. Most of them started their blogs many years ago and saw little or no views at first. With consistency and persistence, they have now become millionaires doing what they love.