BY CRYSTAL GREEN
VN STAFF WRITER
YouTube has given rise to an entire class of social-media celebrities.
Gone are the days when kids just wanted to be police officers or presidents.
Because of the potential for fame and earning potential, 75% of children ages 6 to 17 want to become YouTubers, according to one survey.
It’s not limited to kids, of course.
Adults want to be YouTubers as well – including students at Detroit Mercy.
Sam Sloulin may be the most successful of them.
Sam’s Procrastination Station is a channel created by Detroit Mercy’s own Sloulin.
The channel has more than 16,000 subscribers, and featuring nearly 300 videos, including several than have more than 100,000 views.
About four years ago, Sloulin took his love for Sonic the Hedgehog, and started a YouTube channel where he plays, reviews and reacts to pretty much all things Sonic.
Sloulin identifies himself as an introvert, but on YouTube he enjoys being able to express himself among a gaming community.
“YouTube is more than just people looking for clout or money,” Sloulin said. “I do it as an escape from what real-life throws at me.”
Sloulin’s genre of content is competitive, but the YouTubers bridge the gap by interacting with each other and working together.
“YouTube itself is overpopulated, competitive and a gamble,” he said. “It gets harder every day. Make sure you have something unique to bring to the table.”
YouTube has the most stable monetization method.
Companies pay YouTube money to put ads in front of videos.
YouTube takes 55% of this money and gives the remaining 45% to whomever uploaded the video that hosts the ad.
With the advent of Ad Blocker, some creators have been working directly with companies to create specially branded content, cutting out YouTube as the middleman.
“You have to be family friendly if you want to be successful,” Sloulin said. “The money is good if you follow the rules.”
He explained that most companies want to post ads on family-friendly content.
There is also money to be gained through subscriber support.
Viewers can pledge money to creators for projects or future videos.
Another Detroit Mercy student who enjoys creating content for YouTube is senior Dalton Hahn, a theatre major.
Hahn has a couple of YouTube channels.
He started one as a way to save his memories online.
The other, SupYoLo, stands for Support Your Local Artist.
He has created it to showcase local artists.
Hahn is not monetized at this time but will consider doing so in the future when he has more time to devote to the project.
The competition is intense.
Though five billion videos are watched daily on YouTube, 300 hundred hours of video are uploaded every minute.
The market is full of people wanting the same job – YouTuber.
“You can’t waste your time overthinking it,” said Hahn. “Just do it, learn from it and grow.”
