With an audience in the billions YouTube could make anyone famous - and quite a few people are getting rich. But how do you make money from YouTube, what do you need to get started and how much can you be paid?
BY JAMES ANDREWS
13:41, 11 JUN 2018
You'll have seen the stories of people making thousands – maybe even millions – from YouTube . Perhaps you subscribe to their channels, follow their lives or chat to them in the comments.
Last year it emerged British YouTuber Daniel Middleton (DanTDM) made an astonishing £12.3million from the video sharing site – making the 26-year-old from Northamptonshire the channel's highest earner globally.
Of course, Dan's got 19 million subscribers, which helps, and has been running his most-successful channel since 2012.
Then there's the famous faces, like Zoella.
But while they make millions, they're not the only one. A remarkable number of people are making thousands a month, while an awful lot more are making hundreds from their videos.
But how hard is it to get in on the action, what do you need and how much can you expect to earn? We take a look.
What you need to get started on YouTube
Lights, camera, YouTube... Although you can get away with a lot less
(Image: Manchester Evening News)
In theory you can make it big with just a phone camera and an internet connection.
One off hits like Charlie bit my finger (849 million views) and Fenton the labrador (18 million views) were filmed on phones after all.
But while the potential is huge, the chances of that video of your mate walking into a door - twice – going global are incredibly small.
If you're planning on making regular videos as part of a channel you'll want some decent equipment. Here are a few things to consider:
Camera – something that records at 1080p HD. You might also think about how mobile this is, depending on what sort of videos you want to shoot.
Microphones – cameras have these generally, but if you're recording outside, or in a noisy environment, then a decent microphone can massively improve the quality of the audio.
Lighting – if you look at any TV studio the lights are massive and well directed, we're not saying you need to go that far, but take it into account when recording. Where is the light coming from, is there glare, how clear is it?
Editing – it's seriously unlikely you'll be able to do it in one take, every time, so video editing software matters. There are decent free options here, but Adobe Premier is the go-to for more professional outfits.
What to record
Randy Santel has built a massive following filming himself taking on food challenges (Image: Liverpool Echo)
This is the big question. People have made a success of everything from video game walk-throughs to beauty tutorials, cooking, unboxing toys, comedy skits, what they've bought in Primark and more.
If you're good at something - be it football, Minecraft, makeup or juggling - that's a good place to start.
But if you're only in it for the money, looking at products – be they toys, games, beauty, tech, clothes or something else – is a good place to start.
This offers people something useful to view to find out about something they might buy as well as increasing your sponsorship opportunities and ad revenues.
The important thing is to have a niche and offer value to viewers – something that will have people subscribing and coming back to view your videos.
"No idea is too stupid," YouTuber Colin Furze told the Mirror back in 2015 .
"If you're really into lawns or turf, make a video out of that. There's people that will watch it."