YouTube Question youtube as a business or a hobby

[dean the rat]

so if you have a youtube and everything but as you get paid and stuff, is it better to leave as hobby or a Carrier, like mine is literally formed from boredom and still is but as i get to 1000 how will i know if i want it to become business or leave as hobby,

 

[Damon]

Just decide and go from there. It's a decision everyone needs to make for themselves. For me given my background as a musician, a platform like YouTube is something I needed but didn't have for decades. So for me the choice to do YouTube as a career was a no brainer.

 

[DogsInAction]

It honestly depends some people first do it as a hobby then later it becomes a full time job, but for me its a hobby I love doing youtube!

 

[kalaspuffar]

Hi @dean the rat

It's my hobby for sure, and I have a job that I love that inspires me to create videos. If I hadn't the outlet of youtube, I would be sad, but I need some "real" work to ground me.

MPJ just stopped youtube because he felt he didn't create any substance, so he went back to work for a company creating software. As a developer, I can relate that you need something that you feel makes a difference, and I love to teach, but if I don't have any subject to talk about, my youtube channel will suffer.

Best regards
Daniel

 

[IanDominicTV]

It's my hobby to do YouTube, but getting monetized is just a bonus for me.

 

[DamoΓÇÖs Paintings]

IΓÇÖm thinking that YouTube will be nothing more than a hobby, because I can make a small business selling merchandise with my work printed on a variety of everyday stuff.

 

[Midas]

Hobby + Career. I teach fitness through videos and live streams on Instagram and YouTube and I also make tech videos and tutorials of the tools I use in creating my content as a hobby on my other channel. You have to decide what you want for yourself and it can be both or either!

 

[LifeOfReillyTV]

Hey, if you're making enough money from YouTube to live comfortably, why can't your hobby become your full-time job? Why work in an office when you can be creative and make videos for a living?! Good luck!

 

[DamoΓÇÖs Paintings]

Hey, if you're making enough money from YouTube to live comfortably, why can't your hobby become your full-time job? Why work in an office when you can be creative and make videos for a living?! Good luck!

If thatΓÇÖs aimed at me (probably not but anyways), then itΓÇÖs certainly a goal IΓÇÖm going for, but not just relying on YouTube itself, but getting some merchandise up and running too.

 

[Ameen]

Can't hobby and job be the same damn thing ?

 

[LifeOfReillyTV]

If thatΓÇÖs aimed at me (probably not but anyways), then itΓÇÖs certainly a goal IΓÇÖm going for, but not just relying on YouTube itself, but getting some merchandise up and running too.

It wasn't aimed at you, Damo, but glad you liked the sentiment. The big-ish YouTubers all say they make more on their merch and sponsored posts than Adsense, so you've definitely got the right idea! Good luck!!

 

[Ater]

so if you have a youtube and everything but as you get paid and stuff, is it better to leave as hobby or a Carrier, like mine is literally formed from boredom and still is but as i get to 1000 how will i know if i want it to become business or leave as hobby,

It really depends on your goals, what you are after. Both are okay. If you are doing it for fun you are probably better of leaving it as a hobby. But if you are serious about growing and making money in most cases you are better off treating it as a business (which can come with the cost of some of the "fun").

Also I just want to warn you getting monetized doesn't mean you will make a lot of money, most channels who just got monetized only make a few bucks each month. As a baseline calculation you can go for $1/1000 views. That mean a channel with 100 000 views a month make $100 that month. There are a lot of factors that can change that number, some niches pay a lot more than $1/1000 views and some pay less and you want viewers from "high paying nations", your viewers location can make a huge difference. But of course treating it as a business you may go for other type of monetizations than just the YouTube ads, maybe you use your channel to drive traffic to your e-shop and stuff like that.

Hey, if you're making enough money from YouTube to live comfortably, why can't your hobby become your full-time job? Why work in an office when you can be creative and make videos for a living?! Good luck!

I believe it's more about the step before that. When you have gotten monetized and make a few bucks each months. Should you keep it as a hobby just for fun or are you willing to start treating it as a business? This can be a huge step and effect your daily life a lot since treating it as a business you have to put more time into it, work a lot harder and more serious, maybe do some stuff and videos that you don't find fun but make sense for business and channel growth. Are you going to force yourself to keep on making movies each day when your motivation is low and you feel a bit burned out on YouTube, where you as a hobby would have taken av few weeks or even months break from posting new videos. Are you going to change your channels niche to one where you are more likely to succeed but you are less passionate about and find less fun? Are you going to spend a lot of time finding external revenue like sponsors, products to sell through your channel, your own merch etc. Are you going to start throwing money into your "business"?

That could be a huge step, especially if you work full time job at the same time since it will be eating up most of your spar time and time with family and friends.

Personally I believe that there can be some sort of mix like a more serious hobby where you do some of the business stuff but don't go all in.

 

[LifeOfReillyTV]

Ahhh, I see. This is the point I'm almost at. I literally can't give up the day job yet so I'm going the slow burner route: if it happens, it happens. I've got kids and a house to pay for so can't make a big leap, really, but if I was young and didn't have as many financial responsibilities, I'd be tempted to give it a go. It's a risk because you can't guarantee that you'll get to the point of earning a full-time wage ahead of time.

 

[Ater]

Ahhh, I see. This is the point I'm almost at. I literally can't give up the day job yet so I'm going the slow burner route: if it happens, it happens. I've got kids and a house to pay for so can't make a big leap, really, but if I was young and didn't have as many financial responsibilities, I'd be tempted to give it a go. It's a risk because you can't guarantee that you'll get to the point of earning a full-time wage ahead of time.

Yeah it takes a lot of views to be able to live off YouTube (not counting any side money you may make from the channel). Based on last years stats for my channel about 1 million views/months is where I would start looking at it as a part time job and at about 3.5M views/months I would be making similar to my current job (after tax).

 

[LifeOfReillyTV]

Yeah it takes a lot of views to be able to live off YouTube (not counting any side money you may make from the channel). Based on last years stats for my channel about 1 million views/months is where I would start looking at it as a part time job and at about 3.5M views/months I would be making similar to my current job (after tax).

Same for me. We have the goals...we just need to get into a position to score!!

 

[DamoΓÇÖs Paintings]

Ahhh, I see. This is the point I'm almost at. I literally can't give up the day job yet so I'm going the slow burner route: if it happens, it happens. I've got kids and a house to pay for so can't make a big leap, really, but if I was young and didn't have as many financial responsibilities, I'd be tempted to give it a go. It's a risk because you can't guarantee that you'll get to the point of earning a full-time wage ahead of time.

IΓÇÖm still quite a way off of something even close to this, being only 2 ish months into my channel, but if we work towards our goals, and exercise loads of patience especially for a YouTube career, we can get there.

 

[TanookiAlex]

YouTube should always be for enjoyment in my opinion, although over the past few months i've been able to upgrade my channel and make it look more professional, you should never forget your roots when it comes to this site
Although making money on videos is a blessing i'd rather enjoy making a video and get nothing and be proud of the product. I do realize there are people who need to make an income off this platform, but i am not one of them. When the time ever (if) it does come to make it into a more job prospect, i still want to have fun making videos but i'll take the SEO and research aspect into consideration quite a bit

 

[dean the rat]

IΓÇÖm still quite a way off of something even close to this, being only 2 ish months into my channel, but if we work towards our goals, and exercise loads of patience especially for a YouTube career, we can get there.

i am 9 moths in youtube almost at my first year in december

 

[VenGame]

it is just a hobby that i take very seriously

 

[Beanie Draws]

I never intended my channel to be a business, but at some point a channel can grow beyond your expectations and you are kind of forced to start treating it like a business. If you get monetised, your local government will definitely treat it like a business if you're making significant revenue from it and then you have to pay taxes on it (i'm not an accountant and all countries have differant tax laws)

In Australia, you can't class something as a business unless you make enough money for it to no longer be considered a hobby (you still have to report any income you make though) but in Australia you don't pay tax until you hit 18,000, but you still need to lodge a tax return form even if you don't make that much, the bank tells our government how much money we make, and if we don't report it, BIG trouble.

So I don't see it as a business, but the government sure do, and I have to treat it accordingly to keep the tax man happy.