Can you make six figures on YouTube?


With 1.9 million people out of a job in 2008, it's heartening to know that any one of us could make six figures on YouTube. 27 year old Cory Williams makes $20,000 a month on YouTube and 33 year old Michael Buckley pulls in over $100,000 a year from YouTube ads.

It doesn't cost much to get into this business. Buckley spent $2,000 on a Canon camera, bought a $6 piece of fabric for a backdrop and a pair of work lights from a hardware store. He gets 100 million views for his "silly" "What the Buck?" YouTube videos on celebrities -- like joking segments about Britney Spears and Miley Cyrus -- which he produces three times a week.

Williams has 180,000 subscribers to his videos such as "The Mean Kitty Song" -- which introduces his evil cat. Williams gets half his monthly take from advertisements and the other half from sponsors -- such as The Coca Cola Company (NYSE: KO) -- that embed ads in his videos.

With all the people trying to mimic the success of Buckley and Williams, it's a bit of a lottery, but why not give it a try? As more people succeed, they're going to give the big media companies a run for their money.

Peter Cohan is president of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. Portfolio will publish his book about Boeing, You Can't Order Change: Lessons from Jim McNerney's Turnaround at Boeing, on December 26, 2008. He has no financial interest in Coke securities.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Symbol Lookup
IndexesChangePrice
DJIA-89.2312,801.23
NASDAQ-23.352,903.88
S&P 500-9.311,342.64

Last updated: February 12, 2012: 05:18 PM

Hot Stocks

General Electric

18.875-0.255(-1.33)

Alcoa

10.29-0.35(-3.29)

Apple Inc

493.42+0.25(+0.05)

Google Inc 'A'

605.91-5.55(-0.91)

Bank of America

8.07-0.11(-1.34)

Wal-Mart Stores

61.90-0.06(-0.10)

Exxon Mobil Corp

83.80-1.08(-1.27)

Ford

12.44-0.25(-1.97)

Citigroup

32.925-0.735(-2.18)

IBM

192.42-0.71(-0.37)

Yahoo

16.14+0.14(+0.88)

Starbucks

48.82-0.38(-0.77)

Microsoft

30.495-0.275(-0.89)

Home Depot

45.33+0.06(+0.13)

DailyFinance Headlines

Benzinga Headlines

TheFlyOnTheWall.com Headlines

BioHealth Investor Headlines

WalletPop Headlines

DailyFinance BlackBerry App

My Portfolios

Track your stocks here!

Find out why more people track their portfolios on AOL Money & Finance then anywhere else.

BloggingStocks Partners

More from AOL Money & Finance

BioHealth Investor Headlines

Page Loaded in 1329085107325 ms.