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.

Can you make six figures on YouTube? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 11 Dec 2008 18:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.