Shh, don't tell anyone else about it. We don't want it getting too popular. (Source)

So you want to be famous, huh? Well, pack those bags, buy a one-way ticket to Hollywood, and—wait...you thought we were being serious? Uh, 2006 called, and it wants its pre-conceived notions of celebrity back. If you want to get famous these days, it's as easy as owning a cell phone and having an internet connection. 

Why don't you sit back, relax, unpack that suitcase, and let us tell you a little something about this tiny, user-friendly site we like to call "YouTube."

In a sense, YouTube is the great equalizer, giving everyone with internet access an equal shot at starring in the Next Big Thing—no agent required. Those with the best videos attract the most viewers, and those with the most viewers attract the most ad revenue. And those with the most ad revenue, well, they're rich.

Sounds simple, right? It is. Just as long as you can find a way to compete with the other 300 hours of video uploaded to the site...every single minute (source).

We're an optimistic bunch, so let's think about this optimistically. Let's say you defy the odds and your three-minute rage outburst on the inconsistency of a recent superhero movie goes viral. And not just viral, but actually attracts some loyal subscribers, people who'll come back and click the next time you want to rant to strangers. 

Now let's say it doesn't stop there. With millions of views a month, you could be looking at 18 million dollars a year (source). Or, you know, you could be looking at nothing.

 

Don't think you're getting out of paying Dick and Melinda's social security just because a gang of twelve-year-olds thinks your foul language is hilarious. (Source)

Part of the reason for this Grand-Canyon-sized divide in earnings range is YouTube's revenue model. Viewers aren't paying to see your videos. Instead, Google (YouTube's owner) plays ads in front of your work, and then cuts you a check depending on how long viewers watched the ad, and how many of them clicked it. 

Then you have YouTube's 40% cut, your production costs (some YouTubers are shelling out $500-$700 or more in editing per week (source), and, of course, everyone's favorite government agency, the IRS.

Of course, none of this money-speak matters at all if you can't get people in front of your ads, or, ahem, content. YouTube already has just about everything, from unicycling bagpipers to invading armies of Pikachu clones, so you're going to need something extremely unique and compelling to win yourself a viewership.

If you really want to make a career of being an actual YouTube personality, you're going to need, well, a great personality. Exactly what kind of personality you'll need to succeed, however, is tricky to pin down. After all, if it was as effortless as following a simple formula, everyone would do it.

But it's not.

There aren't exactly hard figures for how many people are out there right now trying to convert their personal persona into a gold mine through YouTube, but you can bet your bottom dollar that it's quite a few. And much like Hollywood fame, very, very few of them—can't emphasize that "very" enough—will actually achieve it.

Fortunately for your bank account, trying to break in should be relatively low impact. That means you can have a real job during the day and still manage to film yourself waxing philosophical about fashion trends in your spare time. That's right, a video about why you chose your hairstyle that gets 10,000,000 views could take just as much time to make as a video about why you chose your hairstyle that gets two views. (Hey, thanks, Mom and Dad.)

With the odds of success where they are, your best bet is probably to work on your YouTube career while spending most of your time doing something else entirely—e.g. school, a part-time job, working as an astronaut on the International Space Station, etc. Do whatever you need to do to fulfill yourself until people finally start caring about your, like, totally horrible experience at the gym yesterday. Gawd.

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