Some users turn YouTube into high-income cash cow
Compared with last year, the number of people using Google to find out how to make money on YouTube has tripled, according to Google Trends. Some have made major moolah.
A little boy named Ryan earned $27 million for his YouTube channel “Ryan’s World,” where he unboxes the latest toys. But YouTube’s top channel, according to Variety.com, is “MrBeast.” It’s earned over $54 million so far.
A recent MrBeast video is about a guy who was offered $10,000 a day to stay in a specially rigged apartment/ prison, with fantastic gourmet meals delivered daily. Though he occasionally experiences loud noises, flashing lights and other distractions, he mostly copes with the confinement. But each day he has to give up one item in the room. He starts with the ice cream machine, then parts with the fire extinguisher, then the whiteboard, drumset and more. When his girlfriend is allowed in at the end, he proposes. Over 41 million people have watched it. Another episode of MrBeast, “World’s Most Dangerous Escape Room” has 85 million views.
Other top earners on YouTube channels include Jack Paul, ($45 million), Markiplier, ($38 million) and Rhett & Link, ($30 million). A guy named “Dude Perfect” made $20 million.
But hey, isn’t TikTok a better way to make money? According to eMarketer, it started to outpace YouTube last year, at least among so called “influencers,” the people who get you to buy stuff. A Pomeranian dog makes $12,450 per post, according to HootSuite.
AMAZON MYSTERY SOLVED
Did you ever get an Amazon gift from a mystery sender? It happened to me.
Recently I received the most magnificent cutting board I’ve ever owned, along
with an interesting book called “The Fiber Effect.” I didn’t see any sender info so I had no idea why I got it.
If this happens to you, or you have any other unanswerable questions, type “call Amazon” into a Google search box. The first result is a “contact us” link. But clicking it opens a page with loads of text from the Amazon help pages. These can be tedious to read and unproductive. When you really need to talk to someone, just Google the words “contact Amazon” a second time. On the second try, you’ll get a link that reads “call customer service.” When you click it, you can type in your phone number and get an immediate call back.
The service rep who called me said she couldn’t give me the name of the sender but if I guessed it, she could tell me whether I was right or not. I tried a couple of names but bombed out. So she gave me a hint: it was a corporate account with no name attached. That’s when I remembered I won a cooking contest at FoodRevolution.org. Wow. I wasn’t expecting such a lavish gift. All I did was comment on a recipe I made. Later I found the gift slip on the floor.
ZOOM MISTAKES
Some of my favorite groups still meet on Zoom. So when a guy at CNET.com wrote about major Zoom mistakes, I was all ears.
The most common mistake is forgetting to mute yourself when you’re making noise. It can be excruciating. Once a guy in my history club had a long conversation with his mother while we all waited for him to shut up. In my writers’ group, a lady opened a noisy bag of chips right next to her microphone. Hey guys, find the mute button!
The second most common mistake is positioning the camera at a weird angle. Many people have it pointing up. This could be because they’re using Zoom on a phone that lays flat on a table, and they look straight down at it. The key is: If you can see your ceiling on Zoom, it means your webcam is positioned wrong. I see this a lot. Sometimes, I’m looking straight into someone’s nostrils. It’s ugly.
Here are two Zoom mistakes I’m guilty of. First, I sometimes check email or play a game on my phone during a video meeting, which signals to others that I’m not paying attention. Second, I often turn off my video camera, without remembering to type a text in the chat window saying “Be right back.” Ninety-two percent of executives surveyed by Wakefield and Vyopa say that employees who turn their video off “probably don’t have a long future with our company.”
ARE MEAL KITS WORTH IT?
A reporter at CNET did an analysis of online meal kit services. He found that “Dinnerly” and “EveryPlate” are the cheapest, averaging around $7 per meal. The same dinner prepared by buying the ingredients yourself costs around $5 per meal, he said, though a friend of mine said he could do it cheaper. Even if the price is right, these meal kits have a lot of packaging, which seems wasteful. On the other hand, food waste is also a problem. With meal kits you only get what you’re going to use. Of those I’ve tried, I like Green Chef best, because they offer whole-food, plant-based meals.
APP HAPPY
■ “Breezometer,” free from breezometer.com, tracks 40 air pollutants and gives you three-day pollen forecasts.
■ “Stack,” free on the Apple app store or Google Play store, keeps your documents organized. These might include your vaccination card, insurance card, driver’s license and license plate.
INTERNUT
■ “Don’t Buy a Security Camera. Just Turn That Old Phone Into One.” Search on those words to find instructions from CNET.