Did you know you can make money with videos on YouTube? Several Utah YouTubers (called Utubers) have quit their day jobs and are living off their online success. Utah is the #3 location in the world for YouTube celebrities, just behind Hollywood and London.
YouTube’s partner program allows Google ads to appear on videos and the video owner makes a portion of the advertising proceeds.
Here are a few of the Utahns prominent on YouTube:
- Devin Graham, a BYU film student, and his roommate Jeff Harmon, are behind the channel DevinSuperTramp, which has over 1 million subscribers and 195 million video views. You may have seen the extreme sport videos World’s Most Insane Rope Swing Ever!!! – Canyon Cliff Jump (10 million views), Flyboard – Coolest Water Jet Pack EVER!!! (5.5 million views), or Human Slingshot 2X – Vooray (1 million views).
- Jeff Harmon produced the first YouTube video for Orabrush, which went viral. The channel how has 190,000 subscribers and over 41 million video views. You may have seen Bad Breath Test – How to Tell When Your Breath Stinks (18 million views) or Orabrush the Movie—Official Trailer (1.9 million views).
- BYU student Lindsey Stirling is a classic violinist who also loves to dance. Her talent was so unique that she became a quarterfinalist on America’s Got Talent. Today, the LindseyStomp channel has 2 million subscribers and 276 million video views. Her Dubstep Violin Original- Lindsey Stirling- Crystallize video has 54 million views.
- Stuart Edgington is known in the YouTube world for several kissing videos, such as Mistletoe (20 million views) and Spider-man Kissing Prank (4 million views). His latest Magic Kissing Card Trick video had 8.8 million views in the first 8 days. His channel Stuart Edge has 300,000 subscribers and 37 million video views.
- BYU student Jason Bagley was one of the masterminds behind the Old Spice’s YouTube success (325,000 subscribers and 231 million video views). The video Old Spice-The Man Your Man Could Smell Like has been viewed 45 million times.
- When BYU film student Scott Winn produced his first video, Cute kittens fly in slow motion to hip hop (3.6 million views), he recognized the opportunity available on YouTube and decided to pursue it full-time rather than finishing school. His slow-motion film Fruit Ninja in Real Life to Dubstep! has been viewed 20 million times. His channel ScottDW has 90,000 subscribers and 28 million video views.
- The Roberts brothers grew up making home videos. But each went their own way in their own careers, but then came together with a friend and created Bored Shorts TV (Kid History). They finally turned it into a business and hired full-time people and a studio and are now producing weekly videos. The channel has 96,000 subscribers and 20 million video views.
- The Piano Guys are perhaps the most famous Utahns. Their top videos have 10-20 million views each. Their channel has 1.5 million subscribers and 210 million total video views.
Read the back story about several of these people in the article “Utahns Making Millions on YouTube.”
There are more than 800 million monthly unique users to YouTube who watch more than 4 billion hours of video. 72 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute.