Students are turning to YouTube as an alternative career to make a steady income.
YouTube has become a job for students due to advertisers paying YouTubers for every 30-second ad that is watched before a video. A full-time YouTuber can make thousands of dollars a year.
Lynette Maturino, a 19-year-old Palomar student, is a YouTuber with 476 subscribers. Maturino is juggling school and Youtube and explains that she got involved with YouTube because of its impact to change her day around from just one video.
“YouTube has been there for me when I felt like I had no one,” Maturino said. “When days were rough and I felt unhappy, I would turn to YouTube.”
Youtube is a free video-sharing website that can be accessed anywhere from mobile devices to tablets, computers and even modern television. Youtube was invented in 2005 by creators Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim. The media company was later bought by Google in 2006 for $1.65 billion.
Local Youtubers from Mira Mesa, Brian Awadis “Faze Rug” and his brother Brandon Awadis “Brawadis” have gained popularity through their daily vlogs, pranks and challenges.
Rug dropped out of San Diego Miramar College his freshman year to become a full-time YouTuber. Faze Rug’s main focus was making videos and dedicating all his time to his Youtube career, he now has over 3 million subscribers and has turned into a social media star.
On the other hand, Brawadis has stayed in college pursuing his dream to become a journalist and is doing Youtube part-time as a job.
“I’m truly blessed to be put in the position I am today where I am able to make an impact in so many people’s lives,” Brawadis said via Twitter after hitting one million subscribers this past August.
Maturino is currently earning a small amount of income from Youtube, although it is not her main focus from making videos. Maturino explained how making videos on the web has helped her with time management skills that in turn helps her with school.
“It has definitely made me manage my time better. Knowing that I need to film, edit, and upload weekly pushes me to complete assignments on time,” Maturino said.
Maturino commits about six hours a week to the task. Filming and editing takes about three to four hours, creating a thumbnail takes an hour and replying to comments takes another hour.
“I want to make people laugh, I want to be able to change someone’s gloomy day into a good one,” Maturino said.
