YouTube stars are increasingly seen as mainstream celebrities today. Their job is to post videos on the site, but how much money do they make for it?

In fact, YouTube users who post videos to the site are paid by Adsense, not YouTube itself. Adsense is Google’s advertising network, but also the firm’s most important source of revenue. It has an artificial intelligence system that generates advertisements and pays videographers on the basis of a CPM formula, that is, “Cost per mille”, which means “cost per thousand views”.

Theoretically, for every 1000 “views” a vlogger registers for their video posted on YouTube, Adsense therefore pays an amount that depends on several factors. The average CPM on YouTube would be around $ 7.6. For a video that has been watched 1 million times, the creator would earn an average of $ 7,600 (around 6,800 euros or 4,239,000 FCFA)

But Adsense is selective and does not advertise all videos posted on the site. In addition, many users install an ad blocker application (‘adblocker’), which turns off ad serving, and means that corresponding views are no longer counted against the CPM counter. The calculation also depends on the number of clicks on said advertisement.

Finally, once you exceed the minimum amount (usually $ 100), your income will be transferred directly to your bank account on a monthly basis. In some countries, AdSense issues checks, but for most recipient countries, they opt for direct deposit.