A decade ago, users had to pull thousands of
views a month to get monetized on YouTube
and Donaldson spent years rejected by the
platform, until he was about 16. Then, he says, it
was “game over.”
“From literally the time I started making money
at 16 until now, I just reinvested everything I
made. One dollar a day turned into two and
then three. And then eventually I was making
$10,000 a month then a $100,000 a month, then
$1 million a month,” he says.
“I just want to make the best YouTube videos
possible. I don’t really care about living in a
mansion or driving a Lamborghini,” he adds. “I live
to create content and I want to entertain people.”
He’s developed some rules along the way for
success. “When it comes to going viral, the
ultimate key is to give people something they
can’t find anywhere else,” he says. “There are
crazy things you can do that take effort, but
don’t require a lot of money. Everyone can put
in effort. You just do something that hasn’t been
done and you go all out.”
He and his team rely on a revenue system that
rewards views. YouTube puts ads on videos on
its platform and it shares half the revenue with
the creators. Donaldson says his videos average
between 40 million to 100 million views and a
15-minute MrBeast video might mean three or
four ads embedded in each. Ad revenue might
not be much on each view, but at such volume it
adds up.
He plows the ad money back into the operation
and sometimes reaches out for brand
sponsorships like Jennie-O. Other sources
of revenue include his merchandise sales