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Young YouTubers, TikTokkers Create Channels of Revenue

Htoo Ray, a third-year student at Manchester Community College in Connecticut, has more than 10,000 followers on TikTok, where he posts clips from popular video games while he plays them. (Courtesy Image: Htoo Ray)
Htoo Ray, a third-year student at Manchester Community College in Connecticut, has more than 10,000 followers on TikTok, where he posts clips from popular video games while he plays them. (Courtesy Image: Htoo Ray)

Some content creators on social media platforms like TikTok and YouTube report making millions of dollars for videos on subjects like eating the spiciest foods, dancing to popular music or doing something potentially dangerous but somehow hilarious to millions of viewers.

Really?

“You know, everyone wants to make a lot of money doing something that they love to do. It's like a dream job,” said Max Reisinger, a recent high school graduate from Chapel Hill High School in North Carolina who has attracted nearly 400,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel.

“That's how I viewed it when I started,” he said.

In his second year of high school, Reisinger spent seven months in Aix-en-Provence, France, while his mother, a French professor at Duke University in North Carolina, conducted research. Reisinger thought he’d document life abroad to share with friends and to look back on later, he said. He has not stopped creating videos since.

For the 2021-22 academic year, the University of California-Santa Clara student is taking a gap year, or year off, to create content full time, making videos that show a day in the life of an American teenager, including the reverse cultural shock of returning to the United States after living abroad.

The work is hard, the videos and photos are highly staged and produced, and the competition is fierce, say many young people trying to make it on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. Reisinger, 18, has spent up to 50 hours meticulously producing one video using effects, sound and music.

YouTubers and others who start social media channels create, edit and post content, trying to amass a following so sponsors will pay to place their name or product on that person’s site or account.

But it’s not as easy as it looks.

“Right now, my income is split up between ads on my YouTube videos, sponsorships, and then Patreon income,” Reisinger explained. Patreon is a membership platform that allows content creators to build a subscription service and in return, members gain access to exclusive perks and behind-the-scenes viewings.

“But most of it is sponsorships. They pay a lot more,” he continued.

Growing revenue

Competition grows as more entrepreneurs try to monetize their content. But algorithms, or online calculators, help predict the time and effort needed for an account to take off. Lickd.co, a music publisher based in London, England, created a “social income calculator” that computes followers, views and sponsorships needed to achieve a financial goal.

Views are counted every time someone watches 30 seconds of a video advertisement, or its entirety if it’s shorter, or if they click through to an advertisement on the account.

But the calculators cannot measure how challenging it is to meet those factors. On YouTube, for example, only 3% of the content creators make up 90% of the traffic on the platform, and even this top percentage of creators averages $17,000 a year, according to a study by Mathias Bärtl, professor at Offenburg University of Applied Sciences in Germany.

TikTok

Htoo Ray, a third-year student at Manchester Community College in Connecticut, started using social media to connect with friends and family. Ray was born in Thailand and moved to the United States in 2008. Relatives and childhood friends are still in Thailand.

Ray has more than 10,000 followers on TikTok, where he posts clips from popular video games while he plays them.

“At first I was just posting on TikTok for fun, but since I have built a community and support system, I am taking content creation more seriously,” Ray said.

Tiktok requires about 10,000 followers and 100,000 views for creators to apply for the Tiktok creator fund, which rewards regular posters and allocates revenue based on metrics such as number of views.

“On YouTube you need at least 1,000 subscribers and a certain amount of watch time to monetize content,” Ray said.

Even meeting these standards does not mean a content creator will find success or brand deals. Reisinger explained that a channel’s subscriber count can help the page’s overall image, but views are what brands focus on.

“You’re typically paid based upon where your audience is from,” Reisinger stated, giving the example that American views can be worth more than views from India if the brand is trying to sell a product or service in the United States.

“Then brands look at the average views that you get on your channel and base it upon that,” he continued.

Reisinger declined to say how much income he has made from his channel but offered these observations.

“A channel like mine can make over $100,000 a year,” he stated, noting that $200,000 is reachable with his subscriber count with other streams of income, like selling channel-related merchandise to fans. Niche YouTube channels can pay more than others as well, such as informative videos about finance.

In a video Reisinger made in July 2020 to celebrate reaching 200,000 subscribers, he answered questions from his fans, including one on the stress level of being a YouTuber.

“Everything I do is a net positive. I know my videos are probably helping people out,” he said to a fan who asked about the stressors of being a YouTuber. “Everything I’m doing comes from a good heart.”

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Greek Parliament Approves Branches of Foreign Universities   

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is applauded by members of his government during ahead of a vote on a bill which allows foreign private universities to set up branches in Greece, at the Greek parliament in Athens, March 8, 2024.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is applauded by members of his government during ahead of a vote on a bill which allows foreign private universities to set up branches in Greece, at the Greek parliament in Athens, March 8, 2024.

The Greek parliament voted to allow foreign universities to establish and operate branch campuses in the country.

According to U.S. News & World Report, the move was made to encourage Greek students to stay in the country for advanced studies, instead of going abroad for an education. (March 2024)

Virginia Bans Legacy Admissions

FILE - In this April 28, 2016, photo, students walk by the James Branch Cabell Library on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va.
FILE - In this April 28, 2016, photo, students walk by the James Branch Cabell Library on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va.

The state of Virginia has banned legacy admissions to public colleges and universities.

The New York Times reports the state has outlawed the practice of giving preferential admissions status to students based on connections to alumni and donors. (March 2024)

New Texas Law Prohibits Public Colleges, Universities From Having DEI Offices

New Texas Law Prohibits Public Colleges, Universities From Having DEI Offices
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A new Texas law prohibits public universities from having special programs supporting minority and LGBTQ students. Critics say these diversity, equity and inclusion programs are discriminatory and divisive. But many students say they are needed. Deana Mitchell has the story from the Texas capital.

Here’s What It Feels Like to Find Home Between Two Cultures

FILE - The University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, Va.
FILE - The University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, Va.

Cynthia Jia, a student at the University of Virginia, writes about how Chinese literature helped reconcile her to being part of two cultures. Read her story in The Cavalier Daily. (February 2024)

FAFSA Delays Prompt California to Extend Deadline for Financial Aid Applications

FILE - The UCLA campus on April 25, 2019. On March 21, 2024, the California Legislature voted to extend the deadline for some state student financial aid programs in response to delays with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA.
FILE - The UCLA campus on April 25, 2019. On March 21, 2024, the California Legislature voted to extend the deadline for some state student financial aid programs in response to delays with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA.

The California Legislature on Thursday voted to give prospective college students more time to apply for two of the state's largest financial aid programs after a glitch in the federal government's application system threatened to block up to 100,000 people from getting help.

California had already extended the deadline for its financial aid programs from March 2 to April 2. On Thursday, the state Senate gave final approval to a bill that would extend it again until May 2. The bill now heads to Governor Gavin Newsom.

"Clearly, our students need our help," Assemblymember Sabrina Cervantes, a Democrat from Riverside who authored the bill, told lawmakers during a public hearing earlier this week.

California has multiple programs to help people pay for college. The biggest is the Cal Grant program, which gives money to people who meet certain income requirements. The state also has a Middle Class Scholarship for people with slightly higher incomes.

Students can apply for these state aid programs only if they first complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, commonly known as FAFSA.

This year, a computer glitch prevented parents from filling out the form if they did not have a Social Security number. That meant many students who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents but whose parents are not were blocked from completing the form and thus could not apply for California's aid programs.

California has a large population of adults who are living in the country without legal permission. The California Student Aid Commission, the state agency in charge of California's financial aid programs, estimates as many as 100,000 students could be affected by this glitch.

The U.S. Department of Education says it fixed the problem last week, but those families are now a step behind. Democrats in Congress raised alarms last month, noting that the delay could particularly hurt students in states where financial aid is awarded on a first-come, first-served basis, including Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, Oregon and Texas.

Advocates fear that the chaos of this year's process could deter students from going to college at all, especially those for whom finances are a key part of the decision.

The computer glitch is just one part of larger problems affecting FAFSA.

The notoriously time-consuming form was overhauled in 2020 through a bipartisan bill in Congress. It promised to simplify the form, going from 100 questions to fewer than 40, and it also changed the underlying formula for student aid, promising to expand it to more low-income students.

But the update has been marred by delays, leaving families across the country in limbo as they figure out how much college will cost.

The form is typically available to fill out in October, but the Education Department didn't have it ready until late December. Even then, the agency wasn't ready to begin processing the forms and sending them to states and colleges, which only started to happen this month.

The problems appear to have already reduced California's application numbers. Through March 8, the number of California students who had completed FAFSA was 43% lower than it was at the same time last year.

"The data most concerning me seems to suggest that these drops are more acute at the schools that serve low-income students or large populations of students of color," Jake Brymner, deputy chief of policy and public affairs for the California Student Aid Commission, told lawmakers in a public hearing earlier this week.

The issue has caused problems for colleges and universities, too. The University of California and California State University systems both delayed their admissions deadlines because so many prospective students were having trouble with FAFSA.

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