Before you go on believing the next success story, i hope you get to read this post. Yes, like you i got exited when i found out that a 8 year old was making millions of dollars on Youtube. So, i started making videos, and 50 videos later, not a single cent earned.
Success stories are very well promoted, they are the reason why the masses use a specific platform, and the absolute majority fail to make any significant income.
Success stories are not always true, sometimes the stories are fake (check Fake it till you make it). Indeed these stories are often just a made up marketing ploys to attract the masses.
Even when the success story is true, it is so rare, that it makes no sense to even pursue it. In the case of youtube, the majority of youtubers are not even monetized as they have not yet reached the required subscriber amount and views, then, from those monetized, the majority does not even make minimum wage even when they work really hard.
Other platforms it is even harder (crowdfunding) and gig economy sites rely on success stories to get fresh users. Even some platforms push fake success stories (through article placement, sponsored articles and native advertising).
Thus it is important to know what platform is worth investing your time in to even make a living. Hence i split the platforms into 3 categories:
– The very competitive, but will provide you a reach (Youtube, instagram, tiktok, upwork…).
– The very competitive, but expect you to market to get a reach (kickstarter, gofundme, fiverr…).
– The less competitive, and will provide you reach (Uber, Doordash, UberEat …).