Forbes recently published its look at which YouTube stars made the most money during 2017 (link). The publication based its ranking on raw estimates of pretax earnings. Then I took a closer look at everyone, and guess what? Those are just incomes from their YouTube advertising. A lot of YouTubers have multiple income streams, such as content production, sponsored posts, Merch, and more. Let’s take a ride to see how each of them make much more money than from just YouTube Ads.
No. 10. Lilly Singh- IISuperwomanII – $10.5 million from YouTube Ads, $1.2 million from Sponsored posts
Lily is the only woman YouTuber on the list. She is known for her humor and comedy. She made sponsored contents look like second nature to her own content, and has worked with several huge YouTubers to make funny videos.
Here is her influencer profile page. It estimates that her YouTube post sponsored range is between $99,000 and $108,000 per video.
She posted 111 videos in 2017, let’s suppose that 10% of the videos are sponsored: 111*10%*$99,000 – $108,000 = $1,098,900 – $1,205,627. That’s another $1 million income.
Now, let’s take a look at her Instagram @iisuperwomanii.Superwoman instagram posts summary from SocialBook, Her featured (most popular) post is a sponsored post from Pantene, where she received 630,000 and 8000 comments. That’s really amazing for a sponsored post. Back to her income stream: SocialBook.io estimates that her Instagram post sponsored rate is between $16,000 and $25,000 per post.
We cannot estimate her total posts on because often influencers will delete lots of sponsored posts when the campaign ends. But, we will try to research more about our later posts to see how much more she is earning from Instagram sponsored posts.
So, $10.5 million is only for her YouTube paid ads, if we also calculate her sponsored posts and her Merch. she should do much more.
for people that already have a huge follower base, her own Merch is a big part of her income and can do in scale if she manages it right. We will talk about her Merch in our later posts.
No. 8 (tie): Ryan ToysReview — $11 million from YouTube Ads, $2.7 million from Sponsored posts
Wow, full of toys!
This boy has the most wonderful job in the world, and we bet he is the first to be mentioned on Forbes.
Let’s take a look at his SocialBook page:
His estimated YouTube post sponsored range is between $79,000 and $88,000 per video, and he has posted a total of 315 videos during 2017.
Again, let’s do an assumption, suppose that 10% of the posts are sponsored: 315*10%*$79,000 – $88,000 = $2,488,500 – $2,793,105
We reviewed Ryan in my other article. Definitely a great job for a six-year-old! Here is the link: Ryan ToysReview: “A 6-year-old boy is making $11 million a year on YouTube reviewing toys”
No. 8 (tie): Smosh – $11 million from YouTube ads, $2 million from sponsored posts
This channel was created by Ian Andrew Hecox and Daniel Anthony Padilla. However, Padilla left Smosh to pursue his solo YouTube channel in June of 2017. Hecox became the only co-founder that is currently an active member of the Smosh team.
Besides YouTube paid Ads, SocialBook.io estimates his YouTube post sponsored range per video is between $168,161 and $176,807. This does not include any other paid partnerships or offline events.
Again, he posted 109 videos in 2017. Suppose that 10% of the videos are sponsored: 109*10%*$168,161-$176,807 = $1,832,955 – $1,927,196
That’s another almost $4 million out there.
Although we are not calculating the Instagram sponsored posts right now, we will do a rough estimate in our future posts, as well as his Merch.
No. 7: Jake Paul — $11.5 million from Youtube ads, $4 million from sponsored posts.
Jake Paul became famous from his vine videos (before vine was shut down, he gained 5.3 million followers for his account), and also his role of Dirk on the Disney Channel series Bizaardvark.
SocialBook.io estimates that hisYouTube sponsored post range is between $94,695 and $103,562 per video, and he posts a new video every day! Crazy ideas ! If 10% of the videos are sponsored, that’s 365*10%*$94,695-$103,562 = $3,456,368- $3,780,013. Almost 4 million dollars income by just posting funny videos!
Here is his Instagram @jakepaul,
It’s hard to find sponsored content at first glance. But, we managed to find three sponsored posts on SocialBook.io:
Let’s see how much his Instagram post is worth: $46,443-$70,080. These three sponsored posts have already made him $210,000!
No. 6: Felix Kjellberg (PewDiePie) — $12 million from YouTube ads, $14 million from sponsored posts.
As you know, PewDePie, with 58 million followers on YouTube, did not attend the 2017 YouTube Rewind, because YouTube did not invite him.
However, despite the fact that he was not invited, he still earns a huge amount of money. SocialBook.io estimates his YouTube post sponsored range is $404,204 to $412,140 per video, suppose that 10% of the posts are sponsored: 340*10%* $404,204-$412,140 = $13,742,936 – $14,012,760
Wow! That’s crazy! That’s another 14 million dollars!
What about his Instagram performance? Let’s see, here is his Instagram:
How much is he earning per post on Instagram?
No. 4 (tie): Mark Fischbach (Markiplier) — $12.5 million from YouTube ads, $8 million from sponsored posts.
Markiplier is known for his sensationalized video game commentary, involving yelling, screaming, cursing, and even crying during his Let’s Play videos. He plays a lot of unpopular games and makes people want to play with him.
Markiplier also posted a crazy amount of videos in the past year: 555. If 10% of the posts are sponsored: 555*10%* $140,906-$149,634 = $7,749,830 – $8,304,678
We cannot find a lot of sponsored posts here, so we are guessing his YouTube and Merch is the biggest income.
We also found something interesting here: He has more followers on Twitter than on Instagram. Let’s find out what this means our future posts.
No. 4 (tie): Logan Paul — $12.5 million from YouTube ads, $4 million from sponsored posts.
Logan Paul just posted a video saying that 2017 was his best year. He purchased a $6 million house in Los Angeles, he gave his mother $10,000 and a $20,000 Rolex for Christmas, and he is only 22!
He posted 350 videos in 2017 and suppose 10% of the posts are sponsored: 350*10%*$104,810-$113,646 = $3,668,350 – $3,977,610Here is his Instagram, and let’s find out how much money he is making per post on SocialBook.io:
No. 3: Dude Perfect — $14 million from Youtube ads, half million from sponsored posts.
Dude Perfect is a channel from twins Cory and Coby Cotton and three other “best buddies” from Texas A&M, all former high school basketball players. They do sports tricks and comedy, some of which makes fun of sports stereotypes. Obviously, this channel is run by a company. They produce only the best contents on YouTube, so they only posted 29 videos in 2017, with an estimate of $175,365-$183,989 per sponsored video, I would still suppose that 10% of the posts are sponsored: 29*10%*$175,365-$183,989 = $508,559 – $533,568
Again, let’s take a look at his Instagram @dudeperfect:
And his Instagram SocialBook.io data:
He has a lot of sponsored posts and according to SocialBook.io, each post is worth around $11,132 to $17,499. Wonder how much he is making out of his Instagram.🤔
No. 2: Evan Fong (VanossGaming) — $15.5 million from YouTube ads, $3 million from sponsored posts.
VanossGaming official channel is known for its well-edited video and funny scripts.
Although I do not play games, I do find it interesting to watch. , let’s get back to his income stream.
His estimated price range is $160,791 to $169,460 per video, again, let’s suppose that 10% of the posts are sponsored: 164*10%*$160,791-$169,460, that’s $2,636,972 – $2,779,144. That’s almost 3 million dollars.
Let’s take a look at his SocialBook channel analytics:
SocialBook.io estimates that his sponsored price is about $18,891 to $27,642 per post, but interesting enough, we only see 11 posts, and none of them are sponsored posts. We bet that he must have another strong income source.
No. 1: Daniel Middleton (DanTDM) — $16.5 million from YouTube ads, $10 million from sponsored posts.
Although Dan TDM only has 17 million followers, that’s not even half of PewDiePie’s followers, he is earning much more than PewDiePie from the list. He is known for playing Minecraft. If you are interested in his personal life, you could find his personal channel by searching MoreTDM.
SocialBook estimates that his sponsored post range is between $249,069 and $290,382 per video. And, we found that he has posted 337 videos total during 2017. Again, a likely assumption that 10% of the posts are sponsored: 337*10%*$249,069 – $290,382 = $8,393,625 – $9,785,873
This channel is really growing up with professional gaming. It is not that commercialized yet and very focused on gaming. But, we do know that this year, he had a world tour that included four sold-out nights at the Sydney Opera House.
Still, when influencers are popular enough, they tend to pick what they advertise, and most of the ads will blend into his regular content. But, with SocialBook.io, we are able to find all the sponsored post by one click.
His per post sponsored rate is around $12,341 to $18,135, and we will dig into his #ad posts in future posts.
More Top 10 Influencer Lists:
Top 10 Tech Influencers You Should be Following
Top 10 Tech Influencers in the United States [2019]
Top Health & Wellness YouTubers You Should Follow
If you want to collaborate with any of these top influencers, book a demo with SocialBook, the influencer marketing platform that find you the right influencers and deliver results.