From High School to YouTube Success: A Personal Journey

Starting YouTube in middle school, a Korean YouTuber shares the journey from 1,000 to 2M subscribers, revealing challenges and unexpected success.

### YouTuber Evi: The Journey to 2M Subscribers
* 🎮 Evi started his YouTube journey in middle school by uploading videos of the mobile game Nebulous, and after a year, he had about **1,000 subscribers** but hadn't made any profit yet due to **monetization conditions**.
* 🔁 He tried various challenges and content types to attract more viewers, and after struggling to find a new direction, he started a channel that **summarized YouTube incidents**, which became his **first video to reach 1 million views**.
* 💡 Evi then set a goal of creating content that gets **good views**, and after a video about hidden YouTube features reached **1 million views in two days**, he began to consider YouTube as a **possible career**.
* 🎙 To prepare for serious revenue generation, he recruited a narrator, Wonwooju, and after being convinced of his success on YouTube, he **dropped out of school with 200,000 subscribers** in November 2020.
* 🏆 By providing informative videos related to YouTube, Evi grew to around **600,000 subscribers in six months**, but he found that the videos were becoming **less interesting** as they were simply **gathering information from the internet**.
* 📈 He then started a sub-account called Factory to experiment with new types of videos without narration, and they surprisingly did **even better than the story videos**, leading him to apply the know-how gained from Factory to his main channel.
* 🎥 Despite the increased video production costs and decreased profits, Evi is now on the verge of **2 million subscribers** and is looking forward to making more diverse attempts with the launch of a game channel called **EviOn** and by revealing his **voice**.

After six years of starting YouTube, I would like to share my personal story for the first time. You might ask, Didn't you upload a Q&A video recently? Not that kind of Q&A. I want to talk about my personal story. I will honestly tell you how an ordinary high school student became a YouTuber with 1 million subscribers and reveal the hidden truths in that process. When I first started YouTube in the 2nd year of middle school, it was by uploading videos of a mobile game called Nebulous that I knew. Naturally, I didn't know what algorithms were, but I just followed what others were doing, and it turned out to be more fun than I thought. After a year, I had about 1,000 subscribers, but I hadn't made any profit yet because the monetization conditions required 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time. At that time, I was the master of the largest clan in Korea, so I couldn't promote my videos much.

I managed to start filming, but the problem was that there was not enough time to watch. I also wanted to earn some money myself, even if it was a small amount, so I thought it would be difficult to succeed with such minor games. From that moment on, I started various challenges. I uploaded Brawl Stars videos with subtitles as soon as I heard popular songs. Famous YouTubers compile trendy phrases and more. No matter how much I tried new things, there was no new influx, just the same comments from our clan members as usual. So, I decided to start over from scratch and created the current Story Channel. It wasn't originally named Story from the beginning; it started with a very thin nickname, Encyclopedia, to deliver only essential information. The concept was good, but the editing was not good enough.

Moreover, who would be curious about the most liked comments on Naver Webtoon for selecting a topic? So, at first, I did it a bit, but since the views didn't come out much, I lost interest and took a break for about half a year. But around 2018, as those who know would know, a lot of incidents started to explode on YouTube. There were controversies, surprising things, controversies, and real-time popular videos were always no. 1 with I'm sorry. So, at that time, there were so many apologies, so I thought, Is there nowhere that summarizes these things at once? I searched for it, but there wasn't anything specific. So, to figure out what was going on and out of curiosity, I personally created it. I gathered all the incidents that had been on YouTube for a while by digging into sites like Namuwiki and such, and then I made it with a bit of a feeling of a Korean YouTube chronicle.

The video now reaches 600,000 views and hits 1,000 subscribers. Honestly, I feel more embarrassed than proud of this. Although it only contained neutral facts, gaining views by mentioning such unfortunate incidents and accidents doesn't feel right, does it? Back then, I was just excited about the views, but looking back now, it doesn't seem like such a good direction. Anyway, starting from that, I continued to upload various videos, and when the video on the secondary account of PewDiePie exploded in views, I hit the first 1 million views. I was truly happy when the letters 1 million views appeared. It made me happy to think that a million people watched my video, not just a million views. After tasting the thrill of that success, I set a new goal for myself. Getting good views is now my goal.

To create the content that I want to show, I started analyzing from the time when it reached 1 million views again to feel the energy. I changed the channel name to a more intuitive story, then I recorded the channel statistics every day. I always carried a small notebook at school and spent the whole day thinking about how to make videos that get a lot of views. By the time I was in the second year of high school, my subscribers had exceeded 30,000. The number of views on the videos ranged from a few tens of thousands to as many as several hundred thousand. However, since channels without a certain number of subscribers according to YouTube policy could not generate revenue, channel profits were still non-existent. Since my original goal was not profit but a hobby, I continued to study hard at school and did YouTube in my spare time. That's exactly what happened.

On May 22, 2020, a turning point in my life comes. Hidden features on YouTube that 99% of people don't know about, the video reaches 1 million views in just two days. The next video also becomes a huge hit consecutively. From this point on, I started to think that YouTube could possibly become not just a hobby but a job. To prepare for serious revenue generation, I posted a notice for narrator recruitment. Only one person applied to that notice, and that was Wonwooju. But honestly, I didn't feel like this person was special from the beginning. In the early days, it was quite different from now, and since there was only one applicant anyway, I thought it wouldn't hurt to try together. Oh, looking back now, it was truly a godsend. Finding a voice that fits my channel as well as Wonwooju's is not easy. So, in September 2020, the revenue generation was approved, and I pondered for about two more months.

While doing it, I eventually became convinced that I could succeed on YouTube in November 2020, and ended up dropping out of school. At that time, I had 200,000 subscribers. By providing informative videos related to YouTube, I was able to grow to around 600,000 subscribers in six months. However, what I felt while doing this was that although informative videos were doing well in terms of views and revenue, they were becoming less interesting because they were simply gathering information from the internet. So, I tried uploading some new types of videos without narration on a sub-account called Factory, and surprisingly, they did even better than the story videos. Every time I uploaded, I got over a million views, gained new subscribers, and eventually surpassed the number of subscribers on the main account in just four months. It turned out to be quite successful than I expected, but anyway, since Factory was originally a short-term experimental channel,

Instead of neatly folding, I started applying the know-how I gained from that to this channel, and began to do the contents I really wanted to do, not just an information channel. Of course, compared to before, the cost of investing in videos has increased, and the video release frequency has become longer, leading to a clear decline in profits. However, it's definitely more fun than an information channel. Surpassing 1 million subscribers, now on the verge of 2 million, I am looking forward to being able to make more diverse attempts with the launch of a game channel called EviOn and by revealing my voice. Lastly, there is one thing I wanted to mention. Regarding the production in my videos, for example, in the recent video intro, there is a comment as an example, but that comment is actually not real; it's a comment I created through editing. Also, scenes with Discord conversations in another video are also created through editing.

In fact, I edited a very complicated conversation for readability. To maintain the natural flow of the video, there are quite a few parts that involve unintentional staging. In these short videos, if the reactions of the participants seem a bit unsatisfactory, we sometimes reshoot or directly request dialogues. However, in cases where in these videos, the truth is that no prize money was given or no ten million won sponsorship was provided, and the participants were actually acquaintances who were not paid, it would certainly spark controversy, but that's absolutely not the case. It's just to create comments for the flow of the video, and there is no issue even if I created those comments. The same goes for the EV1 videos. Even if it seems like I'm ending the video by saying This is the end of the video, it's not a problem at all.

So, explaining these things is actually quite funny, but these days, YouTube is so harsh and competitive that just in case, I mean just in case, to prevent any unnecessary misunderstandings later on, I would like to mention in advance that my videos include a certain level of neutrality in the production, and it will continue to be that way in the future. So, please keep that in mind. Also, you know, in the background of the Minecraft video that is currently playing, it may seem like I have never made a mistake in the jump map, but the truth is, there was one scene where I made a mistake and smoothly edited it together. Just once, there was only one spot. So, if any of you happen to notice, just keep it to yourself.

제목뭐하지

토리

A YouTuber's Journey: From Nebulous to 1 Million Subscribers

Starting with videos of the game Nebulous, the YouTuber quickly gained 1,000 subscribers but struggled to meet monetization requirements.

Transitioning to different content and challenges, the YouTuber eventually rebranded and found success with the current Story Channel.

Creating a YouTube Channel: From Curiosity to Success

The creator initially lost interest in their channel but was inspired to start again by the YouTube controversies in 2018.

They felt conflicted about gaining views from unfortunate incidents and accidents.

Despite this, they were thrilled to reach one million views on a video and are now focused on achieving high view counts.

From Hobby to Career: My Journey as a YouTuber

The creator's channel struggled to generate revenue until a turning point in May 2020 when a video suddenly reached 1 million views, changing the creator's perspective on YouTube as a potential career.

To prepare for serious revenue generation, a narrator was recruited, with only one person, Wonwooju, applying for the position.

This decision turned out to be a fortunate one, as the collaboration significantly contributed to the channel's success.

The creator gained 400,000 subscribers in six months by shifting to non-narrative videos on their secondary channel, surpassing the main channel's success.

This transition led to increased video production costs and a decline in profits, but brought more enjoyment.

The creator is now on the brink of 2 million subscribers and is planning to launch a new game channel, EviOn, while also incorporating their voice into videos.

Additionally, they have made a disclosure about the production of some video content.

Clarification on Video Production Process

The video editing aims to maintain a natural flow, sometimes involving staged reactions or requested dialogues.

There is no actual prize money or sponsorship provided to participants, who are acquaintances, not paid.

The videos maintain a level of neutrality in production to prevent misunderstandings in the competitive YouTube environment.

Smooth editing is used to create the impression of no mistakes in the Minecraft video, although there was one edited mistake in the jump map.