More proof that content is king. Ryan Higa, a young YouTube star humbly took the stage at the NewTeeVee conference to share his story of online success.
A little background on Higa: he's a YouTube phenom ranked as the "Number #1 Most Subscribed YouTube" user of all time. His videos are wacky comedy skits that he makes at home out of what he calls, "pure boredom." Brands like Carl's Junior are now coming to the young star to seek his audience and pay him big bucks to shoot videos featuring him.
Although soft spoken and slightly shy on stage, he shared some valuable advice to content creators on how to build and keep loyal audience.
For brands and aspiring artists, keep an eye on popular tags. Higa observed "ninja" was a popular tag, so he decided to start making ninja videos for his fans, which he has observed they love by paying careful attention to the comments left on his videos. He also took note that his lip sync videos died off quickly among his viewers, so he stopped wasting his time making videos people didn't want.
Higa started off making videos for fun in Hawaii with a posse friends. When asked if all his views and stardom have led him to being rich and famous he suprisingly answered 'no.' According to Higa, YouTube cuts him a monthly check for ads played on his videos which pays, "better than a part-time job, but not enough for my mom to quit her day job." He also admitted he doesn't have any fancy equipment now, he's simply shooting on his MinoHD.
Looking into the future Higa said he'd like to branch out onto television, but his main focus will always be to keep his loyal YouTube fans happy. So he's a little torn. Either way, he is aware of the fact and shares that, "Without YouTube, I wouldn't have any of this."
