Over the past year a number of Jamaican artistes and personalities have made the move to establish channels and create original, exclusive content on the popular social media platform YouTube.

Among the individuals to join this are radio personality Tami Chin and her husband popular recording artiste Wayne Marshall who have created Meet The Mitchells which takes the over 100,000 subscribers into their upper St Andrew home and shares the activities of their daily lives, which also involves their three sons Jaxen, Atlas and Oz, as well as housekeeper Maureen (aka Momo). Olympian and former 100-metre world record holder Asafa Powell and his British-born Canadian wife, model Alyshia Miller, have also created a channel which has near 24,000 subscribers and looks at their daily lives.

Also joining the YouTube family is reggae singer Romain Virgo, who allows his fans, including the 74,000 scubscribers to the channel, into the home he shares with his wife Elizabeth and their young twin daughters.

Another recording artiste, Jah Cure, is also creating content for YouTube with his travel log Jah Cure Adventures, which offers viewers a front-seat view as he shares his travels and activities.

Beauty queen Yendi Phillipps has also entered the fray. Her YouTube channel offers two programmes, the interview feature Odyssey with Yendi: Untold Journeys, as well as a travel show simply titled Travel With Yendi.

Another Olympian, Warren Weir, also takes his fans into the personal space he shares with fiancee Alexan Stewart and their newborn via Weirz World Vlog.

They join other popular local YouTubers which include Russhaine “Dutty Berry” Berry and Rohan “Quite Perry” Perry.

For local digital and social media marketing strategist Joel Nomdarkham, this interest in YouTube by local personalities reflects the growing need for audiences to know more about the personalities.

“Fans want to connect on a deeper level with the celebrities and personalities. They wanted to see where they live, be taken into their homes, see what they eat, and what they do when not on stage, film or television. It is a way of making that human connection. This is about positioning their personal brand and the personalities are having to share much more of their personal space with audiences in order to remain current and relevant, as this is what their fans are requesting,” he explained to the Jamaica Observer.

He added that because the current novel coronavirus pandemic has curtailed entertainment activities, especially live shows and sporting events and in addition limited the earning capacity of celebrities, they are now looking to establish other streams of income.

“COVID has really catapulted a lot of these personalities into the social media space. They now have to figure out a way to remain in the thoughts and minds of their audience in these times, and they have to figure out new ways to earn… and setting up a YouTube channel is now the talk of the town,” said Nomdarkham.

But how much can a local YouTuber earn?

Nomdarkham explained that the earning potential on YouTube varies and is guided by the number of views of the content. This he said is where the established celebrities and personalities have a distinct advantage as they already bring their fan base to this platform.

“In order to begin to be considered for the YouTube Partner Program and be eligible to earn, these content creators must have more than 1000 subscribers and their content must be viewed for more than 4,000 watch hours. At the top tier, talent can earn US$5 for every 1000 views.”

“So because the numbers will fluctuate depending on how topical a video is, the earnings over time will also fluctuate. So when I look at Meet The Mitchells, they have 114,000 subscribers and their viewership ranges from over 200,000 to just under 50,000… so you can do the maths,” he explained.

In order to supplement the earnings from YouTube, some of these content creators move into business partnerships with major brands, leveraging their audience and potential viewership. Nomdarkham added that this involves various kinds of direct marketing and product placement in the content.

He noted, however, that there is a potential backlash.

“There comes a point when YouTube alone won’t cut it and ‘money haffi mek’. So brands will approach personalities and vice versa. The problem is when the content no longer seems authentic, but rather a running advertisement. These personalities have to be aware that the authenticity of the post is what first drew audiences to the channel and keeps them coming back for me. Once it no longer feels relatable then people will stop watching.”

“The secret to overcoming this lies in being creative. Yes the brands will come with their heavy demands and at some time it may come down to whether the channel is being created for the love of fans or for making money. The key thing for content creators is to know that they can call the shots. They can hire a director to skilfully insert branding for clients without it seeming too obvious.”

As for those personalities who see the wave taking place but are still sitting on the fence unsure whether or not to take the plunge, Nomdarkham advised to analyse the market and look for a niche, something different.

“At this time, having multiple streams of income is critical. So if you think this is something you can do go ahead by all means, the Internet it yours. There are four billion active Internet users, so this is your audience and the opportunity to leverage connections all over the world. But please find something unique to offer. Look at something you are interested in and create content around that. So if your thing is sports, find athletes to interview, focus on the struggles and successes of young people in the sport. Not everybody is cut out for a ‘day in the life of” kinda content and it shows. If you are not comfortable sharing your personal life, then don’t. If you hate being on camera, then try a podcast,” he said.