How Much Do YouTube Stars Polk & Joeingram Make?

YouTube is a daily part of life for the majority of people nowadays and there are tales of $millions to be had just by uploading a video or two – figures of $4million for Psy’s ‘Gangnam-style’ YouTube earnings alone being bandied around - but how do poker’s most popular guys fare when it comes to making money from their content?

You might think it’s unfair compare Doug ‘WCG Rider’ Polk and Chicago Joey Ingram’s content against each other – Polk being short, snappy news, views and hand analysis against Ingram’s very popular lengthy interviews, but they’re both at the top of their games and fighting for the same viewers and dollars.

So, let’s do some maths to try to work out if it’s actually worth their while from a financial point of view – and who comes out ahead in the YouTube money stakes… 

Let’s start with Doug Polk and his excellent though sometimes controversial Doug Polk Poker channel. First let’s break down what he has on offer…

• 210 videos
  
• 70,000 subscribers
• 50-100K average view (but for example 650,000 views of his hilarious Dan Bilzerian’s Ability video).

Now how does this make Polk $? Well, it’s a tricky combination of adverts and views and a host of other little details, quality of traffic, source country, niche type of video, price of specific ads, adblock, the actual click rate, etc.

There is actually a very basic YouTube analytics calculator available on SocialBlade.com and putting in Polk as having an average of 50,000 views per day and using a reasonably low CPM figure (CPM is the amount an advertiser pays to have its ads served against videos 1,000 times. Each time an ad on a video runs completely, it's called an impression, so now you know!) Polk’s earnings might be anywhere from several hundred dollars per week or even month up to healthy $50K or more.

 I’m going to take an average figure all round and say maybe…

 …$30,000 per year, or $2500 per month. Very decent and probably $50,000 before YouTube and a couple of others have taken their slice (which can be as much as 45% for YouTube) and he also hired 2+2 and GrindNation friend SrslySirius to help make his videos look smooth as, and if we add in some other costs such as camera, lighting and graphics, his setup probably cost him about $7500 or so.

If we worked out an hourly rate, you’re talking about up to $100 per hour adding in editing/preparation time. And considering that Polk does it all from the comfort of his home office that’s a tidy sum of pocket money for the millionaire online nosebleed genius.  

With the idea that he might laugh at this figure (either way actually) I decided to message Doug – not really expecting him to get back to me (‘cos he’s busy obviously and asking people how much money they make is, well, rude!

But, being the star turn that he is, a couple of days later he let me in on a secret:

"Hey man, …I can tell you I get paid about $1.1 per 1k views. From there you can do the math. Good luck! Doug."

So, it seems I wasn’t ridiculously far out – after expenses about $1600-1800 per month or around $20K per year – and set to rise as his popularity grows.

Now, Chicago Joey Ingram and his JoeIngram1 channel is a bit of a different beast, but Polk is breathing down his neck when it comes to popularity among the poker – if he hasn’t already overtaken him. Statistics are what they are, but do the numbers really lie? Here are some of Chicago Joey’s…

• 451 videos
  
• 25,000 subscribers
• 2,000-30,000 average views (although again, occasional podcasts gain much bigger viewing figures, such as the Daniel Negreanu Poker Life podcast which has had 90,000 views.

Now, here’s one of the big differences. Polk’s videos are about 10 minutes long, Joe Ingram’s about 2 hours long! If adverts are placed in the middle of a 2 hour video, only the true diehard fans will ever get that far. That being said, the majority of his subscribers and viewers probably are exactly that! Die-hard fans of Joey and /or his interview subject.

Anyway, on the plus side he also has twice as many videos out there as Polk, and they’ll all be adding cents and dollars every day to his YouTube income. The Social Blade calculator is enthusiastic about Ingram’s YouTube finances, giving a measly figure of about…

$15K per year before costs are taken off? Say $1,000 for his very basic set-up (no fancy graphics or lighting for Joey!) so maybe…

$5 or $6K per year profit? $500 per month for the most popular interviews in the entire poker world? If true, that gives an hourly rate of less than $10 given Ingram’s time-consuming approach - that’s a measly return for a man devoted to bringing some of the most interesting poker podcasts to the community.

But we have to remember that Joey’s channel really is aimed at a very niche part of the market. Poker fans in general will watch 10 minutes of Polk’s interesting fare, but less likely to spend 2 hours or more unless they really need the content.

And that, my poker friends, is why I think Polk has probably already overtaken Ingram in both the YouTube money and popularity stakes – and next week I’m going to see how the pair match-up on Twitch – can Joey fight back, or will Doug wave the dollars in front of his face again?

YouTube can be lucrative, and figures can balloon if you suddenly find that special video which goes viral, but it seems that it’s not the cash cow many would have you believe.

That being said, I’m quite happy for someone to come in and tell me my numbers are all wrong and these two guys are actually making an absolute mint from their endeavours! That’s what the comments section below is for!