YouTube Success Car Guys Stupid Crap They Pull

I keep checking out these youtubers hoping to find something I can watch but haven't found it yet.

It is really impossible to care about someone else's car or company enough to put up with the inane formulaic bs. It is just silly to see how impressed they all are with themselves and how they pretend to be original when discussing the kind of shenanigans people pull in high school.

Admittedly, I am an atypical sociopath, but most of these people come across as losers who have fooled themselves into thinking money or fame can actually change that.

In reply to Javelin (Forum Supporter) :

He wasn't doing a whole lot of content before that happened...

In reply to bmw88rider (Forum Supporter) :

I get that it's Kansas but that place is a serious McMansion, with a huge lot, immense garage, 6 car BendPak lift, epoxy floor covering, than all the cars, many of which are worth real $$$.  Like each one is 6 figure money.  We're not talking a collection of $3-10k cars here.

Yes, my frame of reference may be off since I spent my entire 20's in school making no money and then my early 30's as active duty making practically no money but to afford a house like that, even in Kansas, within 8-10 years of graduating college, if self made, is very impressive.

I watch Mighty Car Mods, Ratarossa, Finnegans Garage and sometimes Sam Crac.  The first three I like the most.

Javelin (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to SkinnyG (Forum Supporter) :

What's your channel?

"That Shop Teacher Guy"

It took me 14 years to get 1000 subscribers.  I'm not holding my breath on this replacing my day job.  But I do like sharing what I do, and if it helps someone on their projects, so much the better.

vwcorvette (Forum Supporter) said:

I've been watching a feller on Vice Grip Garage. Not tired of his schtick yet. I find myself saying, "I don't know" in his voice using his hand gestures. That's bad right?

Derek is definitely one of my new favorites.  He has some personality and isn't afraid to deal with rusty junk from the North.

In reply to Nitroracer (Forum Supporter) :

And many of them are "undesirable" 4 doors. He has no seeming obtuseness about what makes a car cool.

I think Hoovie got in with Freddy's hamburgers when they were still smallish and his job opening restaurants left him a lot of time for filming videos.  He probably makes more now selling hair restorer and AutoTempest than he did with burgers.  https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1802-N-Burning-Tree-Cir-Wichita-KS-67230/239980226_zpid/

docwyte said:

I don't understand how these guys make their money.  Clearly they're making a lot of it based on the cars/houses/shops they own (looking at you Tyler Hoover, Tavarish, WatchJRGo).  But tavarish doesn't put out that much content.  WatchJRGo has very few views of his videos.   Hoovie has been doing the same schtick now, buy an old, cheap car that's a mess, have a mechanic inspect it, fix it, then drive/complain about them, then sell them for a loss...

I've watched a few YouTube videos where they discuss the economics of it and basically it sounded like you make no money unless you put out several videos a week that get 1 million views or more...

Hoovie and tavarish made their money outside of YouTube, so the ad revenue just finances their car hobby, not the entire lifestyle. Tyler has a bunch of Freddie's frozen custard locations and tavarish has an it/web hosting business of some kind. John Ross is single and able to pour every dollar he gets from YouTube back into the channel. Plus I think he's going to get paid rent on some of the space in his giant warehouse so I wouldn't be surprised if that thing ends up paying for itself. 

ahh Youtube and instagram success.. 

Be very careful of what you see behind that lens..  r/instagramreality will help inform you.

My wife works for a private school.  The people who drive the fanciest cars and have the flashest clothes are always losing their jobs and defaulting on their bills.....  credit cards maxed out etc..   I drive a rusty suburban and pay my bills on time.

MCM is still entertaining. I catch finnegans garage occasionally and Fasterproms. Love the dudes at Throttle House for reviews and such. They are entertaining. non-car related I enjoy Garand Thumb a lot and used to watch Oxhorn on FO4 content. 

It seems like a guy like Mustie1 was doing pretty well before YouTube and his additional income from videos was enough to get him into a nice shop away from home.  Was he already retired?  I just hope enough people like my "watch this guy surf the internet" videos enough to replicate some of his success.

https://youtu.be/W1zwy4lV-zE

I thought this was an interesting breakdown on YT money making.

I don't remember the name, but I ran across a guy who was building a "prerunner" out of a crown vic.  Really, he pulled the body and built a cage and set a glass truck body on it.

I say this because he discussed what he made and when he got a following.  One note he made was that if you want to "hit the algorithym" then put out keywords or titles that match up to a big channel.  So, he got a big hit when carsandcameras who normally did go cart stuff did a "prerunner" build.  So, since they did this, and the vid got a large number of hits.  It had the same title which made it pull his up and get more people watching.   

If memory is correct, he posted 1 or 2 of the build vids and like many on here, had a few views.  They put out their vid around the same time that he let out his 3rd.  He started seeing the increase on views and such and realized what was happening.  So, he did play some with the titles and keywords.  This can assist.

In regards to watching, I hit most that are on here.  A lot I watch in the background and passively.  BadObsession is one that I normally watch 2-3 times to try to soak up the info they throw down.

In reply to Fueled by Caffeine :

An old lady, never married, secretary career, not much family donated some of her estate to our church.  She bought safe stocks and saved for a rainy day into her 80's.  She owned a small bungalow on the south side of Chicago.

After review she was worth $1.2 million - you never know those millionaires living next door to you.   

In reply to Strizzo :

sure about tavarish? ive watched pretty much every video, he's never mentioned any IT business. 

This popped up in my suggested videos, I'd never watched or heard of Life of Palos before.  I blame this thread, Google is watching EVERYTHING you do.

In reply to lnlogauge :

Didn't he used to be a writer/editor on jalopnik back when Doug demuro was writing for them and they didn't totally suck?

I dunno, I don't and won't watch car YouTube. Like every other niche of YouTube, I can't stand the personalities that make it "big".

YouTube is for music, and it's not even very good at that. Everything else is useless to me. Even the repair videos tend to glance over the actual important part of the repair, so berkeleyem all.

I think the only automotive-related YouTubers I watch on a regular basis these days are Vice Grip Garage and Regular Car Reviews.

VGG is great. Watching him resurrect old trash and driving it 500mi+ home is not only entertaining, it's also motivational! I have old trash in my own yard that I've been motivated to work on because of that channel. He's living the dream.

Regular Car Reviews is just straight entertainment. They aren't 100% accurate, and they carry opinions into their work, but their videos make me laugh. Their latest one on the Olds Bravada had me rolling. My friend had a mid-90's Bravada a while back, so it got a chuckle out of me (for the record, I actually like the Bravada, especially the early ones).

In reply to lnlogauge :

He mentioned that on some "ask me anything" video a while back. It was also on car twitter at some point.

In reply to Fueled by Caffeine :

Another way of looking at this if you're trying to cultivate some income from YouTube and/or Instagram is that people who take this seriously run it as a business. Businesses that deal with physical goods require investment in the first place, and a lot of them don't succeed and sometimes you flame out spectacularly. Does that mean nobody should try?

And yes, sometimes you end up broke, and sometimes you're broke and have "stuff" left over from when you weren't.

lnlogauge said:

In reply to Strizzo :

sure about tavarish? ive watched pretty much every video, he's never mentioned any IT business. 

Yes.  I read an interview with him Freddy/Tavarish a while back. I think the interview was right when he moved from NJ to Florida.   His answers were somewhat evasive..but he implied he actually had an ownership in several internet companies but declined to name specifics.  My guess is he owns a few websites and probably does some of the back-end work supporting others.  This may include car forums...but that's about all i remember.  I liked Freddy & Doug Demuro's writing styles both before and when they wrote for Jalopnik.  I kind of stopped following them once they made the jump to youtube.

It seems like generating actual money on youtube is a lot of effort (like an actual job).   Hoovie seems to be the only car-related channel I regularly check out...I'm guessing he has staff to help write-edit-and produce his videos.  If you love creating and editing content and you can make a living...good for you. 

In reply to Hoondavan :

Yes, to actually make money on YouTube is a full-time job for at least one person. Often two.  Even then, a lot of the ones I subscribe to still rely more on Patreon supporters than YouTube ad revenue. One channel I subscribe to (InRangeTV) is demonetized and is completely reliant on Patreon.  

I don't really subscribe to many car channels: Bad Obsession is by far my favorite, followed by Jay Leno - I watch everything they put out.  I casually follow MCM and Doug, but don't watch all of the videos. I watch some of the GRM videos, but I kinda miss the old GRM Live stuff with JG in his shop.  Those were fun. but I can see how they were rough to produce and keep consistent.

lnlogauge said:

In reply to Strizzo :

sure about tavarish? ive watched pretty much every video, he's never mentioned any IT business. 

It was in one video where the title is "what I do for a living to afford 6 cars" He says he owns a few websites. 

I like car wizard, south main auto and this guy https://youtube.com/c/vehcor