Niche Knowledge #4: YellowFlash 2

Imagine if you could make a substantial living talking about Spider-Man, the Avengers, the latest adult cartoons, anime, or pretty much anything big in pop culture news.

We are truly living in the “Age of the Geek.” When it’s possible to make a six-figure income sharing news, gossip, not to mention a good bit of outrage over the latest movie and TV show news.

I’m talking about YellowFlash 2, a prominent YouTube channel in the pop culture news niche.

Overview

YellowFlash 2, named after the popular Flash villain, obviously, pumps out A LOT of daily videos about the latest developments in the entertainment industry. Specifically focusing on controversial, trending topics, and breaking news. Common subjects are Marvel movie updates, behind the scenes studio drama, celebrity meltdowns, casting shenanigans, trailer reactions, TV show ratings, and many other things.

Video updates are usually delivered with an acerbic style with a bit of sarcasm and attitude. YellowFlash 2 is very passionate about the subject matter he covers, and doesn’t shy away from speaking his mind very bluntly and honestly.

The videos are pretty simplistic. They are basically just a voice-over from the channel creator, with a slideshow-style presentation of web articles off his screen. The emphasis is more about quantity and volume, while staying on the cutting edge of the latest developments.

The channel averages about five uploads a day. Thumbnails are VERY click-baity, featuring bleeped expletives and photoshopped faces. Titles are generally meant to trigger outrage and other emotions.

Also, I’d be remiss not to point out that YellowFlash 2 generally comes from a center-right perspective, often criticizing “woke” productions, or targeting reviled figures such as Mindy Kaling or Meghan Markle, whenever they trend in the news.

At the time of this writing, YellowFlash 2 has 400,000 subscribers and over 3,400 videos uploaded to its channel.

Monetization

YellowFlash 2 has multiple streams of revenue. There’s Google Adsense revenue, of course. The chart below shows it makes anywhere from $1,300 to as high as $21,600 a month from Adsense. The entertainment niche doesn’t pay the most when it comes RPM (revenue per thousand impressions). It may only range from $2.00 to $4.00, which after YouTube takes its cut, may only amount to a few dollars or so.

But for a channel like this, it’s better to look at it from a daily income perspective. Here’s a screenshot of its earnings by video over the last few days, from 3/20 up until its latest upload as of this writing:

As you can see, YellowFlash 2 averages somewhere around $100+ per video. At five uploads a day, that’s $500+ per day in revenue. Just from Google Adsense. Not a bad haul for a one-man entertainment news operation.

Some videos do a lot better than others traffic and income-wise depending on the subjects and whether something is hot or trending. Some have even pulled in upwards of a few thousand dollars. Most of the videos tend to get a reliable 50k–70k views, showing the channel has a strong base of subscribers who regularly tune-in to watch.

Like many YouTubers with a strong following, YellowFlash 2 has an online merch store selling everything from t-shirts, coffee mugs, hoodies, stickers, to smartphone covers.

However, I want to point out something pretty important about this channel. It also has a channel membership, ranging from $1.99 to $9.99 a month. Channel memberships can be very valuable and lucrative. Especially for channels that have a strong community following. I couldn’t find any official revenue numbers for memberships. But it’s not hard to imagine this bringing in several thousand more dollars a month. Even if there are only 500 members, that’s a minimum of $1000 a month, and possibly more if some of those members are paying for the higher tier status.

YellowFlash 2 also had a Patreon page previously, but this seems to have gone offline, or been taken down.

Niche Deets

As indicated earlier, the news entertainment/gossip/outrage niche is all about quantity over quality. It’s about clickbait. It’s about following the latest breaking news and chasing the hottend trends. This is by no means a passive “hobby channel.” It’s a full-time job.

If this sounds like a niche you’d want to try, you’d better be prepared to hustle and pump out videos constantly. You need to stay on the pulse of what’s happening as it happens.

You also need to be able to present the news with a bit of style, and be willing to employ some emotional manipulation. YellowFlash 2 is not a popular Youtube channel just because it delivers the latest news. Anyone can do that. It’s also popular because it appeals to an audience of comic book and movie fans that agree with its “anti-woke” (whatever that may mean) ethos. That audience may interesect with the red pill community, MGTOWers, and other communities that generally skew younger and male.

I point this out not because I necessarily agree, follow, or are part of those communities. But because it’s important to understand the TYPE OF AUDIENCE you are trying to appeal to with your content. You have to think about your potential audience’s perspective. Ideally, you want to start a channel that matches your personality and beliefs, and hopefully find an audience of like-minded folks. As YouTube shows constantly, there’s a community out there for just about everything and everyone.

Summary

Click-bait news, controversy, and hot takes are not for everyone. But like YellowFlash 2 demonstrates, this can be a very lucrative niche to get into for the right personality. Given the tone and style you portray, it’s probably worth considering using a pseudonym and staying faceless.

Another thing to consider, is that whenever you are straying into the world of controversial topics and celebrities, you run the risk of attracting a lot of negativity and nastiness. Meaning things that can get your channel demonetized, suspended, or even outright banned. This is especially true if you are taking certain political or social stances. Even just sharing some types of news can bring out the haters, no matter how milquetoast you are. YouTube is getting increasingly strict about these sorts of things. But opposing sides have also been known to brigade enemy channels, getting them deleted, and their owners canceled or doxxed. So beware.

All the risks aside, news content of all stripes is only going to continue in the direction of video, especially from community-specific channels like this one. If this sounds like the type of niche for you, there’s certainly lots of room for more voices.