I sat down and chatted with Jason Goss, one of the partners behind SmashTVCanada. He gave me some insights into being involved with YouTube.
Q: What is it that you do? Do you have a “day job” too?
A: We create entertaining online videos. As a YouTube partner, we have full creative control over all the content we show. If we want to create parodies, skits, or music videos…or even our own creative content, we are free to do so. Our only guidelines are that we cannot use copyrighted music and it has to be family appropriate: no drugs, excessive violence or sexually explicit content. The pay is directly related to your views. So in order to make this a full-time job, you require a large audience. We have over 20k subscribers currently, but that is not enough to allow us to do this full time. So yes…we currently have “day jobs.” It is possible to do this full time. I know several more famous YouTube partners who do this full time, AND hire staff.
Q: How long have you had a YouTube channel, and how did you get into it?
A: We’ve been making online videos for 2 years now. We started just for the fun of it. We had no intentions of making money. My partner Chris and I always do random silly things to make people laugh. Especially in public places! We like to get random people laughing or involved in our hijinks. Over time people asked us if we were comedians or doing this for a tv show or something, and at the time we were not. So we decided we should! We figured YouTube was the logical stepping point! More people can see our crazy ideas. Eventually we learned about the partner program and just kept doing it!
Our main goal is still to have fun. If we don’t have fun doing something we create…we don’t release the video. We keep close contact with our fans who message us, and if we don’t like it, we are pretty sure they won’t, either.
Q: What can you tell me about the “culture” of YouTube? Are there any personality types you think tend to be drawn to that kind of work?
A: It is definitely a culture. All the YouTubers I’ve met who are moderately successful or better are VERY similar. We all have a drive to entertain. There is a subculture of YouTube meet ups and gatherings, and you meet MANY like minded people. That’s not to say you don’t meet diverse people with different goals. Some are just in it for money, but are still incredible entertainers. However, the ones I personally connect with the best, are the ones who love watching other people’s content and entertaining people themselves. We’re really just a light-hearted group of people who love to have fun and cheer up the people around them!
Thanks to Jay, who took the time to answer my questions. Check out his YouTube channel, SmashTVCanada. They have some really funny videos on there. My favorite are the Master C series, but I love the Lost and Abandoned series and the yearly Zombie Walk videos.