Youtube Flashback: August 2007 Top 100

Picture from 2007 curtesy of Wayback Machine

What were you doing in August 2007? Were you even on Youtube either as someone who watched the videos of others or were you one of the few who uploaded clips and got listed in this Top 100 from August 5, 2007?

Look at the numbers these people had just 4 short years ago and compare them with the millions of subscribers that the Top 100 Most Subscribed have today and you can see the astounding growth this website has generated. How many of these channels do you remember and how many are still actively uploading videos? Each channel can still be found by the links provided unless they have been closed which is the case for some of them. Others just have not been updated in years.

1 smosh 148,992
2 lonelygirl15 97,821
3 esmeedenters 70,844
4 miaarose 68,787
5 WilliamSledd 66,743
6 HappySlip 62,098
7 thewinekone 59,781
8 LisaNova 59,764
9 CBS 57,144
10 BaratsAndBereta 54,542
11 JamesNintendoNerd 54,114
12 Brookers 53,693
13 kevjumba 47,251
14 GayGod 46,685
15 LittleKuriboh 45582
16 TheHill88 45,127
17 geriatric1927 44,479
18 universalmusicgroup 43,518
19 linkinparktv 42,705
20 FueledByRamen 40,914
21 NBC 39,259
22 blamesocietyfilms 38,070
23 digitalfilmmaker 35,965
24 derrickcomedy 35,483
25 boh3m3 35,255
26 Daxflame 34,712
27 Blendtec 34,586
28 ashleytisdale 33,847
29 mYcheMicALroMaNcE 33,396
30 renetto 29,418
31 impytherap 29,039
32 charlestrippy 28,828
33 ysabellabrave 27,612
34 communitychannel 27,593
35 lassegg 26,945
36 abbegirl 26,930
37 RonPaul2008dotcom 24,379
38 vlogolution 23,505
39 Danielbeast 23,431
40 Emmalina 21,678
41 ItTakes5IVE 21,439
42 smpfilms 21,192
43 warnerbrosrecords 20,748
44 MadV 20,704
45 littleloca 20,194
46 rockongoodpeople 19,996
47 EclecticAsylumArt 19,937
48 mrpitifulband 19,761
49 sxephil 19,735
50 terranaomi 19,641

51 FilthyWhore 19,200
52 Katers17 19,040
53 MarkDayComedy 18,854
54 francisstokesdotcom 18,626
55 RyanLeslieTV 18,521
56 Blunty3000 18,467
57 valsartdiary 17,798
58 nalts 17,675
59 drewtoothpaste 17,477
60 cutiemish 17,448
61 NHLVideo 17,260
62 liamkylesullivan 17,072
63 prettyrickyvideos 16,978
64 ItsJustSomeRandomGuy 16,936
65 IanH 16,672
66 wantlieswiththat 16572
67 StevenTsapelas 16,450
68 davidchoimusic 16,288
69 NBA 16,239
70 mystoandpizzi 16,227
71 boburnham 16,107
72 BadBoyRecords 16,095
73 DiGiTiLsOuL 16,038
74 JustinSandercoe 15,768
75 phatfffat 15,689
76 ParisHilton 15,621
77 judsonlaipply 15,551
78 NeilCicierega 15,532
79 LazyLionsProductions 15,247
80 BBCWorldwide 15,217
81 jonastko 15,174
82 MediocreFilms 15,123
83 Paperlilies 15,019
84 NoHoGirls 14,718
85 Rubix89 14,713
86 ArtieTSMITW 14,680
87 GiR2007 14,615
88 JiveHonky81 14,549
89 gemmers19 14,483
90 roadrunnerrecords 14,387
91 YouTube 14,293
92 hoiitsroi 14,289
93 Rabix99 14,139
94 macpulenta 14,028
95 spricket24 13,674
96 MysteryGuitarMan 13,579
97 anafree 13,463
98 underoathmusic 13,329
99 peron75 13,206
100 citizenchong 13,051

Right at the top is of course smosh who remain right there, showing incredible staying power. In August 2007 Anthony and Ian had garnered an incredible 148,992 subscribers and had taken over top spot from the rapidly declining lonelygirl15. Now smosh enjoys the support of over 3 million subs. HappySlip is right at the top along with Lisa Nova's channel. Kevjumba was in 13th spot with only 47K subs?!

Charles Trippy had a mere 28,828 subs and CTFxC was still a long way off (this was pre-Alli and obviously Ms Speed and soon-to-be Mrs Trippy had a great effect on Charles' life). Natalie Tran's communitychannel had only 27,593 subscribers at this point.

Whoa. Way down at number 49 is sxephil (Philip DeFranco) with 19,735 subscribers. These days Phil gets 19K a week in subs across his many channels and is hovering near the Top 10 Most Subscribed. Katers17 is still making videos on her main channel but does daily vlogs as katersoneseven and is temporarily located in the states from her native England. Uncle Nalts is up there at number 58 with only 17K subs.

Looking towards the bottom of the list there is spricket24, MysteryGuitarMan (with only 13,579!) and peron75 which is Michael "WhatTheBuck" Buckley's 2nd channel.

If you're looking at these numbers in surprise, don't be shocked. Youtube has grown, mutated and grown again exponentially during the intervening 4 years and who knows who will still be around in another 4 years.

One thing to point out is that this list does not show a Ray William Johnson, Nigahiga or Fred. Some of the most popular Youtube channels today were active in August 2007 but were not even listed in the Top 100. Food for thought. There were many who gave up trying to be successful on Youtube back at this time thinking that the window of opportunity had already closed when actually it was being pried open even further. Look at the numbers in this list again and tell me you don't see potential for the future with this website.

MysteryGuitarMan's Videos All Contain The Same Element: Awesomeness!

One of the most creative people on Youtube right now is MysteryGuitarMan. Pick just about any of MGM's videos and you will be saying "How the hell did he do that?" Like the title of this post says, MysteryGuitarman's videos are all the same: awesome.



I've been subbed to him since he first elbowed his way onto the Top 100 a while back and watched his rise up the charts and right now he has just passed the 1.5 million subscriber mark which is pretty sweet - 2 million is just around the corner. Not only is MGM creative, but he is also very prolific, pumping out new videos all the time. What I also like to point out is that his videos are visual interesting, but the music is great too.

He routinely gets about 17K new subscribers each week (how many youtubers wish they had 17,000 subscribers? Show of hands?) and is in 6th spot of all Youtubers. He has a long way to go if he is going to catch 5th place Smosh who are about 60,000 subs away from the 2 million subscribers level themselves, but even though MGM is pretty far back of (currently 4th place) Fred, I think that both Smoth and MysteryGuitarMan will pass the boy wonder shortly.

Wow! Fred Figglehorn Drops An Album

Looks like Fred has just released his album with this song called Tater Haters leading the way. Fred was always something of a cartoon with his high-pitched voice and now he's morphed to animated mode for this video. I would really like to know what you think about this development.



In case you don't know who Fred is (you been living under a rock or what?), he is a character by Lucas Cruikshank that is a highpitched and very hyper kid who gets into many misadventures and seems to get left alone a lot. I admit I watched quite a few Fred videos when I first joined YouTube, but never subbed to his channel.

If you simply gotta have it, Fred's songs are available on iTunes and the album is called Who's Ready to Party?. Me, I think I this may be a party I'll skip, thank you very much.

The animation is okay I guess and reminds me of something that we would get from Ren and Stimpy, but even though the "Tater Haters" part is oddly catchy, I don't think this is something I will be waiting in line to purchase.

Maybe this latest development in Lucas' career will help him when he joins Nickelodeon's stable this coming spring with his own show, and maybe he is pushing this out in an effort to appeal to the pre-teen crowd (I'm hoping) because it is not something that many mainstream youtubers will likely want to watch (not that I am tapped in to the psyche of your typical YT viewer).

Yes Fred does maintain a massive following on YouTube and currently sits in 4th place on the alltime list, but he was once the most subscribed channel on YouTube not that long ago. But as he has broadened his horizons beyond the website with his Nickelodeon deal and his recent movie Fred: The Movie which was originally supposed to be a theatrical released, but premiered on Nickelodeon. The movie aired in September 2010 with a respectable 7.6 million viewers (not me).

Lucas' Fred YouTube channel continues to garner new subscribers but nothing like it generated a year or so back, while other channels on YouTube are overtaking and passing him. Many of the Fred-haters would say that is a good thing, but you have to take it for what it is. His channel gets about 4,000-5,000 new subs each week, but most of the other top channels are getting 3-4 times that number every week, which means this channel will slip down the rankings. I think he is close to his limit on what he can get as far as new subs, but there could be an even greater market of those on Nickelodeon who may not have heard of Fred and fall under his spell.

Some have grown tired of the Fred character and would be happy to see him disappear, but with a subscriber base of over 2 million, don't expect Fred to stop making videos for YouTube anytime soon - although it is next to impossible to figure out what successful YouTube partners earn, you can bet that Lucas has emassed a tidy sum that continues to provide him with more than enough to kick back and relax. I read somewhere that he easily has college taken care of (if he chooses that route) along with a nice nest egg.

Question: What is your opinion of this video?

TheWillofDC: Winners & Losers Halloween 2010

I don't know about you, but as a regular viewer of TheWillofDC's Winners & Losers I like how Will did this video rather than his other recent videos with the green screen. That said, there were some interesting developments in the rankings of the Top 100 Youtubers this week and Will lets us know what's what.



The big winner this past week was DieAussenseiter a German YouTube channel that moved up from 80th to 77th place on the overall Top 100. "DieAussenseiter" translates into english as "The Outsider". This does show the growth of the international scope of YouTube and other channels using languages other than primarily English should take heart and receive some motivation to keep working to make more videos and channels in their native languages - there are audiences in every country that want great content in their own language. Below is a Halloween video from DieAussenseiter.



DieAussenseiter is made up of two German brothers: Alexander "Sascha" Koslowski and Dimitri "Dima" Koslowski and their channel now has 437K subscribers and 111 million views! Those are some solid numbers.

According to Will, the biggest loser seems to be therealdemilovato channel which garnered only 2,903 new subscribers over the last 2 weeks and fell to 49th place from 44th. It looks like Demi Lovato's in a new series called Sonny With A Chance (that seems like a re-run of 57 other Disney shows - hope that didn't sound too harsh). They've released a bunch of clips of the series on Demi's channel, but nothing truly unique content-wise, just more from the Disney machine. If you want to see a clip with Shaq, check it out:



Ray William Johnson Got 73,000 New Subscribers?!

Yes, Ray keeps on generating massive numbers in the subscriber race more than doubling Nigahiga's new subscribers 35,013 with RWJ getting 73,252 new subs. That is amazing. Last year when it was Shane Dawson pulling the big numbers, I'm pretty sure even Shane didn't get that many all at once. Ray William Johnson is still about 600,000 behind Nigahiga but Ray's gaining on him fast. It's probably only a matter of time before there's a new number one most subscribed on YouTube.

Also, Fred got passed by Shane Dawson for 3rd overall. Poor Fred who everyone loves to hate was once the big kahuna but he's slipping. His numbers are still solid, but Smosh is breathing down the little guy's neck (Anthony and Ian are about 100K behind Fred).

A couple of other big name Youtubers that Will didn't mention are sxephil and realannoyingorange who are neck and neck for 9th and 10th spots, with collegehumor and davedays both really, really close behind.

L.A. Times Telling Parents To Beware Of Fred Figglehorn?!

Apparently Fred is getting some notoriety. The L.A. Times just ran a lengthy article about the Youtube star mentioning his upcoming TV movie on Nickelodeon (it's on Saturday) and that he's going to be in a TV series on the network that's a "Mork-and-Mindy-esque sitcom" called Marvin, Marvin in 2011. He also had a record come out for Christmas last year called It's Hackin' Christmas with Fred.

Fred is of course Lucas Cruickshank, a 17-year-old from Nebraska who created the Fred Figglehorn character and who now has 1,984,975 subscribers. Yup Fred will likely have broken the 2 million subs barrier by the time you read this.

The Times article is a bit lengthy, but really informative - especially if you are trying to get known on Youtube and elsewhere online (hint, hint), so here's a link to the article:

'Fred's' Lucas Cruikshank building a tween empire.

Hey, while you're here, why don't you watch one of Fred's latest videos before he becomes a massive celeb and drops Youtube like a bad habit? (just kidding) It features the band Weezer (for reals).

Article Out Says 10 YouTube Stars Making $100,000 A Year

There's an article out stating that in all likelihood, at least 10 youtubers are raking in a minimum of $100,000 a year. Sounds sweet right? Below is the list of 10 YouTube Stars and their estimated yearly income from being in the YouTube Partnership Program.

10. Natalie Tran - communitychannel - $101,000
9. The Young Turks – The Young Turks - $112,000
8. Smosh – smosh - $113,000
7. Mediocre Films – MediocreFilms - $116,000
6. Shay Carl – Shaytards - $140,000
5. Fred – Fred - $146,000
4. Ryan Higa – nigahiga - $151,000
3. Philip DeFranco – sxephil - $181,000
2. The Annoying Orange – realannoyingorange - $288,000
1. Shane Dawson – shanedawsontv - $315,000

Now I just watched Phil DeFranco's latest Vloggity and he thinks there are several holes in the article. Like the fact that Ray William Johnson isn't even on the list. Ray's show, equals 3 gets about 25 million views a month and he's been getting new subscribers at an almost unbelieveable pace over the last year or so. Anyway, watch Phil's take on the article:



The basis on which they base their math is as follows:

- "Revenue only comes from banner ads served near content (we ignored pre-roll or overlay since we can't easily isolate by publisher).

- Since YouTube banner ads have a two-second load delay, we estimate 2.59% of viewers click away before an ad loads based on separate research.

- Ads were served near all videos that loaded (since there are partners, this is generally true).

- CPM for the banner ads was $1.50 (Google auctions a lot of this inventory off; we rounded this 2009 estimate down to be conversative).

- YouTube is splitting ad revenue with partners 50-50.

Basically, take their views from the past year, assume a few don't stick around long enough for an ad to load, divide that number by 1,000, multiply by $1.50 and divide that number in half."

Usually due to Google Adsense rules, most partners in the program are not allowed to disclose exactly what they make. You can still get some estimates around the Web, but really, only Google, YouTube and the individual YouTube Partners really know. You could use the formula given above to estimate what someone not in the Top 10 might be making, but it would still be faulty. They don't even take the ads that appear over the screen when you watch a YouTube partner's video because as the writer says because they "can't easily isolate by publisher."

So far, DeFranco's been the only one to come forward about this article but hopefully someone else will do likewise. I'd like to see what The Young Turks or Shane Dawson might have to say about it.

If you want to read the article, here's a link: Meet The YouTube Stars Making $100,000 Plus Per Year

Note: Here's Greg from mediocrefilms' video reaction to hearing he was flush with Youtube cash: Mediocrefilms Strikes Back Re: Making In Excess Of $100,000 On YouTube

It's Fred Is Being Stalked By ijustine At Target!

Lucas Cruikshank aka Fred is being stalked by ijustine and winterspringpro while he is filming a music video at a local Target store.

At first IJ and her friends can't locate Lucas anywhere, searching high & low for him all through the store, but finally spot him in the parking lot where they are shooting. My secret Internet girlfriend even gets a small part in Fred Figglehorn's video which should be up in a couple of weeks. Lucas also mentions something about a show he will have on Nickelodeon shortly.

Fred Gets A Job At The Local Tattoo Parlor

In case you haven't seen Fred's latest epic, his Mom has arranged for him to work at "the greatest place evar!", the local tattoo parlor. Here's that video: