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.

Natalie Tran Is Wearing Only A Towel? And Where Can I Buy Large Kit Kat Bars?

When she is on the road, Natalie Tran (aka communitychannel) has to stop in the odd hotel room from time to time and one of the things she discusses in this video is the "secret code" between herself and the cleaning staff at the hotel. If she leaves her towel on the hook in the bathroom it means she wants to use it again, but if she leaves the towel in the bathtub, she wants a new one. Natalie wonders in this video what if this code was expanded into other aspects of her life:



If I see Natalie at VidCon this summer, I am going to give her a whole bunch of Kit Kat bars lol. And thumbs up on the thumb nail used in her video. She pokes a lot of fun at herself, but that's not a bad looking woman.

I of course had to tweet Natalie to let her know that she should expect to be plied with Kit Kat bars if she attends VidCon this summer.

Natalie Tran Is Creeping Your FaceBook Page

I always like seeing Natalie Tran (aka communitychannel) in my inbox but I'm going to have to make sure I don't have her stalking my Facebook page - good thing she's rejected my friend request for the umpteenth time (um, I mean, she must have missed seeing my request), but Natalie has been trolling the FaceBook pages of her "friends" according to this video.



See? You broke your leg, and Natalie is liking that news? What a meanie! Actually, if you want to join her FaceBook fan page, there's the link: facebook/communitychannel. Natalie's got 110,000 fans on Facebook? No wonder she's been awol on Youtube with all the creepin' that allows her lol.

Actually she's been busy doing other stuff but she mentioned something about a new project, so I'll keep an eye out for that and will report it here as soon as she posts anything.

Of course there's her obsession with chocolate money which we used to get in our Christmas stockings. We never got one of those big, honking coins the size of dinner plate that she's waving around in the video. Think I could convince her to part with it? Nah, I don't think so either.

Her lame excuse for not posting too many videos is that some random sick woman (with a quasi-demonic voice) hacked up some ebola-like illness on her while riding the train gave her something that made her sick. Best line in this video had to be" And that makes her the 7th woman this year who I've contracted something from. Take that as you will." lol, epic veiled lesbian joke.

And if you want to return the favor and stalk Natalie on Twitter, you can follow her (I like do, yes on Twitter! Airfare to Australia is prohibitive and then there's finding accomodations, good disguises etc - not that I've put much thought into my stalking of her), but yeah, follow Natalie on Twitter here: @natalietran.

Natalie From communitychannel And Her Weird Diaries

I love Natalie from communitychannel. She always makes me laugh unexpectedly during her videos and this one is no exception.

First, I'm a dude so I never ever kept a diary (guys kept journals if we kept anything, which we don't), but I do keep a blog. And instead of writing for myself alone, I yell to the Internet about what I like and who I think is hot etc. Yes, I think Natalie is hot. Love the accent, although she is a bit of an oddball, I like her character and sense of humor and she makes me chuckle out loud. Okay, maybe it'll never happen for us, but I have to put a heart image here. I'm such a dork lol.

Here's her previous video where she describes her selfishness and plane safety. "I love having my head between knees" lol.

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