Business education creator and calligraphy artist Dina Lu revealed that reaching the milestone of 100,000 subscribers does not guarantee a high income, noting her YouTube AdSense revenue totalled only about $362 in a month.
While Lu has earned a lifetime total of $54,000 since starting her channel in October 2020, she explained that a combination of a four-month hiatus and shifting content topics led to a significant 56% drop in her recent advertising earnings.
By sharing her behind-the-scenes analytics, Lu aims to educate aspiring content creators on the volatility of platform-based income and the importance of viewing YouTube as a lead-generation tool rather than a primary salary source.
The drop in earnings is largely attributed to a decrease in the channel’s RPM, which measures how much a creator earns per 1,000 views after YouTube takes its 45% cut.
Lu’s RPM fell from $7 to $4.80 as she moved away from high-paying “how to make money” niche topics toward more personal, “soul-aligned” business content.
Advertisers typically pay a higher CPM, the rate an advertiser pays for 1,000 ad impressions, for finance and business tutorials than for general lifestyle or hobbyist content.
Lu emphasized that subscriber count is a “vanity metric” because revenue is driven by active views rather than total followers. Many of her most popular videos, including a tutorial on starting an Etsy shop that garnered 800,000 views, are now several years old and are being outranked by newer content in the YouTube algorithm.
She noted that Shorts contribute almost nothing to her earnings, generating only $6 despite tens of thousands of views.
To maintain a sustainable business, Lu utilizes a “funnel” strategy where YouTube serves as the top of the funnel to attract an audience, who are then directed to more stable income streams.
Her diversified revenue model includes brand sponsorships negotiated through an agency, affiliate marketing, and UGC, which involves creating videos for brands to use on their own social channels.
The creator also highlighted the importance of “audience monetization” through direct sales of digital products and services.
Lu has previously run a calligraphy business accelerator and currently offers coaching and custom poetry services to her community.
She strongly advised creators to build an email list to protect themselves from platform fluctuations, noting she has grown her own list to 17,000 subscribers using Kit (formerly ConvertKit), an email marketing platform.
Dina Lu is a Vancouver-based creator who gained significant traction in 2022 with side-hustle and Etsy-focused tutorials.
Despite the recent dip in views, her channel remains a prominent resource for creative entrepreneurs, and she recently received her Silver Creator Award from YouTube for surpassing the 100,000-subscriber mark.
