• YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki has spoken about how she regulates her five kids' screen time.
• Wojcicki said she takes their phones away, particularly on vacation, to help them focus on the "present."
• She added that she wants her kids to be responsible for how much time they spend on their phones and learn "self-control methods."
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki has admitted that she takes her children's phones away during battles to regulate their screen time.

Wojcicki, who runs a platform designed to keep people glued to content, said in a wide-ranging interview with The Guardian that it is important for her five kids to focus on the "present."

"People need to learn when it is a time [to be] focused in the conversation, and when it is OK to go and watch videos or do other activities on the internet," she said.

To this end, Wojcicki said taking their phones away can be effective. "I have times when I take away all my kids' phones, especially if we're on a family vacation because I want people to interact with each other," she said. "So, I take away their phones and say: 'We're all going to focus on being present today.'"

Read more: Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel and wife Miranda Kerr limit their seven-year-old child to 1.5 hours of screen time per week

In the past, Wojcicki has admitted that this is not always an easy task. Her five children age from four to late teens and she told the Belfast Telegraph in 2017: "We spend as much time as other parents taking their phones away from our kids, saying... 'No phones at the dinner table!'"

The YouTube CEO said, however, that she wants her kids to be responsible for how much time they spend on their phones and learn "self-control methods."

She explained: "TV was the same when I was growing up. I was taught that, sure, some TV is enjoyable, but it needs to be balanced with sports, school, homework, reading and other activities."

Asked how old children should be before they are given a phone, she said around 11 makes sense. "There are moments when it becomes important for them to have a phone," she added. "I think middle school is a reasonable point to start educating them about it, but also a lot of times you can take it away."

Wojcicki is not the only tech CEO to talk about how they monitor their kids' screen time. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said last year that he and his wife Miranda Kerr impose a limit of an hour and a half of screen time per week on their seven-year-old child.

Read Susan Wojcicki's full interview with The Guardian here.

SEE ALSO: Evan Spiegel’s old Stanford professor flamed the Snapchat CEO for failing to stop kids getting addicted to tech

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• As a woman in tech, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki deals with male microaggressions, even at the C-suite level.
• "There are micro-aggressions that people aren't always aware of and that can have a cumulative effect ... I've also developed techniques, over 20 years of being in the industry, of learning how to have my words taken seriously, and how to get attention," Wojcicki said in an interview with The Guardian.
• Wojcicki's techniques include calling out microaggressions when she sees them, stating her comments confidently, disagreeing without hedging, and getting more women into tech.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki still deals with microaggressions from male colleagues as a woman in tech, despite her 20-year career in Silicon Valley and her C-suite position.

"I feel like I've been supported ... for the most part. But a lot of times there are microaggressions that people aren't always aware of and that can have a cumulative effect," Wojcicki said in an interview with Guardian reporter Emine Saner.

Read more:YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki says she takes her 5 kids' phones away during battles over their screen time

These microaggressions include Wojcicki not being taken seriously, being spoken over, and having her ideas ignored. Wojcicki said she's learned throughout the course of her career to call people out on sexism and microaggressions.

Alternately, she finds ways to get people to initially pay attention to her words, and then really listen.

One technique she describes is to state her comments confidently.

"What I find is, you can't say comments in a timid, unsure way — no one's going to listen to you and no one's going to take you seriously," Wojcicki told The Guardian.

Another technique is to disagree without hedging. "You have to say something like: 'No, I completely disagree with your point of view, you're going in the wrong direction. Let me tell you what I think is the right step for the future," Wojcicki said. "And then you've opened the door and people are paying attention."

Wojcicki said that one of her long-term strategies is getting more women into tech.

"If only 25% of people coming into tech are women, then there are some stories and some perspectives that are not being shared," Wojcicki said to The Guardian.

Read more: YouTube's CEO was asked whether she actually meant her apology to the LGBTQ community, and the crowd broke out in applause

The percentage of women employees at Google his jumped from one-quarter to one-third of total employees under Wojcicki's leadership, The Guardian reports. Wojcicki identified the challenge of bolstering the number of women in tech as twofold: getting women into tech initially, and then keeping them.

With so few women graduating with degrees in computer science — Wojcicki says just 20% of graduates identify as women — the challenge becomes getting the network started from a smaller pool.

"It's always hard if you're the first woman, the only woman," Wojcicki told The Guardian. "But if you're working in an organization where there are a significant number, and not just in the entry-level positions, then younger women understand that they can also achieve these leadership roles."

Once women are at tech companies like Google, keeping them at those companies throughout their careers with policies like maternity leave are important, Wojcicki said. Google offers six months of paid maternity leave; the US doesn't mandate that companies offer any paid leave for new mothers.

"After I had my last child, I was thinking on day 10: 'How would I feel if I had to come back right now?'" Wojcicki said to The Guardian, after discussing that one quarter of American women return to work just 10 days after giving birth. "I thought: 'I wouldn't – I'd rather quit.'"

Read Susan Wojcicki's full interview with The Guardian here.

SEE ALSO: 12 former Facebook insiders who ditched the company and are now outspoken critics

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• Twitch, the Amazon-owned video game streaming service, has suffered a pair of controversies involving pornography in the last three months.
• On August 10, a Twitch channel streaming pornography shot to the top of the list of recommended channels with more than 20,000 live viewers.
• The channel's feed included pornographic animations with characters from games like "Fortnite," and streamed for several hours before being suspended by Twitch.
• In May, Twitch blocked new users from streaming for several days because the feed for the game "Artifact" was filled with dozens of fake users streaming pornography and white supremacist videos, including footage of the Christchurch shooting.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

In the past three months, Twitch.tv has suffered a pair of major controversies involving channels streaming pornography, a clear violation of the platform's terms of service.

On August 10, a channel streaming pornography under the "Fortnite" category shot to the top of Twitch's recommended channels with more than 20,000 viewers watching the live feed. "Fortnite" is one of the most popular games on Twitch and the channel's video feed included "Fortnite"-themed pornography with animated characters from the game.

Esports consultant Rod "Slasher" Breslau noted that the channel was live for at least two hours before being suspended by Twitch administrators. Breslau shared a screenshot of Twitch's most popular "Fortnite" streams on Twitter, which included a thumbnail of the pornographic content streamed by Twitch user godeugenes.

Tyler "Ninja" Blevins, who owns the most-followed channel on Twitch, criticized the company for allowing pornographic content to automatically stream from his channel's landing page while he was offline. Ninja recently signed an exclusive streaming deal with Microsoft's streaming platform Mixer, and Twitch had been using his abandoned channel to redirect users to other popular "Fortnite" streamers.

Read more:Ninja slams Twitch after his dramatic move to Mixer, saying he's 'disgusted' the Amazon streaming service used his old channel to promote porn

Ninja's channel has more than 14 million followers, and anyone who visited his channel directly on the morning of August 10 could have been exposed to a pornographic thumbnail. Twitch CEO Emmett Shear apologized for having Ninja's channel automatically host inappropriate content and said Twitch would be suspending the recommended channel function until they could determine how the pornographic stream rose to the top of the list.

To combat the overwhelming number of fake accounts, Twitch changed its policy to require new users to activate two-factor authentication prior to streaming. A month later, the company filed a lawsuit against the streamers who violated their policies, but was unable to identify them by name. Instead, the lawsuit named them as "John and Janes Does 1-100."

Twitch is the most popular platform for video game streaming by far. According to data from Streamlabs, gamers watched Twitch for a combined 2.7 billion hours during the last three months — that's nearly four times as much watch time as the second-most-popular live-streaming service, YouTube Gaming, which had 702 million hours watched over the same span.

Like other video platforms, Twitch thrives by making its streaming service easy to use and accessible to millions of users. However, as the platform continues to grow and expand to new content areas beyond gaming, it has struggled to manage the countless number of live streamers using the platform at any given time. While moderating inappropriate content is a full-time task for any social media or video platform, Twitch's recent promotion of a pornographic channel reflects a growing problem for the site.

SEE ALSO: Ninja ditching Twitch for Microsoft's Mixer was a brilliant decision

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• This is a preview of The Stories Report from Business Insider Intelligence.
• 14-Day Risk Free Trial: Get full access to this and all Digital Media industry research reports.

Stories are on track to become the main format for social media consumption, providing brands with a massive and vital opportunity to reach consumers.

 Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg claims the format will supplant News Feed use as soon as mid-2019, a much quicker pace than the social network anticipated. Combined, Stories features on Facebook-owned platforms command a whopping 1.5 billion daily active users (DAU), though some may be double-counted.

Snapchat's audience is significantly smaller, though still sizable at 190 million DAU as of Q1 2019. Stories-centric features have also emerged on several other platforms, including YouTube, Google search results, and even LinkedIn.

The viral acceptance of Stories, their accelerating usage, and their highly engaging nature make it imperative for brands to use the format to reach consumers. This fast-growing opportunity will enable brands to reach consumers in a native format that's immersive and highly appealing to younger demographics.

But because Stories are a completely new animal for brands — most are still playing catch-up to consumer adoption — they must follow best practices to make sure to avoid aggravating users through overexposure, or wasting resources by creating Stories that users don't want to watch. 

In TheStories Report, Business Insider Intelligence identifies the most popular platforms for Stories features, defines best practices to maximize engagement without alienating users, and pinpoints challenges hindering brand adoption for the future. 

The companies mentioned in this report are: Facebook, Google, Instagram, LinkedIn, Messenger, Snapchat, WhatsApp, and YouTube.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

• Millennial users are more likely to watch Stories on Instagram (60%) than Snapchat (53%) and Facebook (48%), according to VidMob.
• Gen Z — comprised mainly of teens — favors Snapchat for watching Stories. Teens are heavy viewers of Stories, and 73% of Snapchat's Gen Z audience consume content via Stories, compared with 70% of Instagram's and 34% of Facebook's, per VidMob.
• Brands looking to build successful Stories campaigns and make meaningful connections with customers should shoot vertical content that's uncluttered and post no more than seven Stories within a 24-hour period, among other best practices.

In full, the report:

• Provides insight into which platforms brands should prioritize based on their target audience segments. 
• Offers an inside look into marketers' best practices for Stories creation. 
• Explores the hurdles the industry will need to clear so brands can take full advantage of the format. 

Interested in getting the full report? Here are two ways to access it:

1. Purchase & download the full report from our research store. >> Purchase & Download Now
2. Subscribe to a Premium pass to Business Insider Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report and more than 250 other expertly researched reports. As an added bonus, you'll also gain access to all future reports and daily newsletters to ensure you stay ahead of the curve and benefit personally and professionally. >> Learn More Now

The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you've given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of one of the fastest-growing opportunities in short-form video — the Stories format. 

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• Indian record label T-Series dethroned Swedish gaming vlogger PewDiePie as the most subscribed YouTube channel in March, despite a sustained campaign by Felix Kjellberg's fans to keep him on top.
• T-Series has cemented its lead and now has 108 million subscribers on YouTube. The channel posts high-production Indian music videos that are totally different to PewDiePie's self-referential and occasionally offensive humor.
• Its growing popularity is largely thanks to India's love of homegrown music, and a large chunk of its 1.3 billion population gaining access to the internet for the first time via cheap Android smartphones and generous data plans.
• T-Series president Neeraj Kalyan told Business Insider that YouTube is now the company's third-biggest revenue stream, and that the firm has struck licensing and partnership deals with TikTok, which has a huge Indian audience.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Neeraj Kalyan says the first time he heard of PewDiePie was when his company won a music industry award in Singapore last August.

His firm, a 36-year-old Indian record label called T-Series, was being fêted for passing the 50 million subscriber mark on its dedicated YouTube channel.

The one channel ahead of T-Series? PewDiePie, who had 65 million subscribers. PewDiePie, real name Felix Kjellberg, is 29 years old and the highest paid star on YouTube.

He has risen to fame by filming himself playing video games alongside humorous commentary, but that fame has been marred by controversy over the occasional tasteless prank and remarks referencing Nazis and anti-Semitism.

His name came up again a few months later in 2018 when Kalyan took a meeting in Stockholm, handing in his business card at the hotel.

"The lady at the Sheraton in Stockholm screamed, "You are from T-Series! You're beating PewDiePie! He's from Sweden!'" says Kalyan in an interview with Business Insider.

Kalyan, the president of T-Series, is now pretty familiar with PewDiePie.

Read more: Here's how this college dropout spent 7 years building a profitable startup with no funding, then raised $230 million in his first round at a $2 billion valuation

His company would go on in March to dethrone PewDiePie as most popular YouTube channel, despite a concerted campaign by Kjellberg's fans and fellow YouTubers to keep him at number one.

Five months on, T-Series has cemented its lead, with 108 million subscribers at the time of writing. PewDiePie is still gaining subscribers too, just more slowly, and sits at 98 million.

T-Series' victory was huge news in the annals of internet culture wars, but it also marked something much bigger: the world's biggest democracy coming online.

T-Series is an Indian entertainment powerhouse, posting popular music videos to YouTube

To the Western eye, T-Series' YouTube channel is completely different to the rest of the internet.

Its page is populated with stylised, colourful, and seemingly cheesy music videos, designed to appeal to a mass audience. There is no reference to memes or any sort of internet culture.

It completely avoids much of what makes a largely US-influenced internet tick, catering entirely to mainstream Indian interests. Some of the music videos tie into movies produced by T-Series, and cost up to $350,000 to make.

This video ties into an upcoming T-Series movie, "Saaho." Aesthetically, it's James Bond meets Disney:

It is this which baffled PewDiePie's fans, who revelled in his deeply self-referential, niche, and very internetty humour. His videos are so laced with cross-references that offensive jokes and language are difficult to distinguish from obscure callbacks and references to memes.

Take PewDiePie's "diss tracks" about T-Series, released in the heat of the battle for subscribers and intended to play up the competition. One lyric, from the track "Bitch Lasagna," reads: "Bobs or vegana, whichever will it be?".

The line looks meaningless on its own, but is an apparent reference to Indian men misspelling "boobs" and "vagina" online, which originally went viral on Reddit.

In typical PewDiePie fashion, the lyric treads the line between amusing insider reference and plain offensive.

Kalyan says the two channels have totally different audiences.

"We were never in that race," he says. "But he's great. We wish him all the best — the kinds of things he does, we're not into that. It's a different audience altogether, there's no competition at all."

Relations aren't quite so friendly under the surface.

In April, T-Series won an injunction from the High Court in Delhi against PewDiePie to stop him uploading his diss tracks about T-Series to YouTube. T-Series claimed the videos, including "Bitch Lasagna" and a second video called "Congratulations," were "racist, inflammatory and hateful."

The judge, Justice Jayanth Nath, agreed and ordered the removal of the videos, describing them as "abusive, vulgar and also racist in nature."

Neither "Bitch Lasagna" nor "Congratulations" are viewable via YouTube India, according to tests run by Business Insider using a VPN. Commenters on Reddit have said that both videos have been unavailable since April,  the date of the High Court order, and complained that T-Series couldn't take a joke.

According to subsequent filings seen by Business Insider, the pair settled the matter in July 2019, although both videos remain unavailable inside India.

The terms of the settlement have not been disclosed, and T-Series did not respond to a request for clarification. The settlement has not been previously reported.

T-Series started out recording devotional music to cassette tapes

T-Series was founded in the 1980s by Gulshan Kumar, the son of a fruit juice vendor. The firm originally sold cassettes featuring devotional music and eventually became a record label giant with more than 3,500 employees.

According to a BBC profile, Kumar spotted an opportunity for selling religious music as ageing Hindu devotees couldn't read hymns and chants from books thanks to poor eyesight. He hired singers to record the chants, and then sold the tapes at a cheap price.

"The transition from cassette manufacturing to India's largest music label and very successful studio, with global presence, has really not been a very easy task," says Kalyan of the firm's evolution. "It has been a long journey for us. And over the past 15 years, the content industry has seen a kind of tectonic shift primarily due to the advent in technology."

Kumar was assassinated in 1997 by a hit squad, and his son Bhavesh took over the running of the business.

Read more: These new TikTok influencers have millions of fans and are hustling for a fraction of the price of YouTubers

Through the 2000s, T-Series wrestled with the same issues as other major record labels — namely piracy. It found one reliable source of money in licensing its songs for ringtones in 2004. "Indians loved any sort of spiritual tones or devotional tones," says Kalyan. "I've seen people who won't change their phone wallpaper because it's been lucky for them."

Then came the firm's first encounter with YouTube — in Delhi's High Court.

"We were in litigation with YouTube, we had sued them for infringement of copyright," Kalyan says. "That was still at the time of cassettes. They claimed they were a neutral platform, so we went to court. We were the first company able to obtain an injunction from the [Indian] high court against YouTube."

This was 2007, and YouTube faced multiple lawsuits from rights holders around the world who saw their original content, usually licensed at lucrative rates, ripped and uploaded for free to the video site.

After years of litigation, T-Series' parent firm saw "good sense" and came to a licensing agreement with YouTube in late 2010. Prior to the suit, the firm had no presence on YouTube.

The pair agreed to a three-year revenue-share deal, splitting the money that came in through the ads on T-Series' videos. Google paid an advance upfront, which it planned to make back through its share of the revenue.

"The most interesting part was we recouped that advance in just 9 months," Kalyan says. "That was the kind of growth we experienced. It became a cash cow."

T-Series has benefited from a huge chunk of India coming online in the last three years

The turning point for T-Series and the wider smartphone industry was 2016, when a new Indian telecoms brand called Jio launched. Owned by a major incumbent, Reliance, Jio offered cheap data and smartphones that brought some of India's 1.3 billion-strong population online for the first time.

"99% of India's [mobile] population has Android smartphones," says Neil Shah, an analyst at Counterpoint Research. "So YouTube is a default app. Most users have warmed up to YouTube to consume content — not just video, but music. So they're going to YouTube rather than Spotify."

According to Kantar statistics from December 2018, half a billion people in India are now online, driven primarily by rural growth. That is still less than half the country's total population.

Kalyan notes the impact. "In 2016, there was mobile internet available in tier one or tier two cities, but now it's in tier three to tier five cities and villages, which had never experienced internet," he says. "So now the consumer is excited, and he's experimenting with everything, and it's resulted in an increase in consumption."

Here's how T-Series has steadily grown its subscribers after 2016, per data supplied to Business Insider by Tubular Labs:

Most Western YouTubers are struggling to maintain growth, by contrast.

Now YouTube is T-Series' third-biggest revenue stream, after licenses to video platforms and TV channels. The music label makes money solely through ads, though Kalyan won't disclose how much.

The label has seven people who look after its various YouTube channels — 28 in total, covering different regional languages and interests — and another two or three who post the videos to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

The future is TikTok and original content

After the success of YouTube and the explosion of mobile in India, T-Series is exploring other emerging platforms, Kalyan says. 

The company has forged deals with short-form viral video app TikTok, licensing its music for people to use in videos. India is one of TikTok's biggest markets, with a reported 120 million monthly active users in the country. Kalyan says T-Series proactively works with TikTok influencers to help its songs go viral on the platform.

"We work with their teams, advise them on what's new, and what content we have," he says. "Our artists who are very established work with unknown influencers but have some following, they make a clip of 20 seconds integrating our music into whatever they're doing. Be it action, some dance. After that, it goes viral. And along with that virality, our music which has been synced with that clip also goes viral."

T-Series has also reportedly signed on for TikTok's rumoured streaming service. But Kalyan ruled out T-Series launching its own dedicated content streaming service, such as Disney+.

"We would like to remain focused only on the content," he says. "That is our strength. The next step for us is films, which we've been able to master over the last three years. Before we used to moonlight with one or two films, but now we have 20 big-scale Bollywood films every year. We don't want to be in the space of launching our own platform, we don't want to compete with our own licenses."

It's likely that the T-Series vs. PewDiePie battle is simply the first of many consequences of a 1.3 billion population coming online. A look at the top YouTube channels by subscribers shows at least seven Indian channels in the top 100, including SET India and Zee Music. That might mean further culture clashes as a hugely diverse base of Indian users begin using US platforms more frequently.

It's perhaps the first time a new online population threatens the Americanized focus of the internet. The only other internet population big enough to potentially shape global internet culture in this way is China, but that's been walled off in its own online ecosystem for years. PewDiePie and his memes may have only a limited time in the spotlight.

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• YouTube star PewDiePie and Indian record label T-Series duked it out for months earlier this year to become the most-subscribed YouTube channel. T-Series won and has more than 100 million subscribers.
• But behind the scenes, the pair were fighting a legal battle in Delhi's High Court over "diss tracks" released by PewDiePie, real name Felix Kjellberg, which mocked T-Series.
• The two diss tracks have been blocked in India since a court order in April. A judge described them as "abusive, vulgar, and racist."
• A July filing seen by Business Insider shows the two have now agreed to settle the case, although both videos remain blocked in India.
• T-Series president Neeraj Kalyan said he has no hard feelings towards PewDiePie. "He's great. We wish him all the best," he said. 
• Read Business Insider's full interview with T-Series president Neeraj Kalyan on BI Prime.

YouTube star PewDiePie and Indian music label T-Series have quietly settled a months-long court fight, which took place as the pair duked it out to become the most-subscribed YouTube channel on the planet.

T-Series became the most popular YouTube channel in March 2019, knocking PewDiePie (real name Felix Kjellberg) off the top spot. It now has 108 million subscribers, while PewDiePie has 98 million.

The competition generated huge interest both from Kjellberg's online fanbase as well as the wider media, in part because T-Series exclusively posts Indian music videos and is little known to a Western internet audience.

You can read Business Insider's newly published interview with T-Series president Neeraj Kalyan, as well as details of the court fight, on BI Prime.

UK-based Kjellberg, who is 29 years old and the highest-paid star on YouTube, rose to fame by posting footage of himself playing video games with humorous commentary, which evolved into arcane, insider references. He has attracted negative press thanks to some tasteless pranks and borderline commentary, including paying a couple of freelancers on Fiverr to hold up a sign reading: "Death to all Jews."

That edgy humour spilt over into the fight with T-Series, with Kjellberg releasing two "diss" videos mocking the Indian firm as the two channels fought it out for the top spot. The first, published on YouTube last October and called "Bitch Lasagna," referenced online tropes about Indian users, including the way they misspell words in English. It also appeared to mock Hindi as "mumble rap," among other insults.

After T-Series took the lead, PewDiePie released a second video in late March called "Congratulations," ostensibly congratulating his rival. That video appeared to reference legal action by T-Series: "I got a letter in the post, hmm, what is this?  T-Series saying 'Cease and desist.'"

T-Series successfully had both videos blocked in India eight days later, after obtaining an injunction from Delhi's High Court. The judge found both videos to be "abusive, vulgar and also racist in nature," according to an 8 April filing. Both videos were taken down from YouTube in India.

But according to a subsequent July filing seen by Business Insider, the pair have come to a settlement over the videos. The 15 July filing states the two have settled, but haven't signed an agreement. T-Series did not respond to a request for further detail.

At the time of writing, both of PewDiePie's videos, "Congratulations" and "Bitch Lasagna", remain blocked in India.

T-Series' Kalyan told Business Insider that he has no hard feelings towards PewDiePie. "He's great. We wish him all the best — the kinds of things he does, we're not into that. It's a different audience altogether," he said.

Read Business Insider's full interview with T-Series president Neeraj Kalyan on BI Prime.

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• Tyler "Ninja" Blevins is the most popular professional gamer in the world and reportedly earns more than $500,000 from live streams of his gameplay.
• Ninja's success is intertwined with the popularity of "Fortnite: Battle Royale," a free game with more than 200 million players worldwide.
• After signing a deal with Microsoft, Ninja's recently hit over 1 million subscribers on the livestreaming platform Mixer in a matter of days, and he boasts another 22 million YouTube subscribers.
• While Ninja began earning millions in 2018, he has been gaming competitively since 2009, focusing mainly on the "Halo" franchise.

2018 was a wild year for Tyler "Ninja" Blevins, and he's showing no signs of slowing down in 2019.

At 27, he became the first professional video game player to be featured on the cover of ESPN the Magazine, helped drop the ball in Times Square on New Year's Eve, and became the first streamer on Twitch to reach 10 million followers.

He's now 28 and recently announced a deal with Microsoft and its Mixer game-streaming platform, where in less than a week he's already racked up over a million subscribers.

Those followers watch Ninja's daily game streams religiously; Ninja plays for about 12 hours a day from his basement studio, accepting donations, interacting with his audience, and welcoming new subscribers throughout the session. The long hours help the world's most famous professional gamer earn more than $500,000 a month.

Ninja's meteoric rise to the top of the gaming world is intertwined with the massive popularity of "Fortnite: Battle Royale," his game of choice. "Fortnite" is a free game with more than 200 million players worldwide, and Ninja is regarded by many as the best player on the planet, and certainly the most visible.  

Ninja has streamed himself playing alongside major celebrities like rappers Drake and Travis Scott, and Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster. The extra attention has also stirred some controversy: Ninja vowed to stop swearing during his streams after he was criticized for casually rapping a racial slur during a broadcast.

Ninja's big year showed just how much of an impact video games can have on pop culture, turning a longtime professional gamer into a celebrity in a matter of weeks.

Here's everything you need to know about Ninja, the pro gamer who's bringing streaming into the mainstream:

SEE ALSO: Meet Jessica Blevins, the 26-year-old wife and manager of the most popular video-game player in the world right now

Ninja is one of the highest-paid personalities among game streamers, YouTubers, and esports players.

In interviews with CNBC and CNN, Blevins confirmed he earned more than $500,000 a month from his more than 160,000 paid Twitch subscribers, which are separate from his 12 million followers on the same platform.

On Twitch, streamers net $2.50 for every subscription, which costs the viewer $5 a month and gets them exclusive emotes and badges while allowing them to view the stream without ads. Meanwhile, simply following a streamer is free, but doesn't come with any perks. Viewers can leave "tips" and donations for streamers while they broadcast, though, and Ninja says he once received a $40,000 donation.

Ninja also makes money from his 22 million YouTube subscribers, and additional sponsorship deals.

It's safe to say that he makes much more now — even without accounting for the likely rise in tips from viewers.

Ninja's newfound fame helped him earn sponsorships and big opportunities.

With millions of viewers pouring in daily, Ninja has an audience that is the envy of broadcasters and advertisers alike. Ninja has formed partnerships with a variety of companies including Red Bull, Uber Eats, and NZXT. While some of the deals are straightforward, like his unique discount codes on Uber Eats, others come with added perks.

In October, Red Bull helped Ninja build a state-of-the-art streaming studio in his basement. In addition to installing more than $20,000 in broadcast equipment, the studio was custom made to fit Ninja's growing personal brand.

Ninja's brand has also been boosted by appearances on popular TV shows like "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon,""The Ellen DeGeneres Show," and ESPN's "E:60." He became the first professional gamer to grace the cover of "ESPN the Magazine" in October.

Ninja spends most of his time playing "Fortnite: Battle Royale," the internet's favorite video game right now.

Ninja's success is intertwined with the ongoing popularity of "Fortnite: Battle Royale," a shooter game in which a hundred online players are dropped onto an island where they mine for materials, build structures, find supplies, and kill each other until a single player is left standing, similar to the dystopian arena game described in the "The Hunger Games" books and movies.

It stands as the most-watched game on Twitch by a lot, and "Fortnite" creator Epic Games reports that the game has seen 200 million players worldwide. While packages with the full version of "Fortnite" start at $39.99, the "Battle Royale" game mode is free to play on PC, Mac, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and mobile (both iOS and Android). 

The popularity of "Fortnite" is what sparked Ninja's friendship with Drake, who is also a fan of the game. Drake initiated the unlikely pairing, saying he had watched Ninja's streams before they played together.

On March 14, 2018, Drake joined Ninja for a "Fortnite" stream late at night, and the two broke Twitch's record for the most concurrent viewers of all time, partly thanks to Drake's advertising the marathon to his 36.9 million Twitter followers.

During the hours-long session, Ninja implied that it had been Drake who actually initiated the team-up.

While the two ran through the virtual island looking for weapons, Drake said he had recently been playing "Fortnite" in the recording studio during his breaks, had seen a video of Ninja playing on Instagram, and later watched more of his content on YouTube.

"I am 99.9% sure we are about to break Twitch," Ninja said shortly after, pointing out the number of their concurrent viewers had surpassed the previous non-tournament record of 388,000, held by Dr. DisRespect.

"That's easy," Drake replied.

The duo was later joined by rapper Travis Scott and Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, who admitted during the game he is a huge Ninja fan.

That night, they maxed out at 635,000 concurrent viewers. Luckily, Twitch didn't actually crash. You can watch the recorded games on Ninja's YouTube channel.

Despite all the success, Ninja hasn't forgotten his roots.

During the CNBC interview, Blevins reminded viewers that while playing video games on Twitch may seem like an easy way make millions, he doesn't recommend quitting your day job — at least not at first.

"You can't just drop everything and focus on playing video games for a living," he said, after pointing out that when he first started his gaming career, he was also working, going to college, and playing soccer. "You want to make sure you're securing your future and putting in the extra time to make this happen as well."

Perhaps the most charming part of Ninja's zero-to-hero story is his previous job at Noodles and Co., which he has nothing but kind words for, as evidenced by this Twitter thread:

And based on this tweet, it seems like they feel the same way:

Blevins works with his wife, Jessica, who is one of the reasons why he's so successful.

Jessica Blevins is in charge of managing Ninja's entire business, including coordinating the handful of people who are part of "Team Ninja."

She's also a streamer in her own right, going by the online handle JGhosty.

You can read our interview with Jessica here.

And although he's managed to build a reputation as "one of the good ones" in the often toxic gaming community, Ninja has already faced some public scrutiny.

In March, while playing "Fortnite" with Matthew "Nadeshot" Haag, Ninja started freestyle-rapping over the song "44 More" by Logic.

The actual lyrics to the song don't include the N-word, but Blevins said it anyway, to the surprise of his partner (a video of the incident has since been deleted). 

Lots of Ninja's fans came to his defense on Twitter after the initial blowback, saying that unlike YouTube star Felix "PewDiePie" Kjellberg, who famously fell from grace in 2016 after calling another player the N-word (and said many other regrettable things), Blevins had no malicious intent and clearly fumbled over it in the moment, indicating that it was a sincere accident.

Blevins apologized for the blunder in a series of tweets Thursday morning, saying: "The best way I can explain it is that I promise that I understand how much pain that word causes, even if it gets used a lot in music and elsewhere. It's a word historically used to divide people, and I'm about bringing people together."

He continued, "I apologize for offending anyone and appreciate you all rocking with me."

But Ninja hasn't always been this famous.

Prior to 2018, Ninja was one of the thousands of 20-somethings livestreaming video games on Twitch — where he had around 28,000 subscribers — and making gaming videos for YouTube.

He had also played "Halo" professionally, traveling all over the country to compete with various esports teams, including the Renegades, Leftovers, and Team Liquid.

And while these are huge accomplishments in both the gaming and online entertainment industries, no one could have guessed what 2018 would have in store for Ninja.

While esports and video game streaming are still only emerging as a mainstream entertainment source — and clearly experiencing growing pains — overnight celebrities like Ninja suggest that live-streaming on Twitch, a relatively new entertainment style, may soon be in competition with established but revolutionary online media epicenters like YouTube and Netflix.

You can now catch Ninja's daily streams over on Microsoft's Mixer game-streaming platform.

On Aug. 1 Ninja announced that he would be moving his stream to Mixer, starting with a live weekend event from Lollapalooza 2019 from Aug. 2 to Aug. 4. To help promote the move, Mixer offered viewers a chance to get a free paid subscription to Ninja's channel through Sept. 30th. Paid subscriptions are normally $6, and broadcasters receive a portion of the revenue.

By Aug. 6, Ninja became the first streamer on Mixer to earn one million subscribers.

Kaylee Fagan contributed to an earlier version of this article.

• A software engineer in Texas spent almost a year working to embed her Tesla valet key in her arm.
• Amie DD, who documented the saga on her YouTube page and blog, said the project was completed without a hitch.
• Here's how she did it.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

There are Tesla fans, and then there are Tesla fans.

Amie DD, a software developer and biohacker in Texas, likely falls into the more enthusiastic of the two categories.

Over the past 11 months, Amie stripped down the valet card to her Tesla Model 3, removed the important bits, fabricated an implant, and successfully become a human embodiment of the key. Now she can unlock the electric car with just a wave.

Here's how she did it.

SEE ALSO: Become a cyborg with one of these four body implants

The key's antenna isn't limited to one small part of the card, like in a credit or debit card. Instead, it uses a small wire around the perimeter of the card. So instead of cutting that out, Amie had to dissolve the card in acetone.

Removed from the card, the antenna was about 40 millimeters by 10 millimeters, or roughly the height of a Lego figure.

With help from a company called VivoKey, which specializes in implantable chips for computer passwords, ID badges, and more, Amie had the Tesla antenna encased in polymer so that it could safely* be implanted beneath her skin.

*Please do not try this at home.

"I talked to a few doctors — they were a little wary about doing this, because it's kind of a questionable thing," Amie said in a video.

From there, Amie enlisted the help of a piercing shop called Shaman Modifications to have the device installed.

"He was amazing, detailed, explained all the steps to me,"Amie said on her blog where she documented the entire process. "His studio was clean and sanitized. I was so nervous leading up to this, and he made the process so amazing!!"

Eventually, the chip made its way under her skin. We'll leave out the bloody parts, but here's the markup pre-operation.

Amie hasn't posted any footage of the implant actually unlocking her car, but the hardware is very much in her body, according to the YouTube saga thus far.

Tweet Embed:
//twitter.com/mims/statuses/1161112689495740421?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Why didn't I post a video of the chip working with my car the day I got it? 1. I was at @defcon this weekend! 2. My arm was swollen right after(none of my other chip implants read the first few days). I may have upgrades but unfortunately my body still heals at a human rate lol! pic.twitter.com/WKHogGKqmE

What if she gets a new car?

It's unclear whether the key could be used for a new car, but if the replacement were a Tesla, it might be possible.

Here's what VivoKey said:

"It makes me want to do it more," she said of skeptics who were critical of her plan. "Not because I want to defy them, but it makes me question why — why can't you do it that way, and what are the limitations?"

Now read:

• These temporary tattoos drawn with electric paint can track your health and pay for things
• Here's what you get when you pay $100 to hack your body

• Some of YouTube's top creators are making millions off their digital brands at a rapid pace. 
• The influencer-focused wealth management company, Semaphore, helps creators like these sustain and growth their revenue.
• Chief executive Michael Bienstock spoke to Business Insider about what financial trends he's noticed in the influencer space and the top advice he gives clients.
• Bienstock assists clients like Ryan, of Ryan ToysReview, who makes $22 million a year off of his YouTube channel.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Influencers like 7-year-old Ryan of Ryan ToysReview, who is making an estimated $22 million a year, are profiting in a big way off their digital brands.

YouTube and Instagram are at the core of where most of these influencers make their money, from developing consumer products independently, to earning revenue from Google AdSense on YouTube. 

As their businesses grow, creators will often work with a financial advisor. Michael Bienstock, chief executive at Semaphore, runs an influencer-focused wealth management company and helps creators like Ryan manage their finances and further expand their companies.

Bienstock spoke to Business Insider about some of the advice he gives clients and what financial trends he's noticed in the influencer space.

The rapid growth of an influencer business 

Clients typically join Semaphore for bookkeeping and tax help, but Bienstock said these initial services escalate quickly because of how easy it can be for an influencer to expand, adding employees and office spaces.

Influencer clients are different from traditional business owners because they are in constant need of more advanced planning, he said. 

"When we meet them, sometimes they are earning $100,000 a year, and then all of a sudden they are earning $100,000 a month, and then a week," he said. "It's really, really amazing." 

Semaphore starts working with influencers once they are earning around $8,000 to $10,000 a month, he said. 

"That's when things start moving fast for people because it's very difficult when you are starting from scratch to get yourself up to that level," Bienstock said. "But, once you do, then it goes radically quicker." 

It can take someone three years to get to that earnings level, but from there, it can often take only 6 to 12 months to double it, he said.

Some of Semaphore's first clients included the popular longtime YouTube creator Philip DeFranco (6 million subscribers) and the children's internet sensation Ryan, of Ryan ToysReview (21 million subscribers). Now the company focuses completely on influencers. 

"Usually it starts off with the basics, they start making more money than anyone in their family and they realize the part-time bookkeeping person isn't going to work anymore," he said. "[The book keeper] can't even understand what's happening with these clients in their line of business." 

The typical financial services 

Semaphore helps clients hire employees, set up payroll, workers' compensation insurance and liability insurance, and has also helped walk clients through the process of buying their first homes. 

Bienstock's most notable creator relationship is with Ryan of Ryan ToysReview and his family. 

Bienstock and his team reached out to Ryan ToysReview around 2014, and had a conversation with Ryan's dad about how complicated things would get financially if the channel continued to grow, Bienstock said.

"I felt like there was a tremendous opportunity to really build a company and a team," Bienstock said. "[Ryan's dad] had never done it before, which was the case for all of our creators, and after a couple of meetings he hired us to help him turn what him and his wife were doing at home with Ryan into something bigger than just the two of them." 

Ryan's brand has since expanded into a toy line with the toy manufacturers and distributors, pocket.watch and Bonker's Toys.

The toy line, "Ryan's World," can be found at places like Target, Walmart, and Amazon. 

Outsourcing is key for growth 

The No. 1 conversation Semaphore has with its clients is about getting help, Bienstock said: At some point, a creator needs to outsource and build a team. 

"They didn't set out to build a business, they just did something they enjoyed or were having fun with, and it just started taking off on them," Bienstock said. "They are very much in the mindset that they need to do everything themselves." 

A majority of the time, creators will respond back by saying, "I have to do my editing," he said. But he promises his clients that outsourcing is important and will ultimately help them in their success.

"You only have a certain amount of bandwidth, and you could be the best on Earth, but if you don't bring in other people to help you, you're only going to do a fraction of what you could do if you built a team," he said.

That's what he's seen separate creators in their different stages of growth, he said, and outsourcing should be looked at as a good starting point for anyone. 

"If you're by yourself, you have no ability to experiment or try new things, because you're spending all of your time doing what works all day," Bienstock said.

From platform to platform

User generated content is only getting bigger, and although a specific platform could go away, the business is more about how you transition between platforms than the actual platform itself, Bienstock said. Having a team will leverage you, allowing you to try new things instead of only having the time to focus on what's worked.

Internet stars like Liza Koshy and David Dobrik are a perfect example of this transition. They shifted their success on Vine – the short-form video app that disabled uploads in 2016 — to platforms like YouTube and Instagram and amassing massive followings of 17 million and 13 million subscribers on YouTube, respectively.  

"You're building a brand and relationship with your audience and that audience doesn't care if they can find you through Amazon, YouTube, or Twitch," Bienstock said. "What matters is you and your audience actually building a connection." 

Bienstock said addressing how a creator will pivot when their platform no longer exists is a key conversation he has with his clients.

SEE ALSO: A top talent manager breaks down the big trends in how YouTube stars are making money in 2019

Join the conversation about this story »

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This is a preview of a research report from Business Insider Intelligence. To learn more about Business Insider Intelligence, click here. Current subscribers can log in and read the report here.

Social platforms are ramping up on emergent video formats to drive new and deeper forms of engagement across their sites and apps, yielding new opportunities for brands.  

As platforms experiment beyond in-feed videos, new formats and user behaviors around social video present meaningful opportunities for brands to reach millions of social users. In 2018, social platforms saw explosive growth around innovative video formats like Stories; a rising push around communal video experiences; the launch of new video-centric hubs on social platforms (e.g. IGTV); and the expansion of more premium or longer-form fare. 

In The Social Video Report, Business Insider Intelligence examines how video is evolving on social platforms, and how each platform's priorities are developing and shifting as social networks seek to scale viewership on this content. Social platforms continue to undergo transitions in a bid to capture user attention, but each represents a significant key to understanding how the social video landscape is expanding and reorganizing around new formats and distribution models. 

The companies mentioned in this report are: ByteDance, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitch, Twitter, WhatsApp, and YouTube.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

• Social video advertising investment is expected to grow significantly in coming years. Social video ad spend is expected to reach $25.6 billion by 2023, up 128% from $11.2 billion in 2018, per Business Insider Intelligence forecasts.
• Social video ad spend flows overwhelmingly to the dominant social platforms: Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Snapchat. Nearly three-quarters of YouTube ad revenue comes from video content, 60% for Snapchat, and 55% for Twitter, per eMarketer. Video is only 30% of Facebook’s total ad revenue, but the social giant accounts for the largest share of social video ad spend overall. 
• The Stories format has seen explosive growth over the past year. That growth continues to flow overwhelmingly to Instagram: Instagram Stories hit 500 million daily active users (DAU) as of Q4 2018, up from just 150 million DAU in Q1 2017. Instagram is the leading platform for Stories consumption and sharing: 54% of users say they use Instagram Stories the most, compared with other platforms, per Business Insider Intelligence exclusive data.
• Instagram launched IGTV, which it intended to be a YouTube competitor on long-form, user-generated video — albeit mobile-first and vertically oriented. If IGTV can convert Instagram's 1 billion users to consume video there, it could represent a massive, scalable opportunity as soon as the platform starts to monetize the section with advertising.
• Facebook Watch has pivoted to a communal viewing focus as it looks to scale viewership. But even though half of US adults say they've never even heard of Watch, some shows have demonstrated that they can gain loyal followings nevertheless.
• Snapchat continues to traffic heavily in ephemeral video, but the app is ramping up on premium video through Snapchat Originals. That push has helped drive a surge in video engagement on the app: As of fall 2018, the amount of time users spent watching shows each month nearly tripled since January 2018.
• TikTok's rapid growth has suggested that there's space in the landscape for short-form social video. TikTok has been downloaded more than 1 billion times globally, and was the No. 4 non-game app worldwide in 2018 on both iOS and Android devices, per Sensor Tower data. 

In full, the report:

• Examines and forecasts the rapid growth of social video ad revenue through 2023 across each major platform.
• Identifies how video formats are evolving on social platforms as companies seek to drive new types of engagement among users.
• Presents a platform-by-platform portrait of key social platforms' emergent video efforts and how they're each performing on key measures, including audience uptake and monetization. 

Interested in getting the full report? Here are two ways to access it:

1. Purchase & download the full report from our research store. >> Purchase & Download Now
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The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you've given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of social video.

Join the conversation about this story »

• You can make a YouTube banner in a few quick steps to give your channel some personalized flair.
• Banner images offer another place to give potential subscribers an idea of what your YouTube channel is about, and lead them to your other social media channels.
• When you have art that's made to the site's banner specifications, the process of uploading your image is simple.
• Here's what you need to know to make and upload a YouTube banner to your channel.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

A YouTube banner is the section at the top of your channel's homepage, above your username and subscriber count. While it will appear blank by default, you can upload images there to personalize your account.

These banners will appear much smaller on mobile than on desktop, but the company recommends uploading 2560 x 1440 px images, to accommodate those large differences in display size.

To get your image to that size, you can either crop it through a program that comes with your computer, or upload it to a site like Canva that has templates specifically geared for various social media sites (this is especially useful if you want to use the same photo across several platforms).

And when it comes to designing a YouTube banner, there's nothing stopping you from using a simple photo. But by creating something more customized, you can help people who aren't already subscribers figure out what you're about, get a feel for your channel's vibe, and let them know about your other social media channels or products.

Here's how to make a YouTube banner for your channel.

How to make a YouTube banner

Before getting started, it's important to note that you can only upload a YouTube banner on a desktop computer.

1. Go to youtube.com and sign in to your account, if necessary.

2. Click your account icon in the top-right corner of the screen.

3. Select "Your Channel" from the drop-down menu.

4. Click "Customize Channel" at the top of the screen.

5. If you don't have any current channel art, click "Add Channel Art" near the top of the screen; otherwise, hover over the current banner and click "Edit" followed by "Edit Channel Art."

6. Upload your image.

7. If necessary, select "Adjust the Crop."

8. Click "Select."

Related coverage from How To Do Everything: Tech:

• How to delete your own YouTube videos on a computer or mobile device

• How to upload a video to YouTube and customize its settings on desktop and mobile

• How to create your own YouTube channel for personal use, or a Brand Account for business

• How to temporarily hide or permanently delete your YouTube account, and erase any trace of yourself from the site

SEE ALSO: The best laptops you can buy

Join the conversation about this story »

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• You can block YouTube channels to prevent certain users from interacting with your channel using either your computer or a mobile device. 
• When you block a channel on YouTube, it won't prevent that account from being able to view your public videos, but it will prevent them from being able to comment on your videos through that account.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The internet is great — until it isn't. And sometimes the free exchange needs to be dialed back a bit, especially when it comes to that one troll who won't seem to leave you alone.

On YouTube, the best way to handle this situation is blocking the offending user because it prevents them from being able to comment on your content. 

While there isn't a way to keep them from viewing your content altogether, assuming your video is public, it does at least prevent further trolling from that account.

Here's how to block someone else's YouTube channel on your computer or mobile device. 

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

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How to block YouTube channels on a computer

This will only take a minute if you already know the username of the person you want to block.

1. Go to youtube.com, login if necessary, and search for the account you want to block.

2. Click on their account and toggle over to "About" in the toolbar beneath their channel art, also known as a banner (which lives at the top of their channel's page).

3. Click the flag on the right side of the page and select "Block user."

4. Choose "Submit."

How to block YouTube channels on a mobile device

Blocking users on YouTube is relatively the same on mobile as it is on desktop:

1. Open the YouTube app on your iPhone or Android and sign into your account, if necessary.

2. Tap the search icon at the top of the screen and input the name of the user you want to block.

3. When you see their account pop up, tap it to view their main account page.

4. Tap the three dots in the top-right corner of the screen and select "Block user."

Related coverage from How To Do Everything: Tech:

• How to delete your own YouTube videos on a computer or mobile device

• How to block or unblock someone on Twitter on a computer or mobile device

• 'Who blocked me on Instagram?': How to figure out if you've been blocked, and by whom

• How to temporarily hide or permanently delete your YouTube account, and erase any trace of yourself from the site

SEE ALSO: The best iPhone accessories from cases to lightning cables

Join the conversation about this story »

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• YouTube is being sued by LGBTQ content creators alleging the company discriminated against LGBTQ creators on the platform and restricted their reach and ability to make money.
• The class-action lawsuit accuses YouTube of unfairly applying its policies in a way that deems queer content as "shocking" and "sexually explicit" while letting hate speech thrive.
• YouTube deploys "unlawful content regulation, distribution, and monetization practices that stigmatize, restrict, block, demonetize, and financially harm the LGBT Plaintiffs and the greater LGBT Community," the suit says.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

LGBTQ creators are suing YouTube and its parent company, Google, alleging the video platform discriminated against them by unfairly applying its policies in a way that restricts queer content from making money and being seen by a wide audience.

The lawsuit alleges that YouTube's policies are not applied evenly across content, allowing LGBTQ content to be marked as "shocking" and "sexually explicit" and hate speech to remain on the platform.

YouTube deploys "unlawful content regulation, distribution, and monetization practices that stigmatize, restrict, block, demonetize, and financially harm the LGBTQ+ Plaintiffs and the greater LGBTQ+ Community," the suit says.

The class-action suit — meaning plaintiffs with similar complaints are included, and can join on — is being brought on by eight YouTubers who say they have been affected by the platform's practices.

Read more:YouTube is working on revamping its 'creator-on-creator' harassment policy before the end of the year, but the site's CEO says it's struggling to understand what constitutes harassment

One of the plaintiffs alleges a Google employee explicitly told them they weren't able to purchase an ad because it was about LGBTQ issues. Celso Dulay and Chris Knight, who produce a talk show called "GNews!," say they tried to buy an ad on YouTube to promote a Christmastime show they had published.

However, YouTube rejected the ad because of "shocking content." When Dulay and Knight tried to dispute YouTube's decision, a content regulator allegedly told the two that their ad was likely rejected because of the "gay thing."

A recording of Dulay and Knight's conversation with Google AdWords has been made available on Dropbox.

"So many people have demanded change, have been shut out, and have went on to pursue other careers," Bria Kam, one-half of the YouTube couple Bria and Chrissy, told Business Insider. "We kind of feel hopeless at this point ... We want systematic change."

Bria and Chrissy say the effect of YouTube's policies have meant the married couple is no longer able to make a living creating videos. The pair used to bring in 5 million views and $3,500 to $4,000 a month with their YouTube channel. But for the past two years, the couple's revenue has shrunk to $400 to $500 a month.

YouTube did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

With more than 500 hours of video being uploaded to the Google-owned platform each minute, YouTube has become one of the biggest places online for people to consume content.

The suit alleges that YouTube's policies that determine which videos are eligible for ads and monetization unfairly target LGBTQ content. YouTube says that its artificial-intelligence system used to regulate content is "viewpoint-neutral," but the suit says the algorithms are applied to the identity of the video creator instead of the content itself.

Many YouTubers have long insisted that these algorithms are programmed to demonetize and restrict videos with LGBTQ-related terms and content in them. This has something that YouTube has repeatedly denied: CEO Susan Wojcicki said in a recent interview that YouTube does not "automatically demonetize LGBTQ content," and insisted there "shouldn't be" words that cause instant demonetization.

However, one of the plaintiffs in the suit, YouTuber Chase Ross, alleges that his experiences have proved otherwise. In the lawsuit, Ross says he recently tested his theory that certain words trigger videos to be restricted. He uploaded twovideos last month in which he reviewed different kinds of tea, and peppered in LGBTQ-related terms in the video. Despite these videos centering on reviewing tea products, YouTube marked these videos as restricted.

"YouTube has really been messing with me, and that means they're messing with a lot of people," Ross told Business Insider. "I want to see the community being respected. I want YouTube to actually fix things."

Watch the video from the plaintiffs about why they're suing YouTube:

You can read the entire class-action lawsuit against YouTube here:

SEE ALSO: YouTube is working on revamping its 'creator-on-creator' harassment policy before the end of the year, but the site's CEO says it's struggling to understand what constitutes harassment

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Some young online creators, like college vloggers, TikTok stars, and Instagram influencers, are earning more than their parents and friends.
• The influencer-focused wealth-management company, Semaphore, helps creators like these sustain and grow their revenue.
• Semaphore CEO Michael Bienstock told Business Insider that he's noticed some teen and college-aged influencers feel isolated when they begin earning more than anyone they know.
• For more about Semaphore, check out the full interview with Bienstock on Business Insider Prime.

For a rising teen influencer, it can be an emotional shock when they start making more money than their parents — or anyone else they know, for that matter.

When a YouTube star or other influencer begins to gain traction, they'll often start building their empire by rolling out merchandise and branded products, as well as profiting off sponsored posts on Instagram, and earning revenue from Google AdSense on YouTube.

All these sources of revenue add up. Some younger creators, like college vloggers on YouTube and viral TikTok stars, are earning more than their family and friends.

18-year-old YouTube star Emma Chamberlain, who has 8 million subscribers, didn't grow up with money.

"There were times when we couldn't even go to the movies, when I was a kid, because there wasn't enough money,"Chamberlain told Forbes. "And my dad is an artist, and he got sick for a little bit and couldn't paint, so there was hard times for our family."

Now Chamberlain lives alone in a two-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles.

"I've always been the one who struggled financially, so now it's so cool that I can make my own money and do whatever I want with it,"she said.

But it can also be isolating for some creators, according to Michael Bienstock, who runs the influencer-focused wealth-management firm, Semaphore. Bienstock helps creators — including 7-year-old Ryan of Ryan ToysReview and his parents, who make an estimated $22 million a year — manage their finances and further expand their companies. Semaphore starts working with influencers once they are earning around $8,000 to $10,000 a month, Bienstock said.

"A lot of them confide in us that it puts them in a tricky situation," Bienstock said, referring to some of his teen and college-aged clients and their sudden growth in income. "Very quickly, they end up in situations where they make double or triple what their friends from college make. They find it gets a little bit uncomfortable for them to even talk about the business with their friends, because nobody could really even understand." 

It's common for a young influencer to feel isolated from others in their life because they suddenly have more money, Bienstock said. This isolation can also make it difficult for them to manage their finances because there are very few people to turn to with shared experiences, he said. 

"If they had some normal job, they'd talk with family or friends about it," he said. "Because of the speed at which the revenue moves, they feel very uncomfortable. It tends to even isolate people more, which is probably something no one really even thinks about much."

For more about Michael Bienstock, and his advice to clients on growing influencer businesses, check out the full interview on Business Insider Prime:

A financial adviser to top YouTube stars, who make up to $22 million a year, shares the advice he gives clients about growing their businesses. 

Join the conversation about this story »

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• The Try Guys have millions of followers on their YouTube Channel.
• Keith Habersberger, Ned Fulmer, Zach Kornfeld, and Eugene Lee Yang have built an internet empire on the basis that they are willing to try anything.
• They tell us how to be a YouTube Star by establishing a personality and getting comfortable with vulnerability. 
• Then The Try Guys try the Spider Catcher and The Fruit Peeler. 
• Visit INSIDER's homepage for more stories.   

Following is a transcript of the video.

Hey, I'm Zach.

I'm Keith.

I'm Ned.

And I'm Eugene.

[Zach] And we are The Try Guys.

[Eugene] And we are The Try Guys.

[Ned] And we're gonna tell you how to become a YouTube star. Here we go! Woo!

[Narrator] Here's how to be a YouTube star, featuring The Try Guys.

[Keith] Could you turn Ned down?

[Zach] Yeah.

[Keith] Is that something you can do?

[Narrator] The Try Guys are huge YouTube stars. They have a massive fan base, and millions of people watch the four personalities, well, try anything. First, they'll tell us why their online formula works.

[Keith] Why do people like to watch other people try?

[Ned] I think you get to feel what we feel even though you are not trying, you're watching.

[Zach] The core idea of trying things, which is where we started from, is just this idea of exploring things that are familiar to other people's passions and identities. So I think on that base level there's an excitement, if we are trying something that you are familiar with, we're either going to learn something that you care about or experience a struggle that you know that you haven't been able to communicate to the world at large. But then I think there's also just a general interest and excitement of four guys who are willing to go into things with an open mind and see what the world has to offer.

[Narrator] So what's a YouTube personality anyways?

[Ned] I literally have no idea.

[Keith] There are many types of YouTube personalities. But probably the best are the ones that talk straight to camera, talk about their life, have a huge social meltdown, and then apologize for it.

[Ned] Yeah.

[Keith] That's a really big thing.

[Eugene] That's correct.

Ned: This may be the hardest video I ever have to make. I'm just... I'm so sorry.

[Keith] We found out that our merch that we released causes people to projectile vomit.

[Ned] Excuse me while I sip some...

[Zach] Oh he's sipping some...

[Keith] He's sipping tea.

[Ned] Sipping tea! There it is.

[Zach] OK, there are a couple YouTube archetypes, right? You've got the cutie, who's just, like, innocent, bubbly, fun. "Hey guys! What's going on?" You've got the prankster, you know, the old jokester. The guy that just likes to mess with his friends. There are the gurus, people that you turn to for advice, the ones who feel like they got it figured all out, Keith.

[Keith] Then you have hot twins.

[Zach] Hot twins.

[Keith] We only have a half of our... Your twin couldn't make it.

[Ned] Oh, what if you had a twin? You'd be so much more famous. Well, you'd have to divide by two though.

[Zach] Probably our favorite subgenre of YouTube is the hot-twin subgenre. There are so many, just, attractive twin couplets. And I don't understand where they all come from and how they all figure out that, just, YouTube is where they belong.

[Ned] We were in a museum, actually, and the category of the exhibit was audience surrogates.

[Zach] Oh, like, literally us were in the museum. Ned: Yeah, The Try Guys were in a museum, not we were walking in a museum the other day.

[Keith] That's what I thought you were saying.

[Eugene] You know, I like to go to museums by myself sometimes.

[Zach] Yeah!

[Eugene] Do you guys do that?

[Zach] Yeah!

[Ned] Yeah.

[Keith] No.

[Ned] Well, I used to.

[Eugene] But a few children stopped me at the Natural History Museum.

[Zach] Ah, so good, a lot of their bones.

[Eugene] I was looking at the bones, and they said, "What are you doing by yourself?"

[Zach] One of the best collections of bones in the world.

[Eugene] I didn't know what to say, and I said, "It's OK to be alone sometimes." And that sounded so cryptic. And...but you know what? It's OK to be alone sometimes.

[Ned] See? That's how you become a YouTube star: authenticity. Which is why I wanna tell you about The Try Guys' new merch.

[Zach] That is, to be a YouTuber, you have to be able to plug at the drop of a hat.

[Narrator] Vulnerability. What is it, and why is it important?

[Keith] The reason we are vulnerable in our videos is because it is OK to be vulnerable in life. And I think we wanna demonstrate that that kind of thing is good. It's healthy. And it allows you to be closer to one another when you're vulnerable around one another. It just helps destigmatize this idea of showing your emotions.

[Ned] I think it stands in stark contrast to what is, like, a typical view of masculinity where you're supposed to be stoic and not show any emotions. Oftentimes tackle, like, very difficult personal subjects and process it by talking about it on YouTube. Woo!

[Zach] Being vulnerable I think allows you to take the mask off and present what is hopefully a truer version of yourself. It allows you to be raw. It allows you to be in that place, and that place of vulnerability is where you can make mistakes, where you can admit to failures, and that's where growth can occur.

[Eugene] It's kind of hard, because everything is voyeuristic now, and everything is, like, in your face. Social media has sort of distorted what we think is real. So sometimes it's really hard to even interpret or understand if someone is being completely themselves. If you are giving 100% of yourself in that moment, then people can smell it. Especially the younger generation. They know. 'Cause I think we're constantly bombarded now by ideas of authenticity when really it's just sometimes to sell something. It's not just branding of authenticity, it's actually being authentic, and I think that's good for young kids to remember when they're starting to film themselves, just because that's a difficult thing to do when you're really young.

[Narrator] What about oversharing? How much of your life should you keep to yourself?

[Zach] I think the four of us have struggled with what amount of our full selves we should put out online. Like, I kept that fact that I had a girlfriend secret from the internet for two years, just because I wanted to have that corner of my life where I was, you know, growing and experiencing something organically, without it being seen under the microscope of what, like, people thought about her and having to subject her to that. On one hand, we have this amazing opportunity to share our lives and to affect people and to show our vulnerabilities and things that we struggle with that maybe you're struggling with too. But also, you wanna have a part of your life that is private and separate, especially when it comes to relationships and family.

[Keith] But it's tougher when, you know, you're famous for being you. I mean, for the most part, like, if you meet me in public, I'm pretty much the same person you see on a video. Like, I'm me, for the most part.

[Zach] I'm a little dumber on camera, but not much.

[Keith] Yeah he's a little dumber on camera.

[Ned] I'm a lot dumber on camera.

[Keith] That's for sure. But you'll have to find out for yourself.

[Zach] When you become digitally famous.

[Eugene] Other people should not own your contents. They can own your content, but they can't own the content of your character.

[Zach] Everyone get a box.

[Eugene] An actual physical box.

[Ned] Write down all your secrets. Take out two. 

[Zach] Then bury the box. Make a treasure map. Give it to future generations. They're gonna have the time of their life. Oh my God, if you discovered a treasure map right now, we would all drop everything and go, right?

[Keith] Right? I wish.

[Zach] Oh my God.

[Narrator] Now it's time to put it all together. We had Ned, Eugene, Keith, and Zach demonstrate the Try Guys method of success with two inventions: the spider catcher, and the fruit peeler.

[Ned] It's pink. It's got brushes.

[Zach] This is called the Critter Catcher.

[Zach] Nice. Nailed it.

[Eugene] And this is the critter.

[Keith] That's the critter.

[Zach] So the idea...can I see what the gun does?

[Ned] Can I be the critter?

[Zach] Wait, open it up. Oh!

[Ned] Ow! I've been caught!

[Keith] Oh wow.

[Zach] I like...can you do that right to camera? It looks like an alien's face.

[Keith] This is awesome. Look at this. It seems like an old cartoon that would just say "BAM!" Bam!

[Zach] I don't even want it for bugs. I just wanna play with it.

[Keith] I'm not a murderer! I'll use my plastic tentacles!

[Zach] Hey, it works! That's cool.

[Keith] Wow, look at him. He's in there.

[Ned] Pretty almost.

[Keith] But if he was wriggling, I think he could get out of this.

[Ned] Yeah.

[Eugene] Wait, do you guys actually kill bugs when you see one? I can't kill.

[Zach] What kind of bugs?

[Eugene] Any bugs.

[Zach] Well you can't kill cockroaches because then other cockroaches smell it, and they come.

[Ned] Flying cockroach in the wild.

[Zach] Grr, I'm mad!

[Keith] I have a lot of forward thrust. So yeah, that time I didn't thrust hard enough. All: Ayy!

[Zach] Oh no!

[Ned] All right, what's next?

[Zach] This is the Orange Peel Professional. Not to be confused with the Orange Peel Amateur.

[Ned] Oh boy.

[Zach] Wow. This is gonna get juice everywhere, right?

[Ned]: Put it on the carousel.

[Eugene] Yeah, stab that down.

[Ned] Poke it in the top.

[Eugene] Put it right on the top, so lean it in, lean it in a bit. There we go. Yes!

[Zach] Oh, through that.

[Eugene] Always do it in the hole.

[Keith] Oh, don't go through the, the thing!

[Ned] Sometimes you gotta push hard.

[Zach] There are two buttons. There's a one and a two.

[Ned] Let's go two.

[Keith] Let's ramp it up to two.

[Zach] Oh God! All: Whoa!

[Zach] Oh, but it didn't...

[Producer] You had it started from the...

[Zach] Oh, Ned! Keith: Oh!

[Ned] I think that's my fault.

[Keith] If it was really a professional, it would've known where it was starting.

[Zach] Maybe one will go backwards? That is very satisfying.

[Keith] When you keep going will it take off... Oh! It's taking off the white part now! Oh!

[Eugene] Oh!

[Ned] Oh, it's just going back and forth.

[Keith] Let's keep running it! Yeah baby!

[Ned] Keep this orange string going! Yeah!

[Keith] Oh, she looks good! Yes baby!

[Ned] Orange juice!

[Keith] Oh! You look good, girl!

[Ned] Oh, you're looking like a snack!

[Keith] Yes! You are skinny!

[Zach] Uh oh, uh oh, I'm gonna need a paper towel, I'm gonna need a paper towel right now.

[Ned] Slurp it! Slurp it, Zach!

[Eugene] Drink it! Drink it!

[All] Aww.

[Ned] Be sure to get your copy of "The Hidden Power of ******* Up" today! Let's go!

[Ned] Oh, I chewed if for too long.

[Zach] Mine fell apart in my mouth.

[Keith] Eugene! And that's how to become famous on YouTubes.

[Eugene] No, it's not.

[Ned] It's one way.

[Eugene] We're generally very unproblematic, so we really like to act like we are.

[Zach] Until now...

[Eugene] It's why we're having a lot of fun right now.

[Zach] which is why this video is gonna be us becoming problematic.

[Eugene] Or we could...

[Ned] Yes, Keith, yes!

[Eugene] Don't do it!

[Ned] Join the dark side! Join it!

[Eugene] Oh Jesus.

[Ned] Woo!

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• It's easy to comment on a YouTube video or reply to a comment left by another viewer.
• You can add comments on your computer or in the YouTube app on your mobile device.
• Before you leave a comment, you'll need to log in to YouTube and create a personal channel, if you don't already have one.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The comments below a YouTube video are sometimes more fun than the video itself, and it's easy to join the conversation with a couple of clicks.

You can watch videos on YouTube without signing in, but you can't add comments until you sign in with your Google account.

When you leave your first comment, you agree to set up your own YouTube channel. This doesn't mean you have to post videos (though you can). 

How to comment on YouTube videos on your computer

Before you leave a comment on a YouTube video, make sure you're signed in. If you are, your Google photo or icon will appear in the upper right corner of your browser window. 

If not, you'll see a blue Sign In box in that corner. 

1. Click the blue Sign In box.

2. This will take you to a page where you can choose the Google account you want to use to sign in to YouTube. Click on the account (if it appears) or enter your account information.

3. On the next screen, enter your account password. 

4. You'll be auto-directed back to YouTube.

If you try to comment when you aren't signed in, YouTube will automatically send you to your Google sign-in page.

Once you sign in, you'll be able to comment on YouTube videos:

1. Scroll down to the Comments section. It's below the description of the video. 

2. Click into the line that says, "Add a public comment…" 

3. Add your comment.

4. Click the COMMENT box.

You can also reply to another user's comment:

1. Click REPLY under the comment you want to comment on.

2. Click on the line that says, "Add a public reply…"

3. Click the REPLY box.

Some videos (including most videos of children) have comments disabled. You can't comment on those videos.

How to comment on YouTube videos on a mobile device

When you use the YouTube app on your mobile device, you can easily leave comments.

1. Scroll down to the bottom of the screen to find the comments section. If you're using a small device, such as a phone, the comments are below the other recommended videos, so keep scrolling.

2. Click into the line that says, "Add a public comment…" 

3. Click the blue arrow icon to make your comment.

You can also reply to a comment in the YouTube app:

1. Click the speech bubble icon under the comment.

2. Click on the line that says, "Add a public reply…"

3. Click the blue arrow icon to record your reply.

Related coverage from How To Do Everything: Tech:

• How to create your own YouTube channel for personal use, or a Brand Account for business

• How to upload a video to YouTube and customize its settings on desktop and mobile

• How to sign out of your YouTube account on desktop or mobile, and protect your account

• How to temporarily hide or permanently delete your YouTube account, and erase any trace of yourself from the site

SEE ALSO: The best budget laptops you can buy

Join the conversation about this story »

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• YouTube's YouTube Studio (Beta) video editor lets you edit YouTube videos in very basic ways, such as trimming the start and end points of a video, or clipping out a section from the middle.       
• You can also use YouTube's editor to blur faces or other objects in a video to anonymize them.
• If you need more sophisticated video editing capabilities, you can use a standalone video editor before uploading your video to YouTube. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

With about 300 hours of new video content uploaded to YouTube every minute, if you want your video to stand out, you need to perform at least some rudimentary editing. 

If you don't own a video editing program, you can do some simple editing in YouTube's own video editor, called YouTube Studio. It's currently in beta, but offers a few simple video editing tools, like video trimming.  

How to open the YouTube Studio video editor

1. Navigate to YouTube in a browser. For best results, you should use Google Chrome, since some features may not work properly in other browsers. 

2. Click your avatar at the top right of the screen and choose "YouTube Studio (Beta)."

3. Click "Videos" in the pane on the left of the screen. You should see a list of all your videos that you've published or drafted on YouTube. 

4. Click the title of a video you want to edit. 

5. Click "Editor" in the pane on the left of the screen. 

How to trim the start and end of a video

1. Open the video you want to edit in the YouTube Studio video editor.

2. Click "Trim" under the video preview. 

3. Drag the blue bars on the left and right edge of the video timeline to set the start and endpoint of the video. 

4. In the bar at the bottom of the screen, click "Preview" to see the change. 

5. You can continue to make additional changes — click "Edit Trim" to reenter the edit mode and then click "Preview" to make the additional change. 

6. When you're done making changes to your video and want to save these edits to the published video, click "Save" at the top of the screen. Note that you can't save your changes to a video until you first click the Preview button at the bottom of the screen. 

How to cut a section out of the middle of a video

1. Open the video you want to edit in the YouTube Studio video editor.

2. Click "Trim" or "Edit Trim" under the video preview. 

3. Position the vertical bar in the timeline where you want the edit to begin. 

4. Click "Split" in the bar at the bottom of the screen. 

5. Click on the vertical bar and drag it across the timeline to the end of the cut. You should see a dark region that identifies where the video will be cut. You can fine-tune the split by dragging the two bars in the timeline. 

6. Click "Preview" to implement the change. 

7. When you are done making changes to your video and want to save these edits to the published video, click "Save" at the top of the screen. 

How to blur a person or object in the video

You can also use the YouTube video editor to blur elements in the video like faces or license plates. 

1. Open the video you want to edit in the YouTube Studio video editor.

2. Click "Add Blur" in the timeline. YouTube will open the old Video Manager, since this feature hasn't yet been implemented in YouTube Studio (Beta). 

3. Click "Edit" beside "Blur Faces" or "Custom blurring." If you choose to blur faces, the app will automatically scan for faces and add blurring on its own. If you choose the custom option, you can draw boxes in the video to indicate where you want to blur, and YouTube will move the boxes around the screen to continue to cover the object even if it moves within the video.

4. When you're done, click "Save" and then click "Return to YouTube Studio." 

YouTube discontinued more advanced video editing

Unfortunately, YouTube used to offer other video enhancements like the ability to rotate videos, edit the colors, tweak the lighting, and more, but these features have been discontinued. 

If you need additional video capabilities, you may want to use a standalone video editor and upload the completed video YouTube. Some recommended options include HitFilm Express and VideoPad.

Related coverage from How To Do Everything: Tech:

• How to delete your own YouTube videos on a computer or mobile device

• How to block YouTube channels to keep certain users from commenting on your videos

• How to watch YouTube videos or YouTube TV on your television, and use your phone as a remote control

• How to temporarily hide or permanently delete your YouTube account, and erase any trace of yourself from the site

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Join the conversation about this story »

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• There is an entire community on YouTube of "underwater treasure hunters," who earn revenue from Google AdSense on YouTube by filming themselves searching waterways for "lost treasure."
• These creators clean up waterways for a living, using scuba diving gear and metal detectors to search through rivers and oceans.
• Jake Koehler, who goes by DALLMYD online, is a successful underwater treasure hunter who has gained 8.7 million subscribers on YouTube.
• Koehler spoke to Business Insider about the success he's had since starting his YouTube channel, and how he's turned his passion of filming videos for YouTube into a lucrative career – hiring his mom and friends to help him run his business. 
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

There's a whole community of creators on YouTube who film themselves diving underwater in rivers and oceans for "lost treasure." But the money they make from Google can be far greater than the value of what they find.

Some of these "underwater treasure hunters" film themselves cleaning up waterways full time and will often reunite owners with lost valuables, like iPhones and engagement rings.

Jake Koehler, who goes by DALLMYD online, has amassed 8.7 million subscribers on YouTube and 1.3 million followers on Facebook as an underwater treasure hunter.

He spoke to Business Insider about how he's turned his passion of filming videos for YouTube into a lucrative career and what he's found underwater — from human remains, to phones, to guns.

From gaming channel to real-life adventure

DALLMYD started off as a gaming channel. Koehler would post videos of himself playing video games like "Call of Duty" and "Grand Theft Auto." 

The 27-year-old told Business Insider that, growing up in California, he participated in a variety of water sports. Once his family moved to Georgia, he began free diving, which eventually turned into scuba diving. 

His first time "searching for treasure" happened by accident, he said. While he was scuba diving, Koehler came across a working GoPro in the water. He decided he would film his next "search" as a video for his YouTube channel. 

In 2015, he uploaded his first treasure hunting video, titled, "SEARCHING FOR RIVER TREASURE." At the time, he had just under 200,000 subscribers on YouTube. From there, he began filming more videos about his adventures finding river treasure and fewer videos with him playing video games.

Discovering guns, wedding rings, and human remains

Throughout the years, Koehler has discovered some interesting items.

Along with functional iPhones and many guns, Koehler said the strangest thing he's found was a "box of human remains."

At the time of discovery, Koehler didn't realize they were ashes, but after working with the police, he ultimately decided to rebury the box, he said. 

Koehler has worked with the police many times, he said, and reports every gun he finds. Collectively, he's found around 20 guns, and sometimes the police will update him on whether the weapon is linked back to a crime.

Koehler documented his first time finding a gun in the video titled, "Found a possible murder weapon underwater in a river (Police called)," which quickly gained traction online. That is what made him decide to officially switch his to treasure-specific content, he said.

At the time of writing, the video has 20.9 million views.

"I think that's what ultimately changed my life and allowed me to take this career," he said. "It was something new that no one really saw before, and there was something genuine and intriguing about handing stuff back."

Koehler scuba dives at least once a day and has reunited owners with GoPros and iPhones with lost photos, he said. 

Fans from around the world contact him everyday on Facebook, he said, requesting his help in finding their lost valuables. His favorite search was the time a couple in his area contacted him to find their lost wedding ring.

"It was like I was a CSI agent or something, looking through all of the cracks and trying to figure it out," he said. "Being able to reunite a lost wedding ring to someone means more than what it costs."

After three days of searching, Koehler found the ring stuck wedged between two steps. Koehler said he doesn't charge people for searches or sell any of the items he finds.

Backend of business 

The DALLMYD YouTube videos are his main source of income, he said, and his videos don't get demonetized by YouTube often, but if he mentions words like "police called," or "gun," in the title, the video won't earn any money. 

Koehler said he earns almost as much as he does from YouTube on Facebook through advertising. He signed with the entertainment company and digital network Fullscreen in 2017 and the company helps manage the backend of his business, brand sponsorships, and his Facebook page.

Koehler declined to detail exactly how much money he's made off a video, but said he's "extremely grateful" for the success he's had. 

His two best friends, who he met one day by the lake he frequently searches, are now his business partners and are often featured in his videos. And he also hired his mom as a full-time employee early into his YouTube success, he said. 

With the money Koehler has made, he's been able to pay off his bills and purchase his "dream apartment," he said.

Koehler used the GoPro he found during his first underwater hunt to film his videos, and once he gained 500,000 subscribers, he purchased a camera, he said.

When he first started off, Koehler would keep his scuba finds in a box under his bed. Now, he keeps the "treasure" in his garage, and among the things he's found are roughly 100 iPhones and 50 GoPros, he said.

Koehler said he holds onto everything he finds because he hopes to someday display it all somewhere for his fans to see.

Along with the items being interesting to look at, Koehler said that a big part of why he keeps the stuff is to show people just how much trash is left at the bottom of the ocean, river, or lake. 

"I've gone to schools and events where people can see all of the trash," he said. "The ultimate goal is to have a place where people can come and look at everything in the future."

For more on the business of being an influencer, and a breakdown of how YouTube creators make their money, check out these Business Insider Prime stories below: 

The financial adviser to the world's top-earning YouTube star shares the tips he gives clients to kickstart their businesses

A top talent manager breaks down the big trends in how YouTube stars are making money in 2019

YouTube star Shelby Church breaks down how much money a video with 1 million views makes her

SEE ALSO: YouTube creator Preston Arsement on how he built a 24-person business using game development and merchandise

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• You can embed YouTube videos in a PowerPoint presentation using the Video button in the Insert tab of the program's ribbon. 
• The embedding process is slightly different depending on which version of PowerPoint you have.
• For the latest version of PowerPoint, you need the YouTube video's URL. For older versions, you need to copy the "iframe" embed code. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Visually enriching a PowerPoint slideshow with charts, images, and video can make any presentation more engaging. 

You can embed a locally stored video file in PowerPoint, but that makes the PowerPoint file very large and can cause performance problems. A much better approach: Embed a link to a YouTube video instead. 

The exact process depends on which version of PowerPoint you have. 

How to embed a YouTube video in PowerPoint 365

1. Find the video you want to embed on YouTube, and copy the entire URL from the web browser's address bar. 

2. In PowerPoint, click the "Insert" tab in the ribbon at the top of the screen.

3. Click "Video," and in the drop-down, choose "Online video…"

4. In the Online Video dialog box, paste the URL of the YouTube video.

You can apply a variety of effects to the video preview using the options in the Video Format tab in the ribbon. These options affect the video preview that appears in your slide before the video plays — they do not affect the video when it plays. 

How to embed a YouTube video in PowerPoint 2016

If you have Office 2016, the Online Video dialog box looks a little different, and you need to embed the video differently.

1. Find the video you want to embed on YouTube and copy the embed code that begins with "<iframe." To find that, click "Share," below the video's title, and then click "Embed." Copy the full Embed Video link. 

2. In PowerPoint, click the "Insert" tab in the ribbon at the top of the screen.

3. Click "Video," and in the drop-down, choose "Online video…"

4. In the Online Video dialog box, paste the embed code into the From a Video Embed Code field.

You can also use the Search YouTube search box to find a video to embed directly from PowerPoint.

Related coverage from How To Do Everything: Tech:

• How to delete your own YouTube videos on a computer or mobile device

• How to block or unblock someone on Twitter on a computer or mobile device

• How to convert PDFs into Word files and edit them on a Mac computer

• How to temporarily hide or permanently delete your YouTube account, and erase any trace of yourself from the site

SEE ALSO: The best laptops you can buy

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 5 things wrong with Apple's lightning cable

• YouTube auto-generates three thumbnails you can choose from when you upload a video, but you can also make a thumbnail yourself for any YouTube video you upload.
• YouTube provides no tools for making thumbnails, which means you'll have to use another program or website.
• The easiest way to make a thumbnail is to capture a screenshot with the Snipping tool and save it to your computer. Then you can choose "Custom thumbnail" in YouTube Studio, or when uploading a video.  
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Your YouTube video's thumbnail is like the cover of a book — while you shouldn't judge the contents by it, people do anyway. That's why the thumbnail should represent the video and look as good as possible. 

When you upload a video to YouTube, you can choose from among several pre-selected thumbnails, or make your own. 

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How to select an auto-generated thumbnail for your YouTube video

You can choose a video thumbnail when you initially upload the video, or later, when the video has been processed. You can even change it after it's published. 

If you are uploading the video, you should see three thumbnail options appear at the bottom of the upload screen while the video is uploading and processing. To choose one, simply click it. 

If you want to create your own thumbnail, see the section "How to make a custom thumbnail for your YouTube video" below. 

If the video has already processed or been published, you can set or change the thumbnail from YouTube Studio. 

1. From the YouTube homepage, click your avatar at the top right of the screen and choose "YouTube Studio (beta)."

2. In the pane on the left, click "Videos."

3. Click the title of the video you want to change.

4. On the Basic Details page, you should see three auto-generated thumbnails. Choose the one you want to use and then click "Save."

How to make a custom thumbnail for your YouTube video and upload it

If none of the auto-generated thumbnails suit you, you can create your own, but YouTube doesn't have any tool for doing this. The easiest way to create a thumbnail is to use a screenshot utility like Snipping Tool on a Windows computer, or any of the various screenshot methods on a Mac computer. 

Here's how you can do it on a PC or a Mac. 

1. Open the video on your computer in any media player.

2. Pause the video at the point that you want to create the thumbnail.

3. Start the Snipping Tool from the Start menu on Windows, or press Command + Shift + 4 on a Mac to enter screenshot mode. If using Snipping Tool, click "Mode" and choose "Rectangular Snip."

4. Click in the upper left corner of the video and drag the rectangle to the lower right corner. Be careful to capture as close to exactly the video window as possible. 

5. The screenshot will appear in the Snapping Tool. Click "File" and then click "Save As." Name the thumbnail image and save it. If using a Mac, the photo will appear in the bottom-right corner of the screen, and will disappear in a few seconds. Once it disappears, it has been saved.

6. Return to the video in YouTube and, beside the auto-generated thumbnails, click "Custom thumbnail." 

7. Choose the file you just saved. 

Many creators also use programs like Adobe Photoshop to design their custom thumbnails. If you want a thumbnail that's not just a frame from your video, consider designing your own.

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