YouTube, created in 2005, is one of the biggest online platforms used today. Videos range from makeup tutorials to facts about the ocean to making cars out of Legos. Whatever can be imagined, there’s a video for it, made for all different audiences and age groups. And more often than not, these videos make money.

With the right work put in, successful videos, and a large audience, it could be easy to make a lot of money on YouTube. But it takes more than simply making a video and posting it.

According to YouTube, to actually make money off of YouTube, the account first has to become monetized. To begin the process, the account has to have at least 4,000 hours of watch time and 1,000 subscribers. Then it takes 30 days for the account to get approved.

Every ad watched adds to the amount earned for that YouTuber. If 10,000 people were to watch an ad before the intro, that YouTuber could make close to $10, depending on a lot of factors, such as CPM (cost per mile), which is pretty much the amount made per 1,000 views, and CPC (cost per click), which are ads that make money from every impression of an ad, such as if a person were to click to “find out more.” Those rates will only go up when the subscriber count goes up.

Then there are the “influencers.” YouTubers also make money from making “sponsored videos” and teaming up with brands. (When was the last time you heard, “This video is sponsored by…” and then skipped the next 30 seconds?) It’s easy to become an ambassador and pick out (sometimes) free clothes and post a video showing off the clothes, or post pictures of the fit on other platforms such as Instagram and Twitter. Brands pay influencers to post pictures of themselves in clothes made by that brand and get their followers to check out that brand.

Affiliate codes are also ways brands pay their influencers. With every person who uses a certain code, the influencer makes a profit, whether it’s another discount code or a small account balance with that brand.

The top ten richest YouTubers are Logan Paul, PewDiePie, Jacksepticeye, VanossGaming, Markiplier, Jeffree Star, DanTDM, Dude Perfect, Jake Paul, and Ryan ToysReview. They all have an average of 20 million subscribers with the exception of PewDiePie, who has over 86 million subscribers. According to Natalie Robehmed writing in Forbes, they all have a net worth of approximately $10 million.

But it’s hard for YouTubers to keep up with new content and keep their account fresh and not repetitive. More often than not, YouTubers take a “break” from Youtube and come back with a video explaining that they are “burnt out” and that YouTube wasn’t “fun” for them anymore and that video would be titled, “Why I Quit YouTube.” For them, YouTube is their job, and any job can be hard.