A lot of content in the food space can tend to be either a bit pretentious or a little too vanilla. Autoplay your way through a cuisine-inspired playlist on social media, and you’re likely to find a predictable lineup of overly serious or excessively tame videos.

You might first see Gordon Ramsay pontificating about crème fraîche and scrambled eggs. Next up, Salt Bae charges celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio the amount of your monthly car payment to watch him bounce salt off his elbow and onto a steak that GQ called “somewhat tough and rather bland.” Finally, a 

 mashup runs through some cute variations on sugar cookie frosting.

There’s nothing wrong with these productions, but sometimes even the most serious connoisseurs need a no-frills foodie fix with a NSFW edge. Two of the best YouTube dives for satiating such cravings are Matty Matheson’s how-to cooking shows and Dave Portnoy’s 'One Bite Pizza Reviews.'

Matty Matheson’s Crazy Cooking Hits the Spot

 is a far cry from the typical kitchen tyrant. He’s a jolly ball of comedic energy covered with more ink than a newspaper in a shoal of scared squid. While he’s a formally trained chef who has published multiple cook books, he doesn’t take himself too seriously, loudly extolling the victual virtues of treats like '

,' and 'Naughty or Nice Chorizo Lasagna:'

“I’m putting myself out there as anti-food television,” Matheson said in a 

“I hate ‘Hi, I’m a really good looking guy and this is how you make creme brûlée, and this is perfect.’ It’s so whitewashed and so bull—t.”

Watch enough of Matheson’s content and you’ll hear repeated denouncements of pretentious food talk and using foods like purple cabbage in coleslaw to add flair. Still, he’s able to get fancy by putting foie gras in poutine or making mouth-moistening duck confit crepes—all while staying accessible to the average Joe who knows nothing about fine dining.

Why His YouTube Channel is Cooking With Fire:

 He’s used his passion for cooking as a springboard into non-food related areas of the entertainment industry, growing into an all-around celebrity.

 on his YouTube show with Benny Blanco, exploring North America on 

, or inviting Eric Andre onto his podcast, Matheson has built his brand in whatever direction is available.

 Start with what you know best, what you’re good at, but don’t be afraid to move beyond your comfort zone. There are new subscribers waiting for you wherever you go.

 made his fortune by founding Barstool Sports, but he’s also the king—no, El Presidente—of pizza reviews. Whether he stole the idea from a 

 on NBC sitcom Community or started it as a dare, as he claims, doesn’t matter.

He’s undeniably at the top of the cheesy tomato pie game now with his simple reviews delivered into a camera held by his intern Frankie outside of each pizza shop he patronizes.

However, while Portnoy is critical of the Italian delicacy, he’s no snob about it. No pizza joint is too good, as evinced by his reviews of slices from Costco, 7-Eleven, and Chuck E. Cheese (below), the latter of which he gave a surprisingly high 6.0 on the One Bite 0-10 scale. Portnoy even switched to critiquing frozen pizzas during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Since the reviews usually take place on crowded city streets, wildly entertaining chaos often ensues. From 

 with a confused homeless individual, anything goes in a One Bite production.

Portnoy has even shared his platform with some interesting people he’s encountered along the way, including a random Uber driver and a particularly charismatic fan who proved to know his pizza. Both of them now have their own One Bite reviews on the channel.

Why his channel will burn your face off: Portnoy leveraged his Barstool fame to bring in athletes and other celebrities, but he keeps it completely down to earth. Pretty much any passerby can get in on the review and give a score. Most importantly, though, he’s been crazy consistent, putting out daily videos for the past several years to build his pizza empire.

 If you’ve developed a successful brand, be it on YouTube or elsewhere, you can use that as a springboard to monetizing your other interests. Keep it simple, stay consistent, and you just might be able to start the next niche video movement.

Matty Matheson and Dave Portnoy are true heroes of non-pretentious food culture. Take a break from the overly serious or boringly tame cuisine content you’re used to consuming, and give them a taste!

Want To Make a Living from Food on YouTube?

If you want to take your food and drink channel to the next level, 

, then make sure to download vidIQ. Join over 1 million other users and use us to help research YouTube, analyze videos, audit your own channel, and take actionable steps 

And if you’re really serious about growing your YouTube views and subscribers, sign up for exclusive access to the 

 and learn how to launch a successful YouTube Channel in just 30 days.

Here’s some inspiration and entertainment from a couple of funny YouTubers who deliver an uncut look at the wonderful world of food.

Two YouTube Channels That Serve Up a Satisfying Foodie Fix

Being a YouTuber is one of the most creatively fulfilling and rewarding experiences imaginable. Where else but YouTube can you have full creative control and share your imagination, talent, and point of view with nearly the entire world?

But being a creator can be kind of lonely sometimes too, especially when most of your friends and family aren’t YouTubers themselves.

I’m sure you can relate to this: You’re working hard to record and edit footage, select tags, design a thumbnail and all the other many things it takes to get a video ready for upload. You have a couple of different ideas for a title. You don’t know for sure which one is better. You wish you could ask someone, and not just your mother who thinks everything you do is great (thanks, Mom), but someone who actually GETS this whole YouTube thing.

Or what about times when YouTube throws another curve ball? Like the recent 

. When this happens, it’s natural to wish you had a whole crew of like-minded creators to discuss your concerns and talk through strategies for coping.

Fortunately, there’s a pretty cool place to do just that, and more. It’s the VidIQ Discord, and it’s for creators just like you who want to be a part of a positive, helpful community of YouTubers who want to see growth and meanwhile help their fellow community members grow, too.

, and you don’t even have to get VidIQ yet to join and start immersing yourself in the YouTube community:

Here’s a few examples of the coolest ways YouTubers use the VidIQ Discord:

Get channel feedback from like-minded creators.

Post a picture of it and a picture of your old one and get input on which one your fellow creators think will get you more subscribers.

Share insights about new and upcoming YouTube trends and features.

Weird new button in Creator Studio? Let’s all discuss!

Make friends with other YouTube creators all over the world!

Propose collaborations, commiserate over lessons learned the hard way, and most importantly, celebrate all victories big and small together with people who understand how much work it takes.

will get 3 months of VidIQ Boost for FREE, valued at $147!

 Pretty much all you have to do is join the Discord, have a VidIQ account, and use the entry form linked inside Discord to enter. Check out the “

” to see the entry form. The winner will be selected March 2, 2020, so hurry up and get in here!

Here’s the Discord link again, so you can find your YouTube peeps, and while you’re at it, enter to win those sweet, sweet THREE free months of VidIQ Boost: 

If you want to take your YouTube channel to the next level and 

 then make sure to download vidIQ. Join over 1 million other users and use vidIQ to help you research YouTube, analyze videos, audit your own channel, and take actionable steps 

Being a YouTuber can often be lonely - so join vidIQ's new Discord community and find tips, tricks, friends, collaborators, and the latest advice on how to be a better creator.

YouTube Can Be Lonely so Join the VidIQ Discord Community Today!

Welcome to the first in an exciting new series focusing on some of the most inspiring YouTubers around today. We're taking a look at their creator journey, and the story behind their success.

In this episode, the spotlight falls on Grant Thompson, otherwise known to millions as 'The King of Random'. Grant nearly quit the platform three times before finding the right work/life balance for himself and his team. His '

, and he has built a solid business around his YouTube content. You can read the full transcript of Grant's story below:

YouTube Creator Journey: The King of Random

Hey, guys. My name is Grant Thompson, known around the internet as The King of Random. For the last eight years, I've been very passionate about figuring out how the world works and really taking time to figure out the mechanics of our society, everything from pyrotechnics to napkin folding, and from welding to making bread. Everything that I've learned so far, I've turned into videos and put on my YouTube channel so that all the knowledge and experience I've been gaining through my personal experiences could be shared with the rest of the world. Our YouTube channel has over 10 million subscribers now and 2 billion video views. And I'm gonna show you how it all started, because this is my creator journey.

Here's the super fast version of my life story before YouTube. I was born in Canada to some amazing parents who tried their best to raise a kid like me. And probably like a lot of kids out there, I struggled in school and grew up with low self-esteem. I also got bullied and became a trouble-maker to get attention and that ended up getting me in trouble with the law.

But, at age 14, I decided to take ownership for my life. I started finding joy in things like extreme sports, cliff jumping, whitewater rafting, repelling, and even skydiving. And by age 19, I left Canada to go to England for two years to serve a voluntary church mission. And then I came home, bought an airplane, and decided to work on the oil rigs as a roughneck, blowing up dynamite and drilling for oil in the Northwest Territories.

It was dangerous work, but the money that I made was enough to help me pay for my airplane and the fuel for all the time I spent flying it. I got licensed as long-haul tanker truck driver at age 22. Then I moved to Oahu, Hawaii to fly airplanes and drive motor coaches for Hawaiian tourists. While I was out there, I became a commercial airline pilot, and moved back to the mainland to work for SkyWest Airlines by age 23. And with that stable career, I got married at age 26, bought 11 houses, and semi-retired at age 29. My wife and I have four kids, all boys. And during that time, that's when we decided to buckle down, learn how the world works, and start making videos on YouTube.

A lot of people ask me how the King of Random got started. And it was really back in 2009 when the economy was struggling, there were rumors of another great depression. I had a wife and kids to take care of and I took that responsibility seriously. So, I started on a personal journey to intimately understand how the important things in our society work, like light bulbs, electricity, and filtered water.

I wanted to know how they were produced and I wanted to know how to make them at home if I needed to. So, I spent the next year tinkering and experimenting with anything I could get for free off the classified ads. And in the process, I was making discoveries about things that were blowing my mind. I made an arc welder out of microwave parts. I build rocket rocket motors from sugar. I played with high voltage electricity that I made from glass bottles and saltwater.

And what was really fun about that time, was as I'd share these random experiments with friends, people began asking like, who is this guy? Why does he know these kinds of things? And quite often, I'd share my newest passions with my brother and he always seemed to have this friend hanging around just listening in the background to all these random projects going on. And one day, he just stepped up and said, "Dude, you're like the King of Random." And that's pretty much where the name came from.

I could feel that the things I was experimenting with were kind of peculiar. And people in general seemed unusually interested to know more. So, that's when I decided to learn how to make videos and start sharing these ideas on YouTube.

In 2010, I created my first YouTube channel. And since I wasn't really planning on becoming a famous YouTuber, I just enter the date and time, which was 01032010814. It was just this random number, but it gave me a place where I could upload stuff. And so, I started using my handicam to make fun little videos about how to start fires using water bottles or how to build rockets and random things like that because I thought it was cool to share. And it seems like the internet agreed because hundreds of thousands of people started watching them.

Now, right about the end of 2011, that's when I started getting really serious. I thought, I could probably make this a business because nobody else was making the kind of content I was sharing and there seemed to be a need for it. YouTube had just offered monetization to creators, so I got my channel monetized and I said, I'll do this as an experiment. The idea was if I made 100 videos that were good enough to get 100,000 views, then it would probably be worth it. And in the process, I'd have a great excuse to learn more about the things I was passionate about anyway.

Some people have asked how I know so much about so many different things and the truth is, I really don't. When I began, I wasn't an expert at all. I just looked at the kind of people I'd like to be, even though most of them were fictional, like MacGyver or James Bond. But the Mythbusters were a great real-life inspiration to me. I wondered how do you go from knowing absolutely nothing, to being just like one of those guys. So, this became my own personal journey, one step at a time, learning how different things work to become like MacGyver or more like a Mythbuster myself.

Sometimes, I'm interested in welding and do a bunch of welding projects. Sometimes, it's pyrotechnics. Sometimes, I'll just be folding napkins 'cause I was on a cruise and I thought that was cool. Or I could be making apple swans. It's just whatever I'm interested in. I typically spend a little bit of time in a few videos exploring those topics, and then once I was satisfied, move onto something else.

Like most internet content creators, almost all day, every day, I spent working on new videos, concepts, and ideas to the point where it was almost an obsession. And I think this happens for a lot of creators. It go to the point where I felt like I was actually limiting my own personal progression so that I could keep making videos and content for the internet. It was a real battle because what I really wanna do is just play and explore the world, but then nobody knows about it. But if I take the time to create videos, then I don't have as much time to play and tinker. So, it's been this constant struggle to juggle the best of both worlds. But it's really been worth 'cause it stretched me and made me grow.

The success of our YouTube channel has helped build me as a person, it's helped build my self-confidence. You know, back before I'd made any projects myself, I did feel a little insecure in this society, because I didn't know how anything worked. And when you don't know something, you're kind of dependent on the system. But now things are completely different.

I've learned so much and feel like I've broken through to the point where I could be okay supporting my family whether or not there's any kind of apocalyptic collapse. And not only that, but in the process, people have looked to me as an inspiration and people are actually willing to try a few things for themselves because I've left a trail for them to follow.

These videos aren't just about showing cool things that we've made. It's really about empowering people, showing you that you can try something new and do something you thought was difficult. So many people have stopped me in the streets and told me how they've sat down as a family and done some of the projects together from our channel. And that's something I could have never predicted when I started making these videos eight years ago.

I think one of the hardest things for creators these days is experiencing massive success. When you make something that does really well and attracts an audience, that audience expects you to make more, which is really awesome. But it kinda ties you into this cycle where you have to constantly be making more. And if you're the one doing it, then it has to be you. It's your face, your mind, your projects. And it really is stressful and it's a constant grind. I think that's why we see so many creators today suffering from mental health issues and needing to take breaks.

I was at that point myself two years ago, ready to quit YouTube for the third time when I read a book called The E Myth, and that changed my life. I started building systems instead of building videos. I hired my first employee, started putting together training programs, started to become more of a leader, and started treating the YouTube production more like a business as well, one that was gonna stick around longer than I would.

And now here we are today with 14 employees making five videos a week. We're finally at a place now, where we've built a really good machine that I think looks really promising. We've got the platform, we've got the content that we produce every day, and now I'm bringing in the employees that can spend all day tinkering and prototyping and playing in a sustainable way that's not gonna burn them out. So, looking forward, The King of Random movement has a very bright future.

We're starting to roll out project kits that people can do at home. We're thinking about putting together a King of Random camp, where people can get together and build things. We're writing books, we're selling merchandise. We'd might even find a way to put project kits in schools so that teacher and kids could do these things in class. The only real guarantee in life is change. So, whatever the future holds for me and The King of Random, one thing's for sure. I'm sure we're all gonna learn a lot. And the journey, no doubt, will be random. Stay random my friends and we'll see you in the next video.

We'd like to say a HUGE thanks to Grant for taking us on his journey. Tune in next week for a brand new episode.

If you want to take your YouTube channel to the next level then make sure to download vidIQ. It will help you research YouTube, analyze videos, audit your own channel, and take actionable steps 

YouTube superstar The King of Random nearly quit the platform three times - luckily he stayed and now has over 11.3 million subscribers, and 2.4 billion views. Read his story here.

How to Get More Views on YouTube Like The King of Random

Welcome to the second in our exciting new series focusing on some of the most inspiring YouTubers on the platform right now. We're taking a look at their specific creator journey, and the inspiring story behind their success on YouTube.

This episode focuses on Steve Dotto, AKA 

. Steve's tech-orientated YouTube Channel boasts nearly 244,000 subscribers, and 19.9 million views, and he's built a solid business around his YouTube content, after years of mainstream broadcasting. You can read the full transcript of Steve's story below:

Hi, I'm Steve Dotto, a YouTube creator. Now I wasn't always a YouTube creator. I used to be the host of a TV show and an executive producer. But that was then, and I'm much happier now. Let me tell you my creator journey.

For nearly 20 years I hosted and produced a TV show in Canada on how to use technology. I was what you might call a B-List celebrity. People would recognize me in restaurants or at the airport, and they would ask me all the time, "Should I get a Mac or a PC," and I would tell them, get a MAC, eh. And then they'd go and buy a PC. Good times.

In 2011, the networks and I parted our ways and I began to look at what YouTube has to offer. I was blown away. For the first time in my career the most important people were my audience, not tacky network executives, ad agencies, marketing managers and PR hacks. No, no, no - real people like you! I like you.

See, when you're creating TV shows, there are a whole bunch of people who stand between you and the audience. They're the people with money, the people with power. Money to pay for your production and the power to put you on air or remove you. YouTube takes all their power away.

From the first videos I created on YouTube I saw something different about YouTube. I saw that this was a platform that allowed me to build relationships with my audience, and here is the most important lesson that I learned in my creator journey: If you talk to your community, really talk with them, listen to them, and respect them, they will become your greatest asset. Answer every comment. Reply to every question and your creator story will be a success.

Oh it's not all roses and chicken wings, however, there's a certain loneliness to being a YouTube creator. All the people I used to be on a team with have been replaced by USB ports on my computer. Now, USB is a fine communication technology, but it's a lousy lunch date. Thank goodness I have my dog Farley hanging with me. All YouTube creators need a Farley in the house to keep them company.

Then of course, there's that unpleasant need to pay the mortgage. Oh, I've turned YouTube into a healthy business now, but you have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find the golden egg. I might've mixed my metaphors there, but you get the point. It's still really all about the people.

I can look at the milestones, the silver play button at 100,000 subscribers, hitting the million then 10 million minute viewed mark, but nothing speaks to me like going into YouTube comments and seeing the names. Real people, commenting, challenging me, thanking me, asking me questions, and becoming a community. My community.

Huge thanks to Steve Dotto for his time and insights. You can follow Steve on 

For nearly 20 years Steve Dotto hosted a TV show in Canada on how to use technology, but now he's found success and creative freedom via YouTube. Read about his Creator Journey here.

How to Get to 250,000 Subscribers on YouTube: Steve Dotto Creator Journey

Welcome back to another episode in our exciting new series that champions some of the most inspiring YouTubers in the community. They walk you through there own personal journey to YouTube success, animation style.

 who has built up a number of successful channels on YouTube including, of course, Prestonplayz, 

. Together, these channels have generated over 17 million subscribers and over 4.5 billion views. Let's watch the story of his YouTube creator journey from the man himself - full video transcript is below"

PrestonPlayz: His YouTube Journey to 4.5B Views

Hi, I'm Preston Arsement. Gamer, businessman and creator of PrestonPlayZ, TBNRfrags, PrestonRoblox and PrestonMinecraft. I know, so original. Honestly, I wish I knew exactly when I realized I was a successful creator. But YouTube just moves so fast. Because of all the hard work and the hundreds of all-nighters I've pulled everything is a blur. A happy, fun blur but I'll do my best to explain because this is my creator journey.

Long before I got into the YouTube business I was always an entrepreneur. I was a lifeguard, I worked for a painting company that my family knew and I would do any odd jobs to earn money. Even at 11 years old I was mowing lawns and knocking on our neighbors doors to drum up business.

My first channel TBNRFrags is focused mainly on first person shooters, and geared towards a slightly older audience. I started that channel simply because I saw one guy uploading Call of Duty videos and thought I could do the same thing. It might seem a little bit conceited but most 16 year olds are a little conceited right? I was a PC gamer and I saw a YouTube creator named xJaws who you might remember. He made Black Ops 1 content and I thought to myself heck, I can do this and I'm on PC so it's gonna be even better.

Of course in the beginning it wasn't as easy as I thought, I was scrutinized by a lot of Call of Duty community as every creator was especially because of my faith. The community was not the nicest so I had to build up some thick skin, had some motivational chats with my mom to keep me on track.

It's difficult to get berated by thousands of people daily. I remember wanting to quit at 30 000 subscribers but of course, my mom convinced me otherwise. She knew I really didn't wanna quit and I think deep down inside I knew I didn't wanna quit as well. But sometimes, it's just really hard to deal with the backlash that you get being on a platform with so many eyes always on you. If you wanna be a content creator this is definitely something you are going to have to be aware of, and you're gonna have to build up that thick skin.

It was hard to build an audience so I transitioned to doing more zombie game play. The audience was bigger and I love zombies. Plus, since I was killing zombies instead of other players I could engage with my viewers a whole lot more while I was playing.

If you guys didn't know, I really got my start on Twitch TV rather than YouTube. And I used Twitch TV to grow my YouTube audience. I had a really big breakthrough whenever I signed with Machinima in November of 2011. They made me a Machinima Respawn Director on their YouTube channel allowing me to post a video a week on the channel and then I started a series on my channel called Moab with every gun in Modern warfare 3 and that's a really helped accelerate the growth of my YouTube channel. As well as the bags under my eyes, 'cause it take me about 12 hours to get each gameplay video.

However my real breakthrough on YouTube came when I moved to Minecraft. I'm not even kidding. When I created my second channel PrestonPlayz my new found success wasn't necessarily from the change in video game, but the way I changed my approach to making videos. My TBNRFrags videos were more focused on being good at the game. Like I said, sometimes videos would take me up to 12 hours sometimes even longer. At other times I could get it done within 30 minutes to an hour due to the nature of Call of Duty and trying to get 24 kills in a row with a weapon that was not necessarily made for getting 24 kills at a row.

For example a silenced pistol, it's very difficult to do and sometimes it would take multiple days just to get one of these game play videos. It was mind numbing. Don't get me wrong, it was really cool to have people watched me for my game play and my skill, and they still liked my channel, but they weren't really watching for me. When I made that transition to become PrestonPlayz I focused on what I was saying as a commentator and how entertaining and engaging I was at least trying to be. It wasn't about who was the best at Minecraft, it was way more fun trying to be an entertainer.

In 2016, one of the hardest times that I'd overcome was when my dedicated recording group of friends, but you all know as The Pack stopped recording Minecraft content. Felt like I had lost my place in YouTube. But I continued recording videos by myself and eventually found new people in the community. Smaller YouTubers that were funny, wholesome and had a whole lot of good stow and just wanted to pursue this full-time. By giving these smaller YouTubers a chance I was able to connect with new viewers and continue to move forward.

We as humans want to progress in life. Correct me if I'm wrong. Creating content is like playing a game with YouTube's platform. What are the secrets? What's the next big trend? How can you make your own trend? How can we combine element X with element Z and element Q, to create this awesome new type of content? Moving forward is always important but having a balance in your life is also extremely important.

I would say the big struggle throughout YouTube would definitely be not taking enough creative time for myself, I tend to like to stay inside and record videos for about a 100 hours a week I'm not kidding. But at a certain point I realized that if I don't go outside, go to the gym, get some fresh air or even read my bible, my commentary will start to drop off and I'll start to lose my edge. Hard work is what helped my channels takeoff and grow and of course I credit a lot of that to my faith and all the family and friends I have around me, but there still has to be a balance even if it's not always 50-50 or even 90-10.

I've now learned that the more I've intertwined my family into business the more fun I've honestly had. My siblings and my amazing wife we're always having a blast filming content with me. I think that family has really made me successful because I want to work hard for them. I came from a humble beginning, we all lived a in motor home together for many many years and had just each other and that's all we needed. My parents had a traveling music ministry and so we got very close in that tiny motor home together. So the fact now that I have a nice car, and a nice house it really doesn't mean much to me, at least not as much as getting to hang out with my family. And of course the amount of sweet messages I've received from my audience has just been so overwhelming. I have a fan art wall at the office and I don't even like to call my viewers fans I feel bad but this viewer wall of mail and art in the office if I ever need inspiration or I need to remember why I'm doing what I'm doing because maybe I've had a hard week or something has happened, I just go to that and I just look at it. I mean it's just, it's overwhelming to see the support and to see that somehow I've changed peoples lives for the better by just playing video games and uploading it to YouTube.

My long-term goal is to stay within the video game industry and to grow as many companies as I can. We have the blessed opportunity to use YouTube as a vehicle to move forward with all of our companies. And don't get me wrong, YouTube is still so much fun but I wanna gain experience and knowledge in other areas and keep growing companies within the video game industry.

We've recently started a fourth channel for the newer version of Minecraft. It's called Bed Rock Edition Windows 10 edition, Pocket Edition whatever you guys wanna call it, but do a lot of cool branding content on PrestonPlayz now, it's fun to kind of expand, play new video games but eventually I think I'd be more fun if it was mainly real life content. Vlogs, videos of my siblings, challenge videos with my wife, just having fun with my family and friends, and trying to entertain viewers. In fact, we've already started doing that in 2019.

The audience that we have is the coolest audience ever. And making videos for them is literally just pleasure at this point. You ever go to Chick-fil-A and they're like, "My pleasure." That's how I feel when I finish a video. My pleasure. Whenever we put out a brand new video people are like this is awesome, Preston is making money and working with the cool brand and we like it. I feel like nowhere else on YouTube can you find that kinda support from an audience. It's so easy to keep coming back and filming videos and stay motivated when you have the most amazing audience in the world. If you wanna be a creator follow your dreams. I don't think it gets any more simple than that.

A lot of us see things through a specific lens that we were forced to see things through, something that tells us our dreams don't matter. Or that they're too far fetched. But you have to find your own lens to look at the world. Find the way to believe in your dreams and pursue your passions.

Want to start a gaming channel on YouTube and end up as big as PrestonPlayz? Watch his creator journey for the story behind his phenomenal success.

How to Start a Gaming Channel on YouTube Like PrestonPlayz

 will know Rob Wilson. He's one of the very public faces of the company, and the man behind the Channel Audits & Q&A livestreams as well as hundreds of how-to videos on a range of YouTube topics. Oh, and you can ask him 

 as he's a world class expert on that topic by now.

Rob has helped build the vidIQ channel to 362K subscribers and 16.8M views with his passion as a creator. His dedication to the YouTube community is unrivaled as he strives to inform creators across the globe every week about tips, tricks, and best practices. You can take a deeper dive into Rob's story about how to go full time on YouTube 

vidIQ's Rob Wilson: How to Go Full Time as a YouTuber

For many years, just like many of you, I made videos on YouTube in my spare time. Desperately trying to find a niche in the highly competitive tech sector. Well let's face it, every sector on YouTube is highly competitive.

. It sounds pretty mundane I know but nobody else was doing it and YouTube decided I was the authority on the subject. And my channel quadrupled in size. But in between all of this, I did one tiny tutorial on a vidIQ tool. Tweeted it out to my audience and thought nothing more of it.

Within 24 hours, the real boss of vidIQ had contacted me, loved my work, and wanted me to do more. 12 months, 50 videos and one work visa later vidIQ offered me the chance of a lifetime. To transfer my hobby, my passion, my extra money on the side into a full-time career. I thought about it for all of 2 seconds and said yes.

18 months, 250 videos, 7 conferences, 10 million views, and 300,000 subscribers later, you know what? I think I made the right choice.

Rob Wilson helped build the vidIQ YouTube channel to 362K subscribers. Read his story about going full-time as a professional YouTuber.

How to Go Full Time on YouTube - Rob Wilson's vidIQ Creator Journey

Welcome to another episode in our exciting new series that focuses in on some of the most successful Youtube creators around today. We're taking a look at their creator journey, and the often surprising story behind their success on YouTube.

, a family vlogging channel which has to date generated 2.6 million subscribers, and 680 million views. You can read the full transcript of The Ohana Adventure's story below:

The Ohana Adventure: Journey to 680 Million YouTube Views

Hello, my name is Jase. But you may know me better as the dad from my family's YouTube channel of the Ohana Adventure. Ohana means family and our family is always an adventure. Together with my wife Rachel and our six children, Klailea, Rykel, Shae, Wyatt, Evie and Cora, we get to share our lives through our daily vlog channel that now has almost half a billion views. But how did we get here? Well this is our creator's journey.

Before creating the Ohana Adventure, I owned a skate company. I was making skateboard videos to gain awareness and to use as a promotion for my entrepreneurial company. Through those videos I learned how to shoot, painstakingly edit and tell a story. These were useful skills that would help with creating our own family channel in the future.

But during the skate video days, I didn't know that there was an algorithm controlling the visibility of our videos. But I strived to test and better understand the inner workings of YouTube with every video. I wanted to create positive controversy in my videos to get conversations going. So I decided to film the thing that does not go together in my industry which was skateboarding underwater. The video went viral and got millions of views in just a short period of time. The video now has 20 million plus views but that all happened from my thoughts which was from the comments section which added up so quickly due to the conversation going on the validity of actually being able to skateboard underwater.

I then created videos of cars running over my boards, and those took off as well. After the 20 million mark and the success of the others videos in 2016, my wife and I sat down and decided to use what we learned to start a family vlog. We decided to post daily and we haven't missed a day in over two years.

Now getting the kids on board was very interesting. They loved YouTube, they watched YouTube, and they wanted to be a part of it, but then figuring out the dynamic of a family of eight being on camera was hilarious. Now creating those videos were a little bit daunting at first and it was harder than I had expected to gain traction, but we focused on making more original and shareable content and so our first Ohana Adventure video to really take off was how to family videos.

We decided lots of families wondered about having kids, there was always new moms, families wanting to wonder about having lots of kids and what to do about it, and so we started these how to videos, the first one that actually took off was 

And then we ran with that style of content for another year, videos based on those moments that were happening in our family life, like Klailea’s broken wrist and videos sharing advice with other families, like how to travel with six kids and a bunch of other how to videos, how to pack bug out bags, how to pack a car for a road trip, lots of stuff like that that really started to take off for us.

Then I've had a background in music and writing music since I was a teenager, and I really wanted to try that. So we tried something new. I was watching and waiting for the new music videos coming up from the top pop artists and Taylor Swift came out with, I don't even remember the title of her's now. You'll have to cut this part out! Taylor Swift then came out with Look What You Made Me Do, and my daughter at the same time was talking about this crush that she had at school. So I decided to create a parody called My Teen Crush Is At School. But our channel was doing so well on teen crush for keywords that we just called the video Teen Crush. And it crushed it. A million views overnight, 30 million views within the month and it kept going. To date it has over 83 million views.

We then filmed about ten other parody videos using that same algorithm and that same style for our family that worked with our family, we wanted to film and they crushed it. In early 2018 we added family challenge videos because we do that anyways. I run away from the children in grocery stores all the time just for fun. Then we started mystery door challenges and blindfold hide and seek challenges that we still play to this day.

The family games and challenges were so fun and something we did naturally as a family, these were videos we could bulk film and then wrap them in a vlog. That's very helpful for marketing content every day. I mean, every day is an adventure but some days you're just exhausted or things go wrong, or they're a little less adventurous than other days. With the challenges, we can make new and ambitious content that seamlessly adds to the vlogs and propelled our channel forward.

As creators, we're much more focused and specific when filming and editing our videos than we were at the start. But we still film our family having fun and being adventurous. As a family, we're so blessed by all of our success. Our family has always loved traveling and playing together. Now we're able to do that full-time. It's so inspiring when fans send us their stories and tell us how our content helps them in their family situations. It's that kind of love that keeps us making videos.

In the future, we're planning on making lots and lots more of exactly this style content, because it's natural to us, it works with our channel, and we have so much fun doing it. When you're making your own videos it's okay to be specific and still have fun making your content. Whether you're a creator who's just getting started or a seasoned pro, remember to be consistent, keep filming, keep uploading and always have fun with it. That translates through your content.

Family vloggers The Ohana Adventure have generated 2.6M subscribers and over 680M views on YouTube. Take a deep dive into their creator journey with us

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