First, get your headphones on, we’re going on a tingle trek. 

You may never have heard of ASMR but it stands for autonomous sensory meridian response. 

It’s a tingling sensation that some people get in their head, neck and upper back. For the estimated 10-20% of people who experience ASMR it’s relaxing and a little euphoric. 

You may have experienced this when getting a haircut, during an eye exam or from a specific audio or visual  trigger. 

The important point. ASMR is a long term trend. 

ASMR has turned into a cottage industry on YouTube with ASMRtists creating endless videos. People whispering, tapping, making hand sounds and even eating in front of a camera. So let’s get into it. 

How much do people make doing ASMR videos?

To find out how much ASMRtists are making we need to look at the RPM (Revenue Per Mille) or what a YouTuber’s revenue would be after YouTube’s 45% revenue share for every 1,000 ad views.

CPM (Cost Per Mille) is often quoted, but that’s the total ad cost per 1,000 impressions and includes YouTube’s share of the revenue. 

Now a lot of the estimates on websites didn’t seem to be accurate, so let's go right to the source!

Combing through YouTube we can find that:

• Michelle’s Whispers ASMR made €100 off of 38,800 views for an RPM of €2.57

• Safe Space ASMR has a similar RPM with an annual average of $2.85

• Diddly ASMR estimates that for every 1 million views she makes around $2-3k

So lets use $2.50 per 1,000 views as an estimate. Now this is where things get interesting! 

First, most people make nothing. That’s the typical outcome when you have a low barrier to entry business and a lot of people doing it. But some people are making millions with ASMR. 

Taking a few popular accounts you can see that Lowe started in 2020, has less than a million subscribers but has an ARR (annual recurring revenue) over $200,000. Pretty amazing side hustle for a kid. 

From there it grows with Gibi with an ARR of $575,000. 

And continues to grow with Jojo’s ASMR channel reaching an ARR of $1.2 million. 

And finally there’s Zach Choi who’s entire channel is him cooking and eating a month's worth of sodium in each video. He’s making over $13 million per year. 

And of course this doesn’t include sponsorships so their total revenue is potentially higher. Best part though is that it can be started with a microphone (many recommend the Blue Yeti to start) and a camera. 

Now competition is rampant as there’s essentially no barrier to entry to ASMR, but it’s a really interesting niche for those interested in getting in front of a camera. Heck, you don’t even need to put your face on camera, there’s successful faceless (almost) channels too.

Interesting note: Mukbang is a show where the person eats and interacts with the audience. It became popular in South Korea around 2010 and became a global trend five years later.

And if you’re new to ASMR, lets find your tingle!

Hand sounds

• PJ Dreams

• Pleasant ASMR

Whispering

• Gentle Whispering

Tapping/Scratching

• ASMR Bakery

• RaffyTaphy ASMR

Personal Attention

• Freds Voice ASMR

• ASMR Zeitgeist

Eating and Food (Mukbang)

• Zach Choi

Visual Triggers

• Dong ASMR

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Business Success Stories of the Week

• Road Beauty reaches $60 million in yearly sales in 3 years

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• 27 year old dyslexic with ADHD turns $10k into $600 million

Best in Business

• Classic Ted Talk by Malcolm Gladwell on the discovery that people like different spaghetti sauce

• “Emotion is Latin for margin.” - Scott Galloway