Turning your passion into an ever-flowing stream of income is a dream for many. For Shevon Salmon, he made it come true at an early age.
Before Shevon Salmon — a tech and lifestyle content creator — began to sit in front of the camera for hundreds of thousands of viewers, he picked one up to take photos after the birth of his little sister. Simultaneously, his love for videography was born, too — sparking the inception of his YouTube channel.
Born and raised in Jamaica, Shevon Salmon moved to Toronto, Canada in 2016. The transition in his life was also when he started to post consistently as a YouTuber, blending his love for consumer technology, fashion, and lifestyle.
The 24-year-old creator’s content consists of conducting research within consumer tech — receiving tech products from companies like Apple and Samsung to test out — and teaching his audience about the products.
View this post on Instagram
Now, Salmon has garnered nearly 300,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel alone.
After moving to Toronto and building his audience, he went from making $25 in 2016 thanks to one of his early videos to his highest-paid month thus far. In October 2022, Salmon says he grossed over $100,000 from brand deals, his YouTube revenue, and his digital store.
While others may have been discouraged after making a $25 paycheck from their content, it’s ultimately what kept Salmon going.
“It might not sound like enough, but that was what really motivated me to start actually [creating content] full-time on YouTube,” Salmon shared with AfroTech.
The determination seems to have paid off, too. During his highest-paid month, he worked with big-name companies like Google, Samsung, Intel, and Staples.
What’s more, Salmon says his highest paycheck, as of this writing, was $45,000. He told AfroTech he received the five-figure payout from a media technology company that he could not disclose for a YouTube video, an Instagram post, an Instagram Story post, and a TikTok video.
As for leveling up, Salmon credits having a manager as the reason he was able to receive higher payouts.
“Brands tend to take things more seriously because they’re not really talking to me directly, “ Salmon explained. “I realized that I [was previously] taken advantage of. Certain companies used to pay me like $5,000. My manager stepped in, they’re paying like $10,000, $15,000. When it comes to exclusivity and all that stuff, I didn’t know anything about that.”
He continued: “So, Staples reaches out, they’re paying $10,000 and they’re like, ‘Oh, you can’t work with any competing companies.’ So, now, they have to pay for exclusivity, which is like another $5,000 or $10,000 for a time period of like one to three months. That’s what I was missing out on [while] working on my own because I didn’t really know the ins and outs.”
In the span of seven years, Salmon has gone from being underpaid to bringing in over six figures.
However, it seems he’s just clocking in.
