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People from Hampton Roads stake their claim in the growing online video 'gig economy'

Content creators hope to cash in on YouTube, but is there a better way to make money?

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — On a bright, sunny and hot Thursday, Newport News resident and life coach, Elyssa Lassiter connects with potential clients on Facebook Live.

She is the founder of "The Say Life Coach," a personal coaching company that counsels and motivates individuals and groups to achieve their personal and career goals.

"I'm geared towards helping people get equipped with the tools they need to be successful in life," she explained.

Lassiter knows the key to her own success is online marketing through Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Each of her videos is carefully planned and reaches a little more than 7,000 viewers a week.  

There is stiff competition. Every minute, about 500 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube, much from content creators looking to rake in some cash.

13News Now Social Media Manager Yasmeen Freightman says the YouTube money game is so much about subscribers as it is the rate of growth. 

"So if you're getting 3,000 views within two weeks, YouTube usually sees that and picks up on that and they'll offer you money and compensation," she said.

But don't expect a big payout. It's estimated a YouTuber can earn about 10 bucks per 1,000 views. Getting more clicks is all about marketing magic and consistent engagement.

"If you're putting good content, quality content, people would automatically be drawn to that," Freightman said.

Virginia Beach business owner, Blake Heron believes he's created a fast lane for content creators to make money more quickly. The owner of Bay Crawl Space and Foundation Repair created Skills Co., an online marketplace for experts to upload videos for free. 

Heron said it's a way customers can learn skills straight from the experts for a fee of $10 to $100. Skills Co. keeps 10 percent of each sale. 

Credit: Janet Roach

"All that occurred to me is that it would be really nice if there was a place that you could go to and learn directly from an expert and not having to travel or spend an insane amount of money to develop your skills," he said.

Animated videos direct experts to instructions on how they can develop their videos. Subscribers can identify areas of interest to be matched to the right experts.

Heron expects to invite more than 10,000 potential experts to join the site, and that includes YouTubers. 

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