It’s 7:45 p.m. and
senior Matt Cobuzio has decided it’s time to get to work. He heads over to his
PlayStation 4, plugs in his microphone and turns on his computer and webcam.
“What’s going on guys,
my name is Matt and I’m mcsportzhawk! Today I’m going to show you the Margwa
head Easter egg in ‘Shadows of Evil.’” He’s clocked in.
The television, radio
and film and information management dual major’s job is not that of a typical
college student. He makes YouTube videos giving video game advice and tutorials
to viewers about how to play games like “Call of Duty” successfully. His main
channel mcsportzhawk has 429,360 subscribers on YouTube as of Monday night at 7
p.m.
When Cobuzio got his
first paycheck, he could hardly believe his eyes. “Zero dollars and ninety
cents,” it read. It may not seem like much, but to Cobuzio, it meant the world.
His family mocked his excitement over the small payment, but the next month his
paycheck was for $900. Now, he makes enough to pay for college.
Cobuzio started making
videos in December of 2009, while he was a sophomore in high school. Despite
the enormous success that he enjoys today, getting started was no easy task.
Cobuzio said he started
making videos for fun and was very excited once his channel started to gain
popularity. He was elated when he hit 100 subscribers, which pales in
comparison to the nearly half a million that he has today.
It was four years
before Cobuzio’s channel picked up and started to grow at a substantial rate.
There were periods of time when his view count would “spike” after he made a
video about a new game, but his channel would eventually fall back to lower viewership
levels. However, Cobuzio stayed committed and has now reached levels of success
he never would have imagined.
Along with making
consistent income from his YouTube videos, Cobuzio has been sponsored and
endorsed by many well-known gaming companies, such as EA Games and Activision.
The companies will pay Cobuzio to play their games before their release dates.
Cobuzio also said that
gaming companies have flown him to conventions such as SUPER! BitCon and E3 to
be one of the first to play new games or consoles.
Despite the great
reward that his job offers, Cobuzio’s success has not come without a great deal
of hard work.
The ability to schedule
his own hours is a huge advantage, but Cobuzio knows that if he strays from his
hours and doesn’t consistently produce content, his business will decline
quickly. His most common hours for making videos are 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. so that
he isn’t missing out on too many social opportunities.
He also has two other
YouTube channels — one is a sketch comedy and prank channel and the other is a
joint channel with his girlfriend where they do boyfriend vs. girlfriend
challenges and vlogs. He’s also starting a business outside of his YouTube star
endeavors, in which he’s making an online course that teaches people how to maximize
views on their YouTube channels.
Nick Matarazzo, a
junior television, radio and film major, works with Cobuzio on their YouTube
channel JerseyToSyracuse. The duo produces sketch comedy on the channel, and
Matarazzo said he is lucky to have had the opportunity to work so closely with
Cobuzio.
“Matt Cobuzio’s work
ethic is unprecedented,” Matarazzo said in a text message. “When he is
motivated to take on something new, nothing can stop him. He inspires the
people around him to strive to be their best because he won’t accept anything
less for himself and for his close friends.”
This work ethic is
necessary for Cobuzio, as making the videos themselves can prove exhausting. He
improvises and records each video, edits it, creates a video thumbnail and then
posts and titles the video in a way that will result in maximum views based on
his analytics.
Throughout his career
of uploading videos to YouTube, Cobuzio has been faced with plenty of
negativity that would discourage many, but he continues to pursue his passion
and business despite whatever obstacles come his way.
Said Cobuzio: “The best
thing about YouTube is that I’ve become so much more confident about what I’m
able to do and who I am since starting posting videos and making it successful
that it’s not even once fazed me; I can read the worst hate comments you could
imagine and I don’t have a problem with it.”
By Sam Gozinksy
No comments:
Post a Comment