Homeless with a son, Lionel B slept on the streets, then he earned $10k from YouTube

Lionel Barnes is an American YouTuber, artist, reality show producer, and entertainment personality. He has over 300,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel, quite a large following for anyone who knows about opening a YouTube channel and attracting followers.

On his channel, Barnes runs hip-hop news and entertainment commentaries dominating mainstream media discussions and on social media. Some of his videos also include audio commentaries layered on top of graphic visuals and GIFS.

As of May 2021, his YouTube channel boasts of nearly 400,000 followers with over 89 million views. In addition, he has an Instagram page that has over 180,000 followers. The road to this stage has been daunting for Barnes but he managed to defy all odds to hit his current success.

According to Tampa Bay Times, Barnes was once homeless. However, this was after he was let go of his information technology job in Plant City in 2018. He slept in his 20-year-old Mercedes with his teenage son, Lionel Jr. At night, Barnes will park in front of restaurants at Tampa Bay and use their free internet to apply for jobs. It was in one of his usual routines of applying for a job that he remembered that he an old old Google Adsense account.

“I had $38 in there, and you need at least $100 before YouTube will payout,” Barnes told Tampa Bay Times. “I thought, if I could just make another $62, I can get a whole $100.” Barnes reportedly started recording new videos in his car and uploaded them using the free Wifi.

In the past, he recorded comedy videos but decided to focus on celebrities this time around. He named his channel “The Lionel Barnes Show.” He later changed the name to simply “Lionel B. Show.” Initially, traffic to his videos was low but began picking after he showed consistency.

In one of his videos, “Jay-Z Runs Up on Offset About Beyonce,” Barnes speculated about a feud between Jay-Z and Offset. The video hit a million views in a day and kept growing. Barnes checked his Google Adsense account, and there was more than $10,000 in it, The Tampa Bay Times said.

The viral video attracted attention to his page and he soon attracted thousands of followers in no time. Initially, Barnes thought the amount had been credited to him in error but he soon realized that he had legitimately earned the cash. That was how Barnes went from homelessness to making $10,000 on YouTube.

The money changed his life instantly. Since then, the YouTuber has not looked back. His amateur videos now look professional, a sign that Barnes is raking in more money from YouTube.