on the second try
Daria Strelkova started a YouTube channel in 2020 to share recipe videos. This category is massively popular in Russia, yet she didn’t win as much warmth from viewers as some peers. The crowded field in this niche is likely part of the reason. Over two and a half years, the blogger grew her following to more than 50 thousand subscribers.
Her most recent videos appeared four months ago, soon after YouTube halted monetization for Russian creators. To boost reach, Strelkova turned to TikTok and gathered more than 11 thousand followers there. She invited followers to visit her YouTube profile for full-length recipes and watch the complete versions.
Success then shifted to the domestic platform Yandex.Zen, which has effectively become a replacement for YouTube in this context. By the end of August this year, she had surpassed 150 thousand subscribers on Zen, and even the newest clips pull 40–50 thousand views within a week.
Strelkova often uses familiar recipe formats that feel approachable to viewers, describing dishes as both “unusual” and “delicious.” Phrases like “feeds the whole family” or “easy and fast, I cook it every day” help draw interest and set expectations.
For instance, in just one week, her video titled “I serve fish for the holiday in an original way (two recipes for a delicious feast at once)” drew roughly 400 thousand views. Viewer feedback ranges from praise to criticism, yet the high engagement signals continued interest in the content and platform activity.
Travel blogs show a similar pattern. This niche on YouTube and Instagram has long featured the same recognizable faces and has received support from Russian television. A Dutch creator named Mahil Snape, along with his partner Alevtina Snape from Russia, began a project in 2021 that travels across Russia and the CIS. At first, he experimented with foreign platforms with mixed results. TikTok brought in about 38 thousand followers, while YouTube remained modest with around 1,230 subscribers. He then built a presence on VKontakte and on Yandex.Zen, posting the same videos across platforms. The result was steady increases in views across each channel.
On VKontakte, nearly every Snape video earns around 20 thousand views. His Zen Dutchman blog in Russia has grown to 74 thousand subscribers, and video views are strong—often 40 thousand, with some posts hitting 100–200 thousand per month thanks to algorithms and promotion.
To balance the mix, the blogger keeps TikTok activity minimal but does not abandon YouTube entirely, choosing to publish Shorts—short vertical videos—as a ongoing strategy. He operates primarily in Russian and engages with viewers in that language only in sparse YouTube comments.
cash flows
Yevgenia Kazakova, who heads operations at the blogger-focused agency Perfluence, explained to Gazeta.ru that more than 40% of bloggers now maintain both Russian social platforms and foreign ones that are restricted or banned. Micro-influencers and newcomers have benefited the most from this shift, according to analysts.
For a newcomer with 2,000–5,000 subscribers, a typical Telegram advertising post can bring in around 1,500 rubles. On VKontakte, the rate sits near 1,000 rubles. For Yandex.Zen, a post with about 50 thousand views on a channel with 1,000–5,000 subscribers can earn roughly 500–2,000 rubles. The crucial factor is not the subscriber count alone but how actively viewers engage with each piece of content. Higher engagement often translates into higher compensation.
In interviews, industry leaders noted that even in tough times, novice bloggers can earn more by integrating ads into YouTube videos, including short promotional inserts. Nano-influencers with under a thousand subscribers may still secure 1–2 thousand rubles per post, and brands frequently select micro-influencers with audiences up to about 100 thousand for campaigns. Typical offers range from 6,000 to 30,000 rubles per integration, depending on reach and video performance. Advertisers often commission a series of posts rather than a single publication to maximize impact.
While there is no fully reliable back-up infrastructure yet, content creators can monetize through these channels and see earnings grow as they publish consistently. Industry voices suggest that the pace of monetization varies, but it can escalate from modest beginnings to tens of thousands of rubles, with YouTube offering the most platform-wide opportunities and other sites providing substantial yet different earning patterns.
Advertisers show sustained interest in domestic platforms, but many still combine campaigns across Instagram and YouTube with local sites. Internal data suggest that the market has stabilized and agencies now coordinate campaigns across both foreign networks and Russian platforms, with demand for microbloggers rising by more than 30% since early 2022.
on the edge
Andrey Ivanov, an IT specialist and founder of the Harvester video selection service for text content, notes that the main hurdle for new creators on domestic platforms is finding an audience that will anchor engagement. Platforms like VKontakte, Zen and Rutube promote content based on relevance, yet they often struggle with content originality. Creators frequently become second movers, creating copies rather than building a distinct identity or birthplace for their content.
Ivanov explains that while these platforms welcome new users, turning that momentum into revenue is challenging for beginners. True earning potential tends to come to those who possess unique information or can craft compelling headlines that drive clicks, rather than relying solely on the content itself. The reality is that attracting fresh viewers remains a shared difficulty across Russian platforms, and individual style matters a lot to the conversion of views into engagement.
Perfluence’s Kazakova observes that Rutube remains the toughest node for newcomers, with limited compelling reasons to switch if peers already offer established audiences. The logic is simple: without an audience, there are fewer opportunities for advertisers, which stunts growth. The Rutube story could change if several new creators launch together and can draw both viewers and writers to the platform.
According to industry insiders, a few weeks of steady publishing can yield several thousand subscribers and attract advertiser attention when creators deliver daily, engaging videos. Internal statistics show a recent 15–20% uptick in new influencers across major Russian social networks. Bloggers focusing on discounts, personal finance, humor, parenting, life hacks, and entrepreneurship are among the fastest-growing categories.
Experts like Ilya Borodin from Yoola see potential in Russian platforms as a growth path for newcomers if monetization is not the sole aim right away. Andrey Ivanov believes YouTube will maintain leadership at least for the next few years, thanks to its global footprint among creators, while other platforms are still catching up. Some analysts even predict a future whereTikTok could challenge YouTube’s dominance in the coming years, underscoring the shifting dynamics of video platforms and influencer monetization.