On September 15, 2006, DeFranco created his YouTube account during his finals at East Carolina University, originally registered as "sxephil", in which he talks about "newsie type stuff, and things that matter to [him] today."
DeFranco has cited his influences as Ze Frank, Dane Cook, and the Vlogbrothers.
Early on, he began calling his news-centered videos The Philip DeFranco Show.
The oldest video available for public viewing on DeFranco's channel is a 2006 non-news video titled "Top 10 'How to Get Out of an Argument'".

Before the YouTube partner program was available, he asked for donations from his viewers after claiming to have run out of money, and selling everything except his Mac, camera, and clothes, and overdrawing his bank account so he could spend a night in a hotel as he found it too scary sleeping in a car in Brooklyn.

An online viewer census from 2007 showed that one-third of his viewers were 16- and 17-year-old girls.
In the same year, DeFranco opened his second YouTube channel, "PhilipDeFranco", which includes a series of vlogs which he calls "The Vloggity".
He streamed on BlogTV twice a week and took a cut of the revenue which was up to $12 CPMs.

In August 2007, DeFranco conducted an experiment by uploading a video titled "Big Boobs and You".
The video's thumbnail image was what the title described, except that the image only flashed for a split second.
The rest of the video's content was DeFranco talking.
It quickly became his most successful video at the time, with 1.8 million views.
From then on he changed his content to sex, gossip, and news.
In 2012, YouTube redesigned their website, as videos with cleavage thumbnails attracted lots of clicks but were abandoned instead of being watched.

DeFranco used his large audience to win the Spore Creature Creator, a game promotion competition, and in doing so beat celebrities such as Stan Lee, Katy Perry, and Elijah Wood.
The winner's prize was to choose which charity would receive a donation of $15,000.
He chose the PKD Foundation, an organization dedicated to fighting polycystic kidney disease (PKD), which he attributed to his family's history with the condition.
DeFranco's large online audience also enabled him to win Wired's Sexiest Geek of 2008 competition, a reader voted contest.

In October 2008, DeFranco co-starred with Jessica Rose and Kevin Wu in Hooking Up, written and directed by Woody Tondorf as a promo for HBOLabs (the online arm of HBO).
Hooking Up is a scripted 10-episode web series set at a fictional university where the students spend most of their time emailing and using Facebook, but still manage to miscommunicate.
Guest appearances on Hooking Up were made by Kevin Nalty, Michael Buckley, and other popular Internet celebrities.

By the show's second day on YouTube, it had received more than 450,000 views.
Bobbie Johnson of The Guardian said that many Web surfers have "scoffed at what they see as a cynical attempt to cash in."

In 2008, he stated in an interview that his listed salary of $250,000 from a number of sources on the Internet, including and beyond YouTube, was initially a joke, but would become accurate.
He has been paid by companies to create videos to promote Carl's Jr.'s burgers, and the US television series Lie to Me and Fringe.

DeFranco was a founding member of The Station, but left only a few months after it was created.
DeFranco's early attempts at launching channels with scopes outside of his eponymous news series included BamBamKaboosh and TheDeFrancoUpdate.
DeFranco also launched Like Totally Awesome (LTA), in which video reviews of a movie, video game, or technology were submitted by viewers and compiled into an episode of a video series called The Quad.
The show was run by Sarah Penna, the creator of the YouTube multi-channel network Big Frame.
Early in his YouTube career, Penna aided DeFranco, securing him coverage in news articles and magazines, such as Fast Company.
One of those articles mentioned that DeFranco frequently collaborated with the advertising agency, Mekanism.

DeFranco entered the 2010s having his "sxephil
On September 15, 2006, DeFranco created his YouTube account during his finals at East Carolina University, originally registered as "sxephil", in which he talks about "newsie type stuff, and things that matter to [him] today." DeFranco has cited his influences as Ze Frank, Dane Cook, and the Vlogbrothers. Early on, he began calling his news-centered videos The Philip DeFranco Show. The oldest video available for public viewing on DeFranco's channel is a 2006 non-news video titled "Top 10 'How to Get Out of an Argument'".
Before the YouTube partner program was available, he asked for donations from his viewers after claiming to have run out of money, and selling everything except his Mac, camera, and clothes, and overdrawing his bank account so he could spend a night in a hotel as he found it too scary sleeping in a car in Brooklyn.
An online viewer census from 2007 showed that one-third of his viewers were 16- and 17-year-old girls. In the same year, DeFranco opened his second YouTube channel, "PhilipDeFranco", which includes a series of vlogs which he calls "The Vloggity". He streamed on BlogTV twice a week and took a cut of the revenue which was up to $12 CPMs.
In August 2007, DeFranco conducted an experiment by uploading a video titled "Big Boobs and You". The video's thumbnail image was what the title described, except that the image only flashed for a split second. The rest of the video's content was DeFranco talking. It quickly became his most successful video at the time, with 1.8 million views. From then on he changed his content to sex, gossip, and news. In 2012, YouTube redesigned their website, as videos with cleavage thumbnails attracted lots of clicks but were abandoned instead of being watched.
DeFranco used his large audience to win the Spore Creature Creator, a game promotion competition, and in doing so beat celebrities such as Stan Lee, Katy Perry, and Elijah Wood. The winner's prize was to choose which charity would receive a donation of $15,000. He chose the PKD Foundation, an organization dedicated to fighting polycystic kidney disease (PKD), which he attributed to his family's history with the condition. DeFranco's large online audience also enabled him to win Wired's Sexiest Geek of 2008 competition, a reader voted contest.
In October 2008, DeFranco co-starred with Jessica Rose and Kevin Wu in Hooking Up, written and directed by Woody Tondorf as a promo for HBOLabs (the online arm of HBO). Hooking Up is a scripted 10-episode web series set at a fictional university where the students spend most of their time emailing and using Facebook, but still manage to miscommunicate. Guest appearances on Hooking Up were made by Kevin Nalty, Michael Buckley, and other popular Internet celebrities.
By the show's second day on YouTube, it had received more than 450,000 views. Bobbie Johnson of The Guardian said that many Web surfers have "scoffed at what they see as a cynical attempt to cash in."
In 2008, he stated in an interview that his listed salary of $250,000 from a number of sources on the Internet, including and beyond YouTube, was initially a joke, but would become accurate. He has been paid by companies to create videos to promote Carl's Jr.'s burgers, and the US television series Lie to Me and Fringe.
DeFranco was a founding member of The Station, but left only a few months after it was created. DeFranco's early attempts at launching channels with scopes outside of his eponymous news series included BamBamKaboosh and TheDeFrancoUpdate. DeFranco also launched Like Totally Awesome (LTA), in which video reviews of a movie, video game, or technology were submitted by viewers and compiled into an episode of a video series called The Quad. The show was run by Sarah Penna, the creator of the YouTube multi-channel network Big Frame. Early in his YouTube career, Penna aided DeFranco, securing him coverage in news articles and magazines, such as Fast Company. One of those articles mentioned that DeFranco frequently collaborated with the advertising agency, Mekanism.
DeFranco entered the 2010s having his "sxephil
Philip DeFranco