YouTube Content Creators

[randomshenans]

Woo! Broke the $10 mark per month... next stop $1k?

Just need 100x more, we're all good.

Thanks to @AndyCr15 I've ordered some accoustic panels which will arrive tomorrow, so I can get some better deadening in here. I have a nice video to do for next week on alternative investments. I've reached out to all the companies I am looking at for affiliate links if I don't already have them, so hopefully set that up before next week.

July check in. 28 day rev peaked at $18.50 but dropped as July views were lower in holiday season. Subs are still going up though. Watch time is, too. I'm not worried about stats of new videos. I just keep plugging away! I have scheduled another one for next week as I'm in the UK. I have a couple lined up to record when I'm back, too.

Konvi who I did a video about reached out to me and asked to work more closely with me and will double their referral amount from 10EUR to 20EUR per user, which is nice.

 

[randomshenans]

I personally would be very cautious here as I would imagine your viewers would like you to remain impartial?

I invest personally with them, so have to be impartial as it's equally my money there. So if there was ever anything I did not like about it, or had questions on, I'd make sure I got answers or called it out.

I work closely with Stake on property investing. I have people coming to me all the time with questions and provide feedback to Stake on everything. If I don't know something, I find out. If I think something isn't giving enough information, I give feedback to them on this too. I work very much with the attitude of trying to make sure the product gives the most value to the users (me being one) and just act as an inbetween on that with a more human element than a company themselves.

 

[randomshenans]

Apologies if I'm getting the wrong end of the stick as I've not watched your videos. I just know how sceptical YT audiences can be.

Mate, never apologise and you don't at all.

The way affiliate marking works across all sectors is that you get a kick back for promoting their goods. Hell, I am a part of Nike's program. If anyone bought anything from my links (I never post them as they're not really inline with what I post generally anywhere) I'd make 7% back from the total sales. However, my favourite levels of partnerships are a bit more two way. I love to feedback information to the companies to help them make better products that I see my viewers asking about. I engage a lot with users on these things to see patterns and help them out with questions, if I don't have answers to help them I get them. In turn, for that time, I like to get rewarded for that time. At the same time, I would never recommend something I didn't use myself. If I didn't, or I didn't believe in it, I'd not cover it.

Like I said, it's a standard affiliate deal. I just get a closer insight into the business and what's going on inline with viewers questions

 

[randomshenans]

End of month check in.



Nice bump in Aug, which is typically a pretty slow month. I've now passed $75 a month mark on rev generation too. I make just over $50 a month through links, now up to a solid $23 here. Slowly!



It's definitely moving in the right direction. I did a couple of different videos as well. I mean the bread and butter all comes via search but some reacting to tiktok side hustles were fun, too. Rev just going up nicely as well over the months since started.

Funny to compare it to the other channel, when it comes to RPM etc.



Anyway, still plugging away!

 

[randomshenans]

Wait till you hit Christmas CPM, I used to have a youtube channel and at one point I had $40 CPM. I managed to work out the algorithm and got 300,000+ views on a video and then 200,000+ on another one after that my channel just dwindled as the algorithm had changed and I was only getting around 150-300 views a video.

haha that's absolutely mega. You not do it anymore?

 

[randomshenans]

Problem is that I didn't particularly enjoy that style of video, wasn't a very positive style of video. Anything that is informative or positive with no drama just didn't get views for me. So I called it a day.

Curiious what that style was?

 

[randomshenans]

Standard Monthly check in...





Kicked up some RPM in the middle there. Hoping it's more in line and I can maintain this sort of $ or increase the views.

I was watching a greta podcast and it was mentioning the new monetization for shorts and how it'll **** on tiktok a load, so doubling down on shorts and making sure I clip from videos to share them as short form content. YT is also promoting your longform content to you if you like their shorts, so it helps generally on the channel whereas it didn't before.

Anyway, September was a great month in total. I cleared $67 in Ad Rev and $272 in affiliates. Best month by a mile, so I'll take that!

Going for 1500 subs by the end of the year, that'd be wicked.

 

[randomshenans]

I understand a view is much less valuable than long form, but I think they're also easier to come by so...

Yea, on the face of it, they're less valuable, BUT they hit much harder when it comes to being seen. You can post a short and it hit 2.5k views in an hour and then it stops lol or it can carry on and you hit 10,20,30k or even more like my 96m view one... You very very rarely have a long form video hit in this way. Plus, now as I mentioned, they promote your long form content to those who watch your shorts, it helps your channel in general. You can pick up a decent number of subs through shorts, too.

 

[randomshenans]

Totally, but like I said there will be some much better monetisation to shorts in Jan and a lot of work going on for it to make it valuable for creators, so it might balance out a bit... will see how they work it. Right now you get **** all for shorts. Some subs, which is nice, but $$? Nothing worth having. When/ if that changes to be more inline with the long form, it'll be very interesting

 

[randomshenans]

October check in!


Decent growth. Watch time slightly down, views OK but slightly down on last months monetized views

CPM is down slightly on last month, but Sept was just a very good month. Closing out the month on $55 is a good one from $22 just 2 months ago.



I hit $136 in affiliate payouts this month, so closed the month with $191, which isn't bad at all.


I have some goals to hit by the end of the year, which I'm not far off doing and hope with 2 months of the year left I'll manage on all fronts!



Need 18 more subs, 49 affiliates and 4 payouts which based on the year, I would hope would be possible but let's see how Nov/ Dec are in terms of this area of content.

I'm running a number of side hustles in the background at the moment which are for videos, which is great for me tbf ha and have started to really plan and structure my planning/ prioritization for content creation. See how that goes!

On to November, let's see what it brings!

 

[randomshenans]

November/ December check in and end of year reflections.

I am happy with where I am for the end of the year. Learnt a lot and have a lot to work on for next year and I know what those are, which I'll put in a bit.

I aimed to hit 1500 subs this year, 250 affiliate signups and 15 payouts.



I hit that in November and sailed passed it. I'd love to hit 1700 now as a stretch goal, but let's see how I go. I closed 6 affiliate deals last month which netted me $408 which was the best month yet. I have about 8 pending, but not sure they will close this month, but even still. Not too bad for 6 months of this year since looking to monetize this stuff.

Things to work on:

Things to do in Q1:

• Book out slots each week to plan, record and edit and stick to it.
• create 7-10 shorts / tiktok/ reels per long form video. Make that a part of the editing block or generally plan it and make sure it happens.
• Consistently post across all 3 short form channels - schedule these
• Plan short form content - is it the same as long form? Create generally more per week (10 - 20)
• Schedule in interaction time for the above channels - interact with other content creators / people who comment
• Continue to work on my editing style. Most engaging for my audience. This also goes back to time and planning.
• Plan and create a more clear funnel from long form, short form, twitter, blog, linkedin - where am I trying to send people? What's the conversion I intend for each? Is that clear?
• Go hard. Be Consistent.

I want to hit 10k next year. It's a massive goal but I believe if I go properly hard at it and commit, I can do it...


Shorts will gain monetization in Feb next year, so let's get that nailed.

Currently:

• TikTok - 137 followers
• Instagram - 3 followers
• YT - As above

Let's lock those in so I can measure against those in the future.

Here's to 2023 and some more fun and learning!

 

[randomshenans]

Have to say I dislike shorts on YouTube. I think creators often do it as filler when they don't have enough content or as ad for the channel I'm already subscribed to. Just feels like spam. I watch YouTube for long format videos and Instagram etc for shorter things. Some creators I watch have created a 2nd channel when its a offshoot or different format. Which is nice because then you have the choice to get them or not. But if someone drops a lot of shorts on their main youtube channel I often end up unsubbing entirely.

I do agree, too. But I think you are like me when it comes to what I use YT for, but a lot of people aren't and it's a great way to get more visibility to people, you'd never get organically through long form content.

I do totally agree with you though. I am aiming to create content out of my long form for shorts and then another 5-10 a week on completely short focused content. Just need to get planning so I can get to that level of efficiency. I was up until 11 last night knocking out 11 short form videos from this one. I will do another 9 so I have about 3 a day to push... it's all about the numbers apparently...

 

[randomshenans]

Is there anywhere that tells you a YouTube content creators net worth?

You can get an "estimate" of someone's Ad Rev from socialblade.com - but I have found it's very rough. Mine varies wildly and for others it doesn't account for any revenue they might have from other means/ rev streams etc.

 

[randomshenans]

Suppose I should do December!

It was a pretty crappy month for CPM/RPM to be fair, but other means brought us back onto a decent close for the year.

I didn't post over Christmas as I have been off and enjoying that time as well as being crafty / DIYing at home.

Here are the Dec stats:



Ad rev was well down but closed out 4 deals which netted me a nice round $300 for the month, which is great.

Av % viewed increased and CTR wasn't so bad, so I'll take that for the end of the year. Views in general were down but looks up due to posting more short form content.

I broke my goal of 1500 and sailed past to break the 1700 stretch I set myself.

When I look at the year of 2022 since monetization, I took about 2k over the year. Plus 1k from the "side hustles" tested for videos it brings me to $3k for the year. I wasn't monetized all year, but say I look at it over the year, that's 250 a month back to me. Which, I don't think is too shabby at all for my first year out.

Will see where this year takes me. I have some ideas, will see how to make the happen but I'm enjoying the journey either way.

 

[randomshenans]

As a part of my planning and being more organised, I just filmed 3 videos and will edit them over the week evenings. I have one to get done for tomorrow, which is no problem. Then I can space the others out. I also have 6 more ideas I have researched. 2 I need to do more research on the products/ apps and break it all down but feel a lot more on top of things!

 

[randomshenans]

In my case, I don't feel like I have the personality for it, and I'd need to pay for an editor as I'm terrible at anything creative like that, but maybe one day if I find myself at a loose end I'll have a go. @randomshenans thanks for being so honest about your experience - it's nice to see some real data and even better to see your channel growing.

Only just seen this. I would 100% do it. I don't think you need what you think.

The one thing I'd say is that; what would you hope to get out of it? Marketing? Do you have anything you're hoping to promote or just because you think the story is interesting? Because it is a time soak and it is money / an investment, it's worth considering what you hope to get back, too. Even if eventually and not to start.

I'd be happy to take a bunch of your unedited footage if you upload it to google drive and put something together for you for a quick video and a few short ones for a test go.

 

[randomshenans]

My monthly updates.

2023 - January.

Since YouTube has been absolutely doing me one on RPM and it dropped to $1.92 over Dec / Jan - Nice, but luckily I don't rely on that so here is where I'm at.


Subs: 1815
Ad Rev: $10
Side sales: $55
Affiliates: $422

Which is a mega month. So nearly passed $500 a month which is a great one for me. This has all gone back into investments but to nearly hit $500 in a month is simply awesome.

I am supposed to be getting a video out today but I'm so full of cough and cold at the moment

Anyway, let's get at it and see where this can keep going.

EDIT: I actually have $25 pending from another affiliate, plus $100 in free shares and a lottery of a free share (could be worth anything) but I'll count those in Feb as that'll be when they pay out.

 

[randomshenans]

It's been over a year now I've been plugging away on this channel. Time flies, huh? But it's always been structured so much more differently than my other channel I started for fun.
I have a group of mid to late 40s dudes in this village (other expats) who always moan and complain about jobs etc. but never do a thing about it. I stopped mentioning my YT stuff because I just get side eyes and chuckles about it. I give zero ***** about that, I just think it's sad. I passed $600 this month of Feb. The shortest month of the year. I've already made $1000 this year from this. While it won't change my world, it all goes into investments for the future.

Here's to proving the ******* wrong

Subs: 1815
Ad Rev: $10
Side sales: $55
Affiliates: $422

Subs: 1932
Ad Rev: $18
Side Sales: $105
Affiliates: $490
Total: $613

In fact, I actually also got like 0.6 BMW shares worth 53EUR this month from an affiliate as well, so technically hit over 650.

Next stop 1k. Would be nice to have consistent months like that but you know. I'll take it all.

Until next month!

 

[randomshenans]

Don't waste my time asking me to sub. Not too bad at the end of the video, but if you do it at any other time, you're instantly going to 'Don't recommend channel'. To me, it shows you're just some YT junkie, more focused on chasing subs than providing good content.

Interesting view point. Most people don't think about it, which is why people ask. It's more relevant with smaller channels, like mine, as when you're in the 100s of thousands, you have momentum.

 

[randomshenans]

It's been over a year now I've been plugging away on this channel. Time flies, huh? But it's always been structured so much more differently than my other channel I started for fun.
I have a group of mid to late 40s dudes in this village (other expats) who always moan and complain about jobs etc. but never do a thing about it. I stopped mentioning my YT stuff because I just get side eyes and chuckles about it. I give zero ***** about that, I just think it's sad. I passed $600 this month of Feb. The shortest month of the year. I've already made $1000 this year from this. While it won't change my world, it all goes into investments for the future.

Here's to proving the ******* wrong



Subs: 1932
Ad Rev: $18
Side Sales: $105
Affiliates: $490
Total: $613

In fact, I actually also got like 0.6 BMW shares worth 53EUR this month from an affiliate as well, so technically hit over 650.

Next stop 1k. Would be nice to have consistent months like that but you know. I'll take it all.

Until next month!

March was slightly slower than Feb on a couple of things, but ad rev was back up slightly, views were up and subs were way up.

Subs: 2082
Ad Rev: $28
Side Sales: $184
Affiliates: $265
Total: $477

I've currently averaged >$500 a month this year so far, which is a wicked achievement. I went away this weekend for a long weekend, came back and I've already passed $190 for this month in the first few days, which is amazing.

I have plans to push more written blog posts as well, trying to get to a 2 a week cadence and build up the sites SEO and traffic. I think I'll edit the theme on the site, too and do a bit of work to make it as good as I can to double the chances of finding things I want people to.

All in all pretty happy. I actually took a couple of weeks on in March as well as I had a lot in life going on, so it's great to be able to do that and still trickle away.
I have a discord server I invite people to as well. I want to create an awesome community of builders, investors and people who want to get their freedom. It's very small at the moment, but it's just over 40 people in there for nothing in the last couple of months, so again, a nice little thing.

See you next month!