YouTube Content Creators

A very interesting read - it certainly seems like you need to have a very good knowledge of the "tricks of the trade" so to speak. I've had a lot of people tell me recently that I should start a channel as I do some fairly unusual car stuff (think Mexican Hoovie's Garage with a lower budget), but this thread has pretty much confirmed my previous thoughts that like most money making ventures, it requires a lot of time and effort to actually make it work and probably isn't for everyone.

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.
 
geekman said:
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.
Click to expand...
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.
 
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.
 
Last edited:
randomshenans said:
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.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure really. I have a moderately successful business which is totally unrelated to anything I'd do YouTube videos about so I don't think it would be much use for marketing in that sense. Obviously I wouldn't say no to getting a bit of money out of it but I know that's easier said than done and requires time and money, as you say.

Thanks for your very kind offer - I'll have a think and let you know. IIRC I have you on Instagram so I'll shoot you a message if I end up recording anything.
 
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 :P

randomshenans said:
Subs: 1815
Ad Rev: $10
Side sales: $55
Affiliates: $422
Click to expand...

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!
 
Another pet peeve of mine is subscriber spam.

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.

I like to see brevity.
 
Last edited:
Smokey Deza said:
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.
Click to expand...
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.
 
Smokey Deza said:
Another pet peeve of mine is subscriber spam.

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.

I like to see brevity.
Click to expand...
I'm much the same.

With smaller channels though they often have large viewership but few subs. So they need to try some conversion.
 
I never really understood the hate for being asked to 'like and subscribe'. You literally put hours and hours of your time into making a video to help or entertain someone... the way you benefit is from people watching, which is increased by people like and subscribing. It's a 4 or 5 second phrase just asking someone to give a little back if you have enjoyed the video, or been helped by it, but instead you get this odd reaction from some.

Maybe you need to have spent 4, 5 or 6 hours making a 10 to 15 minute video to understand the effort it takes?
 
Do you mean in the same video, as I can understand that. For me, near the end of a 10-15 minute video I might say 'hopefully you've found that helpful, if so, please do like and subscribe as it helps support the channel and enables me to make more videos' and that would be it. I don't see that being an issue myself and find it a little odd people would not watch another video because I've said that.
 
randomshenans said:
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 :p



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!
Click to expand...
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!
 
I'm thinking my Adobe sub probably isn't worth it now. I initially got it with a student discount (HotUKDeals thing) so it was around £170 a year and the channel was bringing in over £1,500, so it seemed fine. Now the channel brings in around £700 a year and the sub went up to £300 last year. I do use it quite a lot (well, two or three times a month) for my own little videos too but wonder if I'm being too lazy just keeping to pay. I've tried Divinci Resolve before and had issues with it, but I guess I should have another go. I would also miss Photoshop for making the thumbnails, but I assume there is something else cheaper out there. Tbf, I would even miss Adobe Reader, which I have used for editing pdf's...

Maybe I should just see if I can get back to student price again? What does everyone else use?
 
Guys, I've been contemplating starting my own channel just to give myself something to do. Being disabled and mostly housebound I have bucket loads of time to fill. I just have no idea where to start, particularly with editing etc as I've never done it. Can anyone give some advice, recommend any guides or resources?

Any advice is appreciated, thank you.
 
Basically need to pick your software (Adobe Premier, Final Cut Pro, Da Vinci), then take a look at some of the tutorials on Youtube. It's full of them for all of the main video editing programs.

It helps to have a project to work on though rather than just blindly following tutorials.
 
Still plodding away. Do my thing, testing different stuff and building things on the side.

December was a down month, but it always is low. To be expected, but 2023 had some real growth in monthly $$


AEYmBYTmJqpAkwz7vrsJlMXs5z01TrwllMSc5H4PMAVAPivPw6HZX4L0XgdTD_O-MAmR7562OOkZ9oAkheSRzwbg0zIxttqEvA=s2560


I'm hoping to launch a business model canvas tool very soon, as soon as I've caught up on my day job being back.
This is as a part of this channel. My discord is over 100 people now. Would like to get that to 1000 by the end of the year really. Will work at that.

See where this channel goes, but I am also restarting my car sorta stuff as I really enjoy it, so will see what i can do with that channel as well. I have some ideas to test anyway.
 
I too have a YouTube channel, but not the size of yours. I do make some "opinion piece" videos on occasion, but it is mostly Let's Play streams and shorts created from those streams. I have been at it 3 years, but really, the first 1.5 years was learning what not to do. Since I got my head in the game its been slowly growing. I am on a role right now with 121 new subs in the last 28 days, and a massive (for me at least) 172k views and 1.2hours watched in the same period of time.

My "market" is single player ARPG, RPG and FPS mainly, but I do some retro streams as a Christmas thing too. Generally, I play older titles rather than the "next best in vogue" game.

Regarding my views, I hit 1 million total just before Christmas, but since then I have hit over 1.2 million now, which is insane for the size of my channel.

I have another channel idea that I will be starting this year which is nothing to do with gaming. When I start I may do something like you have done and post progress updates for those who are interested.
 
MouthBoy said:
I am on a role right now with 121 new subs in the last 28 days, and a massive (for me at least) 172k views and 1.2hours watched in the same period of time.
Click to expand...
mate that's banging numbers!!
Defo share your progress, I'd love to follow it. I may have more subs, but you do far higher numbers than me in views, which is where the $$ ad rev is anyway. I just rely on people searching for specific video topics and converting them for the most part!

I have a couple of other channels I have actually started working with an editor on, so I dont have to do any of it and can still put something out decent. I have some plans for this year and will see how they pan out and if they're successful on YT or not. More travel and car sort of related.
Whats your new channel about?
 
My new channel is going to be about my journey learning to edit.

I can edit to a sensible degree now and I have a little more than just the basics down, but I want to get advanced.

The premises is that I will learn something, explain what I have learnt, show my practice of learning and discuss my thoughts on it. Any outcomes from what I have produced will then be shown.

I would look at everything from YouTube talking head editing, to how too videos, educational and professional videos, to more cinematic videos etc. I will shoot what I need for the edits too, so there will be a learning journey there.

It is a simple idea but there are so many experts on youtube showing how to do things, but very few showing how to learn and the pain and struggles of learning these things.

Does that all make sense?

Also, today I am up to 129 subs and 180k views in 28days lol.
 
MouthBoy said:
Also, today I am up to 129 subs and 180k views in 28days lol.
Click to expand...
Quality man!

MouthBoy said:
Does that all make sense?
Click to expand...

yea, and I think it's something are not just interested in, but also would search for, so think you'll have a good chance. likewise, it acts as a tool to help push you to learn more and more so it can't be a bad thing at all!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom