How I gained over 100k subs on YouTube

GM. This is Work "After" Work, the newsletter that pours milk in their cereal first because… well we’re different 🥱

Here’s how we’re wrapping up the week:

• 🎬 Making money off YouTube

• 😂 Meme of the day

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Today’s edition is going to be a little different. I’m going to be speaking from experience and sharing everything that I know on how to create a successful YouTube channel that will make you a lot of money (if you follow these steps)

(^the most I’ve made in a single day)

IS IT TOO LATE?

Ever since MrBeast started popping off giving away millions of dollars like its chump change everybody and their mom (literally) wants to become a YouTuber. You can be rich and famous… did I say rich?

Now you probably heard by now, “YouTube is too saturated”, “It’s too late”, “You should’ve started years ago”, or “You can’t make it”. But take it from me when I say this, I thought the same exact thing before I started and now I’m sitting at almost 130k subs.

Before you start:

You need to have a “niche” - A certain topic you solely make videos about to let your audience know what they’re subscribing for. If you’re posting a tech review video one day, a food vlog the next. I’m sorry but you’re better off just quitting at that point.

The best thing to do is make videos on what you want to “learn” more about, or what your passion/hobby is.

There are two types of videos that succeed on YouTube:

1. The ones you watch because they are an “expert” in that field. Such as when you say “vlogging” you think Casey Neistat or Logan Paul - they are experts in that field. Or when you say “tech reviews” you think MKBHD, Unbox Therapy.

2. If you aren’t an expert don’t worry, the second type of videos that always do well are videos of people trying to learn new things/skills and documenting their journey.

These people aren’t experts yet, but they're working on it and documenting their journey. Those videos always kill it on YouTube because people want to feel connected with you like you’re the same as them and not some person who just got lucky.

So if there’s something you want to learn more about just pick up the camera and document it. I promise you with the proper steps (which I’ll get into) you can succeed!

Gear/Equipment

This part, I’m purposely going to keep short.

You don’t need the best of the best gear, I know tons of channels that succeed with using just their phones to film. And I’ll have you know MrBeast only records videos in 1080p... I’m more than certain your smartphone has the ability to record in 1080p.

A couple of things to keep in mind:

It took MrBeast 7 years before he hit a video with over 1,000 views, it took Ali-A 2 years to hit 100 subs… see the trend.

Your first video will not succeed. I promise you it won't. It’s the consistent posting that will bring you success, not getting lucky.

1. When you first start posting videos, you’re a “nobody” in YouTube's eyes. So the only way for people to find your videos is through “Search” that’s where SEO (search engine optimization) comes in.

When starting out try to make videos about “how to” because “how to” is the most searched thing on YouTube. People are always searching for tutorials or reviews. If you can be the video people first see it’ll catapult your growth way faster than other people. (This is exactly what I did)

2. Thumbnails: there’s no point in putting in all this work and making videos if no one is going to watch them. That’s why thumbnails are the most important thing when it comes to your success on YouTube.

There are websites out there like Canva that allow free editing. I use it for pretty much anything. If you want to take it a step further you can get someone to make your thumbnails on Fiverr for like $5.

Pro Tip - Make sure the thumbnail is unique, poppy, and bold. Like this:

Getting Paid 🤑

There are a couple of ways you can start making money on YouTube:

1. (easiest) Adsense - these are the ads you see at the beginning of videos. This requires no work on your part. Everything is automatic. You just need to have 1,000 subs and 4,000 watch hours to qualify, which is not easy to do. But if you keep chugging out those “how to” videos I promise that’s your best chance of hitting them.

2. (medium) Affiliates - You may have heard people say “check out the link in my bio” well every time people click that link and buy something the creator actually gets paid for it. This is a super lucrative way to make extra money, and a lot of people don’t know you can do this.

For example, if you do a “how to” video and you need a certain tool to do what it is you’re doing. You can put a link to that tool in your bio and chances are people will buy it from your link because they need it, and that’s just extra money for you. You can think of it like “passive income”

3. (hard) Sponsorships and Courses - This is something you do once your audience size starts growing. Brands will begin reaching out asking you to talk about their services, and creators actually make a pretty penny from sponsorships.

A lot of my YouTube friends make the bulk of their money with sponsorships. But not me tho. I turn down a lot of them, mainly because I don’t think they resonate with my audience, or they’re just scams lol.

Be prepared for:

It’s going to be a super long journey. Youtube is a long and hard game, but if you stick around and are consistent with it, it will pay off tremendously (trust me)

It took me a whole year before I made a penny with YouTube. I still remember my first Adsense payment, I made $9 and I thought I was the richest guy alive!

Since this is something you’ll do on your own time you have no boss that's telling you what to do and giving you deadlines. Burnout can happen very easily - it’s happened to me a ton.

For some people, when they’re so passionate about growing something it’s hard to turn it off. I remember my first year. I would live and breathe YouTube. I didn’t have an “off” switch. Do I regret that? Not really because I feel like in order to succeed in anything you have to have that hunger and drive for success.

But that was my YouTube journey. If you want to start but have some questions, feel free to reply back to this email I’m happy to help!

MEME OF THE DAY

😂😂

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That's a wrap ladies & gents! Enjoy your weekend :)

DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.