Background: I live in Los Angeles and have three VERY close friends who are Youtubers. They’re all in the niche of reviewing gear for amateur heavy metal and rock audio engineers (my singer is one of them).
They have similar subscriber counts (between 200k-350k subs), in a similar space. One channel pulls in $80k a year, one about $200k a year, and one over $200k A MONTH.
This is largly because of outside deals. YouTube CPMs for music content is generally garbage. However, outside deals and affiliate marketing for gear reviews is pretty lucrative. More lucrative is online courses. My friend pulling in $200k+ a month has gone heavy on the online course side.
That being said, this sounds cheesy, but DO NOT do Youtube for the money. You will make FAR FAR more cash in the short term by either: 1. Studying leetcode for job interviews at FAANG companies. 2. Taking up contract work on the side. 3. Being an uber driver. For real.
Youtube is a GRIND. My friends who ”made” it posted three quality videos a week. For 1-2 years. While working full time. Before they had ANY significant traction.
For your first year expect to make MAYBE $10k, if AND ONLY IF, you post 3 quality videos a week.
I’m currently growing my own Youtube channel now, I’m only at one video a week but I do genuinely enjoy making them. I’m also growing my LinkedIn too (organic reach on LinkedIn is BANANAS, I trend every four posts). But again, I ENJOY doing these videos, I writing scripts, I enjoy public speaking.
So to answer your question: it is 1000% not too late AT ALL. It’s still VERY VERY early. There is MASSIVE MASSIVE oppertunity on these platforms. However you HAVE to make content you love or you WILL quit. Hopefully I’m not discouraging you from posting, please post, but only do what you enjoy!
> if AND ONLY IF, you post 3 quality videos a week.
My kids watch kid YouTubers, and I recently found out that one of these “home made” quality channels actually has a full on media crew behind the production! I was blown away.
Do you know how they negotiated those deals?
Do these companies approach you with a big offer if you've got the views, or is it the result of renegotiating upwards over the lifetime of the channel? Always wondered how these big numbers come about...
Hey could you expand on the part of contract work on the side? You mean in tech right alongside your full time job? How can one pull that off if both jobs are 9-5?
If you want to make significant passive income I believe the strategy for 2020 is
* Make 10-15 videos, articles, blog posts, whatever. Make at least $500
* Write a blog post "How I made $500 online". Get some traction. Sell a course on "How to make $500 online". Get more traction. Make $20000.
* Write a blog post on "How I made $20000 by selling "How to make $500 online"". Sell a course on "How to make $20000 online by selling "How to make $500 online"". Make $100000.
* Write a blog post on "How I made $100000 by selling "How I made $20000 by selling "How to make $500 online""". Make $1000000.
Making web development content is a good idea, but looking to get "passive income" is the wrong tack to take. If you make good content on web development, most of the value you get out of it is likely to be through "networking" - finding a better job, getting freelance contracts, connecting with funding for your own start-up, etc.
Think about the unit economics. Average video view earns you roughly a tenth of a penny in advertising. A connection that improves your career prospect is worth very roughly $10,000. That's a ratio of ten million to one. Whatever audience you manage to generate is worth far more to your career as a software developer than it is as generic eyeballs on videos.
I would state explicitly that building follower base and keeping it by creating videos consistently is far from "passive". When one stops uploading/creating people will forget about him.
Don't know timelines on building following (how fast one can build an audience) but my gut feeling is that one could earn some money after 5 years of constantly pushing good content and building network. I think OP would expect that he could pull it off in couple of months so in that sense he is too late.
It's never too late. But unless the content you are creating is either a passion for you (i.e. you don't care if it makes money) or based on a source of income from outside of YouTube (i.e. you are making the content as marketing for another business you own), you may find sustaining and growing a channel a hard task and somewhat demoralizing, if you don't have patience to stay with it for years without any return. It's best to start creating content without the expectation of any monetization and then seeing where it goes.
Of course you may become a viral hit, but that's a matter of luck.
Assuming you really mean on-demand online video/audio content (which is not limited to YouTube but also includes podcasts, Spotify, Instagram and many other platforms that may or may not yet exist), there is still huge growth potential and limitless opportunities for new content.
If you chronologically relate it to the history of television, on-demand online content is at the equivalent of about 1965.
There's still a huge amount of the global population that doesn't really listen to much of this kind of content passively - e.g., while driving/commuting, working, exercising, etc, as many people still don't even know you can really do this. And mobile data is still expensive in a lot of places in the world.
So, I can easily see the audience scale (measured by hours consumed) increasing another 10-20x in the next 10-20 years.
Even then, I doubt there's anyone, even people (like me) who spend many hours a week consuming online media, who thinks "there's no room in my life for anything other than what already exists".
So, no, it's not too late, and indeed it's never too late. But you need to figure out what is the unmet need that you can fill, then work hard over a long period of time to deliver something special for your audience.
I have a small business where I have partnered with several YouTubers (150k - 300k subs) to create custom merchandise. [1]
We do a revenue split, and I handle the shipping and manufacturing, my goal being for this to essentially be a source of passive income for the content creators.
My observation is that merchandising is an important revenue stream: either physical products, or digital ("for $5 you can have the sheet music that was used to make this video.") Digital merch seems to have a better long-tail and obviously the best margins. Physical merch is cyclical: strong sales at the start, and then they drop off after a few months.
Patreon seems to be an important revenue generator too - exclusive content, or see content ahead of time - which is fed by the videos that the content creators post in order to amass their audience.
Finally, individual video sponsorships seem to be important, and with a popular channel, can earn in the ballpark of $2k/video (don't know the variance here, just using secondhand knowledge.)
The point being, I think that you have to continually be creating content, and it may not necessarily be passive income. And a non-trivial amount of revenue is generated via other means, or partnerships/sponsorships, which is viable after building an audience.
It takes a ton of views to generate meaningful ad income on YouTube. If you're making learning content, consider setting up your own site for monetization with https://teachable.com/
You can put samples from your courses on YouTube to drive in traffic to the full courses on your own site.
I agree. There's already so much content and trash on Youtube that it will be a huge investment to make it worthwhile, assuming you are lucky. Creating structured, high-quality course content in a field not covered well by existing courses on sites like teachable and udemy will still be hard work, but with a higher chance of success.
If you making content for a new or under served niche - maybe - but probably not. There are some good quality channels with 100s of videos after years of work that still only pull in <5000 views per video - I'd be surprised if these channel were earning more than $100 a month, which considering the 1000s of hours that's gone into them, is not economical. A lot of them do it for the love of it - if this is you, go for it.
I considered this too - after doing some research on my own, talking to some other people I know who do YT and chatting to my SO (digital marketing manager) I learned YT advertising alone does NOT generate very much until you are consistently pulling a lot of views regularly (couple videos at a week at 10000+ views each. This can takes years, if ever, especially in the space you are describing - technical content). Profitability on YT is much less about quality and more about quantity and above all consistency, which is very difficult if you are looking to produce high quality content - this takes time.
YT is an exposure platform. It is a good tool for this - you can make your own content and monetize it separately, and use YT as a means to advertise and get exposure. See [0], start-react-native on IH. The founder, William Candellon, also was on the IH podcast, where he described his journey. Basically YT -> generating a following -> release paid content on his own platform and funnel in leads from his YT following.
You could do something like Gary Bernhardt does with his "Destroy all Software" series. A new 10m-15m video a week, and charge for access - either a one-off or a subscription service. I do something similar to generate leads for the course I am working on. [1]
Yes, it’s too late in the sense that your videos and channel won’t passively benefit from YouTube’s growth, because its growth is slowing and that slowed growth is shared by so many other channels.
There is still opportunity, but you’ll have to work hard to capitalize on it. You may never see more than a few dollars after making dozens of videos unless your work is standout.
100% disagree. Organic on YouTube isn’t as strong as TikTok or LinkedIn but it’s still there. I’ve done a two pronged strategy where I direct LinkedIn traffic to YouTube with decent success.
I have another close friend who repurposes YouTube content for TikTok and has had great success. He focuses on heavy metal meme music, and does a vertical video edit for TikTok.
I repurpose YouTube videod for LinkedIn and have had similwr success. I reccomend taking 10-15 minute videos on YouTube and slicing them up, adding subtitles on something like zubtitle.com for LinkedIn if you’re trying to build a funnel to sell courses.
No it's not too late, but since you've mentioned you want it to create a passive income a few points:
1) Youtube videos require SEO just like a webpage. You need to create backlinks to your video and maybe send some traffic to it to make it relevant. Brian deen has some very good videos on it.
2) Pay attention to the engagement metrics, bounce rates etc. It matters a lot for getting your video in search results.
3) Invest some time in peripheral things like a good thumbnail, video optimization, etc. The more clicks you get the higher it starts ranking.
4) Last but not least monetising video based on ads is not where it's at. Most successful Youtubers are often making more money with affiliate marketing (most) and sponsorships.
So when you want to create content for Youtube make sure your priorities are clear. Are you doing it to generate income or is it just a hobby. There are very different approach to both.
Seems like there's more money in live streaming on Twitch. I often watch streamers who play chess and they are making quite a lot of money given the low effort involved. People just randomly drop by and "tip" them €10 to €50 for no reason. A few tips per hour is enough to make it a decent salary.
Of course, this requires that you can play chess at a master level or else no one will want to watch. But maybe you can live stream yourself hacking? Deep learning is a hot topic that could attract viewers. I wouldn't tip but I'd watch that.
That’s like saying is it too late to be an A-list movie star. Of course not, but even if you try you’re not likely to become one, so only go into it if you’d be happy with a middling outcome.
If you want passive income, Youtube is a terrible choice. Youtube is not passive income, except maybe if it hitches a ride on your fame and work outside Youtube.
Youtube is hard work. You need to attract a community, and keep feeding that community. A single video is not going to make you much money; consistency is key. It can be hard work, and only a few really succeed. Although the ones who do succeed tend to succeed spectacularly.
1. Create content on websites designed specifically for teaching (MOOC platform and other sites mentioned here). They have right audience and right tools.
2. Create small (< 2min) videos for Youtube and use it as marketing platform for your coursework on other site. This utilizes YT's massive user base but avoids being drowned in all the trash there.
It sounds like this might be something you could ob https://egghead.io - it's specifically built for this purpose, and you have a team working to handle the stuff you don't want to do (marketing, customer service, etc.).
So one space this is super visible is tech twitter, there's a developer I follow who is super positive and just constantly puts out content, he's getting traction now but it wasn't always a meaningful amount.
He's had a heavy snowball effect this year from a small following to being features in way larger educational platforms
if you put out content consistently, and aimed at beginner to mid level with decent videos - high resolution, clear screen / camera / audio / basic editing. You can absolutely get views and traction.
[+] [-] jameshush|5 years ago|reply
They have similar subscriber counts (between 200k-350k subs), in a similar space. One channel pulls in $80k a year, one about $200k a year, and one over $200k A MONTH.
This is largly because of outside deals. YouTube CPMs for music content is generally garbage. However, outside deals and affiliate marketing for gear reviews is pretty lucrative. More lucrative is online courses. My friend pulling in $200k+ a month has gone heavy on the online course side.
That being said, this sounds cheesy, but DO NOT do Youtube for the money. You will make FAR FAR more cash in the short term by either: 1. Studying leetcode for job interviews at FAANG companies. 2. Taking up contract work on the side. 3. Being an uber driver. For real.
Youtube is a GRIND. My friends who ”made” it posted three quality videos a week. For 1-2 years. While working full time. Before they had ANY significant traction.
For your first year expect to make MAYBE $10k, if AND ONLY IF, you post 3 quality videos a week.
I’m currently growing my own Youtube channel now, I’m only at one video a week but I do genuinely enjoy making them. I’m also growing my LinkedIn too (organic reach on LinkedIn is BANANAS, I trend every four posts). But again, I ENJOY doing these videos, I writing scripts, I enjoy public speaking.
So to answer your question: it is 1000% not too late AT ALL. It’s still VERY VERY early. There is MASSIVE MASSIVE oppertunity on these platforms. However you HAVE to make content you love or you WILL quit. Hopefully I’m not discouraging you from posting, please post, but only do what you enjoy!
[+] [-] alfiedotwtf|5 years ago|reply
> if AND ONLY IF, you post 3 quality videos a week.
My kids watch kid YouTubers, and I recently found out that one of these “home made” quality channels actually has a full on media crew behind the production! I was blown away.
[+] [-] ApolloRising|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] _curious_|5 years ago|reply
Seriously though: what is the topical nature of your content, or if comfortable, share a link to your channel?
[+] [-] Winterflow3r|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] truckerbill|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] akudha|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] minhazm423|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] flashman|5 years ago|reply
> My friends who ”made” it posted three quality videos a week. For 1-2 years.
For every ten people who did this, maybe one made it big. There's no guarantee the grind will pay off.
[+] [-] sixhobbits|5 years ago|reply
* Make 10-15 videos, articles, blog posts, whatever. Make at least $500
* Write a blog post "How I made $500 online". Get some traction. Sell a course on "How to make $500 online". Get more traction. Make $20000.
* Write a blog post on "How I made $20000 by selling "How to make $500 online"". Sell a course on "How to make $20000 online by selling "How to make $500 online"". Make $100000.
* Write a blog post on "How I made $100000 by selling "How I made $20000 by selling "How to make $500 online""". Make $1000000.
[+] [-] EmilioMartinez|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] corporateslave5|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ThrustVectoring|5 years ago|reply
Think about the unit economics. Average video view earns you roughly a tenth of a penny in advertising. A connection that improves your career prospect is worth very roughly $10,000. That's a ratio of ten million to one. Whatever audience you manage to generate is worth far more to your career as a software developer than it is as generic eyeballs on videos.
[+] [-] ozim|5 years ago|reply
Don't know timelines on building following (how fast one can build an audience) but my gut feeling is that one could earn some money after 5 years of constantly pushing good content and building network. I think OP would expect that he could pull it off in couple of months so in that sense he is too late.
[+] [-] sumanthvepa|5 years ago|reply
Of course you may become a viral hit, but that's a matter of luck.
[+] [-] tomhoward|5 years ago|reply
If you chronologically relate it to the history of television, on-demand online content is at the equivalent of about 1965.
There's still a huge amount of the global population that doesn't really listen to much of this kind of content passively - e.g., while driving/commuting, working, exercising, etc, as many people still don't even know you can really do this. And mobile data is still expensive in a lot of places in the world.
So, I can easily see the audience scale (measured by hours consumed) increasing another 10-20x in the next 10-20 years.
Even then, I doubt there's anyone, even people (like me) who spend many hours a week consuming online media, who thinks "there's no room in my life for anything other than what already exists".
So, no, it's not too late, and indeed it's never too late. But you need to figure out what is the unmet need that you can fill, then work hard over a long period of time to deliver something special for your audience.
[+] [-] memset|5 years ago|reply
We do a revenue split, and I handle the shipping and manufacturing, my goal being for this to essentially be a source of passive income for the content creators.
My observation is that merchandising is an important revenue stream: either physical products, or digital ("for $5 you can have the sheet music that was used to make this video.") Digital merch seems to have a better long-tail and obviously the best margins. Physical merch is cyclical: strong sales at the start, and then they drop off after a few months.
Patreon seems to be an important revenue generator too - exclusive content, or see content ahead of time - which is fed by the videos that the content creators post in order to amass their audience.
Finally, individual video sponsorships seem to be important, and with a popular channel, can earn in the ballpark of $2k/video (don't know the variance here, just using secondhand knowledge.)
The point being, I think that you have to continually be creating content, and it may not necessarily be passive income. And a non-trivial amount of revenue is generated via other means, or partnerships/sponsorships, which is viable after building an audience.
[1] My specific niche is making notebooks for musicians, and you can see the folks I've collaborated with here! https://www.themusiciansnotebook.com/collaborations
[+] [-] jlgaddis|5 years ago|reply
I don't know that spending a ton of time researching topics, planning, recording, and editing your videos counts as "passive" income.
> Is the Youtube space convoluted or is there enough areas where one can create contents?
Yes.
That said, if you wanna do it, do it.
[+] [-] cloudking|5 years ago|reply
You can put samples from your courses on YouTube to drive in traffic to the full courses on your own site.
[+] [-] dpau|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lmiller1990|5 years ago|reply
I considered this too - after doing some research on my own, talking to some other people I know who do YT and chatting to my SO (digital marketing manager) I learned YT advertising alone does NOT generate very much until you are consistently pulling a lot of views regularly (couple videos at a week at 10000+ views each. This can takes years, if ever, especially in the space you are describing - technical content). Profitability on YT is much less about quality and more about quantity and above all consistency, which is very difficult if you are looking to produce high quality content - this takes time.
YT is an exposure platform. It is a good tool for this - you can make your own content and monetize it separately, and use YT as a means to advertise and get exposure. See [0], start-react-native on IH. The founder, William Candellon, also was on the IH podcast, where he described his journey. Basically YT -> generating a following -> release paid content on his own platform and funnel in leads from his YT following.
You could do something like Gary Bernhardt does with his "Destroy all Software" series. A new 10m-15m video a week, and charge for access - either a one-off or a subscription service. I do something similar to generate leads for the course I am working on. [1]
[0] https://www.indiehackers.com/product/react-native-starter-ki...
[1] https://vuejs-course.com/
[+] [-] 1123581321|5 years ago|reply
There is still opportunity, but you’ll have to work hard to capitalize on it. You may never see more than a few dollars after making dozens of videos unless your work is standout.
[+] [-] jameshush|5 years ago|reply
I have another close friend who repurposes YouTube content for TikTok and has had great success. He focuses on heavy metal meme music, and does a vertical video edit for TikTok.
I repurpose YouTube videod for LinkedIn and have had similwr success. I reccomend taking 10-15 minute videos on YouTube and slicing them up, adding subtitles on something like zubtitle.com for LinkedIn if you’re trying to build a funnel to sell courses.
[+] [-] Crazyontap|5 years ago|reply
1) Youtube videos require SEO just like a webpage. You need to create backlinks to your video and maybe send some traffic to it to make it relevant. Brian deen has some very good videos on it.
2) Pay attention to the engagement metrics, bounce rates etc. It matters a lot for getting your video in search results.
3) Invest some time in peripheral things like a good thumbnail, video optimization, etc. The more clicks you get the higher it starts ranking.
4) Last but not least monetising video based on ads is not where it's at. Most successful Youtubers are often making more money with affiliate marketing (most) and sponsorships.
So when you want to create content for Youtube make sure your priorities are clear. Are you doing it to generate income or is it just a hobby. There are very different approach to both.
[+] [-] bjourne|5 years ago|reply
Of course, this requires that you can play chess at a master level or else no one will want to watch. But maybe you can live stream yourself hacking? Deep learning is a hot topic that could attract viewers. I wouldn't tip but I'd watch that.
[+] [-] ponker|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] mcv|5 years ago|reply
Youtube is hard work. You need to attract a community, and keep feeding that community. A single video is not going to make you much money; consistency is key. It can be hard work, and only a few really succeed. Although the ones who do succeed tend to succeed spectacularly.
[+] [-] n_t|5 years ago|reply
2. Create small (< 2min) videos for Youtube and use it as marketing platform for your coursework on other site. This utilizes YT's massive user base but avoids being drowned in all the trash there.
[+] [-] sgrove|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kingkongjaffa|5 years ago|reply
He's had a heavy snowball effect this year from a small following to being features in way larger educational platforms
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeU-1X402kT-JlLdAitxSMA
if you put out content consistently, and aimed at beginner to mid level with decent videos - high resolution, clear screen / camera / audio / basic editing. You can absolutely get views and traction.
[+] [-] tmaly|5 years ago|reply
I am not saying don’t try, but you have to be willing to make at least a 100 solid videos before you get in the swing of things based on my research.
[+] [-] ars|5 years ago|reply
There's always room for new stuff, if for the simple reason that people are always hungry for something new.
[+] [-] mongol|5 years ago|reply