The Numbers
Until now, I have mostly written about my challenges, experience, and goals. Today, I am going to share a much more detailed framework for what I am attempting to do. Once I took to heart the idea of creating content for the love of creating, things changed for me. I no longer felt anxiety as I planned to make my first YouTube video. I had little trouble jumping on Squarespace and making a website. And I have had no problem jotting down a few ideas and posting them as my first blog posts. In fact, this is blog post 4 and I have a dozen ideas of what to write about next. In a later post, I will talk more about changing your mindset, but for now the first thing I want you to remember is that it’s all about the number but not in the way that you would assume.
There are buckets of videos and blogs out there explaining in numbers what it takes to become a “successful” YouTuber – create “x” number of videos for “x” amount of time – but what they don’t tell you, is that the numbers are not the foundation of success. From what I can tell, the real spring of life that makes or breaks an attempt at becoming a content creator is an inherent need to create. This post is not about that, but hopefully I will be able to write about it in the future. This post is going to hash out the numbers, and it is mostly a summary of a video by Ali Abdaal (yes, I’m really into his content right now) called 9 Passive Income Ideas – How I Make $27k per Week. CLICK HERE to watch it.
If you read my last post, you might have surmised that my goal is to start a YouTube channel in 6 months. It is Ali’s last piece of advice that inspired me to start with a blog. So, here is the guide, in numbers, that I am using to start a YouTube channel this year.
Another caveat, my goal is not to make a boatload of money through YouTube. I do have a day job, and I am content enough to develop a career in another field. This adventure is just that, and adventure. I want to experiment and see what is possible. But, for the sake of sticking to the numbers I have framed this partially in terms of revenue generation.
Overview Of the Numbers:
You need 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time to be eligible for monetization on YouTube.
On average it takes over 90 videos to get to 1,000 subscribers.
On average, add revenue is $2 per 1,000 views.
To earn $100/month you need 50,000 views per month.
20% of subscribers equals your approx. views per video.
62,000 subscribers equal around 12,400 (20%) views per video. Based on this, one video per week would give you an income of $100/month.
How Do You Feel About This?
If you are like me, starting from scratch with zero subscribers, 62,000 subscribers probably sounds like a lot of work for an extra $100/month, and it is.
Shoot me a message via my contact page and let me know your reactions to these numbers!
YouTube is a flywheel. It typically takes a large about of front-end effort, but once it gets going it spins up quickly. Based on anecdotal evidence from new YouTubers, if it takes on average 90 videos to get 1,000 subscribers, it might take half that to get your next 2,000. Generally, how it works is that you end up producing one video that does significantly better than the rest, and from there things just take off. This isn’t to say that you will magically end up at 62k subs. It means you will have a much better chance at it if you have 100 videos shared vs 10.
The Secret Sauce:
About now you might be clicking back to my previous post and wondering why I said I am going to write 100 blog posts before creating a single video. If it takes so many videos to gain subscribers, then why waste time on a blog.
Please, CLICK HERE if you have not read my post on Becoming a Content Creator :)
I have 3 reasons for this:
Writing a blog post is easier than creating a video.
I plan to use these blogs as a guide to make my first 50+ videos.
I hope to gain a few blog followers, through social media, that I can encourage over to YouTube.
Let’s start with #2. I tried and failed to make my first YouTube video multiple times. I believe the biggest reason for this was friction. Ali shares this anecdote in his new book Feel Good Productivity (Book review HERE):
“Back in 2018, when working full-time as a doctor, I struggled to make practising the guitar in the evenings a habit. I’d occasionally think, ‘I should probably do some guitar practice.’ But, I’d always end up procrastinating instead. I’d sit in the living room on the couch scrolling social media on my phone or watching TV. My guitar was hidden away behind the bookshelf in the corner of the room to the point that I almost never saw it. It was only when I read James Clear’s book Atomic Habits that I realized the obvious solution: put the guitar in the middle of the living room. Suddenly, picking up the guitar became dramatically easier.”
Making a video was too hard for me. There was too much friction. It required figuring out where and when to film, I had to decide what device to use, and I had to come up with something to talk about. By having 100 blog posts worth of content developed, my hope is that it lowers the friction of what to make videos about. Even if I do the most boring thing possible and make 100 videos that mirror my first 100 blog posts, I will at least created 100 videos and that is 100 videos more than I currently have. Until then, there will not be the excuse of nothing to share holding me back.
#1 is fairly straightforward. Some people might be able to spit videos out like I type, fast and free. If that is you, you should probably jump right into YouTube. I know how my brain works, and for me blogging is way easier than making a video, so that is what I'm doing.
Finally, #3. This is the actual “secret sauce”. In Ali’s video, he mentioned that gaining subscribers was much easier if you already had a following on another platform. If it is easier for you to gain followers on another platform, consider doing that first. I am going to “go live” with my blog very shortly and start posting on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, and I am hoping this helps me gain my first 100 subscribers on YouTube. In all honesty, I’ve been dreading this a little. Even though I have told myself this is a low stakes experiment, I can’t help but feel a bit silly for starting this journey, but I want to go on an adventure and most adventures are uncomfortable at some point or another. I know it sounds cliché to say I am overcoming my fear, but that is actually one of the main goals of this whole project. I might not gain any benefit from a few months of blogs getting pushed out to social media, but regardless I'm sure someone can learn from my experimentation.
Recap The Math:
Let me put these numbers into context.
I am going to write 100 blog posts over the next 6 months (4/100 complete). As I do this I am going to post to Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook to try to gain a few followers and make people aware of what I am trying to do.
6-month goal of 333 unique followers on each platform for a total of 1,000 unique followers (it doesn’t actually matter to me how they are distributed).
After 6 months, I am going to start making YouTube videos, 1 per week for a year (still utilizing socials and still creating blog posts).
18-month goal (from starting blog) is to have 10,000 subscribers on YouTube.
From here I will decide if I want to continue making content. If so, I will likely start to refine my content and the process for making it.
Most importantly, my goal is to share as much of the process as possible: numbers, feelings, tips, ideas, sucesses, failures, all of it.
Once again, I will ask for people to join me! Use my contact page or socials to get in contact. I would love to learn from you if you have embarked on a similar journey! I would love to learn with you if you are just starting out!