Creating a Thriving Personal Brand w/ YouTube - A Journal & A Personal Guide.

[Valier]

Here is some context into how impressive this progress is...
(and a sneak into where this could lead to)

This Youtuber went on to have massive success and become very well known. In this video he is talking about his first crazy growth stage - 50k subs in 2 months. It is totally nuts that @Valier has done like double that with no signs of slowing down.

I think @Valier is on a very similar trajectory to millon(s) subs and it is really cool to see that on top of that he has his very own unique style/approach that is clearly very well liked.

Exciting thread for sure!

Damn... I'd been watching Matt's videos on and off for a while now, but that's crazy to put into perspective. I think I've said this countless timesbefore, but it just feels so surreal to me.

Right now, editing videos is my only form of normality amongst everything that's going on .

 

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[fastlanedoll]

I wish that was my normality too, lol.

EDIT: I really think the fastlane would go viral becauae of your videos 😀

 

[Valier]

Update 8. The First Paycheck (Understanding YT Monetisation) …

First Paycheck
My first paycheck from YouTube arrived yesterday (in the form of an AdSense deposit) and, as promised, in this quick update I’ll dive into how YouTube monetisation works, and break down my own stats.


Getting Monetised
Pretty sure I’ve mentioned it before, but in order to monetise your videos on YouTube the requirements (as of June 2020) are that you must have 1,000 subscribers, and 4,000 hours of watch time (in the last 12 months).

Once you hit that, YouTube will tell you to open up an AdSense account, and once that’s done, you have to wait for YouTube to review your channel before allowing you to monetise videos.

If you get the go-ahead, then you’re free to monetise your videos as you wish.


“Controlling the Ads”
You don’t have any say in what ads will appear in your videos (since this is determined by looking at the metadata of your video and deciding which ads would be most relevant to that video).

But you do have control over how many ads you want.

Here’s a little look at the monetisation settings for one of my videos:


Typically, people will keep all types of ads on, and will place an ad before the video starts, as well as after.


Mid-roll Ads
If you upload videos that are 10 minutes or longer, you’ll be allowed to run “mid-roll ads”.

These are the ads that run mid-way through a video (and you can apply multiple midroll ads per video).

An example of what the settings for a midroll ad look like on my video:



Although it’s not been confirmed, the common “rumour” is that midroll ads will actually make the algorithm favour your video much more, as well as allowing you to make more money from it. (Makes sense, since YouTube is a business and wants the videos that are longer and have more ads in them to be promoted for the benefit of their advertisers).

Whilst some people fear putting midroll ads in because it could “annoy” their audience, I still don’t think that’s a good enough reason to leave it out (unless you’re going completely overboard).

Most people on YouTube (including myself) are used to seeing ads by now, and it’s only 5 seconds worth of hinderance to your viewers – not to mention if you’re spending hours and hours creating these videos, then you’d be doing yourself a disservice by not trying to get the algorithm to push your video more favourably, and make a little more money from it!


“How much does YouTube pay you?”
Ahhhh, the age-old question of how much YouTube pay… well, the answer is it completely depends on the content of your videos and overall channel.

Here’s how it goes :

YouTube will pay you an amount of money per 1,000 views. (This is otherwise known as your CPM. A CPM of £2 on one video will mean you get paid £2 per 1,000 views on that video).

The massive variable here is your CPM. Because everyone’s going to have something different depending on their niche. (You can find your CPM in your back-end analytics).

A niche that is likely to have more advertisers throwing money at it, is going to have a higher CPM.

For example: the personal finance niche has a high CPM of usually £10+. I have also heard that the beauty/makeup niches have extremely high CPM’s as well, since advertisers know that someone watching a makeup tutorial has a higher chance of pulling out their wallet and spending money on beauty products.

What’s important to note is that every video you post will have a different CPM. If all your videos are within the same niche, then they’ll likely have similar CPM’s per video. Whereas in my case, one video can have a CPM of £6, whilst another can have a CPM of £17.


Monetised Views [IMPORTANT]
Youtube will pay you as soon as your viewers see the ad. Whether they watch only 5 seconds, the full thing, or whether they click on the ad, it doesn’t matter.

Once they see it, you are paid, and this amount doesn’t change depending on how much of the ad they’ve watched (this only effects the advertiser themselves).

What’s important to note here is that you are paid when they actually see the ad. So if someone is running ad-block, you are not going to be paid.

YouTube allows you to see how many of your views were “monetised views” in their back-end analytics (which I’m going to show you in just a moment).

CORRECTION: ​

There's a lot of misleading and conflicting answers on this subject, but what seems to be the most plausible explanation is: you are paid depending on what the advertiser’s goal is.

If they are running an ad with a selected goal of getting impressions, then you are going to be paid as soon as someone sees the ad.

If they were running an ad with a selected goal of getting clicks, then you will be paid whenever someone clicks you ad.


Breaking Down My Stats
So, I’ve been monetising my videos since the 17th of May (26 days ago from this post).

My average CPM across all videos is currently £14.29.

My estimated monetised playbacks are 2.6M.

Unfortunately, multiplying these two numbers together will not give an accurate result on my earnings since they are just estimates and averages.

My total “estimated” earnings (since monetising) has been £21,233.


YouTube pays you based on your previous month’s earnings. In the month of May I made an estimate of £11,722.21:


YouTube paid me a total of £11,677.36 directly into my AdSense account (only £44.85 shy of the estimated earnings).

SIDENOTE: YouTube will only allow you to withdraw any funds on your AdSense account if they exceed £100.


Conclusion
I hope that answers some of the questions you’ve had regarding YouTube monetisation.

And yeah, that first paycheck was more money than I’ve earned in my life.

I’m not planning on withdrawing it into my bank account yet, until I register as a limited company so I only pay corporate tax on it, allowing me to pay myself as an employee and strike that off as a business expense

I’m nearing the end of this next video, and I’m pouring the majority of my waking hours on editing this thing, but I’ll occasionally pop by the forum on my breaks and answer any questions you have!

 

[Timmy C]

Holy shit man that's insane!

Congratulations.

 

[alexkuzmov]

Update 8. The First Paycheck (Understanding YT Monetisation) …

First Paycheck
My first paycheck from YouTube arrived yesterday (in the form of an AdSense deposit) and, as promised, in this quick update I’ll dive into how YouTube monetisation works, and break down my own stats.


Getting Monetised
Pretty sure I’ve mentioned it before, but in order to monetise your videos on YouTube the requirements (as of June 2020) are that you must have 1,000 subscribers, and 4,000 hours of watch time (in the last 12 months).

Once you hit that, YouTube will tell you to open up an AdSense account, and once that’s done, you have to wait for YouTube to review your channel before allowing you to monetise videos.

If you get the go-ahead, then you’re free to monetise your videos as you wish.


“Controlling the Ads”
You don’t have any say in what ads will appear in your videos (since this is determined by looking at the metadata of your video and deciding which ads would be most relevant to that video).

But you do have control over how many ads you want.

Here’s a little look at the monetisation settings for one of my videos:
View attachment 33486

Typically, people will keep all types of ads on, and will place an ad before the video starts, as well as after.


Mid-roll Ads
If you upload videos that are 10 minutes or longer, you’ll be allowed to run “mid-roll ads”.

These are the ads that run mid-way through a video (and you can apply multiple midroll ads per video).

An example of what the settings for a midroll ad look like on my video:

View attachment 33487

Although it’s not been confirmed, the common “rumour” is that midroll ads will actually make the algorithm favour your video much more, as well as allowing you to make more money from it. (Makes sense, since YouTube is a business and wants the videos that are longer and have more ads in them to be promoted for the benefit of their advertisers).

Whilst some people fear putting midroll ads in because it could “annoy” their audience, I still don’t think that’s a good enough reason to leave it out (unless you’re going completely overboard).

Most people on YouTube (including myself) are used to seeing ads by now, and it’s only 5 seconds worth of hinderance to your viewers – not to mention if you’re spending hours and hours creating these videos, then you’d be doing yourself a disservice by not trying to get the algorithm to push your video more favourably, and make a little more money from it!


“How much does YouTube pay you?”
Ahhhh, the age-old question of how much YouTube pay… well, the answer is it completely depends on the content of your videos and overall channel.

Here’s how it goes :

YouTube will pay you an amount of money per 1,000 views. (This is otherwise known as your CPM. A CPM of £2 on one video will mean you get paid £2 per 1,000 views on that video).

The massive variable here is your CPM. Because everyone’s going to have something different depending on their niche. (You can find your CPM in your back-end analytics).

A niche that is likely to have more advertisers throwing money at it, is going to have a higher CPM.

For example: the personal finance niche has a high CPM of usually £10+. I have also heard that the beauty/makeup niches have extremely high CPM’s as well, since advertisers know that someone watching a makeup tutorial has a higher chance of pulling out their wallet and spending money on beauty products.

What’s important to note is that every video you post will have a different CPM. If all your videos are within the same niche, then they’ll likely have similar CPM’s per video. Whereas in my case, one video can have a CPM of £6, whilst another can have a CPM of £17.


Monetised Views [IMPORTANT]
Youtube will pay you as soon as your viewers see the ad. Whether they watch only 5 seconds, the full thing, or whether they click on the ad, it doesn’t matter.

Once they see it, you are paid, and this amount doesn’t change depending on how much of the ad they’ve watched (this only effects the advertiser themselves).

What’s important to note here is that you are paid when they actually see the ad. So if someone is running ad-block, you are not going to be paid.

YouTube allows you to see how many of your views were “monetised views” in their back-end analytics (which I’m going to show you in just a moment).


Breaking Down My Stats
So, I’ve been monetising my videos since the 17th of May (26 days ago from this post).

My average CPM across all videos is currently £14.29.

My estimated monetised playbacks are 2.6M.

Unfortunately, multiplying these two numbers together will not give an accurate result on my earnings since they are just estimates and averages.

My total “estimated” earnings (since monetising) has been £21,233.
View attachment 33488

YouTube pays you based on your previous month’s earnings. In the month of May I made an estimate of £11,722.21:
View attachment 33489

YouTube paid me a total of £11,677.36 directly into my AdSense account (only £44.85 shy of the estimated earnings).

SIDENOTE: YouTube will only allow you to withdraw any funds on your AdSense account if they exceed £100.


Conclusion
I hope that answers some of the questions you’ve had regarding YouTube monetisation.

And yeah, that first paycheck was more money than I’ve earned in my life.

I’m not planning on withdrawing it into my bank account yet, until I register as a limited company so I only pay corporate tax on it, allowing me to pay myself as an employee and strike that off as a business expense

I’m nearing the end of this next video, and I’m pouring the majority of my waking hours on editing this thing, but I’ll occasionally pop by the forum on my breaks and answer any questions you have!

Very nice information.
I had no idea that you get to choose the midrow ads, always wondered why they are ao different per video.

 

[fastlanedoll]

Thanks soo much for your update & transparency!!
Once again, suuper happy & proud of you!! 😀

I was thinking of doing a health channel occasionally scattered with a beauty video, since I'm both a GP & cosmetic dr. Do you think that's a bad idea?
Will my channel be 'labelled' as a health channel instead of a beauty one, and have a lower CPM?
Or does the CPM depend on the individual video & not the channel as a whole?

When I read £21,233 I screamed. That's more than what I make in a month, and I went through an extremely tough program, and working a (pretty) tough job for almost 10 years to not-even-get-there!! 😀

Seriously rooting for you!!
I think you should also consider a 'Fans Only' account. Since you already have a fan base, you can further monetize your audience by letting them ask you more personalized questions about their financial situation etc. etc. for a subscription fee.
That's what I plan to do once I've built an audience. And people will pay for FaceTime / custom videos yadda yadda etc.
The numbers can add up pretty quickly I reckon.

 

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[RazorCut]

Great info, thanks James. Interesting about getting paid regardless of length of ad watch. I hadn't expected that as I believe advertisers only get billed after either an engagement (click through) or watching 30 seconds+? (or the entire ad if shorter?)

Really looking forward to your next YouTube upload and your updates. Congratulations.

 

[StrikingViper69]

That's crazy. Congratulations!

 

[redshift]

Nice! Thanks for the info. You had some great points. This is huge 😀

I’m not planning on withdrawing it into my bank account yet, until I register as a limited company so I only pay corporate tax on it, allowing me to pay myself as an employee and strike that off as a business expense

I haven't looked much into this area yet so don't know how it entirely works (esp in the uk), but wouldn't the income already be considered earned when its paid into your AdSense account ? i.e Since you did't have a company when you received the earnings from YouTube, you would already owe taxes on it.

 

[RazorCut]

I haven't looked much into this area yet so don't know how it entirely works (esp in the uk), but wouldn't the income already be considered earned when its paid into your AdSense account ? i.e Since you did't have a company when you received the earnings from YouTube, you would already owe taxes on it.

Technically, but if it’s paid into a limited company bank account as a first payment and an invoice is created to Account for the payment I don’t think HMRC are going to go too nuts about it if they even pick up on it during an adit.

They would be more concerned with it ending up in a private bank account and never being declared.

You can set up a limited company in a matter of hours. Getting a business bank account though can take up to a couple of weeks with all the checks now in place.

 

[Valier]

Thanks soo much for your update & transparency!!
Once again, suuper happy & proud of you!! 😀

I was thinking of doing a health channel occasionally scattered with a beauty video, since I'm both a GP & cosmetic dr. Do you think that's a bad idea?
Will my channel be 'labelled' as a health channel instead of a beauty one, and have a lower CPM?
Or does the CPM depend on the individual video & not the channel as a whole?

When I read £21,233 I screamed. That's more than what I make in a month, and I went through an extremely tough program, and working a (pretty) tough job for almost 10 years to not-even-get-there!! 😀

Seriously rooting for you!!
I think you should also consider a 'Fans Only' account. Since you already have a fan base, you can further monetize your audience by letting them ask you more personalized questions about their financial situation etc. etc. for a subscription fee.
That's what I plan to do once I've built an audience. And people will pay for FaceTime / custom videos yadda yadda etc.
The numbers can add up pretty quickly I reckon.

Honestly, thank YOU for supporting me - I sound like a broken record saying this but you can't imagine how much it means to me!!

Yeah, you should have seen my parent's reaction when I told them how much I earnt... they were blown away and overjoyed to hear it. Such an amazing feeling to see them that happy... and we've only gotten started.

And go for it with that channel!

Although I don't know for sure, I'm certain that the health niche has a very high CPM. Any niche that really falls under the categories of health, relationships, or wealth, I'm going to immediately assume they have a high CPM. And what have you got to lose? Honestly, from your credentials it already sounds like you're going to know much more than 90% of health-based channels on the platform.

The health niche is another one of those niches filled with all sorts of "fake guru's" and just overall bad advice - plenty of gap in that market for someone genuine to come along!

I think you should also consider a 'Fans Only' account. Since you already have a fan base, you can further monetize your audience by letting them ask you more personalized questions about their financial situation etc. etc. for a subscription fee.

Yup! This is pretty much what I want to do with my Patreon, and I'm going to be talking about this more in an future update. But I severely underestimated the power of Patreon, and it's far better to have a stable monthly income, than just relying on the algorithm alone.

Although it's of paramount importance to me that I provide great amounts of value to my Patrons, and that it doesn't feel like a simple cash-grab.

 

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[Valier]

Great info, thanks James. Interesting about getting paid regardless of length of ad watch. I hadn't expected that as I believe advertisers only get billed after either an engagement (click through) or watching 30 seconds+? (or the entire ad if shorter?)

Really looking forward to your next YouTube upload and your updates. Congratulations.

I actually need to make a revision on that update.

I've just been doing a little more digging, and there's a lot of misleading and conflicting answers to this, but what seems to be the most plausible explanation is you are paid depending on what the advertiser’s goal was.

If they were running an ad with a selected goal of getting impressions, then you are going to be paid as soon as someone sees the ad.

If they were running an ad with a selected goal of getting clicks, then you will be paid whenever someone clicks your ad.

Going to revise my update post now to mark this correction!

 

[Valier]

Technically, but if it’s paid into a limited company bank account as a first payment and an invoice is created to Account for the payment I don’t think HMRC are going to go too nuts about it if they even pick up on it during an adit.

They would be more concerned with it ending up in a private bank account and never being declared.

You can set up a limited company in a matter of hours. Getting a business bank account though can take up to a couple of weeks with all the checks now in place.

Yup!

This was pretty much my line of thinking as well, hoping to register the company by today or tomorrow, and currently searching for which bank I want to open the business account with (ideally one without fees), let me know if you have any recommendations @RazorCut

 

[Andy Black]

you should have seen my parent's reaction when I told them how much I earnt... they were blown away and overjoyed to hear it. Such an amazing feeling to see them that happy... and we've only gotten started.

Love this. Well done.

 

[fastlanedoll]

I think you should make a transcribed version of your videos (with screenshots & links) on Medium as well.

Do the work once, get paid twice 😀

On a darker note: I want to get my youtube channel paid under my company as well.
For several reasons, but the most important thing is that in the event that I get SUED (for whatever reason), can I use the company to shield my losses? Or would I still be personally liable since I'm in the video & it has my name on it?

 

[RazorCut]

This was pretty much my line of thinking as well, hoping to register the company by today or tomorrow, and currently searching for which bank I want to open the business account with (ideally one without fees), let me know if you have any recommendations @RazorCut

I currently bank with HSBC and Lloyds. Both are typical High street banks. Took longer to set a company up through Lloyds but I think that was due to the extra regs these days.

You will get a year to 18 months free banking anyway.

I’m considering opening an account with Starling. Heard good things and they are Bank of the year 2020.

Business bank account | No monthly fees - Starling Bank

Apply for a free, award-winning digital business account in minutes and join 500,000 UK businesses who have changed the way they bank.

www.starlingbank.com

If you haven’t registered your company yet I can recommend Rapid Formations. Very pleased with their services and so are others if you check out their feedback.

 

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[JonathanMiz]

Thanks for the info!

If I were you, I would open another channel of documenting the process of creating videos.
Then you can see how many people are interested and also you will have content to refine when you actually make a course.

You can also take a clip from your videos and explain how you did that, this is something I would watch. Maybe even go to your analytics and see what is the most popular minute in your audience retention and talk about how you created it.

It might not be a good idea right now since you invest a lot of time making your main videos but just an idea

 

[Andy Black]

Someone doing a breakdown of how @Valier grew his channel.

A quote that @MJ DeMarco will like is “I didn’t promise easy. I promised fast.”

View: https://youtu.be/Tyvq7F5e0r8

 

[humananalytics]

Great progress man and videos!

If you don't mind me asking, how are you able to gather all these movie clips? Are they just from Youtube? Torrent?

Any issues with copyright claims? I understand the work you're doing falls under "fair use", but still seems like it can get hairy.

 

[Valier]

Someone doing a breakdown of how @Valier grew his channel.

A quote that @MJ DeMarco will like is “I didn’t promise easy. I promised fast.”

View: https://youtu.be/Tyvq7F5e0r8

Saw this!!

I think Brian did a pretty good breakdown to be honest - much of the stuff he brought up reflects what I have been talking about on this thread, so big props to him.

 

[Valier]

Great progress man and videos!

If you don't mind me asking, how are you able to gather all these movie clips? Are they just from Youtube? Torrent?

Any issues with copyright claims? I understand the work you're doing falls under "fair use", but still seems like it can get hairy.

It's a fair concern to have!

I'm slowly starting to adapt my content so that less and less move clips are used, and are instead replaced with animation (and hopefully down the line) 3D models/graphics using Cinema4D (the YT channel Lemmino does this beautifully).

With that being said - I'm still not too worried since there have been countless amounts of YT channels out there that have been doing the same thing for years without any monetisation issues.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

It's a fair concern to have!

It is, also of concern is the use of public figure faces, in your thumbnail. There's case-law that says public figures can defend use of their images, especially if used for commercial purposes.

Michael Jordan sued Domincks for using his name and likeness, and it was with good intent.

Jordan says ‘it was never about the money’ after $8.9M jury award

A delighted Michael Jordan said “it was never about the money” Friday night after a federal jury ordered the owners of the defunct supermarket chain Dominick’s to pay him $8.9 mil…

www.chicagotribune.com

This was all they did (and it was favorable.) Considering James is not speaking highly of the two individuals in the thumbnail, my guess is they could bring a case. I'm not a lawyer and I understand that James is in the UK, but there is some above average risk here as opposed to just some standard video.

Nonetheless, this has become one of my favorite threads as I look forward to reading the unfolding story!!!! Congrats on the big first check!

 

[RazorCut]

I think Brian did a pretty good breakdown to be honest - much of the stuff he brought up reflects what I have been talking about on this thread, so big props to him.

That's no coincidence. He has read this thread for sure.

 

[Valier]

It is, also of concern is the use of public figure faces, in your thumbnail. There's case-law that says public figures can defend use of their images, especially if used for commercial purposes.

Michael Jordan sued Domincks for using his name and likeness, and it was with good intent.

Jordan says ‘it was never about the money’ after $8.9M jury award

A delighted Michael Jordan said “it was never about the money” Friday night after a federal jury ordered the owners of the defunct supermarket chain Dominick’s to pay him $8.9 mil…

www.chicagotribune.com

This was all they did (and it was favorable.) Considering James is not speaking highly of the two individuals in the thumbnail, my guess is they could bring a case. I'm not a lawyer and I understand that James is in the UK, but there is some above average risk here as opposed to just some standard video.

Nonetheless, this has become one of my favorite threads as I look forward to reading the unfolding story!!!! Congrats on the big first check!

This is also on my radar, and I'm starting to self-educate myself on defamation laws and such.

Also in the process of getting my insurance for this - just in case!

Again, I do somewhat rely on the fact that YouTube has been cluttered with videos that talk about celebrities, businesses, and all walks of personalities in both positive/negative lights, using their faces in their thumbnails, and I've yet to hear of a single lawsuit being filed against them.

The only lawsuit that I'm aware of was when the YouTuber h3h3, who reacted to other people's content, had someone come after him after he made a pretty negative video about the guy. Even so, h3h3 ended up winning the lawsuit, and that was that.

Nonetheless, this has become one of my favorite threads as I look forward to reading the unfolding story!!!! Congrats on the big first check!

Hugely honored to have you say that MJ 😀

I've been recently looking over some of my favroutie posts on the forum, and it reminded me so much of how this forum kept me going over the last year and a bit. Especially when I was working my two jobs and as a real estate agent shortly afterwards.

You've created something really special here MJ, and I'm sure you already know it!

 

[Valier]

Thanks for the info!

If I were you, I would open another channel of documenting the process of creating videos.
Then you can see how many people are interested and also you will have content to refine when you actually make a course.

You can also take a clip from your videos and explain how you did that, this is something I would watch. Maybe even go to your analytics and see what is the most popular minute in your audience retention and talk about how you created it.

It might not be a good idea right now since you invest a lot of time making your main videos but just an idea

Oh, amazing idea by the way Jonathan!!

I 100% have the intentions of starting up a second channel once the work-load has eased off with this first channel, and I'm confident that I can handle two channels.

For now I was planning on releasing these 'behind the scenes' and 'editing tutorial' videos on my Patreon, which I'm going to be talking more about shortly - just to entice people to want to support the channel as a Patron already.

 

[Andy Black]

Oh, amazing idea by the way Jonathan!!

I 100% have the intentions of starting up a second channel once the work-load has eased off with this first channel, and I'm confident that I can handle two channels.

For now I was planning on releasing these 'behind the scenes' and 'editing tutorial' videos on my Patreon, which I'm going to be talking more about shortly - just to entice people to want to support the channel as a Patron already.

You could create a paid email newsletter documenting your progress.

I've got one up on Substack which was super simple to setup and is easy to update. I've been sending out little progress updates for over a year now. I can link to YouTube unlisted videos in email issues so that only people who've signed up can see those videos (you probably don't want those unlisted videos on your main channel.)

Mine started at $5/mth but I increased it to $9/mth.

I even wrote about your progress in my newsletter:

 

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[redshift]

For now I was planning on releasing these 'behind the scenes' and 'editing tutorial' videos on my Patreon, which I'm going to be talking more about shortly - just to entice people to want to support the channel as a Patron already.

+1 on this. Interested in hearing more about growing the patreon side as well. Other things you can do is -

* Allow early access (24-48h) to upcoming videos for patreon subscribers (this would also be AD FREE since its unlisted).
* Bonus footage like you mentioned, along with bloopers, funny/censored cuts etc
* [DELETED SCENES / EPISODES] - Considering the controversial nature of some of your episodes, this could be a huge hit. You could also do uncut or directors cut versions.
* Their name in the credits as supporters. This way you can have an end credits roll and look like a proper film

Also curious, are you earning anything noteworthy from your affiliate links ? Interested in how much revenue that adds when you have 1m+ views. Mainly asking because I signed up to the music subscription site from your affiliate link and wondering how many others did that (or buy the books etc) as well.

 

[Fox]

Great to see that money coming in for you @Valier.
I hope it helps you make more great content and see even bigger growth.
Are you planning on reinvesting anything back into production for now?
(not that it needs it but just curious)

---

Just a quick note on CPM's - making any video that is closely related to a product or service is going to get you very high numbers. I made a quick video on Wix once (not even promoting it) that has a CPM over $100..

 

[Valier]

+1 on this. Interested in hearing more about growing the patreon side as well. Other things you can do is -

* Allow early access (24-48h) to upcoming videos for patreon subscribers (this would also be AD FREE since its unlisted).
* Bonus footage like you mentioned, along with bloopers, funny/censored cuts etc
* [DELETED SCENES / EPISODES] - Considering the controversial nature of some of your episodes, this could be a huge hit. You could also do uncut or directors cut versions.
* Their name in the credits as supporters. This way you can have an end credits roll and look like a proper film

Also curious, are you earning anything noteworthy from your affiliate links ? Interested in how much revenue that adds when you have 1m+ views. Mainly asking because I signed up to the music subscription site from your affiliate link and wondering how many others did that (or buy the books etc) as well.

Great ideas!

Already have the name in credits benefit for all of my Patron tiers.

And then those who are on the £5, £10 tiers get early access to new videos.

I'm looking at a more efficient way of uploading the early screenings for the videos as opposed to doing it on an unlisted YouTube account - my fear is that the link can just be sent to whoever, which may cheapen the exclusivity of it all, and there's a risk of someone uploading it before it's released.

I haven't checked recently, but I know that my affiliate earnings are pretty low (maybe like £30). With that being said, I don't have much stuff listed up, so I expect as I start buying more gear and adding it to my affiliate account this number will grow.

Epidemic Sounds only gives me a free month when someone signs up from my referral link, so no earnings on that front!

 

[Valier]

Great to see that money coming in for you @Valier.
I hope it helps you make more great content and see even bigger growth.
Are you planning on reinvesting anything back into production for now?
(not that it needs it but just curious)

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Just a quick note on CPM's - making any video that is closely related to a product or service is going to get you very high numbers. I made a quick video on Wix once (not even promoting it) that has a CPM over $100..

View attachment 33535

Wow...

What the f*ck. I had no idea that doing a video on a specific product gave a CPM THAT high. That's incredible.

I can only imagine what some of these kids' toy channels are getting. Thanks for this info @Fox!

As for re-investing back into production: 100% yes.

I don't intend on spending my money on anything other than improving my videos at the moment.

I'm going to be getting a new mic & video camera for sure, and I'm looking to either buy/rent a proper studio to record these videos, or just save up for a house and live/work there as well. That will include some lighting purchases as well.

My biggest issue as of right now is having my bedroom as the "backdrop" for when I physically appear in my videos, not to mention the terrible acoustics of the room. And yet it's still the best room in the house for me to use at the moment... :/


I could also rent a place for the short term, but I'd prefer to just save that money for a deposit.