Make Six Figures From YouTube/eBooks

[MJ DeMarco]

Big declarations mean nothing

Cool, are there Bugatti pics I missed somewhere?

My goal for the next 25 days (has been my goal for the last 5) is to gain 20 subscribers per day on average. I have hit this goal the past 5 days, I was gaining around 9 on average per day before I set this goal up. Once I achieve this goal, we will go from there and shoot higher. I already have the foundation laid, it's just getting everything aligned right now. Decembers goal i'm thinking 50 subscribers a day, but we will cross that bridge once we get to it. I have increased video production, and will increase video quality on these videos soon. Viewers response is very positive.

In a few days i'm going to have a real logo made and such, as I'm using one I made in photoshop a while back. It's not the worst, but it could be better.

Start thinking about ways to control your subscriber base, perhaps your own branded website with an email grab. You don't want YouTube controlling your entire brand and if you get huge, you will want a divestiture away from them. YouTube is a great way to create stardom, but in the end, you want to be autonomous and make YT a tool, not a symbiont partner.

 

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[ChasingPaper]

Start thinking about ways to control your subscriber base, perhaps your own branded website with an email grab. You don't want YouTube controlling your entire brand and if you get huge, you will want a divestiture away from them. YouTube is a great way to create stardom, but in the end, you want to be autonomous and make YT a tool, not a symbiont partner.

That is my intentions. Once I hit somewhere between 25k-35k subscribers i'm going to use a months earnings and have a website built. The website will host my YouTube videos, but it's also going to have forums, articles, etc. I plan on having an eBook or maybe exclusive access to a couple videos to get an email list going. If I wanted, I also have connections to affiliate market products related to the niche in the website.

 

[JamesSJ]

Hey - gleam.io might interest you.

I used to gain just under 50,000 subs on my channel this year.

It was pretty simple to do and within YouTubes terms.

I simply set up a landing page (using unbounce.com) that gave away a free course i made - of course you have to also make the course. On the landing page i installed Gleam and set it give the reader the link to the course if they subscribed to my Youtube channel (very easy to set up with Gleam).

Then i made a splash page for my website that people saw on their first visit and i also turned on FB ads to show to my email list (i was getting clicks for 0.01 cents on that - incredible!). What was interesting was that my course helped promote my main products and i actually paid for the FB ads and made a profit on top

See the image for the subs - you can see the spikes which were both campaigns using Gleam.

Give it a shot!

Something i've had trouble with though is converting YT views and subs into paying customers. Ad revenue is not really great.

They love free stuff but not easy turning them into buyers and we've tried many different things. Right now the best we can do is drive them with annotations to a 'free' part of our site and get their email address when they checkout. I've only put them in the most recent videos , maybe 5 videos now, but getting 10+ email addresses a day out of that

 

[ChasingPaper]

Hey - gleam.io might interest you.

I used to gain just under 50,000 subs on my channel this year.

It was pretty simple to do and within YouTubes terms.

I simply set up a landing page (using unbounce.com) that gave away a free course i made - of course you have to also make the course. On the landing page i installed Gleam and set it give the reader the link to the course if they subscribed to my Youtube channel (very easy to set up with Gleam).

Then i made a splash page for my website that people saw on their first visit and i also turned on FB ads to show to my email list (i was getting clicks for 0.01 cents on that - incredible!). What was interesting was that my course helped promote my main products and i actually paid for the FB ads and made a profit on top

See the image for the subs - you can see the spikes which were both campaigns using Gleam.

Give it a shot!

Something i've had trouble with though is converting YT views and subs into paying customers. Ad revenue is not really great.

They love free stuff but not easy turning them into buyers and we've tried many different things. Right now the best we can do is drive them with annotations to a 'free' part of our site and get their email address when they checkout. I've only put them in the most recent videos , maybe 5 videos now, but getting 10+ email addresses a day out of that

How much did it cost you to gain 50,000 subs in one year (Advertising cost, landing page, etc.) Was it in the same niche I am in? I could see this working very well in my niche. When I get big enough I can collaborate with other large YouTubers, thus, doubling my growth rate.

 

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[JamesSJ]

Nope - i am in a different niche.

How much did it cost you to gain 50,000 subs in one year (Advertising cost, landing page, etc.) Was it in the same niche I am in? I could see this working very well in my niche. When I get big enough I can collaborate with other large YouTubers, thus, doubling my growth rate.

• Unbounce - $99 a month (but i use many landing pages for many different things, only a fraction of this used for the YT subs)
• I only have the stats for the second block of FB ads which cost - $1537.98 (which got 2,042 likes, 126 comments and 454 shares - plus generating over $3000 which paid for the ads and covered the course - this was not intentional!)
• Course cost me $1000 to produce

That generated over 10,000 subs in a couple of weeks. And as the ads were targeted at my email list and visitors to my site these are real people interested in my niche. We did around 10,000 also in the other campaign which was pretty much the same from memory - the difference in the first was rather than a course it was a competition giving away a $1000 piece of equipment - that actually got us more subs than the second time round - same as before though we generated more than we spent so it cost us nothing to run.

To get the rest -

1. Uploading 8 videos a week
2. I have several blogs pushing the videos
3. Videos shared across all our social channels daily
4. Added the Youtube subscribe button in several key places on my sites (headers, above and below videos)
5. A very big jump for us came when we redesigned our thumbnail images - these made a big difference in views (nearly 40% more views)
6. Emailed our lists asking them to subscribe to our YT channel
7. Changing up the format of the video to ask for subscriptions in the video and with an annotation at two points in the videos

That's it really. As i've said though - i was very focussed on growing the channel and it worked but i've put the brakes on a bit because i realised that actually the hard work was not giving us much in return - a few hundred $$ a month. Having 50,000 subs on Youtube is much like having 50,000 likes on FB - ultimately it's a vanity stat unless you can get those people to turn into paying customers.

That's the next step. We get around 6,000 views a day (and growing) - that's a lot of people interested in our niche. We really need to work out how to get them from viewers into paying customers. Right now YT is pretty much building brand awareness for us. I'm seriously considering switching it all to a paid subscription platform and using Youtube as a gateway into that.

Anyways, hope that helps.

 

[Sean P]

I believe gaming videos are very hard to monetize now because you’re required to be under contract with a network. On the other hand if they are compilation videos that don’t follow YouTube's TOS, they could be taken down at anytime. It is indeed a very competitive area and I think YouTube has some plans to cut down the competition. By the way, not trying to dissuade you in any way, just stating what I know.

 

[ChasingPaper]

I believe gaming videos are very hard to monetize now because you’re required to be under contract with a network. On the other hand if they are compilation videos that don’t follow YouTube's TOS, they could be taken down at anytime. It is indeed a very competitive area and I think YouTube has some plans to cut down the competition. By the way, not trying to dissuade you in any way, just stating what I know.

This is old information. In the past year or so they've made it easier for gaming channels. Your not required to join a network anymore.

 

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[ChasingPaper]

So today makes the 7th day since this thread began. Here's an update on the stats.

As you can see, I've gained roughly 26,000 views and around 133 new subscribers. This is in the past 6 days (Today is the 7th).
Growth is happening. It's not slow, but it's not really fast. I've got some tricks up my sleeve to get this going. Those tricks will be implemented later this week or early next week. What's good about growth on social media is the bigger you get, the faster you grow. More people to talk about your content.

Today is November 15th 2014.

 

[Determined2012]

Curious if anyone knows about how much a channel with 1M views per month is making?

I know an independent YT'er with no network who has consistent views of 1M or more per month.

 

[ChasingPaper]

Curious if anyone knows about how much a channel with 1M views per month is making?

I know an independent YT'er with no network who has consistent views of 1M or more per month.

He could be making very high 5 figures or extremely low 6 figures (120k and under). Of course that's an estimation, but I am willing to bet it's pretty close. I know a lot about the CPM's and such. This of course is only counting views, not affiliate marketing or anything else he most likely does.

 

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[Determined2012]

Its a girl, sir! (GIRL POWER! GIRL BOSS!) LOL

Thanks for the answer.

 

[ChasingPaper]

Its a girl, sir! (GIRL POWER! GIRL BOSS!) LOL

Thanks for the answer.

Ah, and that average salary number is estimated per year! Sorry I did not clarify that.

 

[Determined2012]

Yes I gathered that it had to be per year, because if it was per month.... Just about everyone on YT would be a multi millionaire! @ChasingPaper

 

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[Blhhi]

I've thought about doing youtube as a side thing, but I think a lot about what MJ mentioned.

YouTube is a great way to create stardom, but in the end, you want to be autonomous and make YT a tool, not a symbiont partner.

YouTube controls your fanbase and the your core means of communicating with this fanbase. Hell, because you have to abide by their TOS they control your content too; they're just playing nice because everyone's making money right now.

Yogscast averages around 500k views per video on their main channel. They did the same idea you're going for (http://www.yogscast.com) and on their website they rarely break 30k views on any given video. This is a big group of youtubers with an office and a video team, by the way. Seems like their main non-youtube source of revenue is overpriced merchandise and itune sales. Something to consider?

In a weird way, YouTube is sorta like affiliate marketing. Typically, it's you marketing a specific product to an audience you've grown that you have complete control over, and taking a cut from the sales you drive. Here, you are marketing a specific product, but that product is YouTube as a marketing platform, and the customers are marketing teams at big companies who need another place to run their commercials. You still get a cut of the profits from clicks and views. And you still grow an audience. But the audience belongs to YouTube, and they market whatever they want to that audience at their discretion rather than yours. You're kind of an employee.

 

[ChasingPaper]

I've thought about doing youtube as a side thing, but I think a lot about what MJ mentioned.



YouTube controls your fanbase and the your core means of communicating with this fanbase. Hell, because you have to abide by their TOS they control your content too; they're just playing nice because everyone's making money right now.

Yogscast averages around 500k views per video on their main channel. They did the same idea you're going for (http://www.yogscast.com) and on their website they rarely break 30k views on any given video. This is a big group of youtubers with an office and a video team, by the way. Seems like their main non-youtube source of revenue is overpriced merchandise and itune sales. Something to consider?

In a weird way, YouTube is sorta like affiliate marketing. Typically, it's you marketing a specific product to an audience you've grown that you have complete control over, and taking a cut from the sales you drive. Here, you are marketing a specific product, but that product is YouTube as a marketing platform, and the customers are marketing teams at big companies who need another place to run their commercials. You still get a cut of the profits from clicks and views. And you still grow an audience. But the audience belongs to YouTube, and they market whatever they want to that audience at their discretion rather than yours. You're kind of an employee.

Disagreed, and I'll tell you why. I know quite a few people who do YouTube who make just as much on their own website because they do it right. They introduce forums, blogs, exclusive videos, and their own products. You can also build an amazing email list from this, by offering a free eBook or exclusive video for simply entering their email address. If you don't know what Twitch TV is, it's a streaming website. You can stream live, and you make money from it. Amazon now owns the company, and most big YouTube channels do YouTube and Twitch and make about the same amount off each one.

You are not marketing a product in your videos, the key is (at least in entertainment) you are marketing yourself. This is extremely good because they will follow you where you go. For example, lets say in 5 years a website that rivals YouTube but does everything better comes out and I decide to make the switch to the new site, guess what, all my YouTube fans will follow me there. Having this type of power on the internet is underrated. You can make MILLIONS of dollars if done correctly.

There is a channel in my niche that does fastlane stuff on YouTube. Everytime a game comes out, he writes and eBook and markets it to his subscribers. Guess what that does? It puts his book in that niche on amazon at #1 and makes sales for a very long time from other people besides just his subscribers. You need to step back and look at the big picture.

By the way, YogsCast makes between 200k-375k per month from video views on YouTube alone. While it may be slowlane, they are making what doctors make per year in a month playing video games. Of course, not counting revenue from their website, and affiliate marketing production. YouTube can lead you to a large online following, thus, creating fastlanes that were not available before.

Entertainment wont stop, every average person gets entertained everyday by TV, YouTube, or other methods for hours everyday. I'm young, I can capatilize on this before the competition is to high, and thus make millions if done correctly. For now I'm focusing on growing and getting my rank up there, and going to try to make six figures in 2015 from YouTube.

Is this possible? Yes. Will it be easy? No. Is this going to be accomplished by me? Yes.

 

[johk]

Curious if anyone knows about how much a channel with 1M views per month is making?

I know an independent YT'er with no network who has consistent views of 1M or more per month.

Check this website http://socialblade.com/youtube/
It might get you an idea.

J

 

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[Blhhi]

Very well-reasoned argument. You raise a valid point about being able to parlay a youtube presence into other opportunities, and I think someone like you with an existing audience and presence has a huge opportunity to turn this into something big with dedication and creative thinking.

--The following are just my thoughts on youtube/twitch, and don't entirely apply to the OP since he has an audience--

My point still stands, though, in reference to someone who has no audience or presence. From my experience, going from a nobody to a somebody on youtube requires blogger-level tactics of news jacking and playing whatever game is popular, but doing some interesting twist on it that no one else is doing. That or being MLG-level at a popular game. I used to do a gaming channel on the side, and I have one series of videos that I still get new subs for to this day (even though I haven't updated it in over a year). I lucked into it. I happened to be recording the new expansion for Civ 5 and playing the Zulus, a fan-favorite from old games. Apparently, very few other people were doing it at the time and if you search for a domination victory of the zulus in civ 5 my video still comes up in the top 5 videos I think.

I'm certainly not saying you have to get lucky to grow any kind of audience as a beginner, but I am saying you have to hit a niche that both nobody is supplying and everyone wants, and you have to do it fast. I know that sounds like every business, but every business isn't as easy as downloading Fraps and hitting record. It's hard as hell to get noticed in the swarm.

Sure, the big youtubers do this and do that, and even smaller guys get some of this or that, but I'll be damned if there's a clear explanation as to why it's them in their position rather than any other guy with a facecam and whacky video thumbnails.

Twitch is a whole 'nother can of worms, but it does relate to an argument against the belief that audiences are loyal, particularly in the gaming world. Look at TrumpSC. He streams to an average of 20k people every day, and even got to almost 60k one night, all while playing a game as basic as Hearthstone. But whenever he switches to any other game, even brand new shit, his views nosedive and level out at just under 4k. Now 4k daily is huge on twitch. If you can reach 1k daily you're golden. But the difference between 20k and 4k is too big for even him to stomach. I think he forces himself to keep playing Hearthstone just to sustain the numbers. Even Kripparian, who was the biggest Diablo 3 streamer and one of the big WoW streamers takes a huge plummet in hits when he deviates from Hearthstone for even a second.

The people have spoken. They say that 9/10 streamers don't matter. They only get the views because they're in the top 3 listed on whoever's playing the game the audience wants to see. No one goes to a streamer's page direct really, they go to the game page and see who's playing. So if you typically stream WoW and one day stream CoD, the people who watched you play WoW aren't gonna see you on the list, and they'll just assume you aren't streaming that day I guess. That is horrible news for any newcomers. It means you need to find a game nobody is streaming but everyone wants to watch, but if you start playing something else your audience will abandon you. A streamer switching games is like a musician switching genres I guess. How many Lil Wayne fans would buy his dubstep album if he released one? It's a nightmare.

 

[JamesSJ]

Curious if anyone knows about how much a channel with 1M views per month is making?

I know an independent YT'er with no network who has consistent views of 1M or more per month.

It works out roughly around $1 per 1000 views.

 

[ChasingPaper]

It works out roughly around $1 per 1000 views.

$3-10 per 1,000

 

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[JamesSJ]

So today makes the 7th day since this thread began. Here's an update on the stats.

As you can see, I've gained roughly 26,000 views and around 133 new subscribers. This is in the past 6 days (Today is the 7th).
Growth is happening. It's not slow, but it's not really fast. I've got some tricks up my sleeve to get this going. Those tricks will be implemented later this week or early next week. What's good about growth on social media is the bigger you get, the faster you grow. More people to talk about your content.

Today is November 15th 2014.

Youtube / Google also appear to have tiers - you'll notice jumps in views that seem to shelf. My assumption is Google shows you more often in results the more subscribers you have. As yu know the 3 important metrics for YT are number of subscribers, how engaging your videos are (the number of seconds/minutes of your videos people watch)

$3-10 per 1,000

I guess it depends on the niche and how much the advertiser paid for the ad!
If you're getting that, well done. But we are closer to $1 on average over 12 months.

The best we video we got though over 12 months was 7.25 per 1000.

 

[Ubermensch]

Cool, are there Bugatti pics I missed somewhere?

Haha.

You made your first milly at 31, if memory serves correctly.

I'm not 30 yet, but I do have one thing MJ DeMarco didn't have when MJ DeMarco was in the process of creating success for the first time. Little ol' me, the obnoxiously ambitious guy MJ DeMarco quoted in his book... (fyi, one of my ex-gf's went to NIU, MJ DeMarco's alma mater... so I probably hung out in some of the same places in Dekalb, Illinois that MJ DeMarco did...)

I have MJ DeMarco, on MJ DeMarco's site, fueling the fire...

 

[theag]

very high 5 figures or extremely low 6 figures

Wow. As a yearly number that seems like chump change for a lot of work and having absolutely zero control. I'll stick to letting others build the aggregated audiences for me, buying ads on all these channels and making some real money.

But at least your video games are tax-deductible now.

 

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[theag]

Haha.

You made your first milly at 31, if memory serves correctly.

I'm not 30 yet, but I do have one thing MJ DeMarco didn't have when MJ DeMarco was in the process of creating success for the first time. Little ol' me, the obnoxiously ambitious guy MJ DeMarco quoted in his book... (fyi, one of my ex-gf's went to NIU, MJ DeMarco's alma mater... so I probably hung out in some of the same places in Dekalb, Illinois that MJ DeMarco did...)

I have MJ DeMarco, on MJ DeMarco's site, fueling the fire...

wtf.

 

[ChasingPaper]

Wow. As a yearly number that seems like chump change for a lot of work and having absolutely zero control. I'll stick to buying ads on all these channels and making some real money.

This was a quote for someone getting a million views a month. You do realize thousands of people get a million views per video right?
And congrats, lol. Have fun.

 

[Ubermensch]

Hm, ok.

Expected more from you since you seem to be close to @Ubermensch and his big proclamations.

There is a pretty cool feature on a website I like. It's called the CHALLENGE. In essence, if anyone makes a claim on the site, anybody else has the right to CHALLENGE that person to either support or retract that claim.

I'm throwing down a CHALLENGE on your name.

wtf.

Was that a cough?

 

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[theag]

There is a pretty cool feature on a website I like. It's called the CHALLENGE. In essence, if anyone makes a claim on the site, anybody else has the right to CHALLENGE that person to either support or retract that claim.

I'm throwing down a CHALLENGE on your name.


Was that a cough?

blah blah

 

[Ubermensch]

LMFAO.

I don't know how that got posted in there. That's a segment from a private conversation with Chasing Paper. LOL. Oh, well. It's even more hilarious out here.

Seriously, though. Wanna race?

 

[theag]

LMFAO.

I don't know how that got posted in there. That's a segment from a private conversation with Chasing Paper. LOL. Oh, well. It's even more hilarious out here.

Seriously, though. Wanna race?

 

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[DeletedUser394]

Someone in this thread... (hint: it's the half shirtless character), is seriously on some potent narcotics.

Beyond ridiculous at this point. Twelve times he says he's going to leave. Each time lasts a few days.

Some people really are oblivious to the fact that they've burned all bridges and nobody likes them or cares about what they have to say, especially when they go head to head with the site's creator... actually in the case of Uber vs MJ, Uber is pretty much his bitch.

@ChasingPaper will succeed. But I'd caution you to stay away from that other clown.

 

[theag]

But but but but, MJ quoted him in his book. That must make him special. Right?.. Right?