Working as a full-time YouTuber is a dream job. Creators get to mess around with cameras, be their own boss, and for some there’s even a taste of fame sprinkled in there.
How many followers do you need to make this a reality? Would 100k subscribers set you free from your 9-5 desk job? Sure — but you can do it with a tenth of that.
I know because, well, I did it. I dropped out of college to pursue YouTube and made a decent living that year with less than 10k subscribers.
Now I’m making over six figures per year from my channel, and I’m not even at 20K subscribers yet. I don’t say this to brag — I say it to encourage. You can do it too — here’s how.
Bigger is not always better
The biggest YouTubers in the world may get millions of views every single day, but most of them pay for that success by losing one of the most powerful tools at a creator’s disposal: connection.
As a small creator, you have the ability to respond to every comment, like every shared post, and even take content requests from your community.
Do it.
Your viewers want to have a connection to you, so embrace this by giving them the time and consideration that large YouTubers are unable to provide.
Start small. Don’t try to make a video with higher production quality than Mr. Beast. Make a video that serves a niche audience in a way that Mr. Beast never could. If you want to be successful on YouTube, you have to remember: it’s not about you — it’s about them.
My channel started seeing growth when I shifted focus to only making videos that served my community in the ways that they wanted. When every piece of content you create is made in this way, your audience sees that you truly care about them — then something funny happens: they start to trust you.
Trust is the process
If you were looking to buy a new car, would you trust the opinion of the salesperson at the dealership or your buddy who spends his entire weekend in the garage and constantly complains about how his modded 2010 Honda Civic doesn’t get the gas mileage it used to?
It takes time to build up trust with your audience, but there’s absolutely no skipping this part of the small-YouTube-success equation. Honesty is the only way to build a community of viewers that will make it possible for you to eventually quit your day job. Thankfully, it’s not rocket science.
Here’s what you have to do:
- Be honest about your skills and experience level: None of us are pros at everything. Bring your viewers along as you learn a process or discover something new.
- Show the bad: Don’t be afraid to critique products or experiences that fall short of your expectations.
- Share how you feel: Are you frustrated? Excited? Discouraged? Let the audience experience that too.
- Be authentic: You are the most unique thing about your channel.
I know it’s a mind-blowing idea, but just be you. Your community wants to know what you think, laugh at your humor, and agree (or disagree) with your takes.
Complete honesty is even more important if you review products or take sponsors.
My first “breakout” video was a review of the music and sound effects on Artlist, and I didn’t hold back. I told my viewers exactly what I liked about the site, and all the areas that I thought they could improve. I shared my honest opinion, and not only did my viewers love it, but Artlist did too. They’ve taken that feedback and used it to improve their service.
In the end, everyone won. Artlist got feedback, the viewers got an honest review on a product they were interested in, and I had begun to build a reputation as a completely honest and transparent product reviewer.
Now, years later, I pick apart flaws in cameras and other creative tools, and my viewers fully trust that what I say is truly what I think. There’s nothing more valuable than that.
Time to make money
Now, I get it — trust is important, but what good is a foundation if you’ve got no roof over your head? You’re never going to make it out of that cubicle if you can’t find a way to monetize your content.
Whatever your content niche is, there are a few go-to ways to start making money from YouTube, as well as some things you absolutely must do if you want your channel to replace your full-time job:
Affiliate programs
There’s a way to make sales commissions from any product you use or advertise in your videos — these are called affiliate programs.
Major retailers like Amazon will give you a cut of the profits from any sale that results from a click through a special link that they give you to share with your audience.
Some creators make a good living with Amazon or similar affiliate programs, but generally, this requires much larger viewership, as the commission rates are relatively low here, ranging from 1-6%.
What you want to do as a smaller creator is seek out companies that make products within your niche to see if they offer affiliate programs directly. These commission rates are often much higher than Amazon, and you’ll likely refer more sales because the product will be a better fit for your audience.
Affiliate programs are the bread-and-butter of income for product review creators, specifically, because most people watching a review are already considering purchasing the product and are ready to take your advice on whether or not to buy it.
This is also an excellent source of the fabled “passive income”. I still make commissions from product reviews that I posted on my channel years ago.
That said, don’t forget that trust is paramount on YouTube, and affiliate links can be a slippery slope. Never recommend a product that you’re not willing to stand behind.
Sponsorships
Sponsorships are not only for YouTube channels with millions of subscribers.
More and more brands are seeing the value of working with small creators who have built up a specific and dedicated following.
Think of it like this — would you rather advertise a new and improved garden rake on a billboard by the highway, or at a gardening convention with 1000 people in attendance?
You are the gardening convention — but most rake companies don’t know you exist, so you have to go to them.
Make a list of 10 companies that make products that your audience might be interested in, then email them asking for collaboration. You may get free products, a sponsorship deal, or absolutely nothing, but you’ll never know until you try.
I began working with Artlist years ago by joining their affiliate program when I had only a couple of thousand subscribers, and now I’m writing for their blog. Life can be funny like that.
Courses
If you’re a creator who has positioned yourself as an expert in your niche and you have something valuable to teach your viewers, you may want to consider building and selling an online course to make some money while providing added value to your audience.
Just make sure that whatever you’ve included in the course is truly exclusive content so that it’s worth whatever price tag you put on it. Nobody wants to pay for access to something they can already get for free on your channel.
That said, if done well, this can be a very lucrative way to monetize your channel, even if you only have a couple of hundred subscribers.
AdSense
AdSense is a program run by YouTube (Google) that pays creators for the ads that they run before and during videos.
Here’s the catch — it’s extremely unreliable.
Some months I’ve made $1K from AdSense, and a month later, it’s dropped to $200. This is not unusual.
It’s not that this source of income isn’t nice, and can’t be substantial once you start pulling in more views, but full-time creators need income that they can count on.
The feeling of becoming officially “monetized” on YouTube is incredible, but for most small YouTubers, AdSense should be treated as the icing on the cake — a bonus if you will — not a steady source of income.
Treat it like a business
If you want YouTube to replace your full-time job, then you have to treat it like a business, which means not being afraid to invest your time and effort into making it grow.
Once you’ve started to create some amazing videos, you shouldn’t be afraid to:
- Invest in equipment: a good editing computer, microphone, and camera do wonders.
- Spend money on videos: Do you need to rent equipment for that review? Do it.
- Invest in software: Get pro editing software and creative assets like music from Artlist.
Stepping up your video quality will not only keep your viewers watching longer, but it’ll also make you appear more professional, which makes people trust your opinions more readily.
It’s also super important to make sure you’re licensed to use all the music, sound effects, and other creative assets that you edit with, so that you don’t run into any copyright issues down the road. Here are a few of my favorite royalty-free tracks from Artlist to get you started:
(“The Living Room” by Flint) (“Komorebi” by Ottom) (“The More I Know – No Lead Vocals” by Steven Beddall)
Go do it
I’ve just flooded you with a ton of advice and techniques that I used to build my YouTube channel into a six-figure business — and every ounce of me knows you can do it too.
But now it’s up to you. Your full-time YouTube dream isn’t going to realize itself — so start building your community, emailing sponsors, and creating incredible videos.
I want to see you on my YouTube explore page. Go do it.
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