Unless you’re from another planet or have been living in a cave for the last years… You’ll know of YouTube. And you’d have heard of people earning full-time or part-time income as YouTubers.

Caveat: not everyone succeeds at YouTube, but don’t let this stop you from trying.

How YouTubers earn money

YouTubers typically earn money from many revenue streams:

  • YouTube Partner Program (Adsense)
  • Patreon
  • Merchandise
  • Event hosting
  • Sponsorships
  • Online courses
  • Live-streaming
  • Books / e-books
  • Acting appearances
  • Live tours / concerts
  • Guest appearances on TV shows, movies, and other YouTube channels

This list isn’t exhaustive, but it gives you an idea of the myriad possibilities.

Finding Your YouTube Niche

To become a successful YouTuber, you need to find a niche.

“But how?” you ask.

Okay, let’s stop thinking about making money for a hot minute, and ask yourself:

What would I enjoy talking about every day?

Replace “talking” with a hobby, or something that you’re particularly good at. For example:

  • playing sports, videogames, musical instruments
  • performing, dancing, singing, comedy skits
  • funny / insightful comments or reviews
  • sewing, embroidery, crochet, knitting
  • graphic design, drawing, painting
  • science experiments
  • ‘How To’ videos
  • coding

You can also replace “every day” with every week, fortnight, or month. Choose the frequency you can afford, and be consistent.

Start with that question. Find a niche, then make it yours.

Remember: there are thousands of people out there interested in the same thing as you.

Keep making videos in different niches. One day you will hit on something that excites your audience. Keep doing it until you enjoy YouTube.

Enjoying the process leads to success.

If you wake up one day and realize that being a YouTuber brings no joy, there’s no shame in quitting. Move on to the next Way.

Actionable Tips

  1. Find a YouTuber whom you admire
  2. Scroll back to their earliest videos
  3. Write your notes on:
    a.) how they started out
    b.) how they improved with each video
    c.) did they try different niches, and did they niche down over time?
    d.) lighting, camera angle, background music etc
    🛑   at this point you’ll be thinking - “surely I can do better!” Good, it means you’re inspired!
    ⬇️   Next..
  4. Write down 5 video ideas every day
  5. Once a week, pick one idea > write the script > film it1 > upload to YouTube (tweet me your first video, I would love to check it out!)
  6. Repeat from the top

You will see that most of your heroes’ early videos were quite amateur.

Examples

Here are some side-by-side comparisons of two popular YouTubers in different niches. Featuring an early video and another from many years later:

First video Many videos later
Lilly Singh, Dec 2010 Lilly Singh, Nov 2021
Dave2D, Jan 2015 Dave 2D, Nov 2021

What sets Lilly and Dave apart from others is ………… wait for it …………
they put themselves out there. They sucked it up and took that first step.

Is it scary? Yes.
But it gets easier with practise, I promise you.

Inspiration

For inspiration, here are some of my favorite YouTubers. Different genres, with varying follower sizes:

Comedy
Blogging
Tech / DIY
Art
Stop Motion
Music Experiments
ASMR
Animal Care
Alternative Living
Interviews
LGBTQIA+

Conclusion

Creating YouTube videos is a slow way to make money online. If you are creative and persevere, it has a large earning potential.

You must not compare your first video to someone’s 400th video. You cannot expect to earn the same income as someone with 2.3 mllion followers.

There’s one thing you have in common with successful YouTubers: everyone starts somewhere.

Coming up with good content, filming, and editing takes time.
So start today.

Everything you need to learn about starting your YouTube channel is available online. For free. These two videos will help you get started:

Footnotes

  1. Use your mobile phone, laptop camera, anything! You don’t need fancy equipment to start. ↩

Thanks for reading – Carl