avatarRobert Ralph

Summary

An individual created a YouTube channel as a challenge to prove a point, focusing on Medium and meditation content, and achieved monetization within a month, contrasting with their son's unsuccessful attempt.

Abstract

The author of the article embarked on a journey to create a YouTube channel, motivated by a personal challenge and the desire to understand the platform after their son decided to pursue a career as a YouTube star. Despite lacking traditional on-camera appeal and public speaking skills, the author persevered, enjoying the process of content creation and video editing. The channel, which aimed to assist new writers and provide meditation content, rapidly gained traction, surpassing 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in under four weeks, qualifying for the YouTube Partner Program. The author reflects on the contrast between their success and their son's quick abandonment of YouTube, emphasizing the effort and fun involved in content creation, and the potential financial success in the meditation niche.

Opinions

  • The author initially doubted their son's decision to become a YouTube star, considering it a mistake from which he would learn.
  • The author, despite self-described limitations, found the process of creating YouTube content enjoyable and rewarding.
  • The author believes that making YouTube videos is a significant amount of work, involving topic selection, research, filming, and extensive editing.
  • The author values feedback, particularly from their wife, to improve their video content.
  • The author is optimistic about the potential of their meditation channel, noting the strong following and high earnings of top meditation content creators on YouTube.
  • The author is open to community engagement, inviting others to share their YouTube experiences and opinions in the comments.

I created a YouTube channel to prove a point and got monetized.

In under one month.

Photo by Eyestetix Studio on Unsplash

Introduction

I created a YouTube channel to prove a point and got monetized in under one month. This is my story. Through trial and error, I got there, and who knows what the future will hold for me?

My son quit university for a second time, declaring he would be a YouTube star. My heart sank when he told me this, and I tried to persuade him that this was not a great idea.

He had an education before him and was due to live in Japan for one year. I was so excited when he got his university place and felt devastated when he quit.

He Knew Best

Within a five-week period, he quit YouTube after making four videos. I don’t want to go into any further detail. He is my son; I love and support him and know that he will learn from his own mistakes.

I wanted to mention this because it is relevant to the article. During our conversation, I was challenged to see if I could make anything of YouTube.

Now I am not the best-looking chap on camera, I am uneducated and not exactly a public speaker, so I knew this would be a challenge, to say the least.

A Friend Reached Out

A friend of mine Kristina God had asked me to produce a short video for her kick starter BootCamp after I had sponsored a competition winner to join her successful course.

Not wanting to let her down, I plucked up the courage to put myself in front of a camera (an iPhone) and produce a short video as requested. It was not the most natural video, but I did enjoy the experience overall.

Unleash The Beast

Yes, I started to film for fun and asked for feedback from my wife, her suggestion was to let my personality come out more, so I tried to put a bit of comedy into my early videos, maybe something I should return to.

I produced a few videos all about Medium and decided to give myself a chance to grow into the role. I normally set unrealistic targets and push myself to the limit, so it would be different this time.

I will say that making videos was a lot of fun. Even if my audience did not like them, at least I entertained myself!!!

It Was A Lot Of Work

Creating YouTube videos is a lot of work. First, you need to think of a topic to speak about, then give factual information or your opinion on that topic. Then the filming commences, so depending on how good you are in front of the camera, my session takes thirty to nighty minutes to film.

Once you are happy that you have enough content for a video, you need to transfer this to a PC, and then the real fun starts with editing.

I have a “Fiverr” page where I make YouTube intros and outros, along with logo designs if any budding social media or content creators need something new.

Worth The Effort

I feel that although my Youtube channel, which focuses on Medium, is the smaller of my two channels, I have a lot of fun creating the content and video editing. Even if this channel does not take off, I will probably still keep it going.

It is great that I have a hard-core following. The channel was set up to help new writers, which follows the name of my biggest publication, “New Writers Welcome”.

A Second Channel

Feeling encouraged by the progress of my first channel, I decided to try another focus. Recently, I have been meditating and noticed this seemed to be something people liked and wanted on YouTube.

I began designing my channel before thinking about how to produce this faceless content. I have seen other content creators do it, so how hard can it be?

Actually, with very little experience, it was a bit harder than I first thought to source or produce music was challenging. Then I had the complication of adding a move or several pictures to the music.

Trying to match these two things up was harder than it first looked, although I would not be deterred from my end goal.

Success!

To cut a long story short, I achieved 1,000 subscribers and my 4,000 watch hours requirement to apply for the YouTube partner program in under four weeks with my meditation channel.

I have now applied for the YTPP and awaiting their decision which can take up to 28 days, so keep your fingers crossed. To compare, my first YouTube channel is seven months old, and I am not even halfway to qualifying.

So, is faceless YouTube the way to go? I am not sure. Medium has a tiny presence on YouTube. However, meditation has a strong following, with the top earner making over one million dollars a month. Now, wouldn’t that be nice?

Your Thoughts

What is your opinion of YouTube? Do you have a channel, and are you in the YTPP? If so, let me know below in the comments section. I would love to hear your story.

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