My YouTube Channel Finally Got Monetized After Almost 2 Years!
Avoid these 3 fatal mistakes that I made and you can grow your channel much faster that I did!
Earlier this week, I got one of the most exciting emails that I’ve ever received in my life, an email from YouTube saying that my channel Nic Studio was approved to join the YouTube Partnership Program, which means that now I can start monetizing my videos!
It’s a process in the making for almost two years. I started my channel Nic Studio in October 2019 with the hope that it would be monetized within 6 months. In the process, I made multiple fatal mistakes and gave up twice. That’s why a 6 months plan turned into almost a 2 years long haul.
Overall I invested around 1000 hours working on my YouTube channel before it was monetized. I am a licensed architect since 2010. If I spent those 1000 hours working on side projects for clients, I would have earned at least 100k already. So the opportunity cost is tremendous in my perspective. Now as I beginner YouTuber, I can start making about $20 a month instead of $100 per hour as an architect. Does it really worth it? I honestly cannot give you an answer now. Only time can tell.
I know some of you might have thought about starting your own channel, that’s why I want to share with you the mistakes that I made. If you avoid that path that I travelled, you should be able to get there much faster than I did.
The number one mistake that beginner YouTubers made is having unrealistic expectations. Many of them, including myself, are overconfident on our own abilities and underestimate the efforts required to make a successful channel. A lot of my friends who started their YouTube channels already have a successful career. Some of them are making a 6-figures salary. They believed that if they started their own channel, they would get approved by the YouTube Partnership Program in a month or two, and probably will be sipping martini with Jessica Alba on a sunny beach next year with passive income flowing in from their Google AdSense revenues. Unfortunately, that is a teenage wet dream which will never materialize into reality.
If one thing that the YouTube algorithm is good at, it is the ability to weed out those who are not determined enough to push beyond the human limit. After going through the process myself, I am absolutely certain that the threshold of 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours within one year in order to be eligible for monetization, is based on statistics rather than some numbers that YouTube randomly chose. It took me almost 2 years to get there, at the same time I saw many of my comrades gave up in less than 6 months. I gave up twice myself when the growth of my channel was crawling like a snail. So I am as guilty as those who had already given up.
But think about this, if growing a successful YouTube channel is easy, everyone would be doing it instead of having a 9–5 job. After all, working for yourself is more preferable than reporting to a boss for a pre-determined period day after day.
If you want to start a YouTube channel in 2021, you need to have a long term mindset. Instead of thinks about 6 months, think about 6 years. Dream about how life can be different if 6 years from now, your YouTube income is more than your current salary. See the efforts that you put into your channel as a long term investment, instead of a short term day trade. If you don’t have this mindset, you will find the process more painful than having a daily job. Only by equipping yourself with this mindset that you can finally cross the finish line.
The second mistake that most YouTubers make is having a niche too early. You probably want to ask: “What do you mean by that? Isn’t that having a niche market the only way to beat the competitions in this over-saturated influencer market? That’s economic 101, you idiot!”
It’s true, but most YouTubers started with the wrong foot that is doomed to fail. We are constantly being influenced subconsciously by our own pre-conceptions. When YouTubers started their own channels, they automatically default to their own professions or hobbies, like an attorney usually starts with a law related channel.
This is a wrong approach because they don’t even know whether the market even needs a law channel or not. Instead of trying to identity what the viewers what to watch, they simply present what they want the viewers to watch.
For example, I am a transportation architect by profession. So I started posting videos about public transit projects like subways and high-speed-rails. Guess what, no one gave a damn about those videos that I made. After it tanked, I changed to talk about personal finance because after all, I emerged from being broke to having multiple houses in less than a decade. That should be considered as successful, right? That’s something to brat about. Well, no one gave a damn neither. And that is understandable because if you compare me to the other Asian guy with 2 daddies, one rich while the other poor, I am literally nobody. So who the hack would want to watch my videos instead of his?
My channel only grew substantially when I started doing gadget review videos. And that’s the primary reason I was able to finally cross the finish line to monetize my channel. In the hindsight, it makes perfect sense. Although I am an architect, I don’t physically look like one. If you bumped into me on the street, you probably would think, “What a sec, aren’t you the IT guy in our back office who’s watching granny porn all day long?” It probably will take me more than half an hour to convince you that I am not that pervert you had in mind. But the reality is, I really look like a nerd more than an architect despite how badly I want to deny it.
Anyways, the point need to be driven home. Instead of dictating what you want the viewers to watch, let the viewers decide what type of videos you should be making. Post 10–20 videos with different topics, styles and varieties. Try to find a pattern of what videos get you most subscribers, view counts and watch hours. Let the audience tell you what niche market you should be focusing on, instead of letting your pre-conceptions doing it.
Last but not least is that beginning YouTubers like me always try to justify our inactions with excuses.
In 2010, more than 10 yeas ago, I came across a book on Amazon called “How to Make Money on YouTube”. I added it into a shopping cart. Then the lazy demon inside me spoke: “Come on, man! Do you really have the time to do it? You are working at least 10 hours a day now as an underpaid junior architect. You should at least make good use of your weekends to relax, not stressing yourself out by making YouTube videos.” That made perfect sense to me. After all, how much money could I realistically make from YouTube anyway. So I removed the book from my shopping cart and gave it up.
That was a fatal mistake. Back then, the YouTube creators market was not as inundated as today because most content creators preferred blogging instead of vlogging. There was not even a threshold from YouTube that one had to cross. As long you as started posting videos and had a Google AdSense account opened, you could start making money already! In fact, YouTube started implementing the minimum threshold requirement in April 2017. Back then, creators need to reach at least 10,000 lifetime view counts in order to be eligible for monetization. But in less than a year, in January 2018, YouTube stepped up the requirement to 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours, which is much harder to achieve than the 10,000 view counts.
And because I didn’t start my channel until October 2019, that means I was subject to the current stringent monetization rules. As I mentioned earlier, it was a fatal mistake. That mistake cost me around 1,000 personal hours or 100k dollars opportunity cost in my opinion.
I know that I am over simplifying things here. But my point is, if you want start a YouTube channel, start it right now. I created all my videos using my cellphone and made all my video edits on my iPad. You don’t need any fancy equipment to get started. Those YouTube videos who keep promoting “Best Starter Kits for YouTubers”, “Perfect Mirrorless Cameras for Vloggers”, etc, they are in the business of selling you those equipment to get commissions. They are not in the business of helping you growing your channel. So don’t be fooled. As long as you have a smartphone, you have everything you need to get started! Don’t be like me who regret for 9 years of inaction using all sorts of personal excuses.
There are thousands of ways making side incomes. YouTube is for sure not the only one, and definitely not the easiest one. But if this is something that you are most interested in, then just do it! Remember, the only thing that can stop you is not the YouTube algorithm, but the lazy demon that’s already embedded in our DNA. You have to prove to YouTube that you are better than your inherited human nature. Only then, the YouTuber Partnership Program will open its doors to you.
