And other financial ramblings
In reviewing 2018 I decided that the financial aspects of our business should be a separate post. I was curious to see how much we actually earned from Youtube in 2018, so let’s dive into the results.
2018 Results
What was even more surprising was the fact that my video series on building our kitchen cabinets was the vast majority of our earnings. That six part playlist consistently earned $70-90 a month for the entire year – and initially I had no plans of even filming it! As other video earnings had dropped off (notably, the timelapse of building our house), this video playlist consistently kept earning.
My takeaway from this nugget of knowledge is to remind myself to film EVERY project, regardless of how benign I feel it to be. Every piece of content that I publish is an opportunity to be rewarded with growth, and you never know what will be successful.
Now, I have to mention that with this newfound success comes quite a bit of disappointment in myself that I didn’t work harder to publish more content in 2018. For the ENTIRE year, I only published 13 videos. This is especially humorous considering I had a goal of publishing 200 videos. I am frustrated with myself that I let procrastination get in the way of us making more progress for the year, but I am still grateful for what we did accomplish.
Looking forward to 2019, I am trying to temper my ambition while still reaching for growth. I have a goal of publishing 52 videos for 2019, or 1 a week. Not just mindless fodder, mind you but (hopefully) valuable content to help us continue to grow.
Financial Goals for 2019
This past year I did not set a concrete goal for an earnings number. Looking forward to 2019 I have a firm number in mind, and that’s $25,000. Now, I know that a 1666% growth potential is unlikely at best but here’s my rationale: that’s how much the sawmill is going to cost. I loathe loans, and I want to earn enough in 2019 from our business to pay for the entirety of the sawmill. Now let’s look at our revenue streams for how we’re going to accomplish that.
Our primary means of income has been through Youtube. I do want to diversify our revenue streams, but also continue to grow this channel. Now that I have a dedicated, heated workshop I am thrilled to FINALLY start working on the hundreds of projects I have been dreaming about the past few years.
As far as Youtube goes, my goal is to earn $500 a month, or $6,000 for the year. Considering that we’re at 25% of this goal, I feel as though it is attainable. I just need to continue working on publishing the content I create and growth really is attainable. Whether or not we can get to this number in time to meet the goal is a different story.
Secondly, I really want to do a better job of documenting my videos. Most of the time, I’m in such a rush to churn out projects and start the next one that I’ve found my videos to be lacking quality.
In order to slow myself down and focus on the video work, I want to include more thorough videos. These full length videos will be hosted on a separate platform such as Udemy for paid lesson plans. I have no idea what the viability is of this idea or the potential earnings, but from my research the average Udemy instructor earns about $8,000 per lesson. My goal is to earn half of that, or $4,000 for the year.
Separate from the Udemy lesson, I will also publish the plans of projects on my website. These plans will also include a discount to the Udemy lessons, so hopefully that will demonstrate a nice conversion rate. I’m keeping my goals modest with this stream at $1,000 for the year.
Next comes affiliate marketing. I don’t want to bombard my audience with this stream as it can become quite annoying, but really it is an avenue I need to work harder on. Affiliate marketing can be quite lucrative, but again I want to ensure quality content. Considering that I’ve tried affiliate marketing in the past with minimal success, I’m also keeping my goals modest with this stream at $3,000 for the year.
This next stream is a little bit of cheating as you’ll soon see. Over the past two years I’ve spent quite a bit of time learning how to be profitable trading OTC stocks. Lately, I’ve begun to have a bit more success as the research and training is finally starting to make sense for me.
My goal is to earn $5,000 trading OTC stocks in 2019, but it’s cheating because that profit will remain in my account and not for funding the sawmill.
The last revenue stream I’ll be pursuing in 2019 is repairing small engines. A few months back I picked up 6 snowblowers and 2 garden tractors at a few auctions for a grand total of $40. I’d like to restore/fix them and flip them for a profit. This is an area of which I am greatly interested in, and there is a huge opportunity for a knowledgeable mechanic to earn a solid ROI. My goal for 2019 is to earn the final $6,000 from this stream.
Now, in order to reach my goals I’m going to need your help. You see, I don’t want to spend my time advertising this website to people who don’t care about it. I don’t want the site to be spammy and saturated with ads. I’m also fairly weak with SEO and traffic generation.
So what I’m asking of you is to help me share this site. If you enjoy an article, please do me a favor and share it on social media. Please help me spread the word so that we can help achieve some of our financial goals!
So there you have it, the results of my 2018 earnings as well as definite financial goals for 2019. What other revenue streams do you recommend I look into?
Hey,
I just saw the time-lapse of your home-build, and found your website from there. Thank you for sharing realistic information on YouTube earning, both what you’ve already earned and your projected goals. That kind of information is hard to come by, but there are others like yourself who have skills/experience/ideas to share and seeing realistic feedback is very valuable.
You asked for input re future earning or projects, etc. I’m sure you must know about Patreon? The main thing that occurs to me relates to your “only 13 videos over the whole year” comment. We’ve all been there and done that… bitten off more than we can chew or procrastinated our way through many weeks (guilty!). I really like your goal of one good video per week (or perhaps one project, if it’s small and needs 2-3 short parts?), and I would strongly encourage you:
1) Make sure vidoes are clear, with angles allowing the viewer to see what you are doing clearly at each step.
2) Unless it’s really short, do a voiceover with instructions afterwards; you can make sure the sound is good, the instructions are complete and concise, etc.
3) Keep background music to the absolute MINIMUM on any instructional videos. I cannot tell you how often I am frustrated by background music that is far too loud, distracting, maddening when I’m trying to concentrate on what the instructor is saying/doing.
4) Speak SLOWLY and CLEARLY (get some feedback from friends/family on the right rhythm/clarity). In daily speech we ALL tend to swallow half our words; when we are learning something we need to hear every word. Remember, while you know your subject inside-out and may have repeated that voiceover three times, your audience is hearing it for the first time and may also be unfamiliar with the subject/terminology. (I had to learn this hard lesson as a riding instructor, and I tend to speak too fast in conversation as well, especially on the phone.)
5) As you said in your post, never assume that any topic is too obvious or simple. If you had to learn it at some point, so do other people. Make sure the videos are complete! Don’t forget to talk about tools/equipment you are using as you go – what they are, how/why they are used, how to set up for a particular job (especially for precision work like rough or finish carpentry, metalwork, smithing, machinery repairs, and so on). Basic safety tips are really helpful, too, and ESSENTIAL for people who have not grown up around tools/machinery. What you take for granted won’t be second nature to many people – like routing your electrical cords away from blades and drill bits, wearing safety glasses when necessary, keeping your work space tidy so you don’t trip over the off-cuts or lose your tools in the sawdust, etc.
6) Don’t upload the first half of a project and then forget to “get around” to the second half. For example, follow up on the cabinet-making series with other aspects of the interior work, and make sure you show your viewers the finished house when the time comes. Doesn’t matter if it takes a while as long as your audience knows it’s coming.
6) Ask for feedback through the comments section on YouTube! Ask for suggestions re topics/projects they would like to see. Ask if they want to see more of something you’ve already shown (greater detail, further explanation, etc.). It’s a good way to develop a relationship with your viewers.
7) Share human details with your viewers, so they can relate to you. They will come back again if they feel “invested” by getting to know you a bit. If you have dogs, cats or other animals, make sure they are visible occasionally on your videos, introduce them. Share the good stuff, but also the frustrations when a project does not go according to plan or there are hiccups along the way.
Sorry you asked for suggestions yet? Some or all of the above may be redundant, but fortunately you can happily ignore anything that does not apply! Good luck to you both in your continuing adventure on the homestead.
Wow!
Thanks for the feedback and all the great advice Teresa; I really appreciate it!