I’m going to end the “Streaming is Easy”… “YouTube is Easy” debate once and for all… If it’s EASIER than your “Real Job”… and pays so much better, and you genuinely believed that there are no downsides… Quit Your Job to do it right now then… Think about it… 🤦🏾‍♂️ If you 100% believed that you can work less and make more and that there are no downsides and it will be significantly easier why not do it then? You’d have to be an idiot to turn down more money for less work and less stress IF YOU ACTUALLY BELIEVED THAT… But here are some harsh truths… YES… regular jobs SUCK a lot do the time which is why many Creators left… It’s not EASIER to do this work and build anything in public… It’s that it is less PAINFUL to a SPECIFIC TYPE OF PERSONALITY… It’s will be agony for someone not built for it EVEN IF THEY MADE MORE MONEY and worked less hours. Some people also get to work careers or jobs they enjoy. Many people don’t quit the job but they quit their BOSS… Here is a plot twist… sometimes working for yourself means working for the WORSE BOSS YOU EVER HAD… Most Creators have no work life balance… Can’t maintain healthy relationships… Have chronic anxiety over the realization they are digital share croppers … It LOOKS EASY… because part of the job for the majority of those doing entertainment… part of their gig is putting their best self forward. The creators who can afford it are in therapy at least 1-2x per week… Many actually are ND, and yes, would struggle with a regular job… not because they are lazy… but because they aren’t built for it just like many of them were t built for traditional education/college… NOT EVERYTHING IS BUILT FOR EVERYONE… And what we’re supposed to do is find where we fit… Most of you reading this KNOW Deep Down you wouldn’t enjoy being a streamer 8 hours a day anymore than you would your day job… Some of you really would… and should explore how to do it if it’s something you can enjoy… But not only will most people not be good at it… for MOST it would likely be very unhealthy for them on every level. I’m nearly 40. I’ve done roughly the same number of years as an employee as a self employed person and now I am employer … I’ve done everything you can think of aside from food service… So I’m not speaking from some out of touch privileged perspective . I’m one of the only people who has spent equal time doing both and lived to a decent age before social media … Everything has its trade offs… Everything has its sacrifices … The grass is always greener because of all the 💩 you don’t see…

Never and I mean NEVER take a brand deal on conditional view counts… Turn down the deal.

Some of Best YouTube Analytics Data to grow your channel (measure these) - Videos that generated most subscribers in 90 days - Real-time views in last 48 hours, which videos are driving traffic - Search terms that drive the most traffic to your channel - Videos that had the most impressions in 90 days - Average view duration of most watched videos in 90 days - Relative Retention Rate of video compared to other videos of similar length on YouTube - Retention for first 30 seconds of video - % of viewers completing your most watched 10 videos of last 90 days - Top 10 videos driving suggested views to your videos in last 90 days - 24 Hour Performance of 10 highest viewed videos of last 90 days - Unique Monthly Viewers - New vs Returning Viewers - Views from Subscribers vs Non-Subscribers - RPM on a video over time - RPM of videos for the last 90 Days - Views by Traffic Sources last 90 Days - CTR by Traffic Sources last 90 Days - Views by Content Type in last 90 Days - Subscription Source and Subscribers Gained vs Lost - Subscribers vs Videos Published, Yearly ** Most of these require using Advanced Mode Analytics. You’ll want to bookmark this.

If I were to start over on YouTube from nothing (no I’m not gonna try to really do it, I’m 39 and I am overextending as it is) Here is what I would do: I would either go into Tutorial Content (again) focusing on either video editing or graphic design but this time not both… But let’s go with the ENTERTAINMENT version of me since that’s relatable and I got 100,000 from tutorials before helping Content Creators already the first time around… I would got into the Geek Culture niche. So my options would be Anime, StarWars, Disney or Harry Potter. All things being equal I would probably choose StarWars. StarWars is Red Ocean, tons of Creators, tons of Great Channels… So how would I standout. Firstly I would make my content immediately visually stand out in terms of thumbnails and branding. I would look at the top 10 Largest channels covering StarWars and I would refuse to make a thumbnail that wouldn’t be on their LEVEL, ever. As for topics and title ideas, I could stand out by choosing a different point of view … I could focus much more on the Sith and the Empire, since MOST Channels cover the Rebellion and the Jedi. I could still cover those but less so and I could be more critical of those characters and the protagonist as whole. I can leverage search by doing recaps and timelines of certain events in StarWars and s timeline for the events in each trilogy and the Disney shows and the popular video games. I would leverage the homepage views of casual viewers by writing aggressive titles… that challenge the viewers… “The WASTED Potential of the StarWars Sequels” I could probably do an ongoing series where I rewrite the Sequel films and honor both the old and new characters… and this would probably be one the things I can become “known for”. It would be s flagship piece of content they can’t get anywhere else. As for a posting schedule I would probably start with daily lore videos and launch the channel with 10 videos each dedicated the most powerful Sith Lords of all time. I would also probably make titles like “Darth Vaders Most SAVAGE Moments PT1” As for production, I would focus on audio quality. The channel would likely be faceless. This would make the content easier to make. Starting with little money I could edit everything with Davinci Resolve but pay the $10 a month for Photoshop and the $20-30 a month MidJourney. I would get a good microphone, either from Shure or Elgato and could likely just use an $800 Samsung Laptop to start. I would use music from the YouTube library to start or pay about $100 to commission some custom “StarWars like” music on Fiverr… All in about $1200 to make high quality content t for the niche. For writing and scripting, as a fan this wouldn’t be nearly as difficult but to get out 7 videos a week and work a week in advance I would front load my script writing. I would work on the channel for about 12 weeks before launching with 10 videos and a week of content to the follow it up with. 12 weeks would give me tons do scripts and outlines, my artwork, several potential titles and time to become a polished video editor, and to get the audio editing and processing right. I’d use 10 minutes 3 times a day to reply to nearly every comment that first year. Why this strategy of massive quality y of content? Bh aligning myself with a popular franchise with deep lore and the creative capacity to explore it more in-depth, and having binge worth content, I can make sustainable content that is easy to improve on by sheer consistency making my style better by “practicing the same kick 1000 times”. MrBeast said that by chasing quality rot he most extreme they keep staring over from scratch because they move ok to a new exiting thing right as they perfect something… My goal would be to master a style and only create specialized variants of that when perfected and keep improving and polishing it while making it sustainable. Think stamina x precision.

Live streams are underrated, especially replays… Made $2600 on replays without uploading in a month… Getting tons of views on live replays, all algorithm based views.

YouTube Play Buttons By Category. Notice the ratios. There is a 10:1 ratio of silver to gold. But a 1000:1 ratio of silver to diamond. A near 50:1 ratio of gold to diamond. In some cases 100:1 Now keep in mind 90% of creators NEVER break 10,000 subscribers. And that of all the videos uploaded to the entire platform from 2005 to 2020 88% of uploaded videos NEVER broke 1000 views lifetime … YouTube isn’t some easy thing… And it’s not 1M subscribers or bust… It’s not 100K views per upload or bust. Hopefully this gives you a more realistic view of YouTube success…

We truly live in peak narcissism if we have a large population of people that thinks followers are the better option. Take the $10M and disappear. Delete social media. Live s good, quiet life with of obscurity and privacy.