1 powerful reason every online writer should have a YouTube channel
I’m so glad I woke up at the exact moment I did this morning.
I’ve been grinding away and waiting for this day for so long with this goal in mind.
To be totally honest, I almost quit more than once.
But in the end, I decided to follow my own advice.
Whenever I try to teach people anything, whether it be teaching adults about writing online and building their own side business or teaching kids how to play hockey, I try and reinforce the same key point.
That is: massive victories are built on the strength of little wins each and every day.
Or as the late author Tom Clancy once said: an overnight success is 10 years in the making.
So, after 10 months of trying to pick up little wins, I’d really been hoping to capture this exact number on my YouTube Studio dashboard.
Money isn’t everything
This milestone in my entrepreneurial career just goes to show you that money isn’t everything.
Over the same time period that I’ve been making YouTube videos, I’ve also managed to build a five-figure writing business and launch my own book publishing company.
But this YouTube journey might actually be the most rewarding undertaking, even though I have yet to earn a dime directly from that site.
How can that be?
Because this one has been the toughest to do.
I’m a professional writer and I always have been. Writing comes easily to me after 2 decades of reps.
I am not a performer. I knew nothing about shooting or structuring a video.
Yet if you look at the progression of my first video to my most recent one released today, you can see a massive improvement in quality and performance in just 10 months.
This just goes to show you that you can learn anything you set your mind to — and probably quicker than you think.
There are no more excuses in 2023.
Anything you don’t know, you can figure out using free videos and tutorials (mostly on YouTube, actually).
Why YOU need a channel
The reason I’m even writing this piece is because I believe every online writer should have a YouTube channel.
And the powerful reason for that is: by conceiving of and writing content, you’ve already done the hardest part.
Filming yourself and not looking like a dope is hard early on — not gonna deny that — but once you get a few reps in and increase your comfort in front of the camera, it does become fairly easy.
As you improve, you’ll be inspired to learn some structuring and editing techniques and stuff that can help your videos pop and generate more views.
At that point, turning the content you’ve already written into a video can be done in a snap.
It takes me 10 minutes to film a video, then around an hour to edit.
At that point, your written work can start pointing to your video work, and vice-versa.
Now you have a snowball rolling down the hill.
That doesn’t even include the monetary benefit I’ll enjoy when I finally get monetized (which I expect to happen within the month).
Try something new
You know what though? The priceless benefit is doing something difficult, learning something new, and learning about yourself.
It’s incredibly empowering to set a goal that makes you a little uncomfortable like, say, getting 1,000 YouTube subscribers, and then actually follow through.
It will help you build the confidence to try other things you may have, in the past, dismissed as “impossible” or “too hard”.
So take it from me: if you’re an online writer, you need a YouTube channel.
Heck, you might even find it fun!
This post is re-published from my Medium publication.
The latest from me
One flashing red signal that the stock market is probably about to crash
Avoid 5 unhealthy foods Tom Brady never eats to stay jacked at 45
3 things I would have never accomplished this year if I were still drinking alcohol
My most-read stories
Congratulations. It’s very well deserved.