1 reason you should be so proud of yourself as an early-stage online creator

Nov 09, 2023

Yesterday, I was watching a YouTube video with my older son by his favorite online creator, Danny Gonzalez.

His channel is so simple but so creative and inventive and HILARIOUS.

My wife, who happened to be walking through the room and saw that Gonzalez’s video from 3 months ago had already garnered 6 million views, asked, “Oh my God, how much does this guy make?”

My son searched and the first result to pop up suggested Danny’s net worth was $5.2 million at Age 29.

“Uhg,” I thought.

Digital painting of a gold star on a blue background — You deserve a gold star no matter how many views you get. I’ll explain why. (Credit: James Julian/Photoshop)

At the start

I started a YouTube channel just over a year ago, and I got monetized about a month ago.

In this video I posted yesterday, I talked about how much money I made on my first day.

I’d suggest you watch it because it contains an important message, but I can tell you it AIN’T $5.2 million.

I had to catch myself yesterday when I started having those negative feelings.

I had stepped into one of the biggest traps for early-stage online content creators.

A big obstacle

One of the biggest obstacles to success as an early-stage creator is comparing yourself to people who’ve been in the game much longer than you.

I understand the inclination to do so.

Many people who seek out the kind of information I provide are usually at some kind of pain point in their lives.

Maybe they hate their job, maybe they’re sick of being broke and they want a big change NOW.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that.

Content creation is a long game, so you need to stop comparing yourself to people who’ve been in it a lot longer than you.

If you’re new to this platform, for example, stop comparing yourself to me, or Zulie Rane, or Tim Denning, or whoever else you might see in your feed every day.

I’ve been at this for over a year.

For the other names I mentioned, it’s been more like 5.

Do what I did when I started out — LEARN from those people, study what they do and how they do it, and then take that knowledge to build your own unique thing.

A pat on the back

This morning, I checked my YouTube stats for my channel’s lifetime.

I’ve received 72,000 views overall.

No, it isn’t $5.2 million (yet), but it is something.

I gave myself a little mental pat on the back — 72,000 times, someone thought something I made looked interesting enough to see what it was.

Even if you get 10 or 100 or 1000 views per day on your work, you are in the arena.

You created something, and someone gave a bit of their time to check it out.

You’re already ahead of 99.9% of people out there.

Thanks to each and every one of you who has considered my work to be worth a bit of your time.

And I wish you the best of luck on your own journey!

Publish Every Day Goal Tracker

I’m doing an experiment to see if I can make enough cash to retire from commuter life within 1 year by publishing every day on multiple platforms and investing my earnings.

How much I need to retire comfortably: $250 CAD per day

What I earned on Day 10: $30.77 (writing), $1.43 (YouTube) — $32.20 total

Progress chart:

2023 averages ($USD):

What I’ve published in the last 2 days:

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James Julian's Publish Every Day

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