Can you make YouTube your part-time job in 6 months? (yes, I did)
Most people are lying to you about how much you can realistically expect to earn early on in your YouTube journey.
But just because you can’t tell your boss to take a hike and spend your days chilling on the beach within a few days, weeks, or months on the video platform, it is possible to make decent money before too long if you’re dedicated and consistent.
Today I’m going to walk you through my earnings in my sixth month since monetization.
Then I’ll tell you why it already makes more sense for me to make videos than do pretty much any other part-time job.
Finally, I’ll give you a few tips on how you can get started on the path to making YouTube YOUR part-time job.
Let’s get to it!
Earnings in my 6th month monetized on YouTube
So let’s start out by looking at my earnings in my 6th month monetized on YouTube.
You may wonder after seeing this how I can credibly call YouTube a part-time job, but stick with me and I’ll explain in a moment.
And here’s a look at how that month compared to the ones before it.
Again, $98.52 might look like small potatoes, but think about it in context: over the course of 1 month, I managed to double my income from the platform.
Now it would be unrealistic to expect 100% revenue increases every single month, but it’s encouraging nonetheless.
So how did I pull that off?
Take a gander at my two top-earning videos.
As you can see from that screencap, in the world of content creation, the Pareto (or 80/20) Principle most definitely applies.
The principle holds that there’s an unequal relationship between inputs and outputs.
Put another way, the vast majority of money you make from content is going to come from a very small percentage of videos or articles — i.e., the ones that go viral.
In this case, the following video got off to the hottest start ever on my channel, pulling in more than 2,000 views relatively quickly and pumping my earnings as a result.
In doing so, it also helped me produce my first two $10+ days on the platform.
My earnings in Month 6 were also helped by the following video, which just keeps trucking along since I posted it back in mid-January.
The success of that video really speaks to the magic of creating digital assets as a part-time job.
I published it 3 months ago and still, every single day, it pays me a little dividend.
Since taking the above screengrab, that video has gone on to earn a total of $100.
Not bad!
The way I look at digital assets like articles here or videos on YouTube — and the way I think you should too — is as my little employees.
I “hire” them, I send them off into the world, and every day they come home with a little bit of money.
Some days it’s dollars, some days it’s cents, but the important thing is this:
Not only am I putting in my hours and earning my wage by creating new content, my little employees are also heading off to work every morning and coming back with cash in hand
They’re generating income while I do other things (like hire more employees … or sleep).
Here’s a look at what advertisers paid my employees per 1,000 views of each of my top-earning videos in Month 6.
And the other thing is, I’m getting better at this.
It’s bound to happen no matter what you’re working on: the more reps you get, the more competent you get.
In fact, with a couple oflittle tweaks, I’ve massively boosted my CPM since I took these screencaps.
And don’t forget, these videos aren’t even close to being done earning yet.
My new part-time job
OK, so how does all of this equate to being a part-time job?
I love tracking my content in terms of hourly wage because it puts everything into a more realistic perspective.
People look at YouTube in terms of MrBeast or Bust.
They’re led to believe that if they aren’t making millions on the platform right away, they’re failures.
But let me ask you this: do you want to flip burgers at McDonalds, or would you rather make the same amount of money working for yourself and creating content you love?
Look at me in Month 6:
It now takes me on average two hours to film, edit, and post a video
I published three videos, which took about 6 hours of work
I earned $98.52
$98.52 / 6 hours = $16.42 per hour
In Canada, the minimum wage is around $15 per hour, so already I’m outpacing a burger-flipper or shelf-stocking position, and I’m just getting warmed up.
And in a lot of places, the minimum wage is a lot lower than that.
What’s next
As I move forward, I know I need to get a little more consistent.
My plan to upload every week without fail.
In the short-term, that means my hourly wage will go down — not every video takes off right away.
In the long term, however, as all those employees keep earning and I keep hiring more, my hourly wage should go up.
And if one of those employees winds up being a star producer, well, the sky’s the limit.
My top 5 trending stories today
Keep going James. I enjoy seeing your numbers and how you’re progressing. Hoping you start to see the network effect kick in.
It’s great to see the upward trend.