Decoding My YouTube Adventure: From 0 to 32,472 Subscribers
From chasing money to finding purpose on YouTube
(Date range: Mar 29, 2016 — Sep 14, 2019)
Many people spend their lives chasing after two things: money and status. I was an introvert, which automatically disqualified me from the status game. However, I was driven by the idea of making money.
My journey began when I was 15, during the peak of Pokemon GO’s popularity. Being a total nerd, I roamed the streets of Mumbai in search of Pokémon. It became increasingly challenging to outperform my friends in the game (they had phones with better refresh rates), so I embarked on a quest to find a hack. Eventually, I succeeded.
I wanted to share this hack with the world, and that’s how I stumbled upon YouTube. My first step? I looked up how to make money on YouTube. I grasped the vague concept of Google AdSense and uploaded my first YouTube video.
Money, Money, Money
You might assume that money was my sole motivation throughout my YouTube journey, but that’s not entirely accurate. Money served as the catalyst that propelled me into the world of YouTube.
We all know that the most challenging part of any endeavor is taking the first step.
Materialistic desires won’t sustain your career, but they can push you to get started. Passion takes over from there. For the first year, I didn’t make any money; I just kept creating content.
Be Consistent
Over the next 12 months, I produced over 200 videos, almost one every two days. The quality of my early videos is questionable, and revisiting them is cringe-worthy. However, you must start from the bottom. Consistency and a thirst for learning about the platform and the craft accelerate your growth exponentially.
Pro tip: In the beginning, handle all tasks yourself to understand the intricate details of the business. I wrote scripts, shot videos with a $5 tripod I bought from a street vendor, edited using a cracked version of Kinemaster(android app) to remove watermarks, and managed the channel. It demanded personal sacrifices, but I fell in love with the content creation process. The rest is fine-tuning to make your time worthwhile.
From How-To videos to unboxing smartphones, I explored a ton of niches, and the best part? It never felt like work; it was pure enjoyment.
Stay consistent, focus on daily improvement, find purpose in the content you create, and life will present opportunities. After six months, one of my videos garnered 24K views.
How to Become a YouTuber
With continuous refinement, I learned how to strike a balance between creativity and algorithmic appeal. YouTube releases research papers periodically, detailing how its model ranks videos. (Read it here: YouTube Research Paper.) There’s no doubt about the importance of content quality; but the primary focus should be on increasing average watch time.
Hooking the viewer throughout the video is crucial. You’ve likely heard YouTube gurus advise capturing the viewer’s interest within the first 6 seconds of the video; it works. It’s futile to discuss average watch time if no one clicks on your video, making thumbnails and titles equally vital.
Title: Optimize it for SEO. Use extensions like VidIQ and TubeBuddy for optimization.
Thumbnail: Make it irresistibly clickable. A/B test your thumbnails for the best results.
Everything else hinges on how engaging your content is.
I Quit
It’s not that I didn’t taste success on YouTube. Within a year, two of my videos crossed 1 million and 500k views, respectively. The numbers were mind-boggling and made me feel on top of the world. I earned $200 from YouTube’s partner program and around $100 from sponsorships (which is not bad in Indian rupees).
However, running a YouTube channel in India was challenging at the time. My content catered to Hindi-speaking audiences, but it was tough to monetize because companies had limited ad budgets for the Indian audience, and collaborations with YouTubers were rare. The input-output ratio was unfair. After two years of hard work, my channel had over 30K subscribers, and I decided to quit YouTube.
Today, it’s different.
Today, the landscape has changed. Companies are investing heavily in India, offering multiple avenues for monetization. Ad income has increased significantly, and companies are eager to sponsor YouTubers with generous amounts.
However, YouTubers now generate a small portion of their income through ads. They leverage their audience to sell courses, drive traffic to their apps and services, promote affiliate products, and more. The competition has intensified, but if you can attract viewers while consistently delivering top-notch content, nothing can stop you from becoming the next big thing.
It was a thrilling journey while it lasted.
