Well, I Did It - I Started Another YouTube Channel

A New Hobby

I started a new hobby about 5 months ago. Initially I started it just to do it. Without going into details, it's very video-oriented, so I started a YouTube channel to share my videos with other people involved in the hobby like they have done with their videos.

Progress So Far

To date, I have posted 47 YouTube videos. What I love about this niche is it's very easy for me to create the videos with minimal editing. I haven't had great success as of yet, but I'm seeing things move in the right direction.

I have four subscribers so far, my most watched video has 2,200 views, and I have a total of 34 watch hours. It's a far cry from the 1000 subscribers and 4000 watch hour YouTube Partner requirements, but I'm not too concerned about that. One thing about this niche is that I'm actually enjoying creating the videos and posting them whereas other niches I wasn't as motivated.

Last night I finally got around to adding affiliate links to the description of my videos. I only added them to the videos that had a decent amount of views. I suppose I could go back and add affiliate links to them all, but I don't think it would do much good.

Most of the initial views come from people already in the niche that I'm sharing the videos with. They're likely not going to be the ones clicking on my links and purchasing stuff. The videos that take off are likely going to be the ones where I might get commissions.

Things To Do

I registered and installed WordPress on a domain for this niche about 5 months ago. Now I just need start writing content for it such as product reviews. A little bit more effort than creating the videos, but I think it will help me make money. After I get the reviews written, then I'll be able to put a link in the video descriptions and embed the relevant videos on my site.

Even though I haven't written content, I've been documenting various things I've done in the niche and taken lots of pictures to use with my content. Now it's time to put them to use.

The Other YouTube Channel

My other YouTube channel I've had for far longer, almost 11 years now. I used to make about $150/month from it. About half was ad revenue and half was from affiliate commissions when people will follow links to my website to my reviews, click through to the merchant site, and purchase products.

Unfortunately, I was focused on my W-2 job/career and I didn't keep on adding content to it when I should have. Additionally, I think it stopped receiving ad revenue when YouTube implemented the partner requirements. It currently has 847 subscribers and 373 watch hours even though I haven't posted a video in over seven years. It has a total of 1.3 million lifetime views with about half of those views coming from a single videl.

Logically, I think I should start making videos for it. I don't think it would take much to push me over the 1000 subscriber mark and I think once I started creating more videos my watch hours would shoot way up.

Ultimately, I think I'll start posting videos to it again, but I think it took this new hobby to get me back into even posting to YouTube again.

Final Words

With this new hobby I'm mainly in it just for the fun. I'm not trying to build a business out of it, I'm just doing it for the enjoyment. At the same time, I'm going to do what WA teaches here to monetize it. I might as well set myself up to make money with it since I'm already doing the work of posting YouTube videos and interacting in forums related to my niches. It's only a little extra effort to set myself up for the possibility to make money with it.