In September 2023 I started a new YouTube channel.
After a few months, I monetized it — in December 2023.
You can read all about in this article:
In a next blog post, I gave you an update about how much I was earning 2 months after monetization:
And now, nearly 4 months later, I thought it was time for a new update.
Spoiler alert: Things are going quite well!
My Struggles & Improvement Actions
In my last article, I described that I was using AI voice overs (via www.elevenlabs.com).
Even though their voice overs are really great, and often you don’t hear that it’s AI — I think it was hurting the channel a little bit.
So, I decided to switch to real voice over artists (hired via Fiverr.com). They’re way more expensive, but people still like the “human touch” that comes with it.
Since then, videos became much better and I got more and more views.
You can see the progress here:
Increased CPM
In my previous article, I also expressed a bit of concerns about my CPM, being quite low.
However, it has increased a bit as well:
Note that CPM really varies from video to video, as you can see from the screenshot below:
Could it maybe be interesting to create more videos, specifically in these high CPM niches?
I will experiment a bit with it by creating a few videos in the same style / topic and see what happens.
Improved Thumbnails & SEO
Thumbnails, titles & descriptions are THE MOST IMPORTANT part of your videos.
Why? Because this makes sure that a video gets clicked!
You can have THE BEST video in the world, but if nobody finds it or if nobody clicks on it… then what’s the point?
To help me with SEO, I use the VidIQ browser addon. It’s quite powerful & very easy to use. You can try it for free if you’d like.
It helps me generate SEO optimized thumbnails with AI:
It helps me analyse the SEO of my videos & your video performance:
As you can see from the screenshot above, the SEO is OKAY, but can be improved on many points.
I’ll need to speak with my contractors / creators about this.
Revenue Report After 4 Months
Without any further ado, let’s dive into the revenue.
After 4–5 months of monetization, I have earned a total of… :
219 dollars.
Let’s break this down month by month:
What do I think of this?
Well… it’s alright.
I could see the revenue growing month by month, but this month (March), things seem to slow down again.
Keep in mind though that THIS IS NOT PROFIT!
I’m still paying my YouTube guys (creators) a lot of money each month to keep the channel up & running, and to create new videos.
So, after half a year, I’m still hugely at loss.
Should I stop the channel? I could, but not yet. Let’s give it some more time & see what happens.
Future improvement actions
Apart from the things listed above (improve SEO & CPM), I have noticed that my Average View Duration is quite low, so I will try to find ways to improve this.
Ways of doing this include “revealing the answer” in the end.
Let me explain:
Let’s say that your title is “This is How Much Money The Richest YouTubers Earn”.
Next, you go on explaining about them, what they do, bla bla. And then only after a few minutes — closer to the end of the video, you reveal the exact number.
I know — it’s annoying as hell. I hate it too. If I’m watching a video to get to know something, I just WANT TO KNOW it without having to watch a 5 minute introduction first.
However, we as creators are in this game to earn money, and this is (unfortunately) the way that it’s done.
Conclusion
YouTube Automation can be an incredibly profitable business model, but you REALLY NEED to be patient.
I don’t know how long my patience will still last…
I’ll keep you posted on my progress. Stay tuned for the next update!
Cheers,
Michiel
