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In 2014, I was fresh new out of college and imagined I had my lifetime all planned out: Go to health care university, get a 6-determine job as a medical professional, and make my mother and father very pleased.
None of that labored out. I realized I hated blood and needles, and received turned down from extra than 15 medical faculties. My mom and dad weren’t so delighted.
From 2014 to 2019, I took on tutoring facet hustles, did some modeling gigs, started out a drop shipping and delivery small business, and even worked as a genuine estate agent. But nothing at all was dependable in earning me a constant revenue stream.
Soon after many business enterprise attempts, I eventually identified one thing that labored: Putting up money assistance on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. In 2021, my content material creation enterprise introduced in $1.5 million in profits — and my mother stopped sending me position listings.
How I created a $1.5 million-for each-yr business enterprise
I experienced been posting on YouTube due to the fact 2006, but the content material was random and inconsistent. So I decided to adhere with the subject that enthusiastic me the most: money.
Rising up in a painfully frugal household, I was always interested in coming up with techniques to be smarter about earning, saving and investing. In 2018, I established a new YouTube channel devoted to financial advice. I posted nearly every working day, as nicely as on Instagram and TikTok.
In 2021, Chang’s organization brought in $1.5 million in gross income.
Picture: Charlie Chang
My 1st few video clips gained all around a dozen sights every, 50 % of which had been from my mom. I was still earning most of my income via odd work and side hustles.
But in April 2020, about a month immediately after Covid-19 was declared a pandemic, I found a spike in fascination around stimulus-similar content. That thirty day period, I posted 20 YouTube movies about the stimulus and relief attempts. A single of my films went viral — earning me $10,078 in ad income and 30,300 subscribers.
In Could, I posted 19 video clips and produced $15,791 in ad profits. And in June, I landed my initial sponsorship deal with Foundr, an on the internet education and learning business they paid out me $250 to develop one particular TikTok write-up.
I ongoing to experiment with distinct types of movie articles to see what was most effective in developing my audience and attracting desire from brand names.
By November, after securing an additional partnership deal and achieving all around 200,000 subscribers, I made a decision to start my first online program teaching men and women how to begin their personal effective YouTube channels.
In 2021, I included affiliate marketing and advertising to my money streams. I produced $86,000 in January, then scaled to an average of $150,000 for every thirty day period in 2021.
How to develop many income streams
Right now, I have more than 650,000 YouTube followers. So significantly this year, I’ve designed about $197,700 per month by using five income streams — quite a few of which make passive cash flow. At one position, I produced $245,000 in a month.
What I love about the small business I’ve developed is that I can opt for when and where to operate. Some times I will perform zero hours, and other days I’ll set in 12 hours. On ordinary, I work 35 hrs per week.
Here is how I crafted each of my money streams:
1. Affiliate advertising: 40% of every month revenue
With affiliate marketing and advertising, I make fee for endorsing a further brand’s products or products and services. I write-up affiliate inbound links in the descriptions of my YouTube movies and on my web-site, then get compensated every single time anyone is directed to a brand’s product website page or will make a buy.
To make passive profits by affiliate marketing and advertising, you want to incorporate hyperlinks on qualified written content in a specialized niche that men and women are hunting for. This can direct to clicks for months, even extended after you have posted. For illustration, I link to captions primarily based on popular search terms, which I discover employing the Google Traits device.
I get most of my affiliate offers through partnership administration platforms like Effects Radius, Partnerstack and Share-A-Sale. Creators with any audience dimension can use these web sites to uncover and sign up for affiliate hyperlink courses.
2. Brand sponsorships: 25% of month to month profits
With brand name sponsorships, organizations in essence shell out me to point out them in just one of my video clips or on my web page.
Manufacturers commonly access out to me by way of the e mail deal with on my YouTube profile, but I also operate with organizations like Spacestation to secure extra sponsorships.
Acquiring a niche helped me grow a faithful and authentic viewers, which has been vital to my good results. I answered Covid-relevant finance questions that no one particular else was addressing. Then I took the concepts with the optimum viewers engagement and ran with them.
“What I enjoy about the small business I’ve created is that the funds I make is not right tied to my time,” says Chang. “I can choose when and in which I want to do the job.”
Come across your have niche by inquiring: What is a distinct issue that I can resolve with my story and unique understanding? Have an understanding of the ins-and-outs of your audience, like their age, site and typical interests. All through the negotiation course of action, remind brands why that viewers is valuable to them.
3. YouTube ads: 25% of month-to-month profits
I make a different quarter of my income from YouTube Adsense adverts that surface before or through my YouTube videos.
To be part of this program, you should have at the very least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of view time in the previous 12 months. After you are component of the program, it really is critical to submit persistently and develop video clips centered on what your viewers responds very well to.
4. On-line system profits: <5% of monthly income
My “6-Figure YouTube Academy” and “Personal Brand Masterclass” courses are both hosted on Kajabi. These courses took months of planning, research, filming and editing.
For YouTube Academy, I outlined what I was going to teach in each video using Notion, an online workspace organization tool, then created slides to play during each video on Keynote. It took me a week to film more than a hundred videos, which I edited myself using Final Cut Pro X.
From there, I organized my videos on Kajabi and started to market the course on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. I don’t spend any money on advertisement.
5. Coaching: <5% of monthly income
I meet with clients one-on-one to consult on how to make their businesses more successful. This is a great way to connect with my audience and get to know them on an individual level.
My coaching sessions are done via Zoom, which allows me to meet with anyone from anywhere across the world. I charge $500 per 60-minute session.
Recently, I started building StartupWise, a resource platform for new businesses and entrepreneurs. I’m also working on a company called Side Hustle Mastery, and its complementary newsletter called Hustle Club.
Charlie Chang is a content creator and serial entrepreneur whose mission is to educate people on personal finance and entrepreneurship. He is a UCLA graduate and founder of StartupWise. Follow him on Instagram and YouTube.
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