The Blueprint to Make $$$ on YouTube from Day 1

Every single day, from every corner of the world, there are over three billion people typing into the YouTube search bar things like, "how to train my dog," or "how to do your own bookkeeping," or "how to dance." And yes, this is an entertainment platform, but it's still the second largest search engine in the world. And if you want to generate an income off of this platform from the beginning, you need to use it in that way.

So, if we know that over 3 billion people are coming here every single day to learn something, what's the most effective or efficient way to generate an income that's real and sustainable from the beginning, without a lot of views or subscribers? Teach something. For almost a decade now, I have studied YouTube, I've used it myself, and I've taught thousands of people how to turn their channels into a very real and very consistent income. Like Nate, who teaches people how to pass the Certified Management Accountant exam, and his very first video on his channel generated his first $600.77 within 2 hours. Or Solom, who teaches German and had less than a thousand subscribers when she hit her first $10K month. Or Jeffrey, who teaches men how to save their relationships and was hitting consistent $10K months with less than 700 subscribers, and now has gone on to generate multiple millions from his channel.

So, in this video, I'm going to show you the strategy to earn an income from YouTube from day one, without a ton of views or subscribers, any affiliate marketing, without having to have brand sponsors and sponsored content, and most importantly, without having to rely on the qualifications to get you to be a part of the Partner Program. None of those things are required. And why this is really important is because if we're looking at just these options, a recent study actually showed that 48% of content creators are burnt out and frustrated because they're generating less than $1,000 a month, even though they're working their butts off to try and achieve all of these things. These can be nice side income if you want to leverage them, but if you want a real full-time income, this strategy is the most effective way to do so. And let me tell you, if you're solely focused on the Partner Program and generating AdSense, well, I have a channel of over 500,000 subscribers, and this is how much I made from my channel in the last month, compared to what I made with this strategy in the last month. So, let's get into how to turn YouTube into a passive income machine.

Before I get into these details, I have put together a free guide on the 10 steps to turn your knowledge into a full-time income. If you want it, just comment below the video, "Give me the guide," and we'll be sure to send you over the link to download it.

So, really, there's kind of two ways that people approach YouTube. And the first way is what I call the "publish and hope" method. So, this is totally normal to tackle it in this way, which means you're just putting up YouTube content, and you're consistently making that content. You're kind of just hoping that eventually it's just going to magically make you some money or generate some AdSense revenue or whatever it may be. The problem with this is that a lot of people want to become a content creator because they want that creative freedom, and they want that time freedom as well. And this kind of destroys that. And what it also does is it positions you to work for the algorithm because you're constantly chasing the algorithm, giving you the signals you need to actually have success with a video, and you really don't have a ton of control over that. You can make the best video in the world, and it may get crickets.

So, the alternative to that is work with the natural function of YouTube. And I talked about this earlier, this is a search engine. And I know that we see these big, huge creators simply using it to entertain, but that's a small percentage of creators here on YouTube, and it's a really tough game to play because, really, you're not in control of how the algorithm serves up your content, who it serves it to, etc. And it's a really, really hard road. Now, when you work with the natural function of YouTube as a search engine, and you position yourself to be found by people who would be interested in paying you for your expertise and your knowledge, that puts you in the power position. What that does, it allows you to make the algorithm work for you. So, you become the boss, and no longer is the algorithm the boss of you. And this doesn't require you to have a ton of views. It requires you to have really quality, targeted views and subscribers, which completely flips the game on its head and gives you so much of your time, energy, resources, and power back.

So, really, the strategy behind this is, first and foremost, what do you want to be known for? And what's the thing that you can talk about with a sense of credibility and experience and expertise behind you? And that is what you're going to build authority in inside of the algorithm. What that does is it also builds your audience. So, it's authority and audience at the exact same time, which positions you in a really, really solid place to consistently be discovered by new folks who would actually want to pay you for your knowledge. So, we're going to talk more about how you actually monetize your knowledge and sell it a little bit later, but these are kind of the basics that you need to know before we dig in.

Okay, so let's talk about how most people, um, get themselves into what I call the hamster wheel on YouTube of just constant content creation and a lot of frustration. So, what it looks like is you create random content, which leads to creating more random content, and nothing works. This leads to crickets, and it just creates the self-fulfilling hamster wheel of you nonstop creating content and hoping that one of them is going to hit. Why I call this the hamster wheel is ultimately because you're really just guessing. You're guessing, and you're hoping, as I said earlier, that one of these pieces of content is going to hit. But even when it hits, what does that really mean? Because generally, it's not going to bring in a ton of income for you, and it's not going to really allow you to sustain the work and the time and the energy that you're putting into creating this content.

So, the other way to approach it is what I call algorithm domination. So, algorithm domination follows a very specific strategy, and it creates the opposite of that hamster wheel. It actually creates this engine that fuels your growth and your authority building. So, ultimately, it has to start with who are you trying to serve? So, ideal viewer, who is the person who's going to be most interested in what you have to say? From there, this is probably the biggest word I need you to remember from this video: relevant content. We need to make sure that any content you create is not random, it's relevant, and it feeds back to this ideal viewer, and it's exactly what they want to see and hear and learn from you. Because what does that do? It starts to teach the algorithm, "Oh, okay, this channel is about this, and they're trying to reach this kind of person." And so, what that does is then the algorithm actually knows what the heck to do with your videos and your channel, and you're not kind of fighting this uphill battle with each piece of content you post. You're actually going, "Oh, I know exactly who this is made for, and I know I'm starting to build a little audience around that, and the algorithm is starting to understand who you want to reach."

So, then it starts to work for you, as I mentioned earlier, and it starts to serve your content out using its internal traffic sources. So, we'll talk more about this later, but those are things like browse, suggested, and search traffic sources. And I think the big takeaway from understanding why this works so well is because, especially in the beginning of when you were starting to grow a channel, this is a harsh truth, but it's true: no one cares. No one cares about your channel, no one cares about your content. Someone told me the other day, they're like, "My mom won't even watch my YouTube videos." And that's the truth. So, what you have to do is you have to make people care. And following this strategy, and knowing who you're actually trying to reach, it works in your favor.

So, the process of this is, we need to focus on that search traffic first and foremost. So, what this looks like is, I kind of call it the hockey stick of growth. So, you have your first couple of videos, I usually recommend like your first eight videos or really test videos, because ultimately, we have to put content out in order to know what works and what doesn't. But in those first test videos, we need to make sure that we know who we're trying to reach, and making relevant content for them, so this little engine can start to work from the beginning. And once you understand, "Okay, we have a bit of a baseline here, we know kind of the data that we're collecting, we know which videos are working, which videos aren't, which videos are generating engagement," then you start to focus on search traffic. So, that is the first focus on your YouTube channel. So, that means you're making content that addresses pain points, FAQs, etc. I'm going to dig more into this strategy a little bit later. And from there, what it does is you start to build a little baseline of audience members. These are audience members, if you were wondering what I was drawing here. So, you start to build this little baseline of audience members, and they're finding you through the search results. So, they're sitting there typing into the search bar, as I said earlier, and they're finding you with a helpful answer, a valuable video. You're becoming a thought leader and an authority, even if you're starting from scratch. If you have good, valuable content, people will listen. So, they're seeking out your help and advice, they find you through search results, and then what happens is they start to subscribe. Then, when you put out more content, your content becomes suggested to that original audience. And this is where things get really interesting. As long as we focus on relevant content, and you don't go off path and post something random, what happens from here is you start to tap into browse traffic, and all three traffic sources working out once for you. So, what this does is it means that every time you post a video, not only is this initial audience getting suggested your content, but you're also then getting pushed on the homepage to relevant ideal viewers through the traffic sources, not through your own doing, but the algorithm is actually starting to work for you. So, that gives you an understanding of how the actual process works in detail.

But this also brings me to the number one rule of monetizing from day one. As a reminder, if you want my free guide on the 10 steps to turn your existing knowledge into a full-time income online, comment below with "Give me the guide," and we'll send you the link.

So, I mentioned earlier, people want to pay for your expertise. But you're probably thinking, "But if I'm putting out free content, why would they pay?" Well, there's a lot of reasons, um, that I've talked about in past videos. But honestly, we're in a day and age where there is an information overload. So, people are really seeking out experts, they're seeking out people who know what they're talking about and have a lot of credibility. So, if you can position yourself to be found, as I just spoke about, there is a lot of trust built there. And you can only teach so much through YouTube content. The real transformation happens with an actual blueprint, roadmap, and method that is packaged. So, that is how we can actually monetize your knowledge from YouTube without having to rely on those other sources like AdSense and affiliates and all those things. So, I'm going to, I was going to write it out, but we're just going to make it small. Online course is what that stands for. The, um, online course. And then from there, what am I doing? Ideal. There we go. Ideal viewer, which, spoiler alert, that is also customer. And then from there, we're actually going to create a price point for this. So, your productized knowledge, which is your online course, we're going to create a price point for this that is based on the value of the outcome. So, if you're wondering about creating a digital product or an online course, at the bare minimum, and this is what I've been doing for a long time, and pairing together YouTube plus online course, the online course has to do something where it takes your client on what we call the ideal client journey. So, it really takes them from this zero state to this hero state. So, the price of your program needs to be based on the hero state, and that's really based on a transformation. And it's not just you providing a bunch of information. That's why it's really hard to monetize your knowledge on YouTube alone, because there's so much information out there, and it's a sea of information. So, when you can actually create something that transforms people, then you have the, you know, ability to charge based on the outcome they're going to achieve from following that roadmap, from following that blueprint. But you're leveraging YouTube to sort of position yourself as your, as the expert and get them in the door.

So, I've talked about two really, really important factors here that are really the base of this actually working as, as a strategy. And it was the, what do you want to be known for? And who do you want to reach? So, that's your ideal viewer. And once we understand these things, everything else becomes a lot easier because every single video you make needs to be directly reflective and relevant to those two factors. So, a really easy way to position this is to come up with what we call your transformation statement, which is ultimately the baseline of what you're going to create your online course around. So, it's simply put as this: "I help [ideal client] at their zero state go from zero state to hero state so that they can," there we go, "achieve desired feelings and outcomes related to getting to that hero state." So, if you can just fill in these blanks, this is the very basis of creating content, content that's actually going to bring in real ideal clients for this online program. And this really speaks to the fact that a very small audience, with those examples that I shared at the beginning of the video, a very small audience can really create a big business because one view can equal one client for your online program. So, that turns it from you sort of waiting to monetize your channel and your content to being in full control from the very, very beginning.

And why this is so vital for you to know, especially in terms of that flywheel that we just talked about, is that if your ideal viewer is subscribing for a certain kind of content on a certain topic, that's what they're going to want to watch more of. So, where people go sideways and south with this, and it doesn't work very well, is they start to, unfortunately, create random content that just doesn't appeal to the ideal viewer anymore. And it's pretty simple: if you have content pieces that you know generate high retention on them, meaning people are watching the whole video, and you're getting really good feedback and signals to say that people are engaging with it, that's a huge clue as to the kinds of topics you want to make moving forward to further build your authority and attract even more of these ideal viewers. But the problem is, if you start creating random content, it's going to kill the all the momentum, and it's going to really not allow you to ultimately monetize the, the knowledge that you have in this way. So, we always want to feed that flywheel, the right flywheel, not the hamster wheel.

From there, I want to talk about something that's vitally important, which you might have had some clues to thus far, but you do not own YouTube. So, ultimately, you don't own the algorithm. You have no control over the algorithm on really any social platform, which is why an email list is crucial to your success in growing any kind of online business. So, at the very bare minimum, when you're creating relevant content to your ideal viewer, you absolutely have to be driving those viewers to an email list. Because what that allows you to do is it allows you to build your own audience off of the platform. So, what that does is it creates this really incredible process that every time you have a new video, you have a built-in audience. You're not sitting there waiting for the algorithm to push your content to people. You actually can send your email list to your video. And what do you think that does? Well, these people are hyper-targeted because we're making relevant content for that ideal viewer. Therefore, every video you create is pretty darn interesting to them. So, then they're going to click on the link from the email, go to the YouTube video, give it a like, subscribe if they haven't yet, leave a comment. And that tells YouTube, "Wow, this person really knows what they're talking about. They're getting a ton of engagement on their videos, and it's quality engagement. We should start pushing their videos out more to more ideal viewers." Which brings you in potentially more clients and customers.

So, how do you get people onto your email list? Well, there are a bunch of ways to do this, but in the very beginning, even just setting up one of the first things that I did was just setting up a very simple PDF checklist that was relevant to the content that I was creating. So, that's an easy step for you to just create a PDF. You could do it in something like Canva, or even in Keynote or PowerPoint, turn it into a PDF, and then just create a simple landing page that people can go to, type in their email address, and then they get the lead magnet in return through their email. From there, they're on your list, and then you can continue to nurture them with value, and also you can position yourself as a further authority for them to make them more incentivized and to build more trust with, with you to become a part of your paid offer or your paid online program.

So, really, to sum this up, what you need to know is you have to have your content plus a call to action from the beginning. And even if you have nothing to sell right now, that's okay. If you are creating content, at the bare minimum, start building this email list because when you do have something to sell, you'll actually have people to sell it to and not have to rely on the algorithm to show you to the right people. And if you want to see this sort of like chunked out and exactly how it flows, is we go from the video to the CTA, which gets people to click a link, which gets them their freebie of whatever that may be. So, let's say it's a lead magnet, which could be, you know, a checklist, a PDF, an ebook, etc. Once they then download that lead magnet, they're on your email list. So, they're going to start getting emails sent to them. And one of those emails is going to be your YouTube video every week, which again, just continues your authority with this audience that you actually own, and is your biggest asset in your online business. And from there, eventually, you're going to get to a place where, if they aren't incentivized to become a part of your online program right away, because you're continuing to nurture them, at some point you'll have another CTA to work with you. And why this works so well is because once they've gone through this whole process, they are so warm and warmed up and nurtured to have enough trust in you to go, "Yeah, I think this is the person I want to work with." Because you're not just going straight from a stranger on the street asking them to buy what you have to sell to. You actually start to build a relationship with them through this constant communication and constant value add, which makes it a lot easier to turn these strangers who discover you on YouTube through search or suggested or browse into paying clients.

So, let's talk a little bit more in depth about what it actually looks like to convert strangers into potential clients. And we call this the content scaling funnel, or the YouTube scaling funnel. And so, to conceptualize this, if we're at the top here, and we're bringing somebody all the way down here, it's going to be a longer sales cycle for that person to become a client, from stranger to client. So, you want to think about the, the sales happening at the bottom. So, in some cases, this makes a lot of sense. So, if it's more of a cold lead, meaning somebody who doesn't really know why they would need your expertise or your knowledge or help of any kind, but they kind of are in the realm of starting to do a little bit of research, especially on YouTube, we want to serve them something that's valuable, but not taking them directly to the sale, because that's not going to make any sense, and they're not ready for it. They're not at the point in their customer journey where that would make sense. So, the best thing to offer somebody at this stage is really an ebook, you know, checklist, PDF, etc. Something that's a low barrier to entry and not super intensive for them to have to go through, because their commitment level at this, at this stage is is low. Whereas the middle of the funnel is warmer. They're not hot yet, but they're warmer. They're kind of like dipping their toe in and feeling out the water. They're a little more advanced in their research. They know that they're seeking out some kind of a solution, but they're still in the middle part of their customer journey. So, at this stage, what makes a ton of sense is to bring with a webinar training of some kind, which is just a video training that's super in-depth on your method, and that warms them up and educates them as to why they should become a buyer. And their journey to becoming a buyer is much shorter. Now, a hot lead is here at the bottom. And you'll notice that it gets, goes from bigger to smaller. And the reason is, is because your hottest leads, it's going to be a much smaller group of people that are really at that place where they're like, "I am ready for help. I am ready to buy. I'm ready to become a client and actually do the work." But even though it's small, it's really, really, really important. So, this person is pretty much ready to go right to buy. So, for this person, you can give them your conversion call to action. What I mean by that, it could be a buy button, it could be apply for a strategy session, it could be getting on a call with you or your team to potentially become a client. But you can make their journey to sale a lot shorter because they actually are in pain, they have urgency, and most importantly, they have intent. And that is the key to YouTube. It is an intent-based platform. If you think about paid advertising of any kind, it's kind of popping up when you least expect it. Whereas on YouTube, people are actually sitting there and typing into the search bar to find solutions to their problems and answers to their questions. So, their intent is very high in finding a solution, which is why it makes the leads on YouTube really, really warm, and also they tend to be extremely hot. So, that sales cycle tends to be really, really short to go from the content, the free content, to becoming a paid member of your program. And that allows us to really understand, okay, obviously the content has to be good, right? So, I think a big key to this is understanding that the content itself, when I say it needs to be good, it's not that it has to have high production value by any means. My videos for a very long time, it was me sitting in front of a webcam and a window, and that worked very well in implementing this entire strategy. So, it's more so about the value of what you're saying in your videos needs to be super high, and again, super relevant to the person who's in that place where they're seeking out a solution.

So, this brings me to what we call cracking the code on YouTube. So, being on this platform for so long now, and working with thousands of people to develop this strategy, it comes down to content optimization, development, and expansion. And each of these phases has to go in this order. So, the content is first and foremost. And really, this comes down to what's the niche you're in? And again, it's that, who you are trying to reach, and what you want to be known for. That's the key to creating content that is actually going to appeal to people who are going to become potential buyers. And when you do this right, the really cool thing is that it means less content and more potential opportunity and more potential clients and customers. So, I really only make three videos a month, and that's kind of been the case for a long time now because I know the intent behind each piece of content is so clear, and I know exactly who I'm making it for, that I generally get a really high ROI, return on investment, from the time I spend creating content. Whereas a lot of people who are kind of in that hamster wheel I talked about earlier, they're just constantly creating content and spiraling without actually getting anything from it.

So, first comes content. What's the niche? Who you're trying to attract? What do you want to be known for? That's really at the basis of it. And I'm going to talk more about, um, specifically how to pick topics in just a second, and like the formula to do so. But I think what's important here is that you want to be a big fish in a small pond. So, you want to think about it in terms of you're not going after this huge market and trying to be seen in amongst a ton of competition on YouTube. We have to find your unique angle and your unique niche to really dominate in. And that's where that transformation statement I mentioned earlier is crucially important. So, really, it, it looks like this: there's the industry, which could be, let's say, like health and wellness. And then there's the market, which would be, let's say, fitness. And then there's the niche, and the niche is what we're trying to focus on when we're creating content. And that could be like high-intensity training. So, going after the industry on YouTube or the market is going to put you in a lot of competition. Identifying a unique niche and angle for yourself, which is based on your own unique experience and expertise, that's what's going to position you to stand out and become a big fish in a very small pond and build your authority quite quickly.

And then comes optimization. So, when it comes to optimization, what I mean by that is really, how are you going to package the video? So, you have to actually think through what makes somebody click on a YouTube video. So, the biggest pieces of optimization are a thumbnail that's going to make your ideal viewer click on it, and a title that's hyper-relevant to what they're searching out and seeking. Because there's a lot of options out there, so yours needs to stand out as the most relevant option for them to click on. And I'll talk in more detail about the specific metrics associated with these things a little bit later in the video so that you have an idea of what you're aiming for.

And then when it comes to development, that really means the development of the content. So, before we even make the piece of content, we got to focus on these two pieces right here. When it comes to development, it means you need to create the content and create the, the script in a way that's different than what you see from entertainment channels. And the biggest piece of this is you need to focus on retention. And again, I'll give you specific metrics for this a little bit later in the video. But how you get high retention in developing your script or your content in it, in and of itself, is you look at the intro first. So, a lot of times on YouTube, people will just talk and talk and talk, and then get to the point of what they're talking about. People click off because, why? It's an intent-based platform. So, if it's a stranger on the internet is seeking out, let's say, how to train their dog, and they click on a video that comes up in the search result, and the, the person in the video is going on and on about who they are and their day and their morning and random things, that person doesn't have time, and they don't care because they don't have any loyalty to you. They're going to click off and go to the next person who answers it quickly. So, you have to think about it from that perspective. We are trying to reach strangers on the internet. We're not trying to have this like base that already knows us, because that's not going to allow you to really expand your reach and your expertise on a much bigger scale and level. So, the intro of your video needs to be as efficient and tight as possible. And really, what that looks like is you need to hook people, provide them with the clarity around the outcome you're going to give them from that video, provide them with credibility of why you know what you're talking about, and then dig right in. Dig right into the content so that they don't click off, they watch the whole video, you get high retention, and it sends signals to the algorithm to say, "Push this piece of content out to more people like this." And then that brings in more ideal viewers and potential customers and clients.

And then the final piece is expansion. So, this piece is missed so often. But what this means is you need to take this very important piece of content, this content that you've thought through a lot, you've gone through all these phases, and then you need to expand it on other platforms. So, that means sending it out to the email list, that is super important. You're starting to build a list of people who will actually give a crap about this video. So, send it to them so they actually watch it and give you positive signals. And you want to send it to any social platforms that you have, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, LinkedIn, post it on other platforms so that you can expand your reach outside of just the algorithm on YouTube to give you even more attention on that video from ideal viewers who care about it, which is going to again allow the internal traffic sources on YouTube to reach more of those like-minded people without you having to put in as much effort. So, we have to make sure that we check off that part of the process as well.

Now, there's a lot more to each of these steps, but at the base level, this is what you need to know to really develop content in the right way and to get the most out of the videos you're creating because you're putting effort into them. So, let's talk about how to create content that actually converts. How do you pick the right topics? What are the video topics that we want to focus on? But before I get into this, I did want to remind you that if you do want the guide with the 10 steps on monetizing your knowledge online, comment below with "Give me the guide," and we'll send you the direct link to download it for free.

So, how do you create content that actually converts? First and foremost, we talked about this earlier, it's relevancy of topics. But what does that actually break down to? Well, what are the problems facing that most ideal viewer? If you think about the content scaling funnel that I talked about earlier, let's talk about this person who's down here. So, what is the most relevant content for that person? This is the content that's going to convert the best. It's going to bring in the smallest amount of viewers and subscribers, but those viewers and subscribers are going to be extremely relevant and extremely hot. So, they are going to be more likely to become buyers and clients of your actual paid program. So, what are the problems they're facing? What are their pain points? And again, there are ways to figure this out without having to rack your brain on this. But as I'm saying this, I want you to think through what are some of the things that they're facing. And then a really easy thing is, what are some of the FAQs that they commonly have or come to you for advice on? Um, and also, if you look at relevant channels that may have a similar audience to who you're trying to appeal to, what's the content that's getting the highest level of engagement? Not necessarily views, but really qualitative engagement, meaning people commenting in-depth in the comment section. Those are all very good clues.

So, when it comes to the problems, pain points, these FAQs, etc., first of all, you need to look at your own experience, and you need to look at the journey that you're going to take your ideal client on in your, um, in your online program. So, that transformative journey from zero to hero, and focus on this state. That's where we want to make the content for. So, we want to make the content for the person who's in the zero state, because they're the ones who are seeking out the help. So, we need to think about all of their four aspects here at this zero state. You can think about this on your own from your own experience, but you also can do it through market research, looking at things like relevant channels, relevant blogs, relevant social media platforms, you know, industry, um, publications, things like that. And then simply put, you can use something like AI, and you can say, "Hey, this is who I'm trying to reach with my content on YouTube. Uh, you know, what are the pain points of this person?" And it's going to bring you up a whole list of pain points and problems that are associated with that that are going to be prime topics for your ideal viewer.

Now, relevancy comes first. That is first and foremost. So, all of these things are going to create hyper-relevant content for that ideal viewer. But because it's YouTube and it's a search platform, there is some SEO involved here that we have to think about when we also pick the topics for our channel. So, this comes first. Do this process first, and then we can think about the actual optimization with the SEO. And when it comes to SEO optimization, the really, the big things that you need to think about, especially if you're starting at the beginning, is we don't want to jump in the deep end. The biggest mistake you can make is, like I said earlier, you jump into the industry, you're in the deep end with all these people with millions of subscribers and viewers, and you're just going to get lost and dropped to the bottom of the sea. So, we have to start small in really the fish pond and be a big fish in that small pond. So, 0 to 1,000 search volume per month is really the sweet spot for a brand new channel because this puts you in a position where you're not going after really aggressive or competitive topics. And then fair competition. So, that means in the search results, you're not going to go after a topic where there are millions upon millions upon millions of search results coming up. You're going to find a topic where there's, you know, not a huge number of people that you're competing with, and not a number, not a huge number of huge channels that you're competing with. Again, that's where we need to find that unique niche based on the transformation statement. And then the final thing is what we call views and velocity. So, views and velocity means that if you look up a piece of content on YouTube, and the channel has, let's say, you know, two subscribers, but this particular video that's coming up in search results has a million views, that is a topic that you know is very, very interesting for people. So, you want to use that as a clue for a great topic that would be, you know, search engine optimized because it's based around keywords and relevancy to your ideal client.

And one thing that I'll add on to this is not every piece of content is made the same way. There are really kind of three buckets of content that I like to say on YouTube, and that I generally see on everyone's channels, and they serve different purposes. So, you have evergreen, you have depth, and you have viral. So, you might be thinking, "Well, I want to go viral." No, you don't. Because, and I actually work with people who were like, "I went viral once, and I never want to do it again." Because what does this do? It tends to reach an audience of very cold, beginner eyeballs, and that's going to lead to chaos and really bad leads. Plus, if you go viral on a topic that isn't relevant to your ideal viewer, it messes up your whole algorithm on your channel, and then all of a sudden, you've built authority on a topic that you don't really want to be the authority on, and therefore, it's an uphill battle to find relevant viewers, and the algorithm has a harder time helping you find viewers through those traffic sources.

So, really, these are kind of the key focuses. Evergreen content means that it's timeless. It's tutorials, it's tips, it's FAQs, it's all of these things that I talked about here. It's just timeless things that are always going to be relevant and searchable to your ideal viewer. And then depth content is really building a relationship. So, it's more of like a fireside chat, having a coffee with your viewer, talking about your unique experience and your background and your credibility, telling a story that would be hyper-relevant to them. It really is an opportunity for you to connect with your viewer outside of just teaching and trying to reach new people. Depth content allows you to really connect. But is depth content going to bring in a ton of eyeballs? No, not necessarily. Evergreen content is the gift that keeps on giving because it continues to position itself in search results, meaning that new people are finding that piece of content every single day. And that's, that's how our channel continues to bring in thousands of leads continuously on repeat, on autopilot, when I'm not working, because we have so many videos out there working for us when we're not working. So, that gives you a really good understanding of, you know, the topics you want to cover, how to really think about it. So, relevancy first, and then looking at the SEO aspect of it, and the kind of buckets of content as well, and how they are going to perform and setting your expectations around them.

So, when it comes to metrics for actual monetization in this strategy, there's really only a few that you really, really need to focus on. So, number one, retention. I've already talked about this quite a bit, but if people aren't watching your whole video or the majority of your video, it's useless. So, we want to aim for a 40% retention rate, meaning people are watching 40% or more of your video, because that's telling YouTube, "This is a great piece of content," and again, "We need to push it to more people that you're trying to serve, those ideal viewers." Number two, CTR. So, obviously, if we want good retention, we need people to actually click on the video and actually watch it. So, the CTR, generally, the rule is kind of like 2 to 10%. Anything above that is phenomenal. Um, so the higher on that scale, the better. That's kind of the rough average for most videos. But this is really important because if you have a high CTR, and let's say like a viral irrelevant video, that's not necessarily a good thing because what that's doing is bringing in a whole audience of people that aren't going to care about any other piece of content you have, and again, it's going to mess with the algorithm. So, you want your CTR to be high amongst your ideal viewers and the people you're actually trying to reach. And again, depending on the type of video, if you're doing more of a, a depth video, the CTR is probably going to be on the lower end, but that's not a bad thing because it's really nurturing the relationships with the people who actually care the most and want to build that trust with you. So, CTR is yes, important, but it also has qualifiers to it in terms of performance, depending on the kind of video and the topic of the video.

And then I would say probably, you know, next to those is the qualitative feedback. And this is a bit harder to actually measure, measure, because it's, it's qualitative, it's not quantitative. But what this means is essentially, you're looking at the comments that you're getting on the video. If people are sharing the video and talking about the video, that's a really, really great sign. And when I look at the comments, and I'm looking at qualitative feedback, I'm looking for people to leave more than just a one-word comment. I want depth, I want questions, I want thoughtfulness in those comments. And that's telling me I'm hitting the mark, especially depending on what they're saying. So, really pay attention to the feedback you're getting on your videos because it's going to tell you a lot about how much you're actually reaching the right human beings and the right people with your content who are going to become those potential clients or customers for your online program.

So, when you do this all correctly, probably the most important metric that you can have is, you can do this based on dollar per subscriber or dollar per view. Let's do dollar per subscriber. So, let's say the example I gave at the beginning of the video, uh, I think she had, yeah, she had less than a thousand subscribers, but she was making $10,000 a month from less than a thousand subscribers. That, that means that each subscriber is worth $10. Now, if you look at the metric in an inverse of this, a flip side of this, let's say you have 100,000 views and you're making $3,000 off that video, that means each view is worth three cents. And that is what AdSense tends to pay you. And that's actually on the high end. It's usually between one to three cents per view, which is why it's such an uphill battle to generate a ton of views through something like AdSense. But why you're in a ton of control when you make hyper-relevant content for the right people, and you actually have something to offer them, like an online program.

And to kind of bring this all home, something I really want to talk about is the length of your videos. Now, there's no like magic number because I know a big question is, well, how long should the YouTube video be? And what do you think about Shorts? So, there is a big reason we don't use Shorts, and we actually have never used them, um, and it's because of quality. It's because I would rather have less viewers, less subscribers. And this wasn't always the case. This is the value of being on this platform for almost a decade. I've learned so much. So, I'm focused on the intent and the quality of that viewer. So, what I have learned through my own channel and our client's channel is longer videos equal quality viewers. Because this person is taking time out of their day to search a topic, click on your video, and actually watch it, listen to you. And through that whole video of listening to you and the expertise that you're sharing, they're building a ton of respect and trust with you. Whereas Shorts are going to be content that people are kind of like scrolling through. They'll click on it if they feel like it, but it's not necessarily going to position you as an expert, and it's not necessarily going to make you super memorable. So, if people are actually spending time with you, even if it's through a video, it builds this incredible level of trust where they eventually will go, "Well, yeah, this person's the expert. So, of course, that's who I want to work with, and I want to spend my hard-earned money on you." You really want the engaged viewer who has the intent to actually take action on what it is that you're saying. And if you're sharing more short-form content, that's not necessarily the case. So, general rule, I would say between 10 to 20 minutes is a really good sweet spot for YouTube videos. Um, there's no perfect, you know, science to this, but 10, 10 to 20 minutes is a good gauge of how long the content should be.

So, to bring this all together, because I know this is a lot of information, relevancy rules. At the end of the day, random content is going to screw the growth and success of your channel, and also any opportunity you have to really be able to create sustainable monetization. And relevant content is going to allow you to build a really loyal, solid base of people who are invested into you, your authority, and your expertise. So, you always just want to bring it back to that flywheel. So, ideal viewer, making relevant content so that the algorithm knows what the heck is going on and can categorize you. And that allows traffic sources on YouTube to work for you to bring in more ideal viewers with you doing less work. And this is really what creates that engine that creates that organic growth of more and more people who are going to care about what you're talking about.

So, as I said, I have been fine-tuning this process and testing it for nearly a decade now. So, this comes from a lot of experience, and I've tried so many things over the years that can assure you that this is foolproof. Like, this has worked, and it will continue to work, and it's done wonders for our clients, you know, scaling them to multiple millions from their YouTube channels, even if they don't have a big subscriber base or a ton of viewers, they have the right people watching, and that's what really matters. So, this whole strategy allows you to monetize your content that you own in your own way, and that gives you so, so much power back. And this is without, you know, worrying about algorithm changes. I have been on this platform a long time, and the algorithm, yes, has gone through some shifts, but this, the strategy has stood the test of time and continues to stand the test of time because the functionality of YouTube really hasn't changed all that much. It allows you to do this without constantly creating. You're not constantly throwing content on YouTube and constantly creating and burning yourself out, and without worrying about, you know, different trends and trying to hop on different social media platforms and the newest thing. It's tried and true. But most importantly, what this allows you to do, and why it's so important to share for me, is it allows you to grow in a way that isn't attached to time because your channel and your content can work for you when you're not working, if you do it in this very strategic way.

So, as a reminder, if you want to know how to monetize your knowledge online, I have the 10 steps to scale your skillset and 10X your impact without trading time for money. Just comment below this video with "Give me the guide," and we will drop you the link to download it, or you can click the link in the description below this video to go grab it as well. Thank you so much for watching. And if you really want to see a real-world example of this, I highly recommend you check out this video with a case study of one of our clients who actually generated over a million dollars in one year with less than 4,000 subscribers on his channel, and it grew exponentially from there. It's pretty amazing. Check that out next. Thank you so much for watching, and I'll see you in the next one. Bye.