Think making money on YouTube is just for millennials? Think again. ESL teacher Gabby Wallace discovered the income-boosting possibilities of YouTube when she decided, on a lark, to upload some educational videos for her students in Japan.
She now occasionally makes the equivalent of her former ESL salary in just one week.
Yes, you read that correctly.
With a Masters in Education and a hunger to travel, Wallace started teaching English as a second language so she travel the world. Wanting to help her students out even more, Wallace decided to create mini videos to help her Japanese students learn English more efficiently. With zero funding or technical training, Wallace uploaded her videos. No fancy lighting and no equipment. Just a smartphone and a laptop.
Her students ended up loving the videos. So much so that she kept on creating them, even after she had returned to the U.S. Then: poof! One day she received a notification on YouTube that read, “Yes I would like to monetize my videos.”
Wallace clicked on it and soon she started making money on YouTube.
The money wasn’t much; just enough for a coffee. But she did start to receive requests for private Skype lessons as the result of the videos.
After three years and 10,000 subscribers, Wallace was still only making $50-$100 a week. Realizing it was too much work for too little money, she decided to create an online video course with content not available on her YouTube channel. And because she already had a large subscriber base, YouTube reached out to pair her with a mentor who helped her grow her channel. Soon she had 100,000 subscribers and was making a lot more than $100 a week.
Her biggest coup came when she earned a whopping $45,000 in just one week via a joint sale with other English teachers. Ten percent of the proceeds went to Pencils of Promise.
These days, she earns up to $1,000 for a 5-minute sponsorship on her channel. It takes her three hours to create such a video. Which amounts to over $300 an hour. Not too bad for someone who started off casually uploading videos! She also makes money from her downloadable courses, which serve as an excellent source of passable income.
Last year she netted $95,000.
Want to try it out for yourself? Here are some of her tips:
1. Focus On Your Skills
Everyone is good at something! Think about something you can teach.
2. Start By Offering Free Stuff
If you start off just selling, people will be turned off. It will come across as though you’re just in it to make money which is never appealing.
3. Interact With Your Viewers
Just uploading videos to YouTube isn’t enough. You have to interact with your viewers and commenters to create a community.
4. Diversify
It’s not enough to rely on YouTube for an income stream. Even the big names earn money from additional sources.
5. Be Patient
Wallace spent three years working on her YouTube channel and five years prior as an ESL teacher before achieving success. As the saying goes, Rome wasn’t built in a day.
[h/t Penny Hoarder]
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