Heads up! This post may contain compensated links which means I get a small tip for telling you about awesome stuff I love!š¤
Have you ever come across a YouTube channel that seems so weird, you think this has gotta be a joke – until you see the WILD number of subscribers, likes, and comments?
It’s no accident that some rich YouTubers have built entire online business empires around things like:
Smashing ALL THE THINGS with a hydraulic press š„š®
Deep analysis of Game of Thrones episodes & other TV shows
Or home-cooking for metalheads (a personal favorite!) š¤
How do such oddball, hyper-niched interests get to be SO popular, right?!
And more importantly, how can YOU make a living if you’ve got a dream to start a YouTube channel? Let alone become a RICH YOUTUBER off even your most whack-a-doodle idea?
OK, so first I’ll let you in on a 3-step process we marketers use to find killer niches that get raving fans, not just followers.
Then I’ll give you a tiny peek into the ways rich YouTubers make money beyond just getting views on YouTube. (Tres Important! Know now that you’ll take FOREVER to make a living if you only rely on YouTube payments.)
3 Steps To Getting The Right Niche (because ‘the riches are in the niches’ isn’t just a cute phrase that confuses people who pronounce ‘niches’ like ‘neeshes‘!)
Step 1: Choose To Talk About Health, Wealth, or Relationships
EVEN IF you choose dressing like a cat the thing you make a channel around, you want to tie it to one of these three topics on a wider scale. Stay with me here – I promise this example won’t get kinky! š
Everything on the internet falls into one of these three categories, generally: health, wealth, or relationships.
This is because they are the 3 areas of concern that keep people up all night, searching for things on Google:
How does dressing like a cat help me overcome insecurities about the way I look? = HEALTH
I just love dressing like a cat – How can I make money doing it? = WEALTH
Where can I find lots of cute friends who also like dressing like a cat? = RELATIONSHIPS
Choose one of the three areas to drill down on then move on to step 2!
Step 2: Find Forums Where People Are Talking About Your Interest
The next step to finding a great niche for your channel is to find places on the internet where people are already talking about your interest in the context of the 3 areas of the internet.
Using the cat costume example:
You may find forums for sub-cultures around your interest: kittenplay is an actual subculture of young girls who dress like cats to feel sexy and comfortable with their bodies, as well as to make friends (oops, sorry, went there after all!).
Or, you may find forums for professional costumed entertainers: how to get paying gigs, find an agency, how to make and sell cat costumes for a living, etc.
Look for Facebook groups, LinkedIn Groups, Twitter Lists, Instagram hashtags, and Reddit forums for existing communities that unite your topic with one of the 3 areas.
This is how you find out if your topic is relevant and popular enough to make a channel around it. Find the topics that people won’t shut up about or new, trending topics and base your videos around those.
If there’s nobody already talking about your topic somewhere on the internet, it’s too small of a topic. There won’t be enough people searching about it for them to find you. Ditch that idea and go find a better one that has people talking about it.
Step 3: Create a Sub-Niche For Your Interest
Now for the tricky part that can set you apart from other YouTubers!
Most people will stop at step 2 and do fairly well. They might make a living at what they do, but they will need to outwork those competing with similar topics.
But if you want to become a rich YouTuber, drill down one step deeper – create a unique angle on your topic that NOBODY else has. It’ll be far less work for you to stand out from the very start.
Notice I wrote ‘CREATE’ not ‘find’.
This unique angle does not already exist.
This is where your personality can come in. If you have something delightfully weird about yourself, use that.
Or, if you find there is something that sets you apart from most people in the forums you’ve found, go with that.
So, for example, let’s say you are dyslexic.
If you choose to dress up like a cat to earn a living as a professional entertainer, you could then decide to niche it further:
Dressing like a cat and being a professional entertainer for dyslexic children.
There, now you have a highly niched channel topic that you could create thousands of hours of content around, all doing what you absolutely love. (And I’ve redeemed myself from any kinkiness with such a wholesome idea, no?) š
Will there be enough viewers? Absolutely, because you’ve already identified the large and active communities of people both working as professional entertainers as well as groups for parents of dyslexic children. You find your viewers by marketing to these very specific people.
Check out this post for more info on how to find your tribe online.
Work Your Ass Off Creating Great Content
All rich YouTubers have one thing in common: they worked their ass off creating a shit-ton of content!
Most of them created at least one new video every week. If you can create more than one, you get into a very small percentage of YouTube creators!
Making quality video content is a lot of hard work, especially in the beginning.
But there are a few tricks that can make it easier; the same tricks I use to create a large amount of social media content for my social media clients each week:
- Plan your content ahead – planning is like the secret that’s not a secret, it’s just something too few people do!
- Have very well-defined workflows in place and document each step.
- Once the workflow is refined, outsource as much of it as possible.
- Create large ‘core’ pieces of content, then break them down into smaller ones. So, if you record a long video, edit it down into smaller, individual ones.
Other standard must-do things specific to YouTube are:
- Making great thumbnail images – catchy and readable headlines with clear images (faces are best)
- Make longer videos – YouTube makes more ad revenue from longer videos, so try to make them at least 20 minutes if you can.
- Put in plenty of B-roll – cuts to different shots, images, and videos. These help keep people interested and paying attention. If you can’t do this yourself, there are plenty of people you can outsource it to who can.
Making Money Once You’ve Nailed Your Niche
Most of the money-rich YouTubers earn doesn’t come from YouTube Ads, so you need to learn the multiple ways they earn revenue on the backend.
YouTube Ads pay about $8 USD per 1,000 video views, but getting to 1,000 views is a long-haul strategy. It’s best to set up your other forms of income before you kill yourself creating video content!
Here’s a short list of things you should look into:
- Amazon affiliate links – place these links below your videos
- Offer coaching or mentoring if you’re teaching anything
- Have an e-commerce store – for product placements in your videos, place the links below.
- Patreon or PayPal donations – ask for direct support from your followers – be sure to thank each person individually!
- Create a course people can take – Skillshare, Udemy, or on your own membership platform like Groove (the platform I use and recommend most)
- Write e-books or pdf guides for people who want t learn more about what you talk about
- Sponsoring – For mentioning people and their products or services in your video. Learning how to pitch yourself is critical here – don’t expect people to just ‘discover’ you. Actively contact people for sponsorship.
Finally, study marketing! šŖšŖļø
Marketing is the skill every creator on the internet needs to know if they are serious about turning their hobby into self-employment.
But marketing your channel doesn’t have to be boring! I love marketing and am dedicated to making it as much fun as possible for those I mentor.
Treat your YouTube channel like a proper business from the beginning if you are serious about it. Watch your metrics, stay consistent, and keep studying how to market behind the scenes.
Expect crickets for weeks, months, even years, but know if you are serious about it, you can earn a living from it.
You may even become one of these rich YouTubers yourself one day! š
Think of it this way: whatever you love enough to make a ton of content around, you will also love seeing it grow and thrive online.
It’s like a digital baby you put online – it might not walk for a long time, but it’s still so delightful to you and you alone those first few years as it starts to get bigger, right? š
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