Thread by @TheLaurenValdez, How I make $ from YouTube with less than 1,000 followers. You [...]

How I make $ from YouTube with less than 1,000 followers. You don't need advertising and affiliates

*Teach people something valuable
*Convert subscribers to email list w/ lead magnets on every video
*Sell a product. Spoiler it doesn't have to be an online course or ebook

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I have 735 youtube subs. My channel is about applying to grad school & scholarships. I have lead magnets to my email list on every video. More than 83% of my subscribers are on my email list.

Your email list is your most valuable asset. You control it, YouTube controls you

When your channel is really small you need to promote your own content. There is no guarantee your subscribers will even see it. But with their emails, you can go directly to them with your new content.

In your videos, tell people why they should subscribe to your email. I tell ppl they will be the 1st to know about my live office hours & that I send content by email that isn't on youtube. Try different lead magnets. My highest converting is sample grad school essays.

What makes youtube powerful is how findable your content is. It took years for my blog content to show up in search engines.

In the past year, my youtube content had 3x more views than my blog content. This is why I get way more email subscribers from youtube than blogging

I didn't know if I would ever sell anything to my audience, but getting emails from day one is super valuable.

I didn't have a website (& still don't) b/c I couldn't think of a domain name. To keep it simple, I use @MailerLite free for landing pages & to auto send lead magnets

Deciding what to sell is tricky. With a small audience, the common wisdom is to sell at premium prices. Ppl get this wrong trying to sell ebooks & cheap courses. You need a massive audience for that. Selling 10 ppl a $500 course is easier than selling 100 ppl a $50 course.

Premium courses are the model we use at @fortelabs but good online courses are also a TON of work. I thought about making a course but this is a fun side hobby not something I want to make my biz, so keeping things simple was my main criterion. Know your goal/intention beforehand

My intention is not making $ but giving access to in-depth college advising to ppl like me. As a woman of color from a low-income background, I was clueless about college and I want to save others from the lessons I learned the hard way.

I get emails from ppl who wanted private advising. But that goes against my intention of making advising more accessible. I started doing group monthly free office hours call where I give live feedback on grad essays, which became an excellent lead magnet & youtube videos

Then I added on small, private office hours for a $30 fee to join limited to 4 ppl. Everyone gets individual attention. It's affordable for them & a good hourly rate for me. But most importantly it's simple for me. I just have to show up. Way easier than an online course.

With 735 youtube subscribers & 613 email subscribers, I have enough traffic that they always sell out. When life gets busy I stop scheduling them. I look at my calendar one week out and see what days I want to add in office hours for the following week so I don't overcommit.

I'm all about simplicity. I don't even have a website. Youtube links ppl to my email list or to my upcoming office hours page. I use @TicketSpice (way better than eventbrite) for ppl to sign up & do the follow-up reminder emails.

Group coaching is an untapped product that many more people can employ. You only need a few people to make it work. Many folks come back multiple times. It's also super flexible & less prep work than a course or developing an ebook. These folks also become your true fans.

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