The countdown to begin the business….begins.
So, the countdown has begun, we can already tell what it’s going to be like to break free (not completely) from the wheel of ‘working for the man’ and turning our attention on something we actually enjoy and care about.
In any business, and actually in life, no-one cares as much about you or your business than you do. The difficult thing is trying to bring people enough value to make them care.
We have been toiling and troubling with how to turn this passion of ours into a money making venture. By no means are we aiming for the stars, we would be happy to make enough to be comfortable.
How does one do that?
Well, after you have found what you are passionate about. You have to either except the fact that it may just be a hobby, and a lot of people are cool with that OR you choose to try and make some money from it.
You can do what we do and become content creators. YouTube isn’t a golden gateway of thousands of dollars (it is for the few). In the main YouTube is a means to an end. A branding tool for other things.
Having two children we are forced into watching several YouTube channels of people playing with toys are trying to teach something at the same time. These channels have sometimes millions of subscribers and sometimes not so much. The quality across channels usually is about the same. A lot of these also sell merchandise and host a personal website selling other peripherals.
But how do you do that with education?
This is quite a specific question and one that we are currently toiling with. Do you continue to produce valuable content on YouTube and build your community there? This can take some time. Organic growth for education channels isn’t as quick as you think.
We grow at around 180+ subscribers a month currently. And that was since we started to make regular content for that platform. We produce about 2 videos and 1 podcast a week currently. We expect to double this by doubling our content output and changing cross platform strategy.
You could sell books, courses, t-shirts, study guides etc off the back of your YouTube efforts. Even get into affiliate marketing and try and sell something relevant to your channel.
What about your competitors?
Good question. Thing is, to be successful, you should be first or be better. Finding your niche is something we have read about many many times.
But, even when you have found a niche it doesn’t mean its going to take off like a bat out of hell. It just means you found something that only a few people are doing. You have to produce something with good quality video, good quality audio, helpful, honest and meaningful.
Your major competitors (especially on YouTube) will always have time on their side. Organic growth continues even after death for a lot of channels. You only advantage is innovation and a new perspective.
People appreciate value over size. If you produce good quality valuable or entertaining content, you will find success on YouTube. Biggest problem is patience.
Patience
It takes time to be successful, something we are learning day by day, week by week and month by month. We have to test each video style and post style verses the others and emulate the ones that are effective and cu the ones that are not. Which ones do people find most positive and valuable
It can take years to make a successful business work, it’s all about innovation, adjusting, pivoting, replanning, persevering and executing.
The key is knowing that this won’t be an overnight success, this is a graft. It might take 2, 4, 7 years to get to where we want to be, BUT we will enjoy getting there, and that’s the most important point.
What are we doing?
We are planning. We are continuing to produce content for the Mandarin learning community whilst planning ways to try and trickle further income into our business. There is no growth without strategy. We are working on ours.
The obligatory links.
If you want to check our Mandarin Learning Channel out -:
https://www.youtube.com/mandarinmonkey
Podcast -: