Week 4 My YouTube Growth Journey to Monetization

Week 4 of my goal getting small YouTube Channel monetized as an over 40 year old Mom  (7th October - 13th October 2024) - My YouTube Channel Growth Review Video's and Account Stats. It's been another week of slower but steady growth, utilising Chat GPT prompts for help with SEO optimisation creating YouTube Titles and Descriptions for free, using the free app Canva for creating my engaging thumbnails and sticking to my target of 2 vids, a growth vid plus 7 daily shorts. Continuing with ongoing daily learning from the free VidIQ plug in. Let's dig in for more...

It's been another week since my last growth review Week 3 (30th September - 6th October) where I ended the week with 173 Subs and 329 WTHours

Also See

• Week 1 My Week 1 First growth review (14th September - 21st September 2024) Where things were going UP + that made me happy) and I ended the week with 66 Subs and 35 WTHours.

• Week 2 My Week 2 growth review (23rd September - 30th September 2024) Where I ended the week with 99 Subs and 114.8 WTHours.

• Week 3 My Week 3 growth review (1st October - 6th October 2024) Where I ended the week with 173 Subs and 329 WTHours.

• Week 4 My Week 4 growth review (7th October - 13th October 2024) Where I ended the week with 222 Subs and 437 WTHours.

This is my Week 4 growth review on growing a brand new small YouTube channel from ZERO to MONETIZED Status. We earn all of our family income online, in various ways, some passive income, some working income. Which allows us to be free and travel the world with our kids. The next form of income that I am looking to start earning from is YouTube. Starting a YouTube channel is one of the many ways to make money online (and serious amounts of money too!). To become monetized, means joining the YouTube Partner Program, which requires my channel to have 1000 subscribers and 4000 Watch Time Hours before becoming eligible to apply.

I'm on that journey now of start + grow my new YouTube channel to get that monetized to show others whats working for me & what's not. Just 4 weeks in - And I document that YouTube channel growth here so that other Mum's can do the same, no matter how shy you may feel!

This is all about personal development + personal growth as well as channel growth... and income growth. If I can do this YOU can do this.

Check out my week four growth review video below:

Week 4 of Growing My YouTube Channel

Analytics and Growth in Week 4:

7th October - 13th October 2024

During this week:

I posted 10 shorts (hit my target 7 daily)

I posted 1 niche topic videos (missed my target of 2 weekly)

I posted 1 weekly YouTube growth review video - this was week 3's video go see it here if you haven't already.

So you can see I turned up but actually missed my target of posting 2 vids per week. I'm kind of having a mini crisis at the moment about what my niche is. I'm not sure if Bali life is something I can keep uploading videos on. Is it a topic I'm genuinely interested in? It's definitely a part of my life and I do love it. But with a family, life is not that easy to make content out of. Does anybody want to see it? Having lot's of anxiety this week as to what my niche is. Spent time working on niching down rather than posting irrelevant videos that felt unauthentically me and just posting for posting sake. I want to make content now that I genuinely love. And can really help people. Not just of me and my daily Bali life. Lot's to think about this week. I'm definitely overthinking everything and full of self doubt. I hope this doesn't affect my stats this week or impact my next few Weeks. Does anybody else feel like this?

Overall on the week I had 4.5k views | 118.1 watch time hours | + 51 new subscribers

I end week 4 on 222 subscribers | 437 watch time hours

I started back up with my VidIQ learning in week 4 as I'd fallen of the waggon. Easy 5 minute daily lessons. This week I've covered 3 Main Things:

• When to craft a Title + Thumbnail

• Descriptions and

• The first 15 seconds of a video

And applied these 3 things to this growth video.

When to Craft a YouTube Title + Thumbnail

Plan your title and thumbnail BEFORE recording or editing your video. You guessed it- I do the opposite ;-) Up until now anyhow!!! Because I am a girl that learns. Crafting a title and thumbnail before you film will allow you to plan your opening 15 seconds (more on the intro Do's / Don'ts next) so that they effectively mesh with the title and thumbnail.

3 Things You Must Do in Your YouTube Introductions

I learned that the intro - the first 15 seconds of a vid is important:

3 things to avoid in the first 15 seconds (and I do all of them right now, so )'ll be completely changing this in week 5's videos). And that's:

1.) To NOT repeat the Title in the opening 15 seconds. Things like today I'm going to be talking about xyz (that I already said in the title) - the viewer already knows this, that's why they clicked through. Give them something else in this first 15 seconds.

2.) Don't Welcome the viewer. I'm English, it's in the fabric of my DNA to be polite and welcome. And apologise. And Queue. Stop being so English. The viewer literally doesn't care! They already clicked through - they don't want a nice welcome cup of tea - give them some juice, no in fact give them a shot of tequila. They're there for the tequila and to get the party started.

3.) But you still need to keep the first 15 seconds related. You can't just say something completely different to what the vids about just to say something different. Just word it differently, give them something else.

Shortform: Don't repeat. Don't Welcome. But still related. You're not welcoming anyone, they're already here. You're not offering them a cup of tea. Just crack right on with the tequila. They're there for it.

And I'm carrying this learning on into my week 5 videos. Let me reiterate: Repeating your title, welcoming the viewer, and focusing on non-related content will all result in boring your viewer and could lead to them clicking away.

YouTube Descriptions are like talking to a friend - How would you Describe the video to them:

I'm learning that descriptions must be created for the viewer only, to give them a little more info on the video and NOT for the Algorithm. The YouTube Algo already knows every single thing about your video from the moment it is uploaded. The description IS NOT A PLACE for keyword spamming and link spamming. So keep descriptions light hearted and informative in a readable way.

A very simple take home is to write a description as though you're talking to a person. Describing it in a convo. How would you describe this to a friend? .... well, describe it like that. What would you say to intrigue them into watching your video? It doesn’t need to be long. Anything from a few sentences to a couple paragraphs will do.

Shortform: Write descriptions for your perfect viewer / your friend / people not robots!

This guy is cute but you're description is NOT for him!

In week 4 I was getting too caught up in giving so much detail because I thought it helped the algo. Again giving too much thought to the algo and not enough thought to my subscribers / viewers..., sorry guys... I'm just a Mum, trying to please all the things, all the time. Less stress, more chill with my descriptions. This also applies to life guys... we are not everything to everyone!

In only in week 4 of my journey and I'm growing as a person. I'm mindful of the stats that 94% of YouTube channels never get to their monetisation goal. So only 6% do - and I'm sticking to my commitment of uploading my goals. Commitment is everything with YouTube growth. I want the same for you!

And so that's week 4 in my over 40 YouTube channel.

I'll be making sure every video in week 5 continues to have all the things learnt in weeks 1 - 4 to continue growing my channel because all of this is working:

• A pre-designed Thumbnail (designed in Canva) that is straight to the point, designed for mobile and creates curiosity.

• A well planned out Title (using Chat GPT and tweaking to my style) that does not repeat what the thumbnail says but adds more content to the thumbnail.

• A well written description with at least 3 priority hashtags but 15 can be used.

• I will Add the video to a playlist where possible to increase view time for relevant content.

• I will add subtitles to every video as this helps accessibility and people who like to watch silently.

• Plus add things I learnt this week

  
  

If you have been inspired to start your own YouTube channel as an over 40 mum or dad, do let me know in the comments. I love to hear it. Or maybe you've had your channel for a while and are starting it back up armed with the new knowledge to do it. Again drop me a comment. I am on your team! (especially on the videos ha ha as the YouTube Algo LOVES that!)

More of the same commitment and focus from me next week, then in the blink of an eye it will be time for the weekly Growth Review for Week 5.

Equipment I'm using:

I don't have the latest video equipment to start this journey. I am using:

Affiliate links for my Recommended Tools & Equipment: Check out some of the tools and equipment I use to create my content: 

iPhone 13 : https://amzn.to/4f4kGRk 

DJI Om 5 Smartphone Gimbal : https://amzn.to/3YDgFhD

MacBook Air : https://amzn.to/4dSvwsT 

📱 For More Mics, tripods, camera, lighting, and more:

Visit my Amazon Storefront

My Future Purchases

Mini drone for Ariel shots : https://amzn.to/3UfCW29

GoPro for action and water shots : https://amzn.to/3YtpMRG 

Wireless Mic for better sound quality : https://amzn.to/406WidC 

Studio Ring Light : https://amzn.to/4dPQtnZ 

Links to the things that Helped Me Grow My Channel in Week 4:

Canva - Free or paid subscription to create thumbnails for the YouTube Vids

30 Ways to earn money from Canva FREE EBook

My Canva Crash Course for Beginners EBook - A detailed guide with video tutorials to get you started with Canva

CapCut - to edit my vids

VidIQ - to learn from, do their daily learning tasks and get video titles / hooks + very good YouTube Videos to grow your account. I like these videos because they're super easy and concise. Plus the guy that does them is a Northern chap and I miss home.

Chat GPT - AI to help with coming up with Titles, Descriptions and Thumbnail ideas with hook. Unsure of ChatGPT download my 50 Ways to Use ChatGPT in Business FREE EBook to get you Started + The Beginners Guide to Using ChatGPT FREE EBook

I hope you find this post about my experience on growing my YouTube channel in week 4 informative. If it helped you in any way , please let me know in the comments. Mostly I hope it inspired you to start / grow your own YouTube channel to monetization. And I hope you follow along with me to see what week 5 brings.

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And always leave a comment below if this page has helped you. I only write and share stuff on the blog to help you. So let me know. Does it help? Did you get something from it? And what do you want to know going forward? I am at your service, Fletchy McFletchface xx

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