Week 6 My YouTube Growth Journey
Week 6 of my goal of getting a small YouTube Channel monetized as an over 40 year old Mom (21st October - 27th October 2024) - My YouTube Channel Growth Review Video's and Account Stats.
Can I do it? How long will it take? Is it worth it? This week has been filled with SELF DOUBT. IMPOSTER SYNDROME. Like who would want to even watch my videos??? This over thinking has stopped me from producing videos about stuff I LOVE! Which is NOT good! There's a video about it here but read on to see how I tried my best to tackle this problem. I think it's a problem that creeps in for many small creators.
Week 6 has been another week of slower but steady growth. I'm expecting this in these next few weeks. YouTube is testing me to see if I will stick at it. Week 6-9 are an endurance test that I have plans to get organised like I would when growing a business. I'll be using these slow growth weeks to really get a structure in place.
It's been another week since my last growth review Week 5 (14th October - 20th October) Let's see how my new and small channel grew in week 6 and the things that I implemented to grow. I ended week 6 with 308 subscribers which was an increase of +33 subscribers.
Also See
Week 1 My Week 1 First growth review (14th September - 21st September 2024) Ended week 1 with 66 Subs + 35 WTHours
Week 2 My Week 2 growth review (23rd September - 30th September 2024) Ended week 2 with 99 Subs + 114.8 WTHours
Week 3 My Week 3 growth review (1st October - 6th October 2024) Ended week 3 with 173 Subs + 329 WTHours
Week 4 My Week 4 growth review (7th October - 13th October 2024) Ended week 4 with 222 Subs + 437 WTHours
Week 5 My Week 5 growth review (14th October - 20th October 2024) Ended week 5 with 271 Subs + 531 WTHours (see my phone screenshot below)
NOW Week 6 My Week 6 growth review (21st October - 27th October 2024) Ended week 6 with 308 Subs + 516 WTHours
Welcome to my Week 6 growth review on growing a brand new small YouTube channel from ZERO to MONETIZED Status. I earn all of our family income online, in various ways. Which allows us to be free and travel the world with our kids. The next form of online passive income that I am aiming 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!). And I'm completely new to it. I'm documenting my journey here to show others how I did it. I share everything that helped me, channels that I liked, strategies that I implemented.
And I'm still a long way off being monetized, but I'm further than I was when I hadn't started - the key is - like with all things - to just start. I have no idea how long the journey will take, or even if oit's worth doing - as in - will I even earn enough once I do get monetized? Which I'll be sharing that too once I reach monetization goal. So how do you get monetized on YouTube.....?
How to become Monetized for a Small New YouTuber?
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 starting + growing my new YouTube channel to get that monetized to show others whats working for me & what's not. Just 6 weeks in - And I document that whole YouTube channel growth here on the Blog and over on YouTube see the full growth playlist here from Week 1 to Goal Monetized! So that other Mum's, Dad's, Families can do exactly the same, no matter how shy you may feel! For extra money, luxury pocket money for nice things / holidays etc, or to take over your 9-5 income (freeing you up to live the life that you dream - our dream is in Bali, free to travel and worldschool our kids). You're dream may look very different. But it's the importance of having a dream that makes life interesting!
This journey for me, is all about personal development + personal growth as well as channel growth... and finally income growth. I'm an introvert. I'm shy. And for many years I felt like I was not good enough. Doing a YouTube channel is way out of my comfort zone. I'm naturally NOT showy, flashy or fancy. But I do know things that I think can help people and that's my goal with the channel to SHARE knowledge + inspire. If I can do this YOU can do this.
Check out my week six growth review video below:
- Week 6 of Growing My YouTube Channel + 37 Subs ending at 308 subscribers
Analytics and Growth in Week 6:
21st October - 27th October 2024
During my 6th week on YouTube:
I posted 7 shorts (hit my target 7 daily)
I posted my 1 weekly YouTube growth review video here
I share everything I learn on the YouTube section of my blog here so you never miss a thing
Overall on the week I had 3.2k views | added another 84 watch time hours to my tally | gained + 33 new subscribers (thankyou!)
I end week 6 on a total of 308 subscribers | total 516 watch time hours which has gone down and I don't know how this has happened.
A note from Fletch: Another week of growth. Steady and slow. The subscriber growth is slowing this week and I'm not entirely sure why. It's definitely de-motivating when this happens, but we'll just keep on going because that's the only thing we can do when the going gets tough (or we could cry, stay in bed all day and cry, which isn't really an option).
I mentioned in week 5 that I was learning a lot and in all of that learning was feeling overwhelmed with the amount of stuff that had to be done for every video (pre production / post production distribution) and so to help with that I created a checklist for me to work through for every video - this ensures that everything gets ticked off the list for each video so I don't miss a thing. There's a lot to this creator malarky! And at this early stage in the game, it's easy to miss doing something that could help the vids reach more people. So if you would like a copy of my video checklist that I use? You can read more about it here to see if it's for you and download your copy for free. It's a useable PDF where you can open it in Preview or your usual PDF viewer and you can tick things off, type things in it. Or print it off and handwrite in the old way of course.
This btw is a working document where I'll update it with anything that needs adding in the future weeks that you'll have lifetime access to - so keep checking back for updates.
And because this checklist was sooo helpful to me in week 6, it helped me get my 2 videos uploaded toward the end of the week, where overwhelm had stopped me from getting anything done. I also created this video planner - because you guessed it - overwhelm was creeping in when I then had to plan my videos. Ha ha - this word is going to come up time and time again, but luckily with the right tools we can get past this feeling. It's just about getting organised at this stage to continue the growth.
This week has been all about creating a plan and a strategy
Create a Content Strategy or a Plan that's right for you - A Growth Strategy
I spoke in last weeks growth review about feeling overwhelmed with the amount of stuff I had to think about in my videos pre-production, filming, editing and post production that I was going to get more serious about my business. So I created some helpful tools to plan a YouTube Video,
YouTube Video Production + Distribution Checklist - Get yours Free here https://www.benothinglike.com/post/grab-your-free-youtube-video-production-distribution-checklist
My YouTube Video Planner
My Weekly Content Calendar just so I know what's roughly in the plan for the week ahead
My Monthly Content Calendar
The Growth Strategy
Week 6 I created a content strategy. I've got a weekly content calendar and monthly content calendar that I'll be sharing for you guys for free to download in future weeks so stick around for that. I'll share my weekly / monthly content plan too showing how i'm planning for growth with the right mix of content types to keep people engaged and designed for growth. You'll get to see how to plan for the week and month ahead with a mx of different types of content that's specifically geared for growth.
I'm only in week 6 of my journey and I'm growing in confidence. I'm also helping another lady start her YouTube Channel so more on that another day. But basically i'm 6 weeks into my journey and she's brand new - I'm helping her get to where I am - and then we'll grow together to reach monetization - those that grow together.... GROW TOGETHER! So comment below if you're at a similar point in your journey and we can grow together.
And so that's week 6 in my over 40 YouTube channel.
I'll be making sure every video in week 7 continues to have all the things learnt in weeks 1 - 6 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.
Film a 15 second snappy intro separately if my original video isn't succinct enough
Follow my Production and Distribution Checklist
Start planning content for the week / month ahead
Week 7 I'll be covering: adding affiliate links to my videos, creating a content calendar (monthly / weekly), how to use other social media to get eyes on your videos, Pinterest Marketing for YouTube Videos.
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!). Hopefully you've got some learning pointers from this page and my video that you can take and apply to your growth.
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 7. We leave Bali for a long month in Vietnam followed by Xmas in the UK, before heading back 'home' to Bali for New Year. What a jam packed few months we've got - I hope to share much of it over on my YouTube Channel, so if you're not already, please do subscribe. And imagine... just imagine a Xmas present of YouTube Monetization.... now wouldn't that be just lovely. Well a girls got to have a dream right! And if you can think it, you can manifest it! Thanks for reading!
The Reason I'm starting a YouTube Channel over 40
Full blog post here - grab a coffee!
Equipment I'm using to Start my New Small Channel - I'm not very techy but this stuff does me perfectly:
I don't have the latest video equipment to start this journey. These are affiliate links btw, so if you click them I get a small commission. I am using:
A paid for CapCut Pro editing software (the free version is enough, but I wanted to unlock some things to try out)
iPhone 13 to film on : https://amzn.to/4f4kGRk (I use to film everything on. Just what I had, I didn't go out and buy new)
DJI Om 5 Smartphone Gimbal : https://amzn.to/3YDgFhD (again an old one that I had. A mid priced Gimble that gives me smooth recordings, I can use as a tripod and whilst out and about walking)
MacBook Air to edit on and upload : https://amzn.to/4dSvwsT (newly bought, but I use it for work)
So you can see, this is all fairly basic tech that most people will have access to. I have a big list of things that I would LOVE to buy but the goal is to show that most people can start and grow the channel to monetization stage without investing huge amounts of money and really just using what they've got. My classic phrase: 'Start where you are, Use what you've got, until the thing is done!' if you don't you'll never be ready (my experience)
Links to the things that Helped Me Grow My Channel in Week 6:
Canva - Free or paid subscription to create thumbnails for the YouTube Vids
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 5 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. If it did please subscribe to the channel for more tips and knowledge on growing a YouTube channel.
I hope you follow along with me to see what week 6 brings. Where in Week 6 I'm focusing on Affiliate programmes, Pinterest marketing for videos, a cute growth chart download and much more....
In the meantime keep up with our daily Bali life updates on social media below.
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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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