$100k her first year on YouTube

Erika Kullberg is a self-described “lawyer with a YouTube channel,” and in this video she shares how she earned $100k her first year on the platform…

Just from the headline, you might think that contradicts everything above, but consider the details of Erika’s story:

• She posted a video per week for the first 6 months
• Worked 20 hours/week on her channel while also working a full-time job
• Earned $0 her first 3 months
• Earned the equivalent of $2.06/hour from her channel through the first 5 months

Things picked up in month 6 when she made two topical videos about stimulus checks. It was only then that her channel had enough watch time to qualify for the YT partner program and she could start monetizing with ads. Once she did that, her income shot up: in month 7, she started posting two videos per week and earned $8314 from YouTube ad revenue 💰

But think about those first 5 months for Erika: working her ass off in her spare time to create great content and earning the equivalent of $2 per hour. That’s a gauntlet most YouTubers aren’t willing to endure.

Erika’s words:

The thing with YouTube is a lot of people are going to quit before they even see success on it, before they even get their first viral video. So if you have a YouTube channel, just be patient. You are going to get that opportunity from the YouTube algorithm. You just don’t know if it’s going to be in month 6 or month 8 or month 12.

My takeaways from Erika’s journey:

• Be willing to post a quality video every week for 6 months without much reward
• When one of your videos does well, double down and make more videos on the same topic.
• Make evergreen videos or you’ll be stuck on a content treadmill.
• For every $1k you earn from ad revenue, you should be able to earn another $1k from affiliates and sponsors.