海角大神

Over Thanksgiving weekend, I had an chance to spend some time with my oldest nephew, who has really impressed me lately with the mature young man he鈥檚 becoming. He works hard, has a good attitude, values his family greatly, and has an obviously strong relationship with a young woman who seems quite nice (though I don鈥檛 know her well).

One thing you鈥檒l figure out about my nephew if you spend much time around him is that he has an intense passion for the outdoors and for hunting 鈥� and he聽excels聽at it.

Ask him about his successes at hunting and he can show you a聽large聽catalog of photographs and tell you a lot of great stories.

Ask him how he does it and he can tell you tons of little tactics and tricks for finding good locations, coaxing animals to come his way, and how to know when to move to a new position. He can tell you how to train for hunting in the offseason and many, many other little tidbits.聽

I鈥檒l be the first to admit that hunting isn鈥檛 my thing, but it is really impressive when you鈥檙e around someone who is both skilled and passionate about something.

Since then, my mind has been working on ways in which he could earn some side money from hunting without a whole lot of effort. I don鈥檛 think he should commit to turning hunting into a side business, but there are quite a few things he could do to earn a few dollars on the side from his hunting expertise.

Simply put,聽I believe he should start a YouTube channel for hunting tips and hunting videos.

I started writing a guide for him on how to do it (and what to reasonably expect from it), but I realized that this would make a fantastic post for The Simple Dollar, so I鈥檓 sharing it here.

What鈥檚 a YouTube Channel and How Can You Make Money From That?
I鈥檓 assuming that we all know that聽Youtube聽is a place to watch all kinds of online videos. I use it all the time to watch music videos and also watch instructional videos, among other things.

A Youtube channel is simply all of the videos produced by a given user. If you see a video that鈥檚 been made by someone interesting and click on their name, you鈥檒l jump to their channel and you can view the other videos made by that person or even subscribe to those videos.

Some people build up really successful Youtube channels, with lots of viewers. They do this by聽making videos that are consistently entertaining and/or consistently useful.聽When I look at my subscriptions on Youtube, though, the vast majority of my subscriptions are video series that are聽useful聽to me in some way, though they might also be entertaining.

How does one make money at this? Once you set up a Youtube channel, you can elect to have small ads shown on your videos, and they pay you for those ads. Based on my own experience, an independent new person can make about $2 per 1,000 views on their videos as a whole.

$2 may not seem like much, but it adds up in a very subtle way. Let鈥檚 say you manage to make 200 videos over the course of a year, and each of those videos gets 5 views a day on average. That鈥檚 1,000 views right there, so there鈥檚 $2 in your pocket. That $2 happens whether you鈥檙e actively doing anything or not. You just earn it.

In other words, the effort of a Youtube video often doesn鈥檛 translate straight into income. When you make them, you don鈥檛 usually earn much of anything up front, but once you upload it, the earnings slowly trickle in.

It鈥檚 slow at first. Let鈥檚 say you make one interesting video a week, and each video you upload gets an average of 5 views a week. Your first week, you鈥檒l get five views. You might earn a penny. Your second week, each video gets five views 鈥� that鈥檚 ten views, so maybe two pennies. (That鈥檚 on average 鈥� you might not earn anything the next few weeks).

But let鈥檚 say your channel becomes popular and you have 500 videos up there that each get an average of 50 views a day, and you earn $2 per 1,000 views. That鈥檚 25,000 views a day 鈥� you鈥檙e earning $50 a day just from your videos.

In other words,聽this is a great way to build up some side income pretty easily 鈥� but it works best if you鈥檙e just making videos of something you鈥檙e already passionate about.

If you鈥檙e already passionate about something, making a video is often just a matter of turning on the camera for a while, talking about and showing something about your passion, then uploading the video. Sure, you can get into editing and all that, but it鈥檚 the mix of passion and something remotely useful that often turns a video into one that will get substantial views.

So, how can he get started?

Getting Started
First, come up with some video ideas. Do you want to show off a particular hunting tactic and explain how it works? Do you want to make video of a hunt? Do you want to talk about gear? Do you want to talk about preparation? Do you want to tell a story about a great hunt (make sure you have some visuals if you want to do this)? All of these will be things people will watch if it鈥檚 entertaining.

Come up with a little list, then make the one that seems the most straightforward to make. Turn on a digital video camera and make a video showing off your tactic or talking about gear or whatever it is you decided to talk about.

Watch it. It鈥檚 probably terrible. Ask yourself why it鈥檚 terrible.

Then make the video again, striving to fix what鈥檚 terrible about it.

You might go back and forth here several times. That鈥檚 fine. You鈥檒l get a little better each time.

Eventually, you鈥檒l get one that鈥檚 not bad. Go with it.

First thing: sign up for聽Youtube聽and allow ads to be shown on your videos. Create a channel and give it a name such as 鈥淗unting Tips and Tactics by Trent.鈥� Then, upload your video and give it a title so that people who are searching for things related to your video will find it. Give it a name like 鈥淭rent鈥檚 guide to essential whitetail deer hunting gear.鈥�

Once it鈥檚 uploaded, send a link to the video to your friends to get it started.

It won鈥檛 get a lot of views at first. You might earn a few cents, and that might seem disheartening. Stick with it.

Make another video. Upload that one to your channel with a good title. Then make another one. And another one. Dig into every idea you have. Make a video of how to clean a gun properly or how to maintain your bow. Make a video where you show people how to聽find聽a good spot to hunt.

Don鈥檛 worry about talking about obvious things. Mix the obvious things in there with some more subtle stuff. Remember, there will be complete beginners who will watch your video and they鈥檙e not going to know anything at all. At the same time, you鈥檙e going to have experienced hunters watching, so you鈥檒l want some material for them, too.

Give it time. Keep making videos.聽I find that making videos and writing articles really helps me think about the thing I鈥檓 doing, and it usually ends up making me better at that thing.聽Writing articles for The Simple Dollar made me more mindful about my finances and helped me figure out new things or how to do old things better. Making these videos will improve you as a hunter because it will make you think about the details more. So, even if you never make much money at this, you鈥檒l get better at your passion because of the effort you put into breaking it down and explaining it.

Don鈥檛 worry if you鈥檙e not good at presenting, either.聽Just walk through the steps calmly and focus onshowing聽what you鈥檙e doing. Learn how to use a simple video editor and delete the weak parts.

Eventually, you鈥檒l find yourself waking up one morning and you鈥檒l have earned several dollars while you鈥檙e asleep. You鈥檒l have people who enjoy your videos and look forward to new ones, meaning you鈥檒l get a big burst of views when you upload a new one.

You can put as much time into this or as little time into this as you want, but if you find yourself sitting around wishing you could find ways to earn some extra cash, this is definitely one avenue to try out.

Good luck!