But to my 1800 YouTube subscribers, I am a hair loss expert.
Are you laughing yet? Because you should be.
I know it seems like a joke. I know it seems like I’m not qualified. But for the past couple of months, I have been receiving checks from YouTube, all of which are a little over a hundred dollars each.
To nearly 2,000 men, most of whom are under the age of 23, I am a mentor. I make 3 videos each day during my breaks at work, or after the kids are asleep at home. These videos help my subscribers psychologically sort out the process of going bald at a young age.
I know. I know. I still have most of my hair.
But that doesn’t get in the way of them listening to what I have to say.
Here’s the good news. You too can become a YouTuber, and make at least as much money as I do. I will now share with you the 3 fundamental steps that got me to this point:
1. Discover your topic of expertise. Do not simply assume that the thing you know the most about or enjoy talking about the most is going to be the thing that people will want to hear you talk about. For 30 days, create 3 videos per day about whatever is going through your head. After the month is over, take a look to see which video surpassed on the others on views. That is now your topic of expertise.
2. Exploit your topic of expertise. Now start making 3 videos per day about that same topic. It’s not about quality, it’s about quantity! People will subconsciously believe you are worth listening to if you invest enough time talking about it that consistently. And of course, you are building a library of videos, which will eventually start bringing in comments of the videos.
3. Respond by making videos that directly and positively respond to the comments you receive on your level of expertise. Just simply give your unrehearsed response, as you begin the video by reading the comment and say the user name of the person who left it. This will help engage your audience. Plus, you will learn more about the topic as well; which helps make you more of an authority on the subject, even if you’re not actually one. As for negative comments, simply thank the person for taking the time to watch the video and to comment on it, even though they did not agree with what you had to say.
As the number of subscribers grows, the number of people who watch each new video grows, and the dollar amount on the monthly checks you get from YouTube grows; as you get a cut of the ads that show before your videos.
It’s true. I make over $100 a month as a YouTuber.
I’m a Millennial dad who not only works a full time job, but who also knows how to side hustle; not only with this blog, but also as a YouTuber.
And somehow, that makes me a hair loss expert? Hey, it’s making me money, that has to make me at least a little bit of a professional. That’s the way I see it.
Since then, I have been receiving several emails daily from other YouTubers who have been approached by BBTV, wanting to find out how it’s going with my partnership program.
Today, I release my testimonial to the public.
Fact: A year ago, I barely had over 100 subscribers. Now, I have over 900.
When you hear that, it may seem logical to believe that my 800% increase in YouTube subscribers had at least something to do with my BBTV partnership.
Instead, it had everything to do with me making an excessive amount of videos about the topics people were already searching for on YouTube.
Further into my year-long commitment with BBTV, I expressed concern to BBTV that I did not understand what they were doing on their end to help me; like promoting my videos, which is something they led me to believe over the phone.
Indirectly, BBTV ultimately acknowledged they had not done anything to actually partner with me, other than to provide services on the side which I wasn’t even aware of; as well as take $40 of my growing revenue.
Here in the following email excerpts, I have placed some of the phrases in bold font in an effort to highlight the storyline:
You replied on 11/29/2016 2:10 AM.
Hi,
The date I would choose to cancel would be December 28th, which is 30 days prior to January 27th. So in about 2 months from now, I must make the decision to remain or cancel.
While I recognize my number of subscribers has increased from 130 to 658, I am having difficulty in understanding what they increase has to do with BBTV or the agreement I signed regarding HooplaKidz.
I need your help in understanding how I’ve benefited from BBTV, considering the percentage of revenue being streamed.
Thank you for your input.
Sincerely,
Nick Shell
Ultimately, their response was to deflect that fact I signed an agreement under the assumption BBTV was directly associated with HooplaKidz, and instead, focused on their services; which were not the reason I partnered with them:
Nov 29, 2:18 PM PST
Hi Nick!
We understand that you are deciding on whether or not to continue your agreement with us. Out of curiosity, did you have a chance to make use the services that we offer our creators?
Here’s a brief list just in case:
Catalyst Chrome Extension – Our newest technology product that allows the optimization of your video metadata built right into your YouTube Video Manager. Similar services can cost up to $50 / month!
Epoxy – A platform that connects all your social media together and makes it easier to share your videos and engage your fans.
Epidemic Sound – A full library of over 28,000 Copyright free tracks, and 30,000 Copyright free sound effects that our partners can download and edit into their videos.
Showbox BETA – A web based video editor which, after a short tutorial, allows you to produce studio quality videos without any additional software or prior expertise. Check out the ShowBox Youtube Channel for examples of videos created with Showbox!
Let us know your thoughts,
Partner Experience Team
So I responded…
Hi,
I appreciate you following up with me on this. No, I was not aware of these services. However, I feel these services are not what the agreement I signed was largely based on. Instead, I specifically signed an agreement based on HooplaKidz and what I believed would help me get exposure with a larger audience.I am having difficulty in understanding how my growth since January is related to BBTV; since I absolutely have not utilized these services; nor was I aware of them. Nor am I aware of BBTV ever promoting my videos as I believed would happen.
My understanding is that on December 28th (which is 30 days prior to a year of me signing the agreement), if I send an email requesting to end the partnership, as well as to send the request to unlink on YouTube, that I will have officially done my part to leave BBTV. Is that accurate?
I want to make sure I don’t miss a technicality and automatically renew for another year.
Please know I am very grateful for you taking time to help me today. I too work in Customer Service (specifically, the retention department for my company) for a living so I don’t take you for granted as you assist me on this.
Sincerely,
Nick Shell
Just to be clear, there is good reason for me to have believed that BBTV was actually connected to HooplaKidz TV, as BBTV’s original recruitment email from January 2016 predicted:
Tue 1/26/16, 6:20 PM
You
Hi Nick! We absolutely love your channel!
We have a business opportunity that we would like to present to you from HooplaKidz Tv. We’re the highest rated kids and family entertainment company online and we would like to offer you the resources and tools to help you grow your channel.
Please let me know if you’re interested in discussing our proposal.
Thanks for your time, we look forward to hearing from you.
Talent Partnerships, BroadbandTV
Notice how what you see in print refers to “offer you the resources and tools to help you grow your channel”…
Yet the phone calls that were part of the recruitment process were focused on BBTV promoting my videos as well as having me to believe that HooplaKidz, not simply BBTV, was personally interested in me.
That was not the case. Instead, the HooplaKidz name apparently served as a storefront for BBTV to sell their partnership to me.
So in the end, BBTV probably only made around $130 off of me during the course of the year. Whereas now I’m making over $40 in monthly YouTube revenue, I had only made $40 total before partnering with them.
In other words, there wasn’t much money for them to make off of me for most of the year. Only in these last several month did my subscribership lead to them to take their 40% cut from my $40 monthly earnings.
So in the end, it cost me about $130 total for me to learn (and teach you) that BBTV had nothing to do with my subscribership increasing by 90%.
I just simply made 3 videos everyday about the topics I found people cared the most about. There is no proof that BBTV did anything to promote my channel, as I was led to believe.
Please know I am not angry or bitter. In fact, I have a feeling that my testimonial on this blog, as well as the accompanying video, could possibly eventually make up for the $130 or so that I invested in them.
In closing, I will point out BBTV is comprised of very nice people to work with. However, also note that you must proactively end the agreement before the one year mark…
Otherwise, they automatically lock you into another year. This is not something they made me aware of; I only found out due to research on my end.
That’s everything I know. That’s what my partnership with BBTV has taught me over the past year.
Now, as for you, do what you think is right for your YouTube Channel. This information is simply my personal testimonial.
You and I spent hours working together on our Jack-Man superhero video series (23 webisodes) on YouTube.
Additionally, I spent even more time on my children’s program Uncle Nick’s Enchanted Forest (27 webisodes). Those were shows I created that I truly cared about.
But over Labor Day Weekend, I decided, on a whim, to make a fake WWE audition tape… just for fun, while our family was at Nonna and Papa’s house. I therefore invented and became the wrestling character, Naughty Nick.
After I made that first video with my phone on selfie mode, I decided to make 4 more webisodes. Papa helped out with the 4th and 5th, serving as the villain.
I suppose my motivation in making this series is ultimately to add to my Rolodex of sketch series on my YouTube channel. I believe it’s important to showcase my abilities as an actor, director, and writer.
The Naughty Nick series is admittedly a farce of the media’s perception of masculinity, with a throwback to 1980’s professional wrestling.
Naughty Nick presents his own fictional YouTube audience with his fantasy version of reality; though to him it’s actually real. In his world, no one can ever be more masculine or American than he is; nor can anyone ever defeat him. These are things of value in the character’s life.
With nearly 700 videos uploaded on my YouTube Channel and 540 subscribers, I am building The Nick Shell Network. I want serious stuff and I want silly stuff. I want something for everyone.
My hope is that one day, I can catch the right person’s attention with my amateur, yet ideally popular, videos.
Now that you’ve seen the first 5 Naughty Nick videos, you now want to be a part of the series. So I suppose we’ll make that happen in the near future; like maybe this weekend!
In addition to Family Friendly Daddy Blog, I have another following on my YouTube channel, where I do a weekly series for young men (age 15 to 22-ish) that focuses on masculinity. Therefore, about 80% of my YouTube subscribers are male. However, my readership of this blog is about 80% female.
Here’s the breakdown: I am better at creating videos for a male audience and I am better at creating blog content for a female audience.
That means most of my YouTube subscribers have never read any of my blog posts and most of my blog readers have never watched any of my videos on YouTube.
Today is one of the rare exceptions in which I tie the two together.
As I’m currently growing out my “postpartum beard”, I received a comment a one of my YouTube videos this week: “With the beard you look kinda like Joel from The Last of Us”.
I had no idea who that was- I figured it might be some new sitcom on CBS or something. Thanks to a quick Google search, I learned that Joel is the main character of a 2013 video game called The Last of Us, in which he must escort a young girl named Ellie across a post-apocalyptic United States.
Based on the fact he appears to be a rugged, masculine hero, I obviously take that comparison as a compliment.
I think it’s fun to make these comparisons public. By default, I may create a new series here on my blog, based on when people tell me I look like someone else.
By the time I shave my postpartum beard in a couple weeks, I’m sure I will easily look like someone else I’ve never heard of, as was the case with Tai Lopez and Joel from The Last of Us.
My YouTube channel, simply named Nick Shell, is now under a 1 year contract with BroadBandTV. They reached out to me last week, wanting to recruit me as one of their independent contractors.
Pssstt! A year has passed since this blog post. CLICK HERE for the results!
When you do a Google search on BroadBandTV, here’s what you’ll find:
BBTV is a media & technology company that represents the best YouTube talent in a global multi-platform network (MPN) and creates online video solutions for brands… The company is currently the fastest growing and the second largest multi-channel network worldwide, with head offices in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Here’s the simple concept:
They scour the YouTube for talent they think has enough potential to invest in; like me. Once they have me on board, they use their massive network to promote certain videos of mine which they see are relevant to their clients.
BBTV gets a cut of my YouTube revenue, meanwhile they promote my videos on their platforms. It’s a mutual investment.
Obviously, my wife and I did our research on them first. We had to make sure they were legit and that I wasn’t being scammed.
We read every line of the contract and even verified multiple times that there are no “perpetuities” or “annuities”; and that I would maintain all “intellectual property.”
In other words, I will always own my content.
All my songs (including both their lyrics and melodies) are mine. All ideas and characters and stories presented in my videos are mine.
I think this partnership could be the next step I’ve been working towards.
In case you’re unfamiliar, it’s no myth: YouTube really does pay people who have popular YouTube channels. The more people click on the ads on a person’s video, the more revenue that person makes.
Granted, the number of subscribers a person has ultimately determines how much money they make.
I didn’t seriously start making videos until last May. As of last week when I signed the contract with BBTV, I had 130 subscribers and had only made $52.84 total.
That’s not a lot.
However, I had enough going on with my YouTube channel to attract BBTV to reach out to me.
During the official interview, in which they called me from their board room, I asked them what ultimately inspired them to reach out to me.
With a laugh, one of the men told me that a friend of his told him about one of my “receding hairline videos.”
Once he arrived at my YouTube channel, he saw that I publish a couple new videos a day; consisting of not only my “hair” videos, as well as random “deep thought of the day” videos, but also all original series including “Jack-Man” as well as “Uncle Nick’s Enchanted Forest.”
My plan worked: Grow a core audience by acknowledging myself that many of us men have private insecurities in regards to having a receding hairline. From there, as subscribers grow on my channel, I also mix in my other series which truly display my acting and musical talents.
I’m curious to see where this partnership takes me in a year. The way I figure, if I keep doing what I do and BBTV keeps doing what they do, there’s a pretty good chance I’ll finally capture the attention of a major studio work.
And that point, my goal is to have my own children’s show.
I’ve always wanted to be a writer and an actor, but do I fundamentally believe in keeping things “G rated” for myself on camera.
Having my own kids’ show, in which I have some creative control over, would allow me to exercise my talents without having to worry about profanity or innuendos.
If this partnership isn’t what it’s cracked up to be, then I’ll know in a year. I just feel that having only earned $52.84 since I started, and I haven’t even been cashed that out yet… I’m not really losing anything if it doesn’t work out.
I am feeling really good about this. I have been praying for God to increase my responsibilities based on my talents and for me to find ways to do that.
To me, it’s not a coincidence this happened.
Let’s just see what happens in a year.
Pssstt! A year has passed since this blog post. CLICK HERE for the results!
Family Friendly Daddy Blog 