How this 62-year old monetized her channel in 5 weeks

hi everyone welcome back to my YouTube channel in this video I will talk about my YouTube Journey uh how I actually monetized my Channel or how I think I monetized my channel also discuss why I started YouTube what kind of things I like about YouTube what's hard about it and also maybe touch on some of the equipment I use and talk about some of the inconvenient truths that people don't really talk about when they tell you to start a channel if you're new here my name is Raina and this is my channel small retired life

here I talk about all things that have to do with retirement and about leading a small simple but meaningful retired life I decided to start a YouTube channel for a few reasons one is I was getting a little bored I needed a challenge and I needed to do something that scared me secondly I just wanted to keep my technical skills on computers current and filming videos editing videos allowed me to learn new things in that realm third I just couldn't find a channel that really spoke to me I've been on YouTube as a audience member

since 2013 and there wasn't really anyone over 60 who had a Lifestyle Channel that felt like me and so I decided to start one and finally I just wanted the extra money I want to be able to go to Australia once a year and see my grandchildren or save up some money for my grandchildren or just do some little extra things for myself that maybe I'm not doing right now my expectation with starting a YouTube channel was pretty low I had been thinking about starting a channel for like a year and a half and had

been chatting with a girlfriend about it who obviously got sick of hearing me go on about wanting to post a video and wanting to start a channel and so she finally said to me you know what Raina just do it just post something or upload something on your channel and no one's going to watch it cuz no one watches that first video and so just get it done and I did that I decided on a channel name I filmed a video uh it was nerve-wracking I thought I sounded like a total weirdo um kind of

cringe and didn't want to post the video but I uploaded it and got it out there for everyone to see I thought I was going to maybe get like you know a 100 or so ladies watching the channel over the course of a year and we might have some great discussion in the comment section in the bottom of the video but really I had no expectations aside from that my big goal was to one day get it monetized and maybe make like an extra $100 a month there are numerous videos out there on the monetization

process for YouTube so I don't really want to spend a lot of time on that but in a nutshell you need 1,000 viewers so 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 viewed hours before you're eligible to be monetized I posted my first video on August 20th my channel kind of did nothing for a few weeks after I posted my sixth video so my fifth week on YouTube my channel exploded all of a sudden I started seeing just incredible amounts of views it was my video on living a simple life in retirement that kind of started it all and

then also my video about getting laid off that video has over half a million views already and within a few days I essentially met the criteria for monetizing so it took 2 days for me to accumulate over 1,000 subscribers and over 4,000 watched hours and I had been on YouTube for 5 weeks so I was eligible to be monetized monetization essentially just included YouTube sending me an email inviting me to their YouTube Partner program then I need to fill in uh quite a bit of information there are some tax forms that you need to fill

out for the IRS and if you're not American uh you still have to fill out these tax warrants because IRS wants to know who you are you are working for an American company and um even though you don't get taxed in the US they still want information about you once you get all all of that filled out and once you send it all into YouTube and also um start an AdSense account then YouTube goes over your entire Channel with a fine Toth comb and decides if they will approve you for monetization once you are approved

you receive an email and once your channel actually hits a threshold of $100 in ad of Revenue you will receive uh an email asking you to verify a bank account so all of that happened for me very quickly I was eligible for monetization September 23rd and by September 30th I had everything done I was approved and I started seeing monetization amounts on my channel so my very first day of Revenue earning was September 30th so really it only took me 7 Days also Google sends you through snail mail snail mail a PIN number that you

have to enter into your AdSense account to verify your address and they say that takes about 3 to 4 weeks and I have to say it did take exactly 3 weeks to the day of when they said they sent it for me to receive it as soon as I entered this pin number and all that does is verifies your address they just want to make sure that you actually exist um so once I entered the pin number I um I think that was sometime in mid October uh around October 25th actually I received a payment

for that September 30th day immediately the next day in my bank account it was quite astounding let's talk a little bit about the AdSense Revenue because that's where people get curious so for that September 30th day I made $247 I had those two videos that I discussed previously that um had a lot of views and therefore they garnered a lot of Revenue any Revenue that was earned on those videos prior to September 30th is kept by YouTube anything after that I get a small portion of the revenue from the ads on the video I think

in October my Revenue will be around $4,800 which is so fantastic it's unbelievable again it's because of those couple of videos and definitely you see the revenue slowing down as the month goes on because the newer videos did not get as many views so will I be making $4,800 a month going forward no definitely not uh it if I'm lucky it'll be half of that but I don't think it'll even be half of that so I can keep you posted and see how that all works out but I will enjoy that revenue for October and

it will definitely help to pay off some of the expenses that one incurs with YouTube now why do I think that my Channel all of a sudden exploded like that honestly I'm not sure I have a few theories one is that I just don't think there's a lot of content out there for people in our age group people that are in their late 40s 50s and 60s there's a lot of younger oriented content uh on YouTube but it's harder to find something for this age group I think it's definitely having its moment there's a lot

more creators that are starting channels like this but I think it's still kind of in the minority on YouTube the other thing is I think people just like to see normal people on YouTube I mean honestly I'm a nothing Burger I I'm nothing special and if I can start a channel then anyone else can start a channel as well as long as they're willing to put in the time and the work into it because let me tell you it does take a lot of work I also believe there is a degree of luck with YouTube

It's kind of getting the right topic out there and people are browsing for that topic and your YouTube video comes up in the algorithm I think part of that is yes it's due to how you title your videos and your thumbnails and all of the other things that I researched before I actually started putting videos on YouTube YouTube but I really do believe that there is a degree of luck and so I can't really take any credit for that I do get questions about the equipment that I use so when I started YouTube I had

a little tiny zv1 Sony camera and I had a tripod and I had to purchase a microphone so I got the road that's r o wireless microphone lot of my gear is listed below in my description um it's to Amazon links they're affiliate links but they are for the Canadian store so I just want to warn you of that um the camera is great for starting out like it it has done the trick for um my beginning videos but as I'm trying new things I definitely see that it is limiting the battery life on it

is very small or very short because it is a very tiny camera and so definitely a camera upgrade is in my future I can film on my iPhone and I've done my hometour video on my iPhone but let me tell you it does overheat and if you're only using your iPhone or a phone to film your videos once it overheats you now have to wait to film your next clip until it cools off and that is very tedious and very inefficient I had a tripod from you know just doing photography in my past so I

didn't have to buy that the microphone was an extra cost I can't remember how much it was I want to say it was close to $300 here in Canada um so it is some money that I had to put up front because the microphone on my camera was not great and I did have some audio sounds um issues or audio sound issues at the beginning in my earlier videos because I did not how to know how to use my equipment so user error I have gotten better since I do edit on my computer I use

cap cut I have had to upgrade to the pro because the cap Cut Pro has some audio features where you can edit audio now your microphone is usually fine but there will be a point where you will need to edit some of your audio and you will have to do it in the editing tool so I had to upgrade to the paid version of cap cut to do that this is a great segue to go on to some of the inconvenient truths about YouTube that not too many people talk about there have been been so

many YouTube videos and they all go something like this or at least this is what the titles say if you're over 50 you have to start a YouTube channel if you're over 60 you need to start a YouTube channel if you're retired you should start a YouTube channel and then they go on to say how you really only need your phone to start recording and maybe a microphone all is true uh you only need your iPhone or a phone and probably a microphone and most likely some kind of a tripod so those three things will

definitely get you started on YouTube and you can start recording videos you can edit your videos on your iPhone with free apps like cap cut but I have to be honest if you want to grow your channel and if you want to make off YouTube there comes a point where you will need to actually spend money and treat it like a business for me YouTube is a business because I want my channel to be monetized and if you want your channel to be monetized you need to invest in your business you need to stay current

with the trends that are happening on YouTube because people get bored very easily and what works today may not work tomorrow and three you really need to put time into your channel to give you an example I spend about 30 hours a week working on my YouTube business I do all the filming all the editing I keep track of the admin stuff like all of my receipts and my expenses and making sure that's recorded somewhere because your YouTube revenue is absolutely taxable there are definitely costs associated with having a YouTube channel especially as your YouTube

channel grows you'll likely need someone to do your taxes at least in the beginning because you will have some writeoffs that you can take advantage of in Canada we get taxed a lot our tax rate is very high so you definitely want to take advantage of any kind of tax break that you can on the revenue that you receive there's subscription costs things like music and editing apps and canva and those types of things and a lot of those companies are American and the prices are in US dollars so for Canadians the cost is actually

higher because you're paying in US Dollars and our dollar is lower than a US dollar so you will have expenses and if you want your YouTube channel to grow and you want to learn how to film better and edit better you will need really good tools to do that and so there are costs it's it's like any other business you'll have to invest in it to make it grow so I guess it depends what you want out of your channel if you want to be a very tiny Channel and you don't really care about the

revenue that much then you can stick with the very basic setup of an iPhone but eventually as you make longer videos or more complicated videos your equipment needs to get better my equipment is not cutting it right now my computer is a problem it won't store files very well or not large files I had to increase my iCloud account so I can send everything up to iCloud before I edit so that my computer has space I can't use some of the bigger programs like Da Vinci resolve because they do take up a lot of space

on your computer my camera is okay but it's starting to be limiting in the types of videos I film and the length of them so these are things you need to consider you will need to spend money you'll probably need to spend some money UPF front in order to make your business successful another thing with you YouTube is that it's there's a lot of trends that happen very quickly and if you want your channel to stay relevant and if you want to be on top of what's going on with YouTube you do need to do

research you need to spend some time looking at Trends and what's working and what maybe has stopped working and um it's a Fickle world it's I think it's like TV or any of those types of things anything to do with media you eventually people just start getting bored people have very low attention spans and they want something new something different and you have to be able to deliver that if you want to keep making money with YouTube and um to keep being relevant on YouTube I guess I'll touch on the subject of Channel sponsorships so

my channel is not sponsored I have had a lot of Outreach from Brands I have had a lot of Outreach from brands most of which I'm not really interested in because a lot of these products really don't relate to me or relate to my channel but at some point as a YouTuber you have to upgrade equipment you have to buy equipment I'll have to buy lights because in Canada we get very dark um Lighting in the winter especially here in Calgary we get Darkness well into later morning and then it gets dark very early afternoon

so if I want to be able to film at any time during the day I will need a light setup all of these things cost money and you need to make money the AdSense revenue is great or October was great for me I don't know what it will be like going forward but in most cases the ad revenue is not going to cover the costs that are required to keep your channel moving in the right direction and so at some point YouTubers will do sponsorships and these are controversial with viewers viewers don't like to have

ads in the middle of a YouTube video you already have to put up with YouTube ads and now you have you know the Creator who is either pushing a product or representing a product but the reality is that this is how YouTubers make money and it the sponsorship ads typically pay you quite a bit more than the AdSense Revenue pays and so to upgrade your equipment and to do some of the investment into your channel that you'll need to do you at some point may have to do a sponsorship with a brand for me I

want to kind of hold out for the right brand and I want a brand that I really like so you know I have dreams about the kind of Brands I would love to team up with and it's going to take me a lot of time and a lot of investment in my channel to get to that place talking about some of these more financial and maybe negative things about YouTube I guess I just want people to really be aware that YouTube does take up a lot of time and it's not as easy as some of

these videos make it look yes anyone can start a YouTube channel and you only need your phone and and maybe a microphone or whatever but to actually make money and to get monetized is hard and even though this happened quickly for me that is typically not the norm most YouTubers will tell you it took them years and a lot of consistency and a lot of work to get there and I just want people to understand that this will take time out of your day and you have to be willing to give up some time if

you want to be successful on YouTube the great thing about YouTube is that you do meet new people through your comments it is a bit bit of a social network I really enjoyy reading my comments I love connecting with people in my comments and even though some of the comments I get a very tiny percentage are not so kind um you have control over that as a YouTuber and really my focus is on the comments that people take time to leave to say something nice about my Channel or just to even reach out and that

is a positive of YouTube another positive is that it does keep you kind of connected to the world in a certain way living alone and being retired it's very easy to draw away from the world and my YouTube channel because it is a business keeps me occupied and makes me get out there do some research learn about topics and I find that so stimulating and enjoyable I also have to add and this is kind of funny but my older grandchildren the ones in Australia they're 10 and 11 they actually watch me on YouTube and um

love watching my channel and um my oldest grandson told my daughter-in-law that his nana is a YouTuber hence the title for my thumbnail I just thought it was so funny and it kind of you know made me sit back a little bit and think wow I'm a YouTuber I'm 62 years old and I guess I could consider myself a YouTuber I would definitely be remiss as a YouTuber if I didn't say to everyone thank you for all of your wonderful comments your participation in my channel which is actually the reason why I'm making any money

on YouTube it's because people watch my videos and if you like my videos and if my content resonates um I would appreciate if you would subscribe to my channel and give me a thumbs up every now and then to show your support so what are my goals and my dreams for my YouTube channel well definitely would like to double the number of subscribers So currently I'm at 25,000 I would like to be at 50 at some point and I would also like to get better at filming videos I really want to be able to do

some more vloggy talking type um life in the day type of videos and those are harder to do so hopefully you'll bear with me on that journey I would like to at some point get sponsored by a brand that I resonate with so I can get some better equipment specifically a computer that will actually hold my files and maybe a better camera that gives me a wider field of view so those would be some of my more near-term goals so this is it for this week thank you so much for watching I hope that I

answered some of your YouTube questions if you have any more questions leave them in the comment section below I'm happy to answer them I try and get through all of the comments or as many as I possibly can so if you need to know something that I haven't covered please don't be afraid to ask and I will see you all next week