Below is the transcription for this episode:
Dave: What is going on my friends, this is Dave Sharpe. Welcome to wake up legendary I am back after a week of being out. I had nasal surgery, and it was because I had something called a deviated septum. And that was where basically my nasal canal was like a zigzag or a curve.
We actually breathe through my nose because I can do that now. I had 25% breathing capability on one side and 50 on the other so I finally got it fixed after almost 40 years of it being like that. And I can breathe now. So, my friends, we are bringing back a returning guest. Simon, who is a pilot, is making more money online than he does in his regular salary, and I'm excited to talk to him once again so you guys may recognize him. He's in the same spot he was last time, Simon. Welcome to the show, buddy.
Simon: Thank you very much for having me again.
Dave: Now are you in Norway or tell us where you're calling in from?
Simon: Switzerland.
Dave: Switzerland. Yeah and I want to go to Switzerland. It's one of my dream spots to travel to. I want to go there to pronounce Geneva or Geneve?
Simon: Depends on what language you're trying to pronounce it in. So in English it's Geneva, French, it's generic. And we are German because I'm in the German speaking part near Zurich. And we just say it again. So it's different ways of pronunciation.
Dave: Okay, so I want to go to English speaking Geneva. I want to go to some of the watch manufacturers and just kind of do a tour of Switzerland, so I'll have to make it over there. Over the next 12 months hopefully. And maybe we can have coffee or something, my friend.
Simon: Yeah, for sure.
Dave: That's really cool. I think that's one of the things that is so cool about this business is that, you know, we may not know a single soul in our city, you know, who actually does what we do, but we know people all over the world and when we travel, there's usually always a friend that we know, in the country or the state that we're going to, so. So are you still are, because of what's been going on recently were you out of airline work and that's why take us in give us a brief kind of history of how you got started online, and what you've been doing here, that led you to legendary, and then ultimately, earning now more in your online business than you do as an, as a pilot.
Simon: Yeah, so the last time we talked, I was actually grounded from flying because of the Corona crisis. I don't know exactly when it was but I think it just started a couple of months back. When we talked then. And as of July this year I am actually flying again after like 15 months of being grounded. So during that time I did have a lot of time to focus on my business actually so that's also why I actually have been able to grow it to a point where I'm actually making significantly more online, then I'm making it my job but going back to when I started online. It was I think like four or five years back now when I first kind of got the idea that it was possible to make money online I actually was looking for a job at this time but I wasn't able to find any because I was studying a lot and then I was doing private training, when I had to break from studying, so I was looking for. I was just typing in YouTube how to make money online, and then you can see all these kind of gurus that tell you okay you can make money like this you can make money like this, and then I just simply tried a couple of things, and tried kind of growing Tumblr pages and then I went to trying to start a blog, then I tried to grow Instagram pages which is the first thing that has worked, which we've also talked about last time I was on here. But then at some point. I kind of fell into creating YouTube videos, then because I was creating videos for, for my clients who were buying those Instagram accounts of me because they were asking me how I can keep growing those accounts. So it's basically telling them how to put them in an automation software and automate everything so they keep growing, even after they have bought them from me, and that's when I realized there's a thing called affiliate marketing, where I was able to join the affiliate program of the software that I was using. And then, it is a tutorial that I've created on YouTube, I simply said, you can use the affiliate link down below in the description to get the software, and then I started seeing some commissions coming in over the couple of months that the these videos have been online and it wasn't that much in the beginning but the thing I realized is that it's so passive. And eventually, when you compare how much time you have put into creating this video, and then taking a look back on how much money this video has made over the course of like one year or two years. Then I noticed that I can put in like a day's base work, and I make, maybe, I don't $2,000 or even more. Over the course of a year or two, it doesn't seem like much in the beginning but after a lot of time has passed, you have more clicks on the video. This is a lot more lucrative than what I was doing at this point so now since then I've been focusing more on YouTube. And now I'm kind of looking back into getting into also starting a blog and kind of outsourcing more trying to optimize.
Dave: Well, you really just defined digital real estate. Very simply, right there. Yeah, I mean, it's sort of like, actual real estate where you, you buy a piece of property and you're at first you have $100,000 loan that you pulled out to buy the property, maybe you put a deposit down, so maybe you put 20,000 and you borrowed 80,000 And at first, you put a tenant in there, and you're not making any money. You know, it's like well you know I'm not getting rich. I'm not getting there, I'm not even rich in the first five years hell it's gonna take me 15 years to pay this mortgage off if I, you know, if I continue to pay the payments as they're structured on this 15 year mortgage but once I buy a house, and then I use the equity, a year in, maybe I'd make double payments, and I've got some equity now I can refinance the house, I pull out $20,000 Now I go put a deposit down on another house, and each year I do that, after five years I've got five houses, and then I start making double payments triple payments in the next five years I own all the houses outright. And then, after 10 years, I've got 10 or 15 houses that I own outright that are all paying me $1,000 A month in rent, and before you know it I'm rich.
Simon: Yeah, you're building cash flow, investing.
Dave: It doesn't see it's doesn't feel fast at first in that story that I just told about real estate is something that I actually do. I can tell that I was able to say that because that is what I have actually done in real life with real estate, and what you described is exactly a perfect analogy, it could go either way for digital, real estate, it does not feel fast at first look at things. After a year, as you said and you look back and say, should know that video took me 15 minutes to make and it's made me $2,000 I just made basically, you know, if I was to run that on an hourly rate, I just made eight, you know that's an $8,000 an hour, work one or $2,000 an hour work great, no so I love your perspective of long term, looking at things and. And so, your YouTube channels have been mainly tutorial style videos, and also you got into some cryptocurrency and so forth. Tell us the content that's worked best for you.
Simon: Yeah, so I tried to make content that would work well for affiliate marketing, and to content that works really well my opinion, my experience is reviews and tutorials, and maybe like kind of explainer videos where the viewers that actually watch your video, they are kind of before they make the decision, do I want to go with this software or program or platform or whatever it is, and then they make the decision after watching your video, then you have the link right there, maybe they get an additional discount or something like that. So then you get a high conversion ratio from your videos and actually also make affiliate commissions, which is the main source of income when you start out because you don't have any ads on your videos because you don't have enough traffic and subscribers yet. So, this is kind of how I got into the tutorial review kind of video style. And another thing is that it's very, very evergrowing and very passive, so I have, I don't know like 65,000 subscribers on my channel, but when I upload a video. I only got a couple of 100 reviews because when I created a tutorial about how to create. I don't know of an online shop or something. How many of these subscribers. Want to know at that specific time, how to do that right now so it's not too much, but I don't really care about that. What I care about is that the video will be kind of relevant for a long time, and. And the cool thing is that I don't really have fans on my channel so I totally feel the pressure to need to, to having to upload like one video a week to video two videos a week, so that they won't forget me, Because most of my viewers that come from search, and suggested, and those are just the people that are looking to learn the things that I teach in my videos, and they usually don't know me when they first see my video. But that doesn't really matter because it's kind of just like a blog where they want to solve the problem and then I'm giving them the solution right there, and then they can leave again. Maybe some of them subscribe to my channel, some of them don't, that's fine because my traffic is pretty stable as well, which is very nice in this kind of niche that I'm that I'm doing and I'm also like free, because when you have like subscribers that are fans of you, then you always kind of have to keep making the content that works for your fans, otherwise you will see a sharp drop in views, the algorithm doesn't like you anymore, but with my channel, I know that I'm not getting many views in the beginning, I'm relying on the algorithm. Finding the right place on YouTube and on Google for my content so after some time, like, two to three months. Usually, the algorithm will know exactly where they should place my video, and then they will start getting used and he will kind of get abused pretty stable, so that it will bring in us for like two to three years, until I don't have to make a new tutorial because some things have changed.
Dave: This is a, I mean, you guys are you guys, hearing that, this is, this is a content creation mat mini masterclass session this morning that Simon's putting on, because he's telling you what's worked for him, but he's also explaining it so simply and clearly, so thank you, Simon for that, and I, I hope, sometimes, you know when, When people don't pay for things unfortunately they don't pay attention, you know, and that's one of the reasons why I don't believe that you should give everything away for free. Right. That's, especially if you're, you know, if you're, if you are a regular person who's not going to, you know, sell a bunch of books or has a different business, you know, like a Gary Vaynerchuk, you know, even All right, well he's got a agency and he sells books and all this other stuff, regular people need to get a certain amount away for free as you stated, And then, and then most purchases, although people do their research, when they buy it is going to be an impulse buy because they feel like they've become educated enough in that moment, to make a buying decision. That's usually what people are waiting for their waiting to feel like they're waiting to feel my experiences confident enough, and they're some sort of urgency. There's some sort of scarcity and in us the content creator or the reviewer have instilled enough confidence in that person to follow through and make the buying decision and then hopefully whatever, whatever, sales funnel that you've sent them to as an affiliate has a good sales video and sales process. And, you know you get paid for the work being put in. But what you just broke down there was so valuable in terms of creating like personal branding style heavy content versus value driven content. There are ways to insert your personal story in a, in a bit of personalization in your own twist or stick as as American as an American comedian say like a stamp like what's your step, What's your, what are you known for. There's a way to put that in, but not make that dominate the content, like for example in this show. I've been gone for a week, you know, the show doesn't rely on me because it's not about me, it's about the guests that we bring on their stories in their strategies and their success. But when I come back, you know I gave it to you. 32nd intro of what's been happening with me over the past week and then got right into the content and the value that you have as our guests to offer, and that seems to be true with YouTube and it's also showing to be true with tick tock and other platforms that you can focus on trying to be an entertainer and you can focus if that's the route you want to go if you want to eventually do comedy shows to where you're traveling around, and you want people to come to your, your, your comedy show them. Sure, try to be funny, tell jokes, you know, but if you want to sell affiliate products if you want to sell affiliate training. Then teach people. And when I say affiliate products I mean software's digital courses, books, things that people can buy online, give them an appetizer of value, or educate them on how that product or that course works, why they need it, give them a 30,000 foot perspective, give them a behind the scenes look without, you know, showing content that's behind the paywall, make it make sense why the content is right for them, or why it's not right for them, and make that the dominating focus give them something that can instill competence show them that they can do it, and then make it clear and easy for them to click your damn link, so they get to track to you. So if they do buy your ass gets paid, you know, and that is the name of the game and I. One other thing I did was, I subscribed to a couple of watches. Right, they like one run these watch dealer businesses like
they're, they're, you know there's authorized dealers like Rolex and then there's gray market deals. There's a whole freakin massive market of just people who buy and sell and trade like luxury watches that are not authorized dealers, and one of the ways that these guys have gotten customers is they do a YouTube show, but the YouTube show is all about family in a game of life, and like a vlog right, it's about their personal life, and it's more entertainment. So, one guy this last week didn't upload a video and I saw him, you know, be like, I'm getting a bunch of messages where you guys are pissed off that I didn't owe you anything like, you know, and thanks for the loyal ones but it was the sad thing that you talked about, that he had this big fan base that probably a lot of them weren't even doing business with him, they were just watching his content, because they feel entitled to be entertained by him. But, but it's it's what he's probably only doing business with a small percentage of that audience so he might get a lot of vanity metrics of likes and subscribers, but he's probably not making a huge live, probably a small one or 2% of the people that watch your show are actually but now that may be a lot for him. A lot of leads a lot of customers but the point is you don't need to do that, and that's what I love about what you said is that you, there is no pressure. If you miss a week or two, or even a month, you have videos that, over time, the strategy on a platform like YouTube, that's why you have to understand the platform that you're on the strategy on YouTube is over time, people are searching for that software, or I saw a video on your channel that says, what actually eight months ago. It's your second most viewed ever video on your channel, Google Ads tutorial 2021, step by step. You're relying and you know that people are going to come to YouTube just like you did in the beginning, and in search, Google Ads tutorial best strategy step by step of 2021, and you know that Google is is eventually, the more people watch that video, click on it and then watch all the way through. That tells Google they liked the video, the more Google is going to look that up on the first page, or that that video is going to get views and make you money over time. And that's the review and the sort of tutorial. Even side hustle, or what, you know, those videos where you're showing people how to do something, or doing a review of a product in person, or, or, or course or something. That is how that game is played, and it is very lucrative for a lot of people who understand it. What did I leave out?
Simon: I think that was a good summary. One thing I also wanted to mention is that when you're doing it. I think there's a difference between doing a tutorial and doing a review, and sometimes when you do a review, I mean, probably the extrinsic motivation of doing a review is eventually to get people to click on your affiliate link and you make some Commission's right so otherwise you wouldn't put in so much time creating a good review. That doesn't mean that the review has to be dishonest and you have to push people to a product that you maybe don't really believe in, but I sometimes felt kind of the, kind of, what's it called, you know you have a interest that people actually go for the product, and that's kind of a problem when you do a review because when you do review, people want to see somebody being totally disconnected to the product, so they can have an honest opinion. And that's a cool thing with tutorials because you don't have that problem, and you don't need to convince people to go for the product, people have already decided they want to go for the product, you just explain to them how to use the product, and that's kind of, you don't have that conflict of interest, where you actually do you want people to sign up, but you also want to have to be honest review. Now, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't create reviews, but if you kind of feel bad you have a bad feeling or something, doing a review. You can also go for tutorials, that's what I mainly do because I don't have to judge your product. Also, sometimes I do tutorials about software or platforms that I don't know, maybe they are better. There are better opportunities out there, but that's not my job in this video. In that video I simply explain how to use that specific product and how to use that platform or software. And that's a very cool thing you have an easy time creating that video, in my, in my experience, and also what you said with having fans, compared to having a channel where we simply upload like tutorials or evergreen videos, both strategies are good. I just think you have to decide on what kind of lifestyle or what kind of channel you want to run actually because for me, having a job. Next to doing my online business, I, I don't want to have, I don't want to feel the pressure and I don't want to have fans basically I don't want to feel the commitment and like you said, people do feel entitled to seeing like this weekly video of you even though they don't pay anything, and you can't turn it off. So you have to handle it. But I think if you do a channel where it's entertainment or you know you have to show up once a week at least. Then you should be able to do that otherwise it's very hard for you to grow, to maintain your, your base and for me, I like to have the freedom to be able to stop at any time have one that's why I went for the other way or the other way, having fans probably even have has more potential, but it's kind of a different animal there.
Dave: It is a different animal. And we're talking about, you know, We're talking about the grant cardones the Gary Vaynerchuk's of the world, you know, these in I mean there's a lot more lesser known content creators and marketers who have more personal branding style. Style stuff that it means it very much relies on you being charismatic, and it relies on you. You know, almost scripting your life in many ways, it's always been camera ready, you know, sort of, for me, I found that style of marketing. Always carrying my phone around and doing stories, you know, and trying to try and to capture cool moments, you know, I found myself sometimes missing those moments because I was too focused on trying to capture them, some audience who was just, you know, wasn't really going to make any money and for some reason I just had to keep feeding the content, animal. And, you know for me personally I have, like, I don't. I also care more about being rich and then being famous. Okay, not that I'm some money hungry. I just need to be a billionaire. I mean being a billionaire is cool. I don't need to be a billionaire though, I want to live. I want, excuse my French, anybody who's listening and, you know, forgive me but I want to fucking lifestyle. I want freedom. It's called the Big, my favorite, F word. Besides, the one I just said, Freedom. Can I get an amen in the comments anybody else likes for read, writing? I want freedom. What I realized was a lot of internet marketing strategies were a trap that I felt like I needed to do. I felt like I needed to be always updating. I mean I saw, I was just pumped on Facebook for a moment this morning, and was scrolling, and came across this, this woman that I, oh she's such a brilliant person, but she is the one who does these long posts on Facebook. She said she'd been up since three o'clock when she was doing a live show. And I thought this girl exhausted herself doing content that most people don't see in the newsfeed. Within five minutes. And when I realized the platforms in had in how they work and how to start creating content that as you said can be evergreen. And it's not just feeding the animal for the sake of feeding the animal. It's not just about trying to be famous, but being broke. And that's why I found a lot of these famous people who have hundreds of 1000’s of likes. That's why I say stop comparing yourself to other people who get a lot of likes, and they're really popular online because they might be making no money. They might be making no money, they're just famous or like the popular person who peaked in ninth grade, bullying people and now there's some asshole on the couch, who does nothing with their life. We can't compare ourselves to other people because they may not know, they may be lying. So I need to design my business in a way that suits the lifestyle that I want to live in for me that's why it's interesting on certain platforms, like, like my personal profile on Facebook in on my like personal profile on Instagram, as much as all the people say if you ain't building a personal brand you're missing out and I may be. I may be missing out on the future of whatever is going to happen. But you know what, I've been happier. I haven't posted a single thing on those particular profiles in 2021 and I've made just as much or more money as I've ever made. With my marketing activities.
Simon: Yeah, I'm exactly the same like you, I was a time when I was very, very active on Instagram and stuff, and people that preach, you have to build a personal brand I also see that a lot like the future is having a personal brand building an audience and stuff, which is, which isn't wrong but you have to know what you're getting into, because many people think I'm escaping the hamster wheel of doing a nine to five, but then you're entering the next one, of having to post one Instagram picture a day doing one YouTube video a day doing a couple of TikToks a day, which is another kind of hamster wheel where you can really get out because if you get out you will lose your audience. This is why you kind of have to decide which route you want to go, do you want to have a personal brand, a business where you are the face of the business, but can't ever get out of it, if you get out of it, the cash flow but stop as well because you can really sell it. If you go the other route where you're building a brand, where you're not the face of the business. Then you also have a lot of potential to make a lot of money, but then you have the freedom to leave the business at some point, when it's big enough that you can sell it. And that's also realization that I had, I don't know a couple of years into my journey, because I realized that I don't want to be famous, I don't want because I have also I took my instagram or my YouTube and stuff because I don't want to have people follow me on these pages, and because that's, then you get comments like all day asking you questions and you feel obligated to answer them. Because you want to be good to your followers right so I tried to kind of distance myself, like the longer I mean, this business, more I tried to distance myself, and kind of just stay at the key place where I'm actually where my expertise is needed. The same thing with outsourcing at some point. I mean it makes sense to, to, Maybe if you have a blog to hire somebody to write your content, so that at some point you are able to just manage your business, and don't work in your business anymore, which is kind of where I'm trying to move into in the next couple of years. And so yeah, at the beginning I have to make a decision, what lifestyle do you want to have because eventually your business. I think you once said that as well, your business should work for you, and not you shouldn't work for the business. In the grand scheme of things, of course you have to work for the business, otherwise you will die. But eventually, why are you building a business. One reason is you want to build value and you want to help people. Another reason is you want to build a great life and lifestyle for yourself. So make sure it's not kind of doomed to failure. Starting out because eventually you will have all these people following you but then you are kind of committed to them.
Dave: Learn the game, learn the game, and that's why we do these, these wakeup shows I mean, honestly, every morning and every day, iron sharpens iron, I'm getting, I talked to a guy like you halfway across the world, man this is incredible, isn't it, I mean this is what I love. You're sitting in Switzerland, which is a dream place of mind to go and hang out, you're a pilot just a cool dude, and we're talking about how to gain, how to win the game and that's what it is, understanding the game, it's sort of like, it's sort of like sitting around in the in the in the tape room, and looking at the soccer or football, who's the opponents, how can we win how understanding the game, you wouldn't go out on the field in a professional soccer or football league, without understanding the game without understanding your competition. And so, I only thing I'm inviting you all to do is understand today as Simon here has brought on a pretty different perspective than a lot of people that we've had on the show recently because tick tock has been so hot, like hot for so many new people because they're getting they're able to get a result fast there, and they, the content, sort of, it can't it has the potential to last for days or weeks or even months on that on that platform now. It can also die out, it's, it's, you know, I just saw somebody post yesterday that well I just, you know, following Matt's advice I just got a million views, like in 24 hours and then all of a sudden like I stopped getting views on the videos, so it's not guaranteed that it's going to be evergrowing content, but but TikTok has been a video platform that anybody can get started with. And that can produce a result for you really fast. And it can be one of those platforms that you need to sort of be present on. And that for me, honestly I think everybody should have a taste of that. I think everybody should do that at some point you decide, I love this, or I just heard this interview with this Simon cat and this is interesting. And let me think and learn more about designing my business and be more aware of the various options that I have, you talked about, eventually, how would a business operate without me or how might I be able to sell a business well, let me give you an example. There's a person who had a YouTube channel that was old clips of sitcoms from the 80’s. Like, I Love Lucy and stuff like that. And I Love Lucy, my grandmother loved Lucille Ball, who was the star of that show because they were from the same town. That's why I remember him telling me because I was like what the hell, because my buddy bought this YouTube channel for a million dollars from this guy. So I was like, Holy shit, I was like, tell me more about it so he was like yeah it's like old clips of old sitcoms and stuff. And I guess people from that, like, grew up in that era like to watch that kind of stuff and so it's just like the hell out of here, so you paid a million dollars for that. And he said yeah, because, because we make $100,000 the channel itself generates over $100,000 a month in ad revenue. So within 10 months we'll be breakeven and we think we can grow it to double and triple. Now he's been able to do that. So the other interesting thing is he bought that channel. So, think about this guy who started that channel. Sold it for a million dollars, made the money that he was making from the channel while it was operating, sold it then for a million dollars. That's a pretty good payout for a platform that allows you to create free content. Now my buddy owns it. It's creating now, multiple six figures per month in YouTube ad revenue for those who don't know what that means, YouTube, the ads that pop up on YouTube, as, as, when you own the channel you can decide whether you want those to play at the beginning the videos in YouTube will split that advertising revenue with you. That's, people like us who are advertising on YouTube will pay in YouTube that's where they make their billions of dollars and they'll split that revenue with you from that advertising. And here's what's interesting about that channel is all of the content that's run and posted on that channel is edited and kind of like curated from a few people, you know, who, who work. You know, I don't know if they work in India or the Philippines or something like that but they're basically basically virtual assistants, and obviously great at what they do, quite frankly I think a lot of people in the Philippines in India and in countries besides America can be better than people in America, like, frankly, but the entire channel is run by virtual assistants.
Simon: Do you have the name? Do you know the name of this channel?
Dave: I forgot what it is.
Simon: It's very interesting.
Dave: Isn’t it?
Simon: Because it's also something I've been looking into because I've seen many big channels getting a lot of views, and the major risk with these kinds of channels is that you get d monetized because you're using copyrighted content.
Dave: Yeah, this is kind of the main thing that's also happened in the past couple of months and years, YouTube has been going off these channels, a lot more than they used to. I mean, there's people having like 10 to 20 channels. Just reposting content, and being able to play ads and getting 50% of the ad revenue, which, like you said is, sometimes over six figures a month, and I still see channels today reposting content, and they save ads on a channel which means they make money from YouTube channels. And if I had more time, and maybe also if I was starting out and I was like afraid to show my face on camera, I would really try this route of creating YouTube channels, kind of doing compilations doing top 10 videos and optimizing the process outsourcing the creation of the video, and then creating multiple channels, and what you're gaining that extra knowledge of how you can create a channel that is easy to maintain that you can outsource creating content but still is able to put ads, through to be able to be part of YouTube Partner Program and this is the channel, the channels. The challenge I think, because a lot of channels try to do that and then they get demonetised, then you have a lot of views but you don't really, it's hard to monetize them. The only thing you can do is put a link in description cells and merge the affiliate link, but mostly it doesn't work that well, you can post content that you know is, is not, is, is what they call royalty free. All right. And I'm not able to find the channel. I swore I had written it down from my buddy, but. But yeah, it's so I don't know if I if we were to look, I Love Lucy clips, and I may be able to find it. I mean there's, like if I was to scroll through I Love Lucy clips, I mean there's, you can see how many different clips and you can go and find various different channels. But what I wanted to show people or talk about real quick, was when there is tons of content on YouTube that you can find and repurpose, you can download it and repurpose it. And, and it is called something, I forget what it's creating comments, probably, creative comments. How do you get to that, how do you find that on YouTube?
Simon: You have to go to YouTube and then you go to a song, somewhere you can filter search results. And there you can type in that you only will see creative calm, so go to YouTube, type in some keyword go to Filters and then under features you will see Creative Comments. But in my experience, the videos you find there it's sometimes really hard to create a good video out of them. So I looked into this kind of business model, a while. Yeah, but I decided it's too. Too risky because I would probably get demonetised but I have to take another look at this type of channel that one could potentially do could potentially if it does work. If you can create viral content. It's very nice because you don't have to, it's very easy to outsource. You don't have to be the face, and it's very passive.
Dave: I just texted my buddy for what his YouTube channel called but yeah, I mean, like if you scroll through here just on these top on this particular topic. Yeah, I mean there's not they're, they're certainly not getting. You're not getting a lot of content from here but just know that they're, you know because I Love Lucy there was only a couple of clips on top so right, this just to be clear, all of this content under Creative Commons is royalty free content. And there is also, you know, royalty free videos and content. And I can I, if I wanted to be a detective, and I wanted to spend some time around this, I could research this and figure out, you know,
how to find royalty free videos. I'm not particularly saying that this is the route. I'm just, this is what people should do, I'm just giving you an example of another. Another pretty, pretty common, you know, pretty common strategy of content would be current event issues and things like that. I mean, there's, there's, there's a lot of ways to get into this, and create a channel I think the way that you're doing it with just simply your, your, you know your tutorials and your reviews of various different tools and in products. Looks like you had a channel that you were uploading with cryptocurrency. I don't know if you're still building that channel or not, but certainly, you know, the channel that you have there, on the, the medics media is, you know, a channel was 62,000 followers, it's got, you know, almost 3 million total views since 2018, which is pretty which is pretty powerful, you know, it's pretty powerful. That's a lot of free views, you know, free views on pawn on videos, and the truth is, if you continue to build this up. It will not only earn you ongoing revenue both from ads but also affiliate income if you're sending traffic to affiliate products, but it will become a sellable asset. Now, in order to make this a sellable asset. You may have to transition your face out from the thumbnails, right, which is something that's real, you know, go back to something more like this. Look at your top most popular videos. If you know, the data shows us that the majority of the top videos that you have do have your face on them, however there are some here that don't. Okay. And I'm sure that now, knowing what you know you can make a better thumbnail than this. Not that there's anything wrong with this thumbnail really but you could probably improve the clickability of this thumbnail with your design skills that you've improved over the years in make one, to where it's, it's an even test, Simon, having other people doing the videos for you to where it's not you anymore in seeing if you can eventually make that transition, right, or starting other channels as you as you said, you know, a few, a few minutes ago.
Simon: Yeah, so it's something I have to look into. At some time I started my cryptocurrency channel with. I still have my face on it. The reason being is that I split test the different thumbnails on TubeBuddy, which is an extension you can download for YouTube, if you go for the Legendary. I think it's called Legend for legends plan, you get the thumbnail split test feature, which is an awesome tool by the way, I've kind of been able to revive videos that haven't been getting any views to getting a lot of views now by simply split testing thumbnails getting another, another 1% click through rate, and that showed the algorithm that that's actually a clickable thumbnail and then started showing the video so
Dave: You have a video review of TubeBuddy?
Simon: Yeah, that's the last video, another review I did, tutorial I have a complete tutorial for
Dave: All right well here we go we're gonna post that we're gonna put it I mean not that folks can't go and get your can go and follow you but let me show you guys. Yep, the latest video you guys can go check that out. It's a great example of exactly what we've been talking about inaction. It's Simon's latest video here to buddy, it's a solid 56 minute tutorial. And there's his affiliate link so if he has convinced you or educated you enough that you know you're interested in that product, make sure that you click his link, and, and he'll get affiliate credit for that, and that'll be a way for you to experience, you know, how the process of, you know, building a YouTube channel, and then rec, you know, reviewing, I like I like the point that you made about trying to be unbiased, try to show the goods and the bads so people can get an honest review of what the product does and you know people want to know its strengths and its weaknesses they want to feel like they're, they're learning from somebody who's, I think, I think a common. I think a common mistake that people make is trying to oversell things and trying to make them sound like they're only all good. I see affiliates of ours doing that, no trying to make it seem like it's only all good, you know, when it may not be for everybody, and adding some of that sort of not getting down on what you're reviewing and saying, well it really sucks and, you know this, you know a lot of people think it sucks. I mean, you're probably not going to do too many affiliate sales that way, but just, you know, if you go and you look at some of these, these larger kind of reviewer or unboxers out if I view the Tesla S plaid I was considering being one of these, and I watched some review videos from some dudes like this guy right here, marquees, I think that's his name or Keith brown Yes, probably. Yeah, real, real smart cat, real smart cat, and, you know, he, you know he's got 14 million subscribers and if you watch one of his videos, it's not all good. He's like, you know, this, I don't like the steering wheel it's, we're like, you, you may love it. I don't personally like it, you know, it's taken some time to get used to him giving his honest opinion of his experience, and it makes him more believable because it's what he would share with his best friend, you know, so. But anyways, man we could talk about this stuff for so long, I just, I encourage everybody to go check out your channel, watch a few of your videos, both to learn about things, and subscribe to your channel. If you're gonna buy something that, like a two buddy or another product, buy through Simon, go through that process and feel and experience what it's like. And then, you know, you, you then have that knowledge of experience if you would like to go in and model that sort of a strategy and I just want to thank you again man for your time we'll have you on for part three, it's always, you know, I looked up at the clock at 10:25 and I was like, Crap by, maybe I'll wrap this up and it'd be a short one today and it's like I can't I can't stop talking to you because it's, it's just, you're smart, and you're, you're hungry and you and you've taken the time to think about what you want. And I really like to respect that a lot. Hey man, if you're willing, keep coming back and sharing this incredible experience that you have and if I come over to Switzerland I'll certainly hit you up.
Simon: For sure, yeah let's meet up then. Can I say one more thing because, the thing you said about this YouTube channel that actually just reposts content like Lucy and stuff. I think that's a great thing to try and get going. If you are just starting out because I think many people listening here are looking for something that works trying to make their first dollars online, and honestly if I would start out now, because I know I would. I didn't want to put my face out there in the beginning. So, what I would do is I go around YouTube try to find channels that are actually doing this so try to find compilation channels, try to find, like I saw it into crypto space, people just doing a compilation of Michael sailor talking about Bitcoin, which really, they got the channel got a lot of you I think it's related. You are late for something like this. And you did. They try to change the content a bit so that YouTube doesn't D monetize them so you kind of find the patterns of how you can create a channel that you don't have to create content yourself you can do like compilations, and then you can still get ad revenue, and with YouTube. They just don't want you to do lazy content, they don't want you to pull something from another channel, put it on your channel and then get ad revenue so this is kind of not allowed on the platform, but there is a line between what is lazy content and what is just a compilation style content. And this is something that I wouldn't get into when I would start right now might get into it as well when I find some time for it so this is how I'm doing.
Dave: Well, I will try to find that YouTube channel that my buddy bought and come back and post it in the comments and shoot you a message, just so you can check it out as well and things we'll talk more about on the next you know Mark Three when we have you back. So,
if I get some more knowledge of this I will share it here. All right, man. We'll talk to you later.
Simon: Okay, thanks for having me again.
Dave: Thanks man. All right my friends go check him out Simon at medics media, it we'll see you guys back here tomorrow for another episode. As usual, five days a week. Does this incredible value I'm here to learn? Just right alongside each one of you, be Legendary, get out of here. See you tomorrow.
