Would you mind introducing yourself?
My name is Brett Stelmaszek and I’m an American living in South Africa with my wife and two children. Since moving to South Africa, I began growing my YouTube channel as a hobby.
My YouTube channel is mainly centered around technology with a specific focus on computer hardware. I’ve been focusing on reviews for the time being, but also hope to expand my type of content in the near future.
Are you a full-time YouTuber or do you have a regular day job?
Neither really.
My main job is homeschooling my children while my wife and I work with a local church in various ministry endeavors, and then YouTube mainly comes after-hours between 9PM-2AM.
What are the specs of your current gaming setup/workstation?
It fluctuates based on what I’m reviewing, but when I have no review items:
CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K
MB: MSI Z170A Gaming Pro Carbon
RAM: 8GB Trident Z DDR4-3466 (2x4GB)
GPU: PowerColor R7 370
Do you earn income from your YouTube channel?
I do have monetization turned on for my channel, but so far I’ve earned less every month than the electricity costs to run my PC for one day.
How can people earn an income from creating YouTube content?
The main way is through AdSense, which is based off of ads displaying on your videos, but the amount you earn per video varies widely. The industry standard is roughly
$1 per 1,000 views, but I’m earning significantly below that mark.
Other ways to monetize involve bringing on companies as sponsors for your channel or getting an Amazon Associates account in which Amazon pays you a cut 4-6% cut of what people by when using your affiliate link. (I believe >Loot
has a similar program here in SA.)
Most of it is dependent on how many people you’re reaching through your videos. However, if your reach is small, but your depth within that community is great, then companies should value that more over raw subscription numbers. Samantha Wright wrote a great article on this on Social Media Today.
How long do you spend per day on your YouTube channel?
It varies widely on the day and what else I have going on in my life, but I try to have that 9PM-2AM block set aside 3-4 times per week so that I can develop my channel. I strive to put out 2 videos per week.
Do you have any advice for South Africans interested in creating YouTube content?
I have several thoughts on this:
- Growth takes consistent effort.
Consistent content that is improving is the “key” to generating subscribers.Just because something doesn’t show results initially doesn’t mean that it doesn’t work.
- Do something that you’re passionate about, but also there’s an opportunity for in the market.
If you have something unique to offer that differentiates you from the current market, then you’ll have a much better time entering in.
- Just make content.
Whether you’re highly familiar with being on-camera or your smartphone has the worst video production quality in the world, making content is better than not.
Just going for it allows you to develop the skills that you need to actual produce better content.
- Be honest with yourself about your strengths and weaknesses.
Don’t try to be something that you’re not. And while the question is for people who are interested in creating YouTube content, part of being honest is maybe realizing that you’re not going to succeed at YouTube.
Maybe it would be better for you to leverage your strengths on a written blog, or on Snapchat, or on Instagram, or some other social platform.