The Story of the Lili Invests YouTube Channel

Uncategorized May 17, 2023

What's up guys? My name is Lili and I've been posting consistently to my Lili Invests YouTube channel for over 2 years. Now my channel has 185,000 subscribers, 267 videos, and almost 7 million views!

My channel is all about my journey to financial freedom through real estate investing.

Today I wanna talk about the mindset behind starting a YouTube channel because as my journey has shown, if you're able to step outside of your comfort zone, there is a big opportunity for starting a YouTube channel and it could quite possibly change your life.

Not only is YouTube the second biggest search engine on the planet, but video content is very quickly becoming the number one way people get their education, connection, and entertainment. Think about if you need to learn how to change a tire, you're probably gonna go watch a video about it rather than reading an instruction manual.

Same thing often goes for a lot of things that we're doing in our day-to-day life: people rather watch it on video than to read about it in an article. A Cisco study done a few years ago said that by 2020, 75% of people using mobile phones would be doing so to view video. And with the way that 2020 went, it's only becoming more common that people are using video for their laughs, for their entertainment and to connect with each other.

So what does this mean for you as a new YouTuber? The opportunity to make a full-time career out of being a YouTuber is a realistic option that people just a few years ago may have never considered.

When I was a kid, the most common answer to the “What do you wanna be when you grow up?” question was a doctor or an astronaut.

YouTube Ad Monetization

Today, over a third of kids say that they want to be a YouTuber. And truly, it's not an aspiration to laugh at. Because of the way that money and advertising work on YouTube, your earning potential on this website is almost infinitely scalable and it's built in your favor. It's completely free for content creators and viewers to upload and watch content.

The big bucks come into play with the advertisers. Advertisers pay YouTube to put ads before, during, after videos at the bottom of the screen and in the sidebar, and once your channel qualifies for monetization, which we'll talk about in a moment. But once you qualify, YouTube keeps 45% of what the advertiser paid to put ads on your video, and you get to keep 55%.

Whether you think that's a fair split or not, it's a unique opportunity to create something for free, allow people to watch it for free, and to still get paid. That's not an option that you have in a lot of other places. If you're curious about how to monetize your channel and start raking in those big bucks, YouTube requires you to have 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in the last 12 months.

This might sound like a big hurdle to get over, but in my YouTube journey, I share how it took me 22 videos to get 1,000 subscribers, and then I was at 39 videos when I got to the 4,000 watch hours. And if you're intimidated by those requirements, don't be. I wanna share two things that might help you shift your perspective and also share some ways that you can start making money from your channel before you ever reach YouTube's requirement.

First, depending on what you choose to make videos about, the efforts to reach monetization can be more than worth it because advertisers are paying more and more to get in front of audiences. As people watch more and more video content online, advertisers are shifting their budgets away from traditional TV ads.

The New York Times even wrote an article titled “Why Traditional TV is in Trouble,” and showed the decline in the amount of money that advertisers are spending on commercials. But on YouTube, it's the opposite. Advertisers are dumping more and more money onto the platform. Once you get monetized, YouTube has a metric that tells you how much advertisers are paying to put ads on your videos.

It's called CPM, which stands for cost per mil, AKA how much advertisers are paying per 1000 views. It used to be that certain niches made almost nothing whereas other niches made a lot more, depending on how bad advertisers wanted to get in front of those particular audiences. But in the last few months, with so many people being home and watching YouTube much more often, I've seen a lot of YouTubers talking about how their CPMs are skyrocketing.

Shelby Church recently shared that her CPM jumped from $8.99 to $17.65, and this was on her vlog channel. And vlogs are typically considered a low earning niche compared to something like finance or real estate. And even for me, a new creator who's been posting consistently on the platform for less than a year, I've been able to pull in a CPM higher than anyone’s that I've seen talk about, at over $60!

So now truly is the best time to start a YouTube channel. Even if you think the space is overcrowded, advertisers are dumping more and more money into the platform, and so everybody eats.

Affiliate Marketing Monetization

But you don't even have to wait to reach the 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours to start making money from your channel. I started earning money before I got my channel monetized by doing something called affiliate marketing.

You may think of affiliate marketing as like a scammy internet thing, but it truly doesn't have to be. Regardless of what your channel is about, you can find a product that you actually love, whether it be lip gloss or a fancy keyboard. And once you become part of that company's affiliate program, which are oftentimes completely free to join, you'll get your own personalized link.

You can make videos about why you love that product and how you use it, and the people that watch it and click the link in the description for those that purchase something, you'll get a portion of the money they paid.

Brand Sponsorship Monetization

You can also have brands sponsor your videos and pay you to tell your audience about their product.

I've heard other YouTubers say it, and it happened to me too, where before I even reached the monetization standards, I had brands reaching out, offering me brand deals to tell my audience about their product. Plus, you can get paid by getting free stuff. There are hair and makeup YouTubers who get free stuff sent to them so they can try it out and review it in their videos.

There are tech YouTubers who get sent free items to do unboxing videos before the public even gets access to them. So whatever your YouTube channel is gonna be about, you can start making money from it way before you even get money from YouTube ads.

Document Your Journey

But what if you don't know what your channel should be about?

I was actually in the same boat. I didn't set out to make a real estate investing channel. In fact, at the time I started this channel, I was actually traveling the world playing basketball with the Harlem Globetrotters. One of my friends sent me a quote from a book he was reading and it was “Do cool stuff and document it.”

And so I figured that I'm doing really cool stuff, and it's already part of my job to take behind the scene videos of my interviews and trick shots.

So I started putting some of that content together for YouTube videos, and then March 2020 happened and everything shut down. No more traveling, no more trick shots. And like a lot of people, I found myself at home with a lot more time on my hands, and an understanding of just how financially precarious most people's situations are, and that's when I dove headfirst into real estate.

I decided I would document the journey along the way. I didn't have a bunch of fancy camera gear, and I didn't have a lot of experience. So don't think you have to be an expert in whatever you want to make a channel about, whether you're going to learn a new skill like drawing or video production, or sign language.

There is a lot of value to be had in being your authentic self, documenting your journey, and sharing it with people who are interested in the same topic.

I've been talking about the ups and downs of my investing journey, and sharing your honest experiences is, in my opinion, the best way to build an authentic connection with your audience, because beginners can absolutely learn from other beginners.

But what if you don't want to teach people something?

Well, maybe you're funny and witty, or you have a skill that is entertaining and people love to watch. People don't just come to YouTube for education, but also for entertainment and companionship. There are videos like “what I eat in a week” and “how much money I spend in a week.”

And these videos like “Study With Me’s” and “Get Ready with Me’s” are racking up hundreds of thousands, even millions of views. So regardless of what your interests are, there's a way to make it as a YouTuber. You should also think about all of the people you could reach through your YouTube channel. It's easier than ever to watch YouTube on your phone, on a tablet, on your laptop, on a smart TV.

Over 1.9 billion hours of YouTube are watched every single day, which is more than Netflix and Facebook video combined. You can use your YouTube channel to connect with people you never would have otherwise. You can use it to put your creative work out there and find job opportunities. You can use it to learn a new skill until the world opens back up.

The opportunities are endless.

Someone is going to change their life by starting a YouTube channel this year.

Why not you?

START YOUR REAL ESTATE INVESTING JOURNEY TODAY!

So, now that you've gotten an intro to the Lili Invests YouTube channel, are you ready to start your real estate investing journey?

If so, you can use my Free Resource Pack to help get your real estate investing journey off the ground. It includes:

My Offer Sheet Template
My Phone Scripts for Calling Real Estate Agents
The Wholesaling Deal Tracker

So what are you waiting for?