While in the Arizona forest, Amanda and I made a video tour of my van, bike, and trailer for her YouTube channel.
If you’ve been following along here, there’s nothing here you don’t already know. But if you’re new, this is a great overview of my current setup in my 2021 Ford Transit, my cargo trailer, and my motorcycle. Amanda’s fans seem to have enjoyed it, with a bunch coming over to my channel to see what it’s all about as well. In fact, the sudden surge of interest has pushed me from about 750 to over 800 subscribers, and climbing! It’s nothing compared to the 20,000 mark that Amanda just crossed (with this video!) but it’s big for me, more than I’ve ever had.
It’s a good wave for me to jump on and ride, so I’m going to try making more videos. Amanda and I have had some great chats about how she’s achieved her success on YouTube. Like me, she started with a blog, but saw the tide turning toward video since fewer people want to read anymore. I appreciate those of you who still do, and I’m not about to stop writing here. But her observation is absolutely correct, and she’s successfully pivoted to take advantage of it. Even with 20,000 subscribers, she’s still considered a pretty small channel these days. Living the way she does, though, she earns enough money doing it to sustain herself without a “real” job. I don’t know if I’ll ever achieve that, but it would be nice to turn YouTube into another revenue stream instead of just a hobby that keeps frustrating me so much that I stop making videos for months and months. I’m not going to make any promises on videos, but I’ll at least take another crack at it while I’ve caught a good wave of interest to ride on.
It’s ironic that not too long ago I wrote a rant about how YouTube is not a magic bullet for success, yet here I am giving it another try. I never said you can’t make a living on YouTube. It’s more likely that you’ll at least be able to put a few extra bucks in your pocket that way. That’s all I’m trying for at this point. I have enough writing and editing work to live on and plan to write a book and set up a book editing business, so I’m not planning to rely on YouTube alone. You can’t. But why not add another leg to my platform if I can?
Smokey Da Van 
Glad you recognize that the entire world is NOT just those who (now) want to watch videos. 90% of the time, when I Google a thing, my response is “I don’t WANT to watch a 30 minute video, just gimme the info in text!” Maybe I’m showing my age, but … most of the time, I can scan a 20 page text document faster than I can find the relevant info in a video. Now, I don’t mean that for all things, but pretty much most non-visual-necessary how-to’s, and ANY news article.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m the same way! I mean, I’m a writer, so I’m incredibly biased. But yes, I just want to scan something written to find the nugget of info I’m looking for, not sit through a half hour video that turns out to not cover the topic I needed at all. Videos are great for overviews, but the written word still very much has its place.
LikeLike