To understand how we got here, we need to start from the beginning.
By most standards, I was doing well. My video marketing company was growing, I was working with “the top” people in the industry, and getting paid well to do so.
Here’s the problem: I was having challenges with stress, and my health… And I was on a rollercoaster with client work. I would have HUGE months, and then really small months.
If you’ve ever done client work before, you know it can be really tough (even if you have great clients).
So I started to TINKER With my business model.
I had to figure out how could I continue to make more money (or even the same amount) without getting more clients or hiring a big team.
I started researching obsessively about passive income. Trying to figure out what would be the best model for me. Then the pandemic hit. And in the anxiety that was the first few months of covid, I decided to start pivoting my business towards growing a youtube channel in the health space.
I had the intuition to start doing youtube because, I kept running into this conversation where I’d be coaching my clients on what to say in their ads, and they’d just say, “It sounds so good when you say it, why don’t you just do it.”
Finally, after long enough, it became clear.
I will just do it.
Only problem was, I didn’t want to sell other people’s coaching offers. I just wasn’t buying tons of coaching and digital products so it didn’t make sense for me. I needed products I could personally use so that I could sell them ethically.
Because of my challenges with the health stuff I started getting really into biohacking and learning about different lifestyle interventions that I could use to feel better.
And I loved the idea of helping these companies sell physical products, because honestly most of them have horrible marketing.
I believe that the best products in the world, usually have the worst marketing. So it’s my job to find those products and help them get into the hands of more people.
So I decided to start making videos about that stuff. Sure enough one of the first videos I made ranked #1 on google and youtube and started to generate a significant amount of traffic. And I had linked to some amazon products in the description.
I’ll never forget my first passive income sale was 20$ and shattered my worldview because for the first time I could sell something and then not have to do some huge project and get stuck in fulfillment.
That was the best money I’ve ever made. Bar none. Way more satisfying than landing a big video client.
Once I got a taste that was it.
I found more and more companies that I loved and could feel good about promoting, and just kept as consistent as I could with posting 1 high quality video every week.
I knew the key would be about building a real audience of people who really trust me, and know I’m not going to be promoting any bullshit just because it makes money.
So I made my focus going deep, instead of wide.
I don’t have any interest in being super famous or having a huge audience. But there is a lot of value in being marginally famous to small group of people and having a raving fan base of 10,000 true fans.
10,000 true fans who will pay you $100 over the course of a year is a 7 figure business.
The thing that I didn’t realize when I was starting is that my audience is happy to spend money on the right products, most of the people who consume my content are entrepreneurs, athletes, and high performers. So as long as something works and gets the result they are usually price insensitive because they understand the ROI.
Some of the products that I love and started to promote are expensive, and so with fewer people I was able to start seeing my numbers grow pretty quickly.
The crazy part was I was using these products anyway, and I would sell my friends on getting these things already. For example I was telling everyone to get the oura ring but I just wasn’t getting paid for it.
So the model lent to my strengths really nicely. I love health stuff, I love making videos, I love selling things, and then put that on an infinitely scalable platform like youtube where you get evergreen traffic and you have a recipe for a good time :).
So now my job is to find companies I like, partner with them, and persuade them to help me promote the video I’m going to make for them (which normally would cost them thousands if they were my client), and do whatever I can to get the video to rank for our desired keywords and then boom. Evergreen sales machine.
As the channel grows, every single video on the channel gets more exposure. A rising tide lifts all ships. Move viewership = more sales
Here’s the key:
- amazing products (like real products, not BS CPA offers)
- high quality content
- true belief in what I’m selling #alignment
Honestly, it felt very slow in the beginning, even though I got some quick wins. Things didn’t really start to pop until 4 or 5 months ago. So I was literally throwing shit at the wall for a year and a half. And then it finally hit some serious momentum. But that’s the power of compound interest. It’s slow at first, and then it builds.
This has been one of the hardest business things I’ve done, and I’m a pretty experienced marketer. It was more spiritually challenging than anything. There were some weeks I’d put 40 hours into a video just to get a couple of hundred views and zero sales.
And don’t get it twisted, I haven’t personally made 7 figures YET, but I’ve got a nice cut for myself. But it’s crazy to think I’ve sold that much stuff from such a small channel.
The crazier part is the entire channel is pretty much outsourced except for the research and the shooting.
If you want to learn how I started to systemize my youtube channel, and pull myself out of the operations of it then jump on my email list and you’ll get my playbook for how to free up 10 – 15 hours a week.
So how do you rank a video on youtube?
You have to know what the algorithm is looking for.
1) CTR – Clickthrough rate (good thumbnail)
2) Watch time – good content
3) engagement – likes, comments, shares, and subscribes
4) session time – people staying on youtube
How do you what keywords to go after?
Same as normal SEO: high volume, low competition, search pool of less than 100k videos.
The best way to start researching keywords is by using tubebuddy to find out what keywords for your topics might be good ones to go after. This tool gives you all the data you need to figure out if a topic is worth your time or not.
High ticket affiliate marketing + youtube SEO = small channel big profits.
The only problem with affiliate marketing is you don’t control the funnel so I had to start thinking about how I could build my own assets that would also sell affiliate products for me but would build my tribe.
That’s where my course The Sleep Advantage enters into the picture.
My content around the oura ring and sleep was really performing and it happened to be the thing I knew the most about. I had been experimenting and testing things for years and getting really great results.
Everyone asked me for advice so eventually I package up my knowledge into a low-ticket course and inside of the course I recommend products that people can use to help with their sleep optimization process.
Let’s be clear, I ACTUALLY USE THESE PRODUCTS AND ACTUALLY LOVE THEM.
So people come into the course, I teach them how to start improving their sleep, and then they buy the products I recommend – might as well get paid for it right?
Then once my customer get amazing results (which they do, because the shit I teach actually works) I’ve just won their trust.
And now my job is to continue to provide them with more value and solve more of their problems.
Because I’ve done good by them this first time, they are more likely to buy something I recommend to them next time.
THIS PART IS CRITICAL – You might want to read this last section again.
The reason why this works I think is because I am OBSESSED with the stuff I’m talking about. And people feel that through the videos and therefore I’m very enrolling, and because of that conversions are really high + I’m speaking to hot traffic.
So if you wanted to replicate this, find something that you are fanatical about. It’s the thing you can’t shut up about.
It’s gotta be YOUR thing though.
Because chances are you’re already recommending things to people… you’re just not getting paid for it.
Whether you’re into interior design, or cooking, or cars, or whatever your weird geeky thing is. You get to flex that shit and put it on the internet.
The best affiliates in the world are super passionate and love helping people. They make the highest quality content that REALLY helps people and SOLVES real problems.
You can try to replicate all the tactics mentioned here… But if it’s not authentic then you will fail.
Youtube is just too hard and too competitive. If you’re not in it for intrinsic reasons you’re dead in the water.
So if you’re just trying to make money, good luck. If you are truly excited about something and want to share it with the world that’s where the magic starts to happen.
Because that will give you the persistence you need to keep going even when you’re not seeing results.
But even me, someone who has been doing video for years… I still had my struggles and I’m not ashamed to say that I learned as much as I could when I was first getting started. The first place I started was with Sean Cannell’s course on how to rank videos on youtube. Soon thereafter I went through Amy Sangster’s course which gave wider view of what’s possible when thinking about your channel strategy.
When I saw what Amy was able to do with a small channel, that’s when I knew that what I was trying to do was going to be possible.
Growing a channel is like raising a child. You better be prepared for it, and you better get your mind right. So if you’re embarking on this journey I definitely encourage you check out both Sean and Amy’s resources to give yourself the best possible chance of success.
Let me reiterate, this strategy will not work if you’re not in it for the right reasons.
Youtube is not for the faint of heart.
Many creators have died by the sword trying to get a channel off the ground.
Youtube seems really cool and sexy until you’re spending hours a day editing, and looking at the analytics.
But for me it works. And I’ve found a way to make it work for me. And now my channel is consistently bringing in 70k views a month and growing fast, and it only takes me 5 – 10 hours a week to manage.
Hope this helps. I know I would have loved to hear some of this stuff when I was first starting out on this journey.
-Kyle
PS – if you choose to buy anything through links on my website it does support me in creating more free content like this in the future
PPS – you should definitely join the squad my private email list, I promise to deliver only the best content for you