YouTube

So I've been building up a YouTube channel with content relevant to my books. I did this in response to my TAB/McGraw-Hill editor saying he'd like me to be active in promoting my book (the first, ever, may I say, who asked me to do so).

I'm sure that this will come as no surprise to those of you who have promoted your books, but I'm finding it really does make a difference.    It's just a small channel with 17 subscribers and about 40 vids, but it gets a lot of hits, and many bounce over to my website to peruse what I've got there.

I monetized my vids. Yes, it's cheesy, but I figure if someone benefits from them, they can sit through four seconds of a commercial. Reading YT boards, I've learned that some people make significant sums with their channels, even put themselves through college with it.

My goal is to make $100/month with my channel, the minimum amount needed for a payout. Google has amazing analytics. I can see which vids are making money, which aren't, which get hits and from where, where they're shared, and I tweak titles, content and duration accordingly.

Educational vids seem to be where it's at. People are hungry to learn things. Teach them stuff in short, coherent bursts, and you have a winner. Since I learned how to use Camtasia, making vids is fun and easy. My TAB book has tight deadlines, but working in half an hour for a vid isn't hard; I actually tend to do them late at night when I'm not able to concentrate on the book any more.

Anyone here doing something with a YT channel?

I am co producer of a video series on YouTube. It was Google's tools that allowed us to target our audience and raise a tiny bit of revenue. It took us a year to make over $100 a month.

A year doesn't sound bad to me, as this is just a hobby. I like the idea that once I do a vid it's out there earning money without further effort on my part.

My vids are short, instructional pieces that don't take much time and, in fact, complement my classes and books. So even if they didn't make money, they're still benefiting me.

What a great idea.  I would love to see some examples.

PM me and I'll send you a link to my YT channel.

After the series ended (it was always intended to go a short duration) the revnue fell off pretty fast but I imagine something like yours has more leg.

I PM'ed you for a link as well. I'll reply with the link to mine.

There are decent money-making markets for people who can make good vids of timely subjects, not just YouTube. My agent is always asking me if there's anything I can do for lynda.com. No, because anything I can do has already done there, lol. Too bad, because authors of their popular courses make small fortunes. But there are other outlets for educational vids too, like udemy.com.

I would think YouTube would be the best outlet for your work, unless there is a site specific to your field. Lynda.com used to have nifty wallpapers that you could download. I still have a few on my computer somewhere.

Well, you can't sell your vids on YouTube, you can only monetize them with Google ads. You can sell whole courses on other sites. 

You can sell subscriptions on YouTube if you have over 10K followers. I don't see that happening for me, lol.

Well if it's going to happen you are going to have to be a social media butterfly, publicize it via twitter/Facebook/google+