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My small Youtube channel landed me my first paying gig!

Wanted to share a small win with all of you.

About four months ago I started a Youtube channel on making things using no-code tools: https://www.youtube.com/c/MakeSomethingwithRomy/.

Two weeks ago it helped me land my first paying gig! Atto, a VC firm asked me to join them as a no-code EIR for their current batch.

When I told people I started a Youtube channel, the first reaction was usually why?! Concerns I got was: Youtube is notoriously slow to monetize, monetization starts at 1000 subs. On average it takes 22 months to reach 1000 subs - it's really hard. And even then Youtube will not be able to pay your bills till at least 100k subs.

I knew I wanted to do videos for a couple of reasons. I wanted to show my process of creation and video is more effective to convey than writing. Second, it was scary but also really exciting to do it. I was ok with it being a long term thing (almost everything is a long term thing). They were right in that I was unlikely going to money off Youtube for a long time but didn't know that you can from other places.

Finally, all I did was share my work on Twitter mostly and the founder of the firm, Kate found me through there. Don't hesitate to put your work out, you never know what opportunities it may bring you!

  1. 4

    Congrats on doing something most people are not willing to do! Great way to put yourself out there and display your skills. Well deserved EIR role.

    1. 1

      You know, when it comes to youtube, it is a really hard and long journey to get enough subscribers for monetization. So, here are some advices for those who wants to rise the number of subs: first thing you need to do is obviously make a good content - otherwise nobody will be watching it. The second tip is to make a collaborations with bigger channels - it helps a lot to boost up the amount of subs. And the last tip would be to buy youtube views paypal, for example. It will help you to start, and then it is easier to continue.

  2. 3

    Don't hesitate to put your work out'

    It can be scary but it is totally worth it.

    Huge congratulations to you, Romy! I too wish to launch youtube since teenage years. :D

    Cheers!

  3. 2

    Congrats, Keep growing your Channel...

  4. 2

    Congratulations @romymisra ! You courage and dedication is inspiring. Keep up the good work and awesome videos. Maybe take a look at some of the Indie Hackers projects in the no-code space. They are many :)

  5. 2

    This is so awesome! Kudos to you! Even though I'm a coder I subscribed as I assumed I could learn a lot! Always better to write no code even when coding is the job :)

    1. 1

      Thanks @diddydustin! In certain cases, it actually makes more sense to use these tools over coding from scratch for sure.

  6. 1

    Absolutely love stories like these! Great work, @romymisra! I'd actually love to know WHO you were trying to help here... Was it the regular new indie hacker, or just sharing your way of doing things without any specific target audience in mind? Keep the amazing inspiring work coming :)

    1. 2

      @rishoutloud the audience I was keeping it mind were people who were trying to make things for the first time. New indie-hacker from a non-engineering background. Then I started showing the videos to my audience and then would take the feedback from there to understand if it's effective.

      1. 1

        Makes sense! Seems like you were targeting Romy from the past... A very highly-recommended strategy for building an authority on a subject matter.

        Okay, second question ;)

        How do you take feedback from them on YouTube? Like, do they comment or email or what?

        Just trying to understand as I'm figuring this out for a project and it sure isn't easy.

        1. 2

          All those things plus even people you know who fit the audience showing it to them and seeing what they react to.

  7. 1

    And even then Youtube will not be able to pay your bills till at least 100k subs.

    This is true if you monetize through ads.

    But, I live off of my video tutorials on YT with just 3200 subs! The key is that I make some of them premium and only give access to people who buy monthly or annual memberships.

    1. 1

      No way! That's awesome. Would love to connect and learn more if you be up for it :)

      1. 1

        Just email me. Happy to chat.

  8. 1

    Congratulations Romy.
    You got +1 sub

    They were right in that I was unlikely going to money off Youtube for a long time but didn't know that you can from other places.

    you decided & executed. Kudos to you.

  9. 1

    Congratulations EIR, you just got +1 sub on YouTube

  10. 1

    Really cool! Congrats! And thanks for sharing this!

  11. 1

    "do things that don't scale"

  12. 1

    Amazing, sounds like a dream.

  13. 1

    That's awesome @romymisra! I'm really glad for you and it's a really effective way. I too have a story of how writing my weekly Substack blog got me a part-time product gig at this early stage company. I'll share that soon.

    Showing your work and your thinking process really works!

    1. 1

      Thank you! Definitely share your story, look forward to reading it.

  14. 1

    Cool Romy. Congratulations. Sometimes people forget about alternative revenue when they are too focused on the mainstream.

  15. 1

    Nice to hear such a positive post. Nice work!!!

  16. 1

    Love this! I’d say it was a big win! Congrats!

  17. 1

    Congratulations Romy. Are you doing any of your no-code projects on YouTube Live? Would love to watch in realtime.

    1. 1

      Not yet, planning to do some live streams in the future though :)

      1. 2

        Hit me up when you do. Would love to have you as a beta user on my site. I think you'd have some interesting insights.

  18. 1

    Congratulations Romy!

  19. 1

    Hey, congratulations!!

    1. 1

      Entrepreneur in residence!

  20. 1

    Congrats Romy. I’ve watched a few of your videos and the main thing I noticed was how simple you made things look. Hope you great success at your gig.

  21. 1

    Thats so freaking awesome!!!!!!

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