This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
From 2002 until I believe about 2013, I was on a quest to visit every country in the world. It was a big part of what I did. It's kind of how I got started writing and sharing online. And you can read more about that on my blog or in the book, "The Happiness of Pursuit," if you're interested. And if you're not, that's okay because this is sinus school.
I'm gonna talk to you about how to make money, how to make some extra money without quitting your job. One of the things that helped a lot in making that journey possible, that quest that I undertook on a relatively low budget, especially the first half of the journey, was learning the art of travel hacking. And I write about that from time to time on my blog as well. And also in a service I founded many years ago called the Travel Hacking Cartel. And I was reminded of all that by today's story in which a management consultant creates a series of astute traveling videos.
These are travel videos on YouTube. And it seemed like a crowded market when he was jumping into it. But this rewards loving consultant finds a way to stand out. Now, after some trial and error, he's now making at least $1,000 a month on the side and it seems well positioned to grow. So here's a shout out to our sponsor.
And then we'll hear about the management consultant who creates astute traveling videos. [Music]
Ernest Shabazzian loves to travel hack. When off on an adventure, he's always on the lookout for the best deal. And to get there in the first place, he often uses rewards points to get discounts on flights. In that respect, he isn't special.
There's a lot of people out there doing the same thing. Hey, including myself. But that's why when it came to starting a side hustle, he wasn't instinctively drawn to something travel related. Why add one more anonymous voice to a crowded marketplace? But while working his day job as a management consultant, he was inspired by a coworker to just try.
It was the catalyst to begin the side hustle trip of a lifetime. One day, Ernest and that colleague were chatting over lunch. The guy was interested in learning more about using credit cards to get reward points, but didn't have the time to delve into long blog posts or forums. He explained to Ernest that he'd much prefer to watch some videos about it, but he couldn't find any good ones. He suggested Ernest do something about it.
Now at first, Ernest was skeptical. It was already 2016 at this point. And surely there'd be plenty of video content out there about rewards points. But after searching YouTube, he agreed with his colleague. What was out there wasn't very good.
And he thought he could do a lot better. So he packed his bags and decided to get started. His journey was to create a YouTube channel for the astute traveler. He'd offer travel advice, reviews, and of course tips on earning rewards. He decided to call the project Trip Astute.
The mission was to help people maximize their travel experiences. He registered a business name, a domain name, and created a logo and YouTube account. That was all he needed. Trip Astute was ready for takeoff. The first stop or layover was to create some introductory videos.
For that, he purchased some basic equipment on Amazon. He created a makeshift studio in his apartment and was ready to go. But he stalled for a while on the runway. Partly because he was nervous, he didn't have a video ready until six months after registering the business. But eventually he was number one for departure.
Those first few videos took a long time to produce. He had to learn lighting, editing, and all the technicalities of using YouTube. Not impossible, but he just had to figure it out. Took some time. By the end of his first month of publishing, he made a few videos with titles like How to Travel for Free and Getting Cash Abroad.
That first month also saw his first income from YouTube ads. A grand total of, let me look this up here. Let me make sure I get this right. It's a lot of money, 70 cents. A grand total of 70 cents.
Which is not quite enough to buy a candy bar at an airport store these days, but he didn't expect a lot at first. Rome wasn't built in a day, nor are YouTube channels. Ernest committed to posting a new video each week. He improved along the way. A few months later, he was much more comfortable in front of the camera.
The quality of his videos was better, and he became much faster at editing. By the six-month point, he'd reached 1,000 subscribers and felt like he'd hit cruising altitude. Revenue was slowly increasing as well. By posting a combination of travel tips, gear reviews, and credit card information, he was able to make money from a few different sources. He had ad income, affiliate commissions, credit card referrals.
All these things were adding up to a few hundred bucks a month. Then, in April 2018, something happened that every content creator dreams up. Ernest went viral. His subscriber count jumped to 5,000 almost overnight, and his video titled "Things That an American Notices in England" received hundreds of thousands of views. There's no formula to going viral, and Ernest isn't sure why the clip caught on.
He puts it down to creating content consistently, just putting stuff out there over time and eventually something will catch on. Now, I actually have a comment on that, so stay tuned. I do have a theory about why this video took off and some of the others didn't, but hold that thought. The viral video reinvigorated Ernest. Like a backpacker fueled by banana pancakes, he had no intention of slowing down.
Ernest noticed that the largest percentage of his increased revenue came from credit card referrals, so he decided to double down on that to make more money. What many people do in a credit card space is simply review the cards, hope for somebody to find the review, then sign up so they receive a commission. Ernest decided to do things differently. He set up a page on his website offering free credit card consultations to would-be travel hackers. If somebody filled out the form, they'd receive a free 15-minute consultation about the best credit card rewards hacks.
He began directing his audience to the page through the videos and website. In the first week, he had 40 signups and earned commissions from several of them. All the while, his audience continued to grow. By November 2018, the channel had over 10,000 subscribers and two million video views, enough people to populate a large city. For him, the benefits aren't just monetary.
For one, he's now a better communicator and a more confident person. He developed skills in marketing and brand building. And also, building an audience through YouTube has brought a lot of positivity to his life. Many of his subscribers care about him and they want to see him succeed. This positive feedback has kept him flying forward.
Ernest is currently earning about $1,000 a month from his efforts and he has big plans, including a goal to reach 50,000 subscribers. He also hopes to partner with brands to create sponsored videos as a way to attract more revenue. Long-term, he's hoping Trip Astute can become his full-time gig. For that to happen, he wants to be earning $5,000 a month consistently. For now, he continues to enjoy the journey.
[Music]
Awesome, congratulations to Ernest. Let this be a reminder to somebody out there that just because a market seems to be crowded, doesn't mean that there is not space for you. I took a look at some of his videos and you can definitely see that he's establishing his own style, his own voice, and you can see that progression over time, which is how it's gonna be for everybody. If you start blogging, podcasting, making videos, whatever it is, as long as you keep doing it over time, you are gonna get better at it. And that ultimately is what leads you to stand out.
Now, I do wanna say something about that viral video, that big success that he had. Personally, I'm not an expert in trying to make something go viral. I'm not really good at that. I'm much better at the make consistent work every single day kind of thing. But I do see a big difference in the title and topic in the video he made that went over super well compared to some of the others.
So, his first videos are things like how to get cash out of an ATM or, you know, it's called a cash machine in other parts of the world. Fun fact, how to get money out of an ATM or cash machine. And then the one that really took off was things that an American notices in England. So on YouTube, you're probably aware already, a lot of the videos that are popular, you end up kind of just clicking through and watching a bunch of stuff. They're really quirky kind of topics or there are things that are like, huh, what's that about?
I don't need to know what an American notices about traveling in England, but yet I'm kind of more drawn to that than I am to watching the video about how to take money out of an ATM personally. I remember being in Australia a couple of years ago and I was jet lagged and up in the middle of the night and just looking through my phone, scrolling through stuff, ended up on BuzzFeed, you know, which is a terrible thing to do in the middle of the night or anytime basically. But I remember seeing a headline about like, you know, what Aussies think about the US. And then they had the reverse article, like what Americans think about when they come to Australia. And I found myself like reading through these articles.
And I'm like, there's no reason why I need to read this. You know, most of the observations aren't really that astute, you know, to use that word like astute trip here, but it's still kind of interesting, you know, or at least it kind of catches your attention. So I think it's pretty clear why that video did so well. Now, whether you can replicate that over and over, you know, that's a whole other question. It doesn't necessarily mean that he can then go and do things that an American notices in, you know, whatever other country, maybe yes, maybe no.
But I do think there is at least some method or some reason there. All right, lots of stuff we could take away from that, but I want to respect your time. Got the weekly recap coming up tomorrow. Today's show notes, including links to everything I mentioned, his videos, anything else. All right, sidehustleschool.com/777.
Just like the airplane, right? Triple seven. All right, coming up next week, 787. More to come. Thank you so much for listening.
My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. [Music]
from the Onward Project.
