First $1,000: Camping YouTuber Earns Affiliate Income

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

A camping YouTuber earns affiliate income. Hey friends, hey community, what's up? Welcome back to Side Hustle School. Chris Guillebeau here, your host. In this week's first $1,000 segment, we're gonna hear from a frequent camper who begins making YouTube videos to show off gear and tips.

This turns into a regular income source as viewers make purchases. Pretty simple cut and dry business model. How can you do it with this particular topic? And if you are not into camping, maybe there is another topic that you can pursue and find a way to either make YouTube videos or it could be some other platform or content or, there's all kinds of ways to do things. But again, to highlight one example here, and as part of the $1,000 series, it is in fact how this guy, his name is Brian, he's in Colorado, how does he get to $1,000?

And then what happens after that could be a longer story, but we wanna focus on that point of being able to make some tangible money. 'Cause if you have $1,000, that's not small, right? That's significant. And often the steps required to go beyond $1,000 to 2005, 10,000 and beyond, those steps are often easier than getting to the first 1,000. So I wanna help all of our listeners out there be able to have this kind of success story.

Let's hear Brian's and I'll come back at the end with a few words of wrap up. [Music]

Ever since I was a kid, camping trips have been the highlight of my summers. I just never thought I'd turn that love for the great outdoors into a working side hustle. Yet here I am with my YouTube channel on camping and gear reviews, having just crossed the $1,000 mark in affiliate income. Once I started learning about video content, this idea was a no brainer for me.

I already loved camping and had a ton of gear. One day after a trip, I decided to film a quick review of my new camping stove on my smartphone. I edited it using iMovie and uploaded it to YouTube. I didn't expect that much, but to my surprise, it gained a couple thousand views in the first month. But here's where the business aspect kicks in.

I realized pretty quickly that views weren't going to be enough. I needed to monetize my channel. After some research, I signed up for affiliate programs related to outdoors and camping gear. Amazon's affiliate program was my first choice, followed by specialized outdoor retailers like REI and Backcountry. Then I went back to my first video and edited the description to include affiliate links to the camping stove I had reviewed.

Next, I produced a top five camping essentials video where I could plug in multiple affiliate links. I made sure to provide genuine value in my videos, offering tips, tricks, and detailed reviews so that people would trust my recommendations and click through. The trickiest part was SEO. To drive organic traffic, I started by researching what potential viewers might be searching for. Terms like best camping stove, how to set up a tent, or camping essentials.

I used these keywords not just in my video titles, but also in the description, and even as part of the video content to improve searchability. What really accelerated my earnings though was diving into analytics. YouTube provides a goldmine of data. I noticed that my top five camping essentials video was getting the most click throughs. That led me to focus on creating more listicle type content, offering multiple opportunities for viewers to click on affiliate links.

After about six months of consistent effort, learning SEO, refining my content, and diving into analytics, I had my first $1,000 from affiliate income. My biggest lesson learned? Always, always pay attention to what the data is telling you. Your viewers will tell you what they like. It's up to you to pivot, refine, and deliver.

For anyone looking to dive into this venture, affiliate marketing is a numbers game. The more high quality targeted traffic you can drive, the more you learn. Don't underestimate the power of SEO and analytics. And above all, be patient. Building a channel takes time.

But if you're providing genuine value, your audience will find you. I'm glad I started. And I'm excited about what comes next. [Music]

Hey Brian, thanks so much for sharing about your first $1,000. It's interesting, the world of SEO is changing quite a bit because of AI.

Now, if you go and search stuff on Google, most likely you see an AI return to summary at the top. And this is affecting a lot of businesses, big and small. But the interesting thing about building on YouTube, like building through a video format, is that you are largely unaffected by this because so much discovery on YouTube happens through YouTube's own process. And of course there's search engine optimization for YouTube as well. And I don't wanna say you're immune from everything happening in the world of AI, but basically through this process, if you have an old school blog, you're very much affected by AI search results.

If you have a YouTube channel, a little bit less so, especially once you are kind of in the algorithm and making content that people like. So Brian obviously has done a great job. Brian, I look forward to the $10,000 and $100,000 report and beyond. Listeners, I hope you found it encouraging. There's something you can do as well.

Remember, there's something you can do. There's something you can do to make extra income without quitting your job and not just make extra money, but hopefully establish passive income of some kind. Establish an asset that can earn for you that will allow you to do more of what is important in your life. And that's my hope for everybody out there. That's why I make the podcast seven days a week, 3,355 episodes and counting.

It's always free. Subscribe, follow wherever you get your shows. Much more is on the way. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]

From the Onward Project.