Notes from Chris

Episode 507

Side Hustle School is all about encouraging people to pursue financial freedom. After all, where’s the fun in living paycheck-to-paycheck? For most teenagers, however, this pursuit isn’t quite top of mind just yet. They’re still attending school, living at home, and trying to figure out what Algebra has to do with anything.

In many ways, Sarah Fritz is your typical teenager. She goes to school, lives at home in Melbourne, Australia, and probably has a better grasp on mathematics than most other students her age. But that’s because, at just 15, Sarah’s side hustle equates to real money from YouTube.

Her YouTube journey began back in April 2015 with her older sister, Amy. Their videos featured makeup tutorials and general teenage commentary. But after just a few months, the two parted ways with Amy starting her own channel, leaving Sarah to come up with own content. Of the two sisters, you could say that Sarah had the biggest passion for makeup artistry and tutorials, so she sat down in front of the camera in December that same year and recorded a video that was close to her heart—“13-year-old cakeface.” It was a response to people who kept telling her she was too young to wear makeup and that she wore too much makeup—that it was “caked on.”

She’d posted videos before this one, including a tutorial on her everyday makeup look, a demonstration of how to get the ‘perfect smokey eye’ (by the way, I’ve spent years mastering my smokey eye, and she got hers down by 13...sigh) and a review of her latest shopping excursion in the United States. People watched and liked the videos, and some of them even subscribed to her channel. As a matter of fact, the “American Haul” post to date has over 178 thousand views. But “cakeface” was a real turning point for our young vlogger, and the video would surpass one million views just six months after uploading it.

That was the moment when she realized her passion could be profitable. At first, it was an escape; something to distract her from the stresses of trig. homework and high school love triangles. Now, her content is a distraction for over 140,000 followers!

But of course, she needed to monetize her channel. To do this, Sarah and her dad first looked at the analytics behind their channel. Based on the demographics of the audience (mostly female between the ages of 13-30), they were able to get a general idea of who was watching Sarah’s videos and used that information to determine what kind of ads would be worthwhile to promote to their audience. And from there, they signed up to be a YouTube Partner and connected their account with Google Adsense.

And she says it’s a much more satisfying return than mowing the lawn or taking out the trash! Sarah says that most of her ad revenue falls in the $500-$2,000/month range depending on how often she puts together tutorial videos, and her most popular videos have brought in around $3,000. Not a bad haul for less than 20 minutes worth of recorded content!

With her successful YouTube channel, a bevy of sponsorships, an active community of followers, and a growing list of makeup clients, Sarah is securing that financial freedom we love hearing about at Side Hustle School—starting well ahead of her peers, not to mention many people much older. Maybe some of us need to catch up!

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MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• YouTube | Sarah Fritz: Learn more about the the life of this 15-year-old makeup artist over on her YouTube channel, and be sure to check out "Cakeface"
• Google Adsense: Sarah and her father used AdSense to monetize her YouTube channel

SEE ALSO:

• College Student Generates 50M Views on YouTube, Hires 13 Employees: After seeking a method to conquer her own skin issues, one woman takes to YouTube to help others shed their skin insecurities as well. Five years later, she has her own skincare line serving people all over the world!
• Bitcoin YouTuber Earns Thousands in Affiliate Commissions: A Dutch cryptocurrency enthusiastic takes to YouTube to explain it to his countrymen, earning commissions from tools and resources he endorses
• Stay-At-Home Mom Helps Immigrants Gain Citizenship with YouTube Tutorials: In Washington, DC, a stay-at-home mom and former teacher helps immigrants gain citizenship with YouTube tutorials

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

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