If you follow my Facebook page, you may have seen the picture I posted last week of myself and Tai, who playfully calls himself “The Asian Wonder.” 🙂 We met at a local WordPress meetup on September 24th.
Tai approached me at the end of the session to let me know that he recognized me from YouTube. He eagerly opened his laptop and revealed his recent earnings with the YouTube Partner program.
His excitement was refreshing, and he really wanted me to share his story with my audience.
Even though Tai’s YouTube earnings aren’t through the roof (yet), they are proof of what is possible. If you can earn $30 per month then why can’t you triple that next month, and then triple it again the following month?
I can recall my first $14 commission check I earned back in 1998. I was still in college, so $14 felt like a million dollars. 🙂
And I remember thinking, “If I can make $14, I can make $28. And when I made my first $100 I knew I could double that and so on. There’s something so motivating about seeing the fruits of your labor no matter how small the amount.
Tai’s Story
You have to meet Tai in person to appreciate his energy, but you’ll get a sense with his colorful e-mail below.
Yo Lisa,
It was good meeting you at the WordPress Meetup this past weekend!!!
Thanks for all your words of encouragement for a beginner such as myself in the internet marketing biz.
When I first got into internet marketing in late 2009, I thought that Adsense was a joke and a scam cuz I had never met anyone in real life who had made money from it.
But then I ran into your YouTube video on “How To Make Money With Google Adsense” at the beginning of this year and I liked how you kept it real and it didn’t sound like a bunch of hype and B.S. so I put aside my limiting beliefs and gave it a try.
I don’t have a lot of time because of my day job so I got motivated to do youtube videos for my fitness niche after I watched your “44 YouTube Videos & 8400 Subscribers” since it’s easier for me to demonstrate on video how to work out versus writing about it.
I took my sweet ass time to implement your advice but after making over 80 youtube fitness videos, I finally got invited to monetize my youtube videos 4 months ago, however, my retarded ass never bothered to submit my videos to youtube for monetization until 2 months ago when I asked my girlfriend to set aside a day to submit all my fitness videos for monetization on 8-21-11 and BAM!…
Immediately I started making money the very NEXT day! (See Below) I couldn’t believe it!
I know you and others have been saying it all along that it was not B.S., but for some reason it seemed more real when the adsense money started rolling in.
Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not a whole lot as you can see in the screenshot below, however, it is a HUGE start for me and has boosted my confidence tremendously simply by knowing that I’m gonna be making at least $30/month of steady passive income without me having to do anything. And it’s only going to get better with time. WHOOOPEEEE!!!!
I’m ballin’ now! lolÂ
Looking back in retrospect, the biggest mistake I made when I first got started was I didn’t have enough belief that it would work for me and the other thing was that I did not take enough ACTION!
Let your audience know that they got to get off their ass and TAKE ACTION!!!!!
Whoever takes more action and implements more of what you talk about will simply get more results.
I will keep you posted with my progress so that you’ll know that someone out there is listening and taking action!!! BOOYAH!!!
Peace
Tai “The Asian Wonder”
Your Online Personal Trainer
www.PersonalTrainerTai.com
I hope you weren’t offended by Tai’s choice of words, but I wanted to post the e-mail “as is” for effect and realness.  As you can probably tell, Tai’s an energetic person and now he is channeling that energy to improve his online business through video.
Just Do It!
The biggest takeaway from Tai’s story is obviously, just do it! Even if you have no interest in YouTube and the partner program, this message can apply to any venture.
How many things have you put off because you feared failure or you assumed it wouldn’t work?  Are you sabotaging your business because you lack belief and confidence?
I hope Tai’s story provides the motivation you need to get moving on tasks you’ve been putting off!
thank you Tai for sharing your story
Congrats Tai. Very inspirational story !
Great article, I wish him future success…
Hi mam lisa. thanks for sharing this inspirational story of tai, i admit i have no confidence but this article gave me another strength to be serious with my adsense blog. Thanks mam lisa, you’re a great internet business woman.
Me and my friends are always checking 2createawebsite blog ever week because we know we learn so much thing, YES, we really mean it mam, when we want some blogging tips and adsense strategies never search “search engines’, we usually drop by immediately in your blog.
Keep up the good work, and we always hope for your “HEALTH”, because you are hard working, money is useless if you got sickness. Thanks for the time you have spent in writing quality articles related to adsense and blogging. Wish you all the best.
PHILIPPINES’ BLOGGERS COMMUNITY
I just started Google adsense and i am 19 now. It’s very difficult for me to manage site and my English is also poor. But every time i read your blog articles it gives me strength. Lisa sister you are awesome.
Pradeep,
stay encouraged my friend. I know the feeling of how it is, when starting out. Believe it or not, Pete Cashmore of Mashable.com started his blog when he was only 19 years old. As of today, he’s 26 years old, and a blogging multi millionaire. Check out the links below for your personal blogging inspiration:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Cashmore
http://mashable.com/author/pete-cashmore/
like yourself, I too, along with many others didn’t know what to do when starting our own sites or blogs. have faith in yourself along the way, though you may potentially make many mistakes, like I and everyone else did too 🙂
wishing you the best in your blogging endeavors:-)
Awesome Lisa, I’m use to learning technical, marketing, and website information from you, but this was an interesting and motivational read. I think I too saw your adsense video, but that was a month or more ago and I was just starting my blogs. I may have to revisit the adsense one and prepare for my day too.
I recall receiving a commission for an affiliate before my site was up by just mentioning else where, that was a motivation for me to stay busy at it.
I had seen the pictures and they are all great!
this post is absolutely inspiring. Recently, I 2 have been accepted into the YouTube partner program, in monetizing my videos to earn revenue from Google’s YouTube. not only is it inspiring, but it’s also very humbling to make such positive progress while having the ability to earn revenue along the way on the World Wide Web. Keep up the good work, Tai!
wow, I am really excited by this story, we are making small amounts a month on AdSense and have been aware for a while that video content could really boost that, but this article has really kicked me up the butt to get going on it. Could you give me some pointers about how to make the content, do I need any specific (or can you recommend and specific) software?
It is so true that our lack of confidence in ourselves is the major thing that holds us back from our success.
How long does it normally take before you get an offer from Google to put adsense ads on your youtube videos? I’ve started to create some youtube videos lately and am interested in putting adsense ads on them.
Thanks.
It depends. It used to take lots of subscribers (hundreds) to be accepted partner, but now YouTube is doing something different. They are contacting people individually to monetize their videos and some people don’t have many subscribers at all. My cousin had around 100 subscribers and was asked to monetize. It’s not the same as being partner, but you can still make money by placing ads on your vids.
So if you have a few videos with several hundreds views they may contact you about monetizing. But if you want to apply to be an official partner you have to wait until you have more subscribers.
The biggest difference in being partner and just getting to monetize is when you are partner you can have your own homepage banner, and you get other customization options. When you are invited to monetize you just get the place ads on your videos and that’s it. Not sure how the earnings differ since YT is so secretive about that.
Hi Lisa – thanks for getting back to me soo quickly. I definitely don’t have enough views yet or subscribers so I’ll continue to create videos for now and work on getting more people before I look to Google for getting Adsense for youtube videos.
That cool. But why dont you build some site to promote a clickbank product ?
I’m another Asian girl (like Tai). I’ve had about 100 videos on youtube and my website for about 2 years. Like Tai, I got invited to monetize my videos about 4-5 months. I never though that my niche will be popular. It is about how to make 3D crystal figurines. I started the video teaching how to make those 3D figurines only because I love to do and I didn’t see one video then. After I joined, I never checked my earning (really don’t know how to check). Until my son came to help me, which was about 5 months after I monetized my first 3 videos. I was really surprised that I earned a little more than $50 in 5 months.
Right now I added another channel to put up my new niche (karaoke & Thai cooking). I started with 16 videos for karaoke in Thai and American songs (no cooking vids yet). Can’t believe that I got invited again. It has been more than 2 months invited already. I haven’t accepted the invitation yet because I wonder that there will be some copyright (songs) involve. I’m afraid that google will ban my videos. Most of my karaoke videos are homemade by me for sure. Anyone knows anything about this? So, I’m still waiting until I will have my cooking videos up, then I will start to monetize videos from this new channel.
Lisa, I’m keeping up my good work as your advice. I’m still learning from your websites and your videos. Hope to double my earning every month. Right now still up and down within $100 each month.
I always believe that “nothing is free”. I always work very hard to earn it, but this is working hard upfront to earn 2X, 3X, 4X to XXX in the future because all your (hard) works are still there. Thanks for all good info here. I’m a fan.
many thanks for this great post
It is very interesting how Google has developed after the panda update.
Just like what “nike” says huh.. but sometimes it’s real success stories on the internet that would really kick start the deed..
Hi Lisa,
Very motivating and inspiring post. Thanks for sharing.
Everyone thatb has made money in the past has always said “Stop procrastinating and JUST DO IT”
I’m thinking that maybe I should print that sentence out in HUGE letters and put it above my monitor, becuase like most people I am a “serial procastinator myself”
Thanks for the great post.
Ahh… The old “Just Do It” saying. So good because it’s so true, don’t think about it just do it, no wonder Nike has it as their slogan. Great post btw! I have been using Adsense for a little while now but I didn’t know that you could made money via youtube, going to go check it out.
I need to start doing youtube videos, but what are doing videos
Hi Lisa,
The amount Tai earned is not much. But then again, if you can earn that much, you can certainly do a lot more things to improve it. I’ve just published my first three videos via YouTube. I’m sure I still need to learn a lot but like you said, just doing it is the first step towards success!
Good to read whole story…we need passion to do anything..i too facing such a situation…adsense income going higher now.. i am happy……
Hi Lisa,
Inspiring post and I must say youtube is very comprehensive in driving traffic to the sites.
Great post!Actually I’m not using youtube for my online earnings but when I read this post it’s inspire me to go through. I will try to follow you on facebook too to have an update for your blog. Thanks for sharing some ideas.Godbless!
Hi Lisa,
Very motivating and inspiring post. Thanks for sharing.
Now that was inspiring to me…
getting a steady income from adsense is not a easy job but once you are into it and few right steps, turn things around ..
first $10 after that try to make it $20 and you will find out you are earning $40 a month without putting much efforts ..
great post Lisa.. 🙂 thanks for sharing Tai’s Email with us…
You see…I used YouTube only to generate traffic to one of my sites.
I noticed an increase in google results after linking video to site address.
Afterwards, if you don’t try you wouldn’t now if you’ll succeed or not.
Keep it that way,
Marius
I have a youtube account for 4 years, only one video (no very popular). Just Recently I started adding more videos, so far I have 50, they offered to monetize, and I started to get cents. Wow! I just need to keep uploading videos.
Just feed the machine hermano!
Love it – and Tai, keep up the good work – it just takes time. I’ve been at it 3 years and am just scratching the surface.
Thanks bro!
Btw, what kind of social media plugin are u using to get the buttons to be low key on the left like that?
Good question Tai. I think it’s:
Cute Profiles
I had to inspect the markup because it’s been a while since I added that plugin. But I’m pretty sure if you search your plugins, that will be the one.
wow i havent heard it before that this could work so efficiently. but im afraid it would take a lot of time which i cannot afford. anyway, big up and maximum respect to Tai, he really did it!
There is no need to be afraid my friend, if you don’t have a video camera, borrow a friend’s iPhone, write down the top 10 questions commonly asked in your niche, record the video on the iPhone n upload it to YouTube. You can edit the video on YouTube with there new video editor and BAM! you are done!
Don’t worry about what others think about you being on video. I’m a complete “fool” on video, but I’m a “fool” with valuable content to solve people’s problems. (I can’t help it, cuz I got dropped on my head too many times when I was young!)
If you deliver a good message, people will be naturally “attracted” to you and listen to your advice.
Great motivating story , i get some new information from this post , thank you Tai for sharing your story with us , and sure Thank you lisa 🙂 .
Well, a great example of a strong person. It is really always hard to start, because you don’t believe it will work. Or just it will, but in some long terms. But you should try, and if you do, there will be no limitations for you.
Nice story, and nice experience, it is really encouraging and motivating for newbies like me, so i will give a try to Youtube, Thanks for the such a nice post…
Nice Adsense story. Congrats Tai and keep up the good work.
Congrats to Tai! Lisa, that’s a great picture of you two! Who knew you’d be hanging out at a WordPress meet up 🙂 I’m really encouraged by the way my YouTube following is growing also. I recently got approved for monetization of my vids (which I didn’t apply for) so I think it’s time to apply for the partner program.
Btw – Great to see you got CommentLuv premium. My friend Hesham gave us the code to get rid of the blue box for the Twitter name in Thesis Theme. I’ll post it over on Website Babble in case you want it.
Ileane, I would greatly appreciate that. Thank you!!!
Right! If you can make $14, you can make $28 – THEN $98 THEN $208… ETC… you have to be consistent and conscious of what you’re doing… make as much as you can “automatic”… and chances are you’ll have a great run.
While the video route isn’t for everyone, there are many ways to honestly make a few bucks on the Net. You have to find what’s best for you…
Lisa, it seems Tai is cut from the same entreprenurial cloth as you: you are both very inspiring and you never talk down to your audience.
Blog (and video) On!
I love this. New information for me, i really do not know this fact. Now i will use Youtube video for making more money. Thanks for sharing such type of motivating stories with us.
That’s a great story. I’ve been putting up real estate videos for my local market in Evergreen Colorado for more than a year now and just recently was invited to monetize my account. Not sure what the benefit would be for my real estate business but I made one attempt to follow the monetizing instructions and must have missed it somehow! I suppose I’ll try again eventually…
Lisa: Thanks for posting this message from Tai! I have been feeling a little down right now about my site since it is taking a long time to build traffic and I have been working at it for almost two years. Been getting some good coaching advice to make sure I am on the right track but the advice I get says that I am building a “slow burner” site that is just taking time to ignite but still has a solid base. I have been posting videos that are like little slide shows but now I am going to take the plunge and put myself in the videos so that I can be more personable. My adsense revenue is starting to grow so this was a much needed message of encouragement to try to monetize on YT as well if I can. Every little bit helps! Thanks Lisa.
Have no fear Ann! Make a few videos and see the results for yourself, the worse that can happen is… nothing… and you are still where you are at.
The best that can happen is that you increase your exposure, revenues and traffic! 🙂
You really have nothing to lose!
Feel the fear and DO IT ANYWAY! LOL!
Congrats, Tai! I still remember the excitement I felt when I made my first $5 with adsense. It has been really fun to watch that number grow and grow and GROW!
Everyone starts from cero. If you do nothing you get nothing.
Great post, Lisa! And thanks for sharing your story with her, Tai! It’s always refreshing to hear a “real” success story with “real” results!
Thanks! Let us know your successes as well because it will motivate everyone else in the community as well. Big successes are built on small successes. Good luck!
My earnings aren’t through the roof either. But i think i can improve each month like you said.
Big big congrats to Tai! I did not know there was such a thing as making money from youtube videos directly….way cool! I thought youtube was a way to market your website or yourself. Do they actually pay you. Well my niche is also in fitness so I will definitely be putting up some videos on youtube. Lisa, I think you mentioned camtasia software. I’ll use it to edit my vids.
Hi Keeon
Yes, they lump the earnings into AdSense.
I use Adobe Premier CS 5.5 for PC to edit all my videos cause I like to be able to do green screen effects, professional title bars at the bottom, etc. but you can use Camtasia which is great also and it’s much user friendly.
You can also use Windows Movie Maker 2.6 (the best version they made) which is free and you can get started right away.
Write down the top 10 questions you get asked in your niche all the time and make a video to answer each question and use the question as the title of your videos and you should start getting some good traffic. Make sure you use the free version of TubeMogul and use insert the link to the specific page on your site to create an instant backlink to your site.
Be sure to link it back to your specific page and not just your homepage cuz it has more SEO value.
Good work Tai,
I am on YouTube now as well. I noticed a huge jump in traffic for my main site since I have been on YouTube. It’s like a double bonus.
Over 85% of my traffic comes from YouTube. You can also leverage your efforts by using the free version of TubeMogul to distribute your videos. This is much faster, easier and and more efficient at distributing your videos across the internet.
Welldone to Tai! He is a doer. He has shown how acting on the good advice we read or watch on the internet can make a difference in our lives. Just look at the difference between the previous month and the next month. And the only way his earnings can go is up.
Please guys and girls, what else are you waiting for? 🙂 I don’t think there’s a niche that can’t benefit from a video. And you must not have up to 80 videos like Tai to get invited for revenue sharing. I had only uploaded 5 videos when I was invited. I don’t really know what the criteria for the invitation is. Maybe being an Adsense member before uploading videos helps?
Agree! Almost every niche can benefit from video and it also seems that YT is opening up the monetization invites. A cousin and a friend recently got invites and they don’t have very many videos or subscribers at all. I’m not sure what the criteria is either but they definitely seem to be opening the program up more.
Even though I have over 80 fitness videos on YouTube, I don’t believe the “quantity” of video is important. I strongly believe that it’s the “quality” of the videos and how often you are submitting new videos because I have a separate review channel with only 6 videos and I was invited by Google to monetize them after I had just uploaded 4 videos.
I also want to echo what Lisa has said in the past that it’s important you “keep it real” in your videos. People are so flooded with B.S., posers, and wangsters in the media nowadays that it is a “breath of fresh air” to see someone that “keeps it real”.
The most common response I get from my viewers is that they appreciate the fact that I keep it real and that I’m not just taking a stance against B.S. supplements, drugs, and B.S. training just so I can get attention online but it’s what I truly believe and preach.
I really don’t care how many experts there are out there in my niche, there is always room for more as long as it’s my interpretation and I just “keep it real”.
Very inspiring story. Just makes me want to keep on doing what I am doing and ill someday get where I want to be. Great post.
If you just stick with the “fundamentals” like Lisa says and produce high quality content, the revenues will come in sooner than you think. I could have had the adsense revenues coming in earlier if I had submitted my videos sooner after Google allowed me to monetize them.
I strongly believe what Lisa says that ‘content is king’ cuz Google pays attention to how long someone views your videos. If they watch the entire video, it will show “relevance”. If someone watches a video and then leaves a comment, it is even better.
I have seen many people try to be slick by SEOing the titles of their videos to match the search terms but if the viewer “clicks away” and never finish watching the video, it lets Google know that it’s not “relevant” content and will not rank it as high.
If you focus on quality content, then “someday” will be just right around the corner.
Good luck!
just keep the faith Tanya 🙂
The best part of this post is that Tai didn’t tell a story about how he made thousands of dollars online, but how he made money online.
I remember when I started to make money online and read about others who were making thousands of dollars and quit work to make money online fulltime.
Much of the realism was missing from those stories because making thousands online takes time. With Tai’s story, however, it is more real as the money he made is very achievable for those just starting out. The fact that he is excited just added to the enjoyment of the story.
While I haven’t started doing anything with YouTube, I know what it feels like to make $100 dollars one month, then $200 and then $400.
The amount you make online is only limited by the work you put in.
Exactly, Paul. Smaller amounts often seem more attainable to people.
The adsense revenues are small right now but it has been a huge motivator for me. Now that I know for sure it works, it’s just a matter of wash/rinse/repeat and since I met Lisa, I’ve been working harder and smarter to move my business along even quicker!
Paul,
Not everyone knows how to master the art of making money online. I agree with what you said. I too am starting over from scratch and knows the feeling of starting small…
This is awesome because I thought the same exact way when I started out 4 years ago. My Adsense has continued to grow each year and although I’m still not where I want to be, I follow your philosophy that if I can make $500 a month, then why not $1000? etc, etc.
if you put your mind to it Dominic, you can do greater things online then settle for an average 500 bucks a month. Why not go for 10,000 a month? 🙂
I love it that Youtube videos are ruling the top of the SERPS (search engine results) right now. I’ve seen my Adsense earnings from hosted content and video views increase significantly over the past few months.
Yes, YouTube was one of the “winners” in the latest Panda Update which dropped last week. Shocking that a site owned by Google would do so well with the update huh? LOL
It’s interesting how the recent Panda Update 2.5 nearly tripled the number of views on YouTube fitness videos!
very proud of you Jordy. how often do you update your website content and upload YouTube videos? 🙂
Awesome advice. It may sound like a “No Duh!” type thing to say but actually taking action and doing something is what most people need to be doing to make money online.