I published my first video on YouTube 10 years ago for my brand Swim University. It was a short, standard definition video on how to clean a pool filter. And for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out how to make YouTube work.

I mean sure, I was getting views here and there. I even tried making a viral pool care rap video! It did well in the pool industry, but not to people who own pools.

Over the next 6 years, I made 70 more videos. But I was barely making around $300-$400 a month (in the big summer months), and I gave up.

Flash forward years later, I saw some of the videos I made were growing. They were getting loads of views. I flipped on the Monetization toggle and I started making money right away! I’ve been ignoring this gold mine!

What happened?

I started researching why certain videos were growing and why others weren’t. With that information and blueprint, I completely optimized my channel almost overnight and saw more views, more subscribers, and most importantly, more money!

But then I started taking things seriously. I revamped my entire YouTube strategy. It started producing searchable videos that ranked. I created simple workflows and templates to help me produce consistent content and hired help. And I started treating YouTube as a legit revenue source and sales funnel.

Once my partner and I started producing consistent videos on YouTube, we earned more ad revenue and our product sales took off. This past year, we earned $77,394.85 from YouTube alone!

And we didn’t have a ton of subscribers. We figured out how to get our videos to rank on Google and YouTube.