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So, this is pretty amazing! One family found a creative way to turn YouTube in a very lucrative income source for their family. Here’s a snippet of the article that Yahoo! posted today:
One couple has turned their passion for home movies into a lucrative career — banking more than $1 million from their YouTube channel that’s probably best known for videos of their kids playing with Thomas the Tank Engine toys.
Mark and Rhea, who go by the YouTube username “ilovemaything,” are the parents behind the popular YouTube channel Hulyan Maya. In fact, “popular” may be an understatement: According to Tubefilter, which posts weekly charts of the most-viewed YouTube channels, the Hulyan Maya channel was the 42nd most-viewed U.S. channel last week. With more than 26 million views in just seven days, it fell just below the channel for NBC’s The Voice.
The channel, which averages more than 3 million views a day, features Los Angeles parents Mark and Rhea (who chose not to reveal their last name to Yahoo Parenting) and their three children, 5-year-old Hulyan, 3-year-old Maya, and 5-month-old Marxlen. The majority of the videos — which are often more than 15 minutes long — feature the kids playing with Thomas the Tank Engine or Monster toys.
I think some of the keys to this family’s success is not only their consistency in posting every single day, but also in posting on a subject that has strong search terms (i.e. probably a lot of people search YouTube for specific toy names).
Have you ever tried posting videos on YouTube? Have you made any money doing so?
Guest post from Holly of The Work at Home Woman
It’s no secret that Americans are foodies! In fact, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Americans spent an average of $6,602 a year on groceries and eating out alone (source).
If you’ve been looking to launch your own home-based business and you love to create culinary delights here are 5 different food careers to consider:
Do people always rave about your cooking? Then perhaps you should launch a home-based cooking class business. Gather individuals or small groups of people in your home and teach them how to cook or bake like a pro.
Don’t want to mess with a business plan and all the logistics of setting up a business? Consider joining Healthy Hands Cooking. It’s a home-based franchise that certifies instructors to teach kids how to cook healthy meals and snacks. Start-up fees are minimal and include training, certification, marketing tools, business materials, as well as ongoing support.
Are you a whiz in the kitchen? Then consider starting your own gourmet food business. Foodies not only love to consume delicious goodies, they also make make great gifts! From fancy gourmet sauces and treats, to healthy and specialty snack items.
Set up your own website or use an e-commerce platform like Foodoro and you’re ready to start selling your custom treats.
Would you love to own your own cafe or bistro but don’t have the funds to invest in a brick and mortar storefront? No problem. The direct sales industry has made it easier than ever to have your very own home-based business within the food industry.
Companies like the Traveling Vineyard, Tastefully Simple, and Dove Chocolate Discoveries offer home-based business opportunities selling products like wine, gourmet mixes, spices, desserts, chocolates, and gift sets.
As a direct sales consultant you will be paid a commission on each product that you sell. Most direct sales companies will also pay you a small bonus commission from consultants who you refer into the program.
Do you enjoy writing? Do you love to test out new recipes? Then join the ranks of Julie Powell, who set out to cook all the recipes in Julia Child’s cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking.
Not only did Julie’s blog quickly generate a huge following, but she went on to the write the bestselling book Julie & Julia, which was later turned into a movie. While you can make money through book sales, bloggers can also make money through direct ad sales, affiliate marketing, as well as working with brands.
Tip: Read more on how to make money blogging here.
Do you have an eye for detail? Then working as a food stylist may be your calling. Food Stylists prep and prepare food items for displays, cookbooks, photo shoots, advertisements, and menus. Becoming a Food Stylist requires knowledge of the culinary industry as well as additional training or apprenticeship.
Denise Vivaldo, a seasoned food professional with over 27 years of experience has created workshops and classes for those who are interested in this field. You can also check out her book on Amazon, The Food Stylist’s Handbook.
For more information on ways to make money, visit The Work at Home Woman, where you can read about topics like how to make money completing short tasks, selling your used stuff online, and businesses you can start with no money.
I was so honored to be interviewed for an article on ProBlogger today.
If you’re curious about the how I got started blogging, how long it actually took to make a consistent income, ideas on blogging revenue streams, and tips that will help you be more intentional with your efforts to succeed.
Recently, I was honored to have the opportunity to be interviewed by WAHM.com — a site for work-at-home moms or those who want to be work-at-home moms.
In this interview, I share:
The most important piece of advice I’d give to any work-at-home mom
Thinking of starting a blog? Check out my step-by-step post on how to make money blogging.
I haven’t set up my own blog yet, I’m stuck on a decision I have to make before I can really begin. How do I figure out what topic I should blog about? There seem to be blogs on pretty much every topic imaginable, so I know I could write about any topic, but how do I figure out what kinds of topics people would be interested in reading about? -Christopher
This is such a great question, Christopher, and one that many people have. Here’s my encouragement to you and anyone else who is considering starting a blog and wondering what topic would be good for them to choose as their focus:
Take out a sheet of paper or open up a blank page on your computer screen and answer these questions. There are no right or wrong answers. Just write exactly what comes to mind in answer to these — anything and everything you think of.
After you’ve done this exercise, then wait a few days and take out another sheet of people or start a new page on your computer and ask a few close friends and/or family members to go through the questions with you giving their answers and input.
At the end of all of this, you should see some themes emerging and this should give you some direction for where to go with your blog.
One important note: I believe that the most successful bloggers are people who solve a problem, provide hope, and/or meet a need. When you are considering what you should focus on when you blog, make sure that you are seeking to do at least one of these things through your writing. If not, I encourage you to go back to the drawing board.
Here are a few things to consider:
While there is definitely a place for a very niche blog, I think it’s much easier to choose a focus for your blog that encompasses at least a few different topics.
This not only makes your blog more appealing to a wider audience, but it also provides you with more blogging options and it makes it less likely for you to run out of post ideas within a few months!
I’m a big fan of just jumping in and learning as you go. Yes, it’s good to have an idea in mind of where you’re headed for the first few months. And no, I don’t recommend publicly announcing your blog when you haven’t even written one post. However, don’t sit around and spend hours agonizing over a topic; just jump in and start writing posts.
Here’s the thing: it’s hard to really know what works best until you just get out there and try it. I would have never guessed that I would love writing on some of the topics I’m passionate about today. And I certainly would have never guessed that so many people would have been so wildly interested in certain topics. Had I sat and planned and brainstormed and mapped out and goal-set and analyzed and never just DONE SOMETHING, I wouldn’t have figured out what I loved to write about or what the market wanted.
So truly, just go for it. Start writing posts. Try different kinds of styles of posts. Experiment with different topic angles. Keep learning, keep tweaking, keep observing what’s hitting a nerve and what’s not. And then keep doing what works and let go of the things that don’t work.
When I started my first blog, I would have never dreamed that I would someday be writing about intentional finance, intentional family, and intentional business. At the time, we were just trying to make ends meet financially, I had just had my first child, and I was trying to figure out how I could make enough money from home to keep our family afloat financially while allowing me to still be a stay-at-home mom.
I was not in a position to be blogging about intentional finances, family, or business because I had little to no life experience in those areas. In the beginning, I tried out a LOT of different topics. In fact, my blog was so eclectic that I really couldn’t tell you what the focus of it was.
I had a lot of learning to do and a lot of life to live. But honing and sharpening my writing and thinking skills by blogging about whatever I was passionate about that day was one of the best exercises for a budding blogger. Not only did I quickly discover how little I knew, I also discovered there were a lot of topics I shouldn’t be blogging on — because I had no life experience to bring to the table.
As I continued to experiment, I slowly learned things that worked, learned areas I was qualified to write on, and developed a better understanding of what kind of blogging focus was a good fit for me. It took me a few years, though, and lots of writing and trial and error to find that happy medium.
Pick some topics you think will be a good fit for you, jump out there and start writing about them, and keep learning and tweaking as you go. I’m cheering for your success!
What advice do the rest of you have for Christopher? If you’re a blogger, how did you choose the focus of your blog? I’d love to hear!
Thinking Of Starting a Blog?
Over the years, I’ve received many requests from folks asking for help and information on how to start a blog and how to make money blogging. I’ve written about this in past years, but I wanted to let you know that I recently put together a comprehensive page on How to Make Money Blogging with updated information and links. I encourage you to check it out here if you’re interested in how to make money blogging.
