Have you been able to turn a small profit yet with this, Dave?
Thanks for asking!
No, and there isn't any real path to it at the moment.
It hasn't been a total waste of time. My short videos have done okay. +500 subscribers on YouTube, +800 on TikTok, +2000 on Instagram.
But shorts don't make any money. You have to have success with longer videos on YouTube to make money, and no matter what video type I have experimented with, I'm getting nowhere there. Everything dies with under 200 views, usually under 50.
Obviously I'm the most to blame for not putting out good enough videos. But YouTubes algorithm isn't helping me much as it keeps recommending me to the wrong people and then deciding since they don't like me to kill the video dead.
I do believe there is an audience for me out there. I think the millions of views and thousands of likes and comments I've gotten on the short videos indicate that. But I can't figure it out.
I'm at a dead end with long videos. Short videos I'll keep plugging away with, they are fun and easy to make. And if my growth rate continues I could hit 10K followers on Instagram, which starts to open up some possibilities for sponsorships, collabs, etc. So we'll see how it goes.