12 Income streams that would make you (consider) quitting your job
People always seem to wonder how much money Content Creators actually make on YouTube.
🚨SPOILER ALERT: They make millions.
This is why in this lesson I’m going to break down the revenue streams of one of my favorite Full Time Content Creators, Ali Abdaal.
We’re going to unpack Ali’s digital business empire and discover all the different ways you can build automatic passive income using YouTube as an Organ Traffic source.
A little background info on Ali:
Ali used to work as a doctor in the UK’s National Health Service.
Three years into building his YouTube channel he realized he had a real business opportunity on his hands.
So he decided that he was going to take a break from medicine and explore his Content Creation career more on a full-time basis.
We’re going to unpack each of his income streams one by one and at the end, I’ll tally up all his revenue for one grand total — this way you can know what’s possible as a Full Time Content Creator.
Let’s dive into the first YouTube income stream…
⚡Income Stream 1: YouTube AdSense
AdSense is Googles’ Advertising program and the source of most YouTubers’ money.
When ads are played at the beginning of a video, the ad revenue is split between the YouTuber and YouTube 55/45:
- The YouTuber keeps 55%
- YouTube keeps 45%
The amount per ad shown varies depending on the ad category or the channel being advertised on.
But, in order to monetize your YouTube Channel with ads you have to be eligible for the YouTube Partner program.
The requirements are that you have:
- 1,000 subscribers and
- 4,000 hours of your videos watched
This is usually the biggest challenge — and most never reach this milestone.
But with the right Strategy and Roadmap (clearing my throat), these requirements are more than attainable.
💡I’ll walk you through step-by-step, for FREE, how to dramatically shorten the time and effort it takes to get 1k subscribers & 4k watch hours. If you’re interested, click here and let me know.
. . .
Let’s take a look at Ali’s AdSense Revenue from the past 6 years:
Total YouTube AdSense Revenue:
$1,305,959.17
Not bad huh?
But we’re just getting started.
Let’s move to Ali’s next income stream…
⚡Income Stream 2: Amazon Associates
The Amazon Associates program is Amazon’s affiliate marketing platform that enables Content Creators to earn commission from sales of Amazon products they promote on their content.
Content Creators can get special links for any product on Amazon and whenever purchases are made from these links, Content Creators get a small percentage of the sale.
One big advantage here is that anyone can sign up for Amazon Associates even with 0 audience.
This means you need no permission to get started.
Let’s look at Ali’s numbers to get an idea of what’s possible:
Total Amazon Associates Revenue:
$83,345
⚡Income Stream 3: Affiliate Income
Amazon Associates is one of the largest affiliate programs on the internet, but there are dozens of other affiliate programs that exist.
These programs normally provide a much higher commission rate ranging from 10% – 50% Affiliate Commissions rather than 1% – 2% with Amazon.
Let’s see how much Ali raked in using his YouTube channel:
💡2019 was pivotal for Ali because this Affiliate Income mostly came from one product (an iPad Screen Protector). The big ah-ha moment for Ali: This commission from ONE PRODUCT matched his full-time income as a doctor in the UK.
Total Affiliate Income Revenue:
$436,085
⚡Income Stream 4: YouTube Sponsors
YouTube Sponsorship Revenue can be much greater than YouTube Ad Revenue!
This is where YouTubers pause and say: “This video is sponsored by…”
Sponsor is paying you to advertise their product into your actual video.
A rough number to expect from YouTube Sponsorships is $15 per 1k views.
Most YouTubers use an agency to help negotiate and bring in the RIGHT sponsor deals.
Total YouTube Sponsor Revenue:
$1,260,657
⚡Income Stream 5: Podcasts
Ali runs two Podcasts which are uploaded on most podcast platforms but also on YouTube.
This means his Podcasts (on a separate YouTube Channel) also brings in YouTube AdSense money and Sponsors.
Total Podcast Revenue:
$190,519
⚡Income Stream 6: Email Newsletter
In my opinion THIS is the most powerful of all of THESE.
Any Full Time Content Creator will agree — the money is in the email list.
Ali started a newsletter in 2018 called Sunday Snippets (this is what inspired me to start 💡Sunday Swipes).
Ali now has over 200k subscribers for his newsletter where he adds a blurb at the end of every weekly email that says “This issue is brought to you by…”
Here’s two key factors to consider:
First, according to Ali, it doesn’t matter how big your email audience is, but how targeted it is.
Meaning is your list a concentrated group in one particular niche?
If so, you may have a sponsorship opportunity on your hand.
Second, Ali quotes:
“So if you are interested in doing this whole creator thing, you actually don’t need to become a YouTubers necessarily.
You can absolutely make a full time living through writing on the internet through the form of Twitter or LinkedIn or Quora or Medium or an email newsletter. “
Let’s pause really quickly: This is the power behind what you’re embarking upon as you journey from being a Full Time Struggler to a Full Time Content Creator.
You don’t HAVE to go the YouTube route.
You don’t HAVE to go the Twitter route.
You don’t HAVE to start a TikTok channel, etc.
There’s only a few MUST HAVES that all Full Time Content Creators have in common — one of which is an Email List.
This is non-negotiable. You MUST HAVE an Email List.
. . Last bit before I give you the money numbers — Ali has already booked out with sponsors for 2023.
This means he’s already been paid to simply email shout outs later in this year.
In the words of Ali, “that’s absolutely insane!”
That’s 👆🏾 an average of $1,879.59 per email every week!
Total Email Newsletter Revenue:
$97,739
⚡Income Stream 7: Social Media (IG and TikTok)
Ali is now monetizing videos on Instagram and TikTok.
This is what 99.99% of all Full Time Strugglers default to when it comes to having a digital marketing business or an online passive income.
Made through sponsorship “upsells” to make additional money off of YouTube and Email Newsletter sponsorships…
Read that again (hint you absolutely need the Email List even for Social Media Sponsorship Money)
He does say, you can make MORE money with IG and TikTok sponsorships with less effort — but the revenue isn’t as future-proof as it is with YouTube or an Email List.
Total Social Media Revenue:
$37,061
⚡Income Stream 8: Merch
Ali has 2 productivity merch products and enjoyed the production process but states that the physical products aren’t yet profitable.
There’s a way to ensure that your merch IS profitable — I’ll go over this in detail in the future if you’re interested.
Total Merch Revenue:
$63,603
⚡Income Stream 9: Digital Products
When positioned correctly, digital products can be the textbook definition of an Asset —
“a thing that it takes a small amount of effort to make for a small amount of money and if you sell it to enough people you can make stupidly, absurd amounts of money through selling digital products.” — Ali Abdaal
As of now, Ali only sells a website theme that allows anyone to make their site look like his 👇🏾 .
Ali is definitely exploring other digital products to create in the near future.
Here are his revenue numbers:
Total Digital Products:
$462
⚡Income Stream 10: Skillshare
Skillshare is an online course platform where Ali hosts over a dozen courses exclusively on Skillshare.
Think of Skillshare like Netflix meets Masterclass.
Ali and contributors on Skillshare get royalties for every minute of their courses that are streamed (like 3 – 4 cents).
Here’s the power of digital assets — Ali’s first course on Skillshare “Video Editing with Final Cut Pro X” only took a day to record and a few days for his editor to complete.
Yet it has consistently made him thousands of dollar every month since 2019
⚡Notice the drop in revenue in 2022. This is not from Ali getting less views on Skillshare, but because Skillshare changed their payout structure — aka they’re paying their creators less money.
This is the risk you’re always taking as a creator when you’re making money through platforms you don’t own/control.
The same goes for YouTube (which changed from 60/40 to 55/45) and any other platforms….
Total Skillshare Revenue:
$2,095,002
⚡Income Stream 11: Courses
Online courses you create make you automatic money each time someone buys your course.
Ali has 2 new courses he launched in 2022: “The Creatorpreneur Course” and “Camera Confidence.”
Here’s the revenue made with very little marketing or promotion.
Total Course Revenue:
$179,026
⚡Income Stream 12: Cohort Courses
Ali hosts a cohort course called Part-Time YouTuber Academy.
A cohort is a live online course where live zoom classes and off-line Q&As happen in a set amount of time (usually 4 – 8 weeks).
⚡As Ali puts it — although cohort courses make an “absurd” amount of money, they also require an absurd amount of time and money to run — aka it’s not passive money.
Ali has a large team of tech, support, marketing and coaching staff to plan and execute each cohort session – which costs an “insane” amount of money — aka it’s also a money pit.
Ali recently announced that this year he is holding his final cohort course — which indicates that this Income Stream is not inline with the business he wants to create in the near future (although it brought in millions).
I’m pretty confident Ali will create and release a stand-alone course for Part-Time YouTuber Academy — I’ll keep you posted…
Total Cohort Course Revenue:
$4,091,652
⚡Ali’s Content Creation Engine
So…
Here you can see the results.
Ali’s Grand Total:
$9,526,360.17
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.
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💡Here’s the 3 key takeaways from this lesson:
Takeaway 1: Ali’s income is automatic
Ali could easily take a year off — stop making YouTube Videos, hire writers for his newsletter, and sell access to the video recordings and Q&As of his cohorts — and he’d still easily clear $2.4M.
My guess is Ali is working to steadily increase the earning potential for him and his team and most because he still loves what he does — creating content.
Takeaway 2: There’s no reason YOU can’t do the same
When it comes to Content Creators who make life-changing money with their content, Ali Abdaal is not an anomaly.
There are an estimated 32,200+ YouTube channels with over 1,000,000 subscribers.
You could easily be one of them in the future…
Takeaway 3: This Digital Business Model is Pandemic Proof
Look back at “Ali’s Content Creation Engine” and notice the huge rises in subscribers and revenue in 2020 & 2021.
These are the years the world dealt with the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Like many other Content Creators, Ali was actually able to thrive during a global health and economic crisis.
All this by having digital assets working for him around the clock. . . .
Hopefully this puts more fire under you to dream for what’s possible and begin going after it with the right goals, strategies and tools.
⚡ Action Steps:
- Review the 12 income streams in this lesson and simply write down how many ways you can leverage these.
- That’s all for today — just dream big and imagine a bit 😉.
Peace and Love, Jesse “Big Dreams” Young El