Ali Abdaal — If You Want to Make Money From YouTube, Do This (Case Study)
Source: YouTube Channel: Ali Abdaal Duration: 1:28:34 Views: 99196 · Likes: 2935 Video: Watch on YouTube
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Key Insights
A few years ago, my friend Jeff Sue
decided while working at Google that he
was going to start a YouTube channel. He
made 98 in his first 6 months and then
a few years later, last year, he made
835,000
US dollars from his YouTube channel. The
cool thing about Jeff’s story is that he
never planned to be an entrepreneur. He
wasn’t even intending to make money from
YouTube.
>> I never wanted to be an entrepreneur.
[music] I’m extremely risk averse. I
thought I was just going to like die at
Google. And yet, he was able to build
such an incredible business doing it on
the side of his full-time demanding
corporate job. So, in this case study,
we’re going to break down Jeff’s entire
journey from like total noob on YouTube
all the way to basically building a
million-dollar business and how he was
able to do all of that while still being
a high performer at his job. Along the
way, as we go through the journey, I’m
going to be interjecting with my own
thoughts on Jeff’s story. So, hopefully
this won’t just feel like a podcast,
it’ll be a conversation with some
actionable takeaways that you can apply
to your life.
Step one, find your itch and pick your
vehicle. So, before we get into all of
this, I asked Jeff to talk us through
his revenue trajectory so you can see
how the numbers changed over time. I
actually prepared a spreadsheet in
anticipation of this question, but I can
walk you through the sort of high level
first before we dive into the numbers.
When I first started YouTube, I
literally did not know what the
monetization strategy was. I was just
like, oh, there’s advertising on
YouTube, I could just switch that on,
I’d I’d make money, passive income for
the rest of my life and not have to work
like one minute longer than I have to,
right? Turns out that wasn’t the case,
it wasn’t that easy. So, my by the end
of my first year, um I my first ever
YouTube video was uploaded on June 3rd,
2020, I remember that. And by the end of
that year, so 6 months later, I made a
whopping 98 through advertising, which
was actually pretty impressive
considering I didn't think I was going
to monetize in the first like 2 years or
something. Fast forward though, I would
say the first thing I ever like sold
is my PDF version of my resume that got
me to Google. And I use air quotes
because I actually shared it for free.
And a month later, after I shared it for
free on Gumroad, I literally received an
email saying I made a thousand US
dollars. So, I was like, must be a
mistake or a scam. I log in and it's
from donation. People have donated
ranging from 1 to 20 even when they
could have just downloaded it for free.
And that broke my mind. That was the
first time I understood, oh, if I shared
massive value for free online, people
notice and they sort of respect that and
they reward you for it.
So, fast forward up to now, I have more
than like 40 templates on Gumroad, 90%
of which are free, and it's people are
still donating. It's It's It's amazing.
Yeah. So, that's sort of the first taste
of
selling products that I experienced.
Mhm. Nice. In 2020, you made 98. In
2021, you made 52,000. 2023, we've got
449,000. And 2025, this year so far,
$835,000. And you’re on track to do
about 900 by the end of the year.
Something like that, yeah. We’ll see how
this podcast goes and yeah.
>> And then, how much were you making at
Google back when you worked there? I’m
going to say the number, but I have to
give a little bit of important context.
I I I started off working at Google Hong
Kong and I took a 60% pay cut to work in
Google China, like mainland China. And
not only
uh is that region the low one of the
lowest paid, I think globally for
Google, but one of the highest tax
bracket. So, for example, at Hong Kong,
the tax cap wrapped um maxed out at
around like 15%, but in like mainland
China, that’s like 35%. So, I wanted to
just set some important context. By the
time I left, I was at L5 and I was
making my base salary, I believe,
60-something thou
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