Day 5: Being Weird With The Book Warrior
by Edward Smith
10 Jul 2020
Two months ago, I started up a YouTube channel called The Book Warrior. On this channel I video taped myself voice recording books while I read the books on video. The books were intended to target people that interacted with kids and the idea started as a small scale business idea. I've never started a business before. So this was insane, frontier stuff.
I figured if I read books online and then provided affiliate marketing links to the books, people would eventually end up liking the books, and then they would buy copies of the book using the links I provided, thus putting a little money into my pocket at the end of each transaction.
Affiliate Marketing is kind of like headhunting. You figure out what people like, and then you bring what they like to them before they ask for it.
By doing this they don't have to go looking for the thing themselves, which saves them time, and in return you make a living from it. It's a form of what financial people refer to as passive income.
Want to know more about Passive Income? I'll be writing an entire article about this tomorrow. For now, here is a basic summary of how passive income fits into this plan.
Affiliate Marketing as Passive Income
Affiliate marketing is considered passive income for the following reason. Since the videos remain online for a long time, the work that resulted in the video being posted happened in the past.
As long as the video stays out there and the links remain active, it is possible that future people will run into the video and watch it.
It's like you planted a seed, and the seed grew into something later that strangers enjoy. The strangers enjoy it so much in fact, they feel compelled to leave you a small donation.
Investing works the same way and is also considered passive income. In both cases, you plant the seed early on, and then you don't touch it. You set it and forget it. If things work out, the seed flourishes and your garden gets bigger and you get to harvest a benefit over and over again.
I Actually Had a Whole Diagram Outlining How I Would Personally Create Sources of "Passive Income". It kind of reminds me of one of those CSI string and pin graphs where they're trying to track down the criminal.
Approaches to Growing Gardens
When you plant your first garden. You don't have any experience, and the learning curve can be steep. Some people research gardens in great detail, to the point that they refuse to plant a single seed until they are certain they will succeed.
Researching a subject is always smart. It's how you learn from others and learn from their expertise. Just don't go overboard.
Sometimes what you're doing lacks precedence and you just need to get out and do it. Being too careful about a new thing can keep you from ever starting the thing. Your initial excitement gets tempered by time and caution. An overabundance of caution can kill an idea.
Other people plant seeds without knowing everything up front. They learn by doing.
Think about fishing. When you fish, you cast your line, and you either catch fish or you make a ton of mistakes trying to catch fish. Fishing is not a given. As my mother-in-law reminded my eldest son, "It's called fishing, not catching". Mistakes are part of the learning process. In this scenario, the best life teacher is trial and error.
What Kind of Gardener Am I?
I was the guy planting seeds without knowing the whole score. I figured I'd start out and figure things out along the way. As I ran into roadblocks I would adjust my process and become better with each mistake.
The problem with my garden, is I planted the wrong kind of seeds in the wrong type of field. Reading books to kids on it's own is perfectly okay. You can buy books in a store and read them to your kids.
When you take the leap and read books online, everything changes. Video taping a book is essentially the same thing as copying a book without getting permission from the publisher. It's a form of copyright infringement.
It's like you're giving out free copies of the book to people and the publisher doesn't know you're doing it. It's a bad idea. It can take time for people to catch you, but eventually they do. When they do, you get to choose to remove all of your content, or they close down your channel permanently.
If that happens, YouTube will never touch you again. You'll get to watch other people's videos as an audience member, but you'll never work in this town again. You get blacklisted. No Bueno Senor!
After a thorough scolding, I told the Book Warrior to go home and sit in the corner. Bad Book Warrior! Time Out!
Making Mistakes Makes You Better
Everything said, I'm still glad I tried. I learned a bunch of new things. I learned how to create a video. I learned how to add music to the video, and how to add in a title introduction.
I learned how to upload videos and release them to my viewers. I figured out how to attract people to my content. I saw how analytics worked, and how you can connect different social media programs together to create a rudimentary marketing campaign.
Conclusion
My Book Warrior idea might not have worked out the way I expected, but the skills I learned were also not expected and I still have them. It's like I went hunting for gold, found dirt, but ended up with a bunch of cool tools.
Now that I have these tools, I can use them whenever the next idea comes along. Maybe if I try again I'll strike diamonds or oil, or maybe I'll figure out how to use the dirt I'm finding everywhere in a way that nobody has thought to use dirt before. The Quest for Dirt Continues! Dirt Warrior here I come!
If you're thinking of trying something new. Take the chance and learn from the experience.
You'll be glad you did.
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