# Financial Teachings through YouTube & Blog



## KaeJS (Sep 28, 2010)

Over the past while I have been constructing a blog. I have not been 100% committed and I have not been updating as much as I should. To this date, there is only one person that has seen the blog (that has not stumbled upon it randomly).

Recently, I got invited by YouTube to earn money on my videos by placing ads on them. I only have two videos uploaded and they are both in regards to cars. My second video which was uploaded on August 19, 2011 has 233 views (currently) and I am quite impressed by that. I know some people on YouTube upload a video and get thousands upon thousands, but I am more than happy to receive 233 views. 

This got me thinking -- Is there room on YouTube for a series of on-going Financial Learning videos?

I could start with the fundamentals and as I make more videos I can increase complexity and depth. Essentially, I would be making an online learning environment for people with limited financial knowledge, or those who are looking for more information.

I would start with something along the lines of "Saving Money", "Debt", "Interest", "Compound Interest", etc. and work into things such as "P/E Ratios", "Technical Analysis", "Dividends", "Options", "ETF's".

The idea here would be that by creating a series of videos, someone watching video 1 will more than likely end up watching video 2,3,4,5...etc if they like what they see/hear and I can present information in an entertaining, yet professional manner.

This would stretch views across multiple videos which would increase my chances of making money on YouTube and I would gain popularity and subscribers by having a series of Financial Videos.

Not only would I get views and subscribers, but I could also bring traffic (and hopefully a fanbase) to my website/blog... 

Good Idea? Bad Idea?
Waste of Time?
Nothing to Lose?

I have mixed feeling about all this. I try to look at it as a business with no risk or capital to lay down. The only risk is wasted time (and your self esteem, which I don't think is a problem for me ) should you end up a failure.

Obviously there are other YouTube videos about financial matters, but there is a video about everything. It doesn't stop people from watching.

Who knows... maybe I could even pick up a couple subscribers from CMF


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## DanFo (Apr 9, 2011)

As I am sure you can get viewers ...I am not sure how many or how much in sidebar advertising you would make... But it wouldn't hurt too much too try and if at the very least you would probably help a bunch of people with decent financial advice.


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## ddkay (Nov 20, 2010)

Salman Khan has a great YouTube educational series and is pretty elaborate on finance, he quit his job as a hedge fund analyst in 2009 to focus on teaching

http://www.khanacademy.org/#finance
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salman_Khan_(educator)


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## ddkay (Nov 20, 2010)

Ever since I started a blogspot, Google has been sending me those $100 worth of advertising for free cards every 6 months. I've never used one and I've only made a few dollars from the in-line text ads lol. Running blogs is pretty time intensive, I wouldn't do it if it weren't for fun. I would sub to your channel if you made something for CMFer's.


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## donald (Apr 18, 2011)

Go for it!I think its a good idea,you never know where it can lead if you dont try,i follow a entreprenuer site similar to what your describing in format(evan charmicheal)

I think you got a perfect "internet personality" for something like this,id bet you would do well.


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## Dmoney (Apr 28, 2011)

What kind of money can you get from YouTube? How is it structured? $X per X views?


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## Four Pillars (Apr 5, 2009)

There is only one way to find out - give it a try.

My opinion (and that's all it is) is that finance doesn't translate all that well to video.

I don't like watching a video for my news (financial or otherwise). I'm much rather read.

I just can't see how video adds anything when it comes to financial topics (although the naked news was certainly on the right track). But, I'm not everyone - some people may prefer video.

Most instructional youtube videos I've watched were things where the visual aspect really added to the instruction.

For example two videos I watched recently that were really helpful were:

1) Tent setup video (one of our tents has a weird system).
2) How to remove the bearings from my roller blade wheels.

Home renovation is another great use for video.


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

During our family reunion last week my brother and sister were both raving about the Khan Academy -- they said it has some of the most effective teaching and instructional videos you can find anywhere. You might want to check out their videos on finance for inspiration, and read the FAQ (http://www.khanacademy.org/about/faq) for insights on the basis for their approach.

Whoops, edited to say that I see someone else has mentioned this up above; didn't notice that before when I took a quick spin through the replies. But it's definitely worth watching some of his videos to get a flavour for how he teaches. His finance videos are not about personal finance, but rather how the larger financial system works. I think there's room for personal finance instructional videos if you can make them engaging.


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## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

The trouble is that it either takes talent or money to make reasonably professional looking videos. It's not hard to make a nice website these days, but video remains pretty hard.

That said, I think it's worth trying. To me, the goal should be to drive traffic to the blog. Make something like 60 second finance lessons, with a 'find out more' link to your blog post as a tie in.

You're probably better off presenting more information in text. Talking about the relative merits of TFSA vs RRSP vs RESP vs etc. would get cumbersome in audio/video, I think.


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## MoneyGal (Apr 24, 2009)

I work for a company that does rich media video (and interactive tools) specializing in the financial sector, like these:

http://helpmysavingslast.ca/


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

I guess I'll be the lone dissenter here, but I'm finding these days there are getting to be too many blogs on the Internet. Seems any putz can set one of these things up, regardless of qualifications, and get a soapbox that is higher than the masses. I personally don't see the need for it. 

I think the CMF forum format is much more appropriate and equalizes the discussions. I do not for a second feel that simply because someone has a blog, that they are somehow higher than everyone else and qualified to provide advice. 

Posting in a forum allows everyone to ask questions and be treated equally, and allows the poster to filter through the responses and see what the masses are saying. A blog, unless the poster is TRULY more knowledgeable than most people, seems more about driving people to click on ads on another server, than anything else. Otherwise why not just post threads in a forum like CMF?


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

But the reason there are, for example, so many models of cars to choose from or so many breakfast cereals to choose from is that everyone has different tastes.

Do you walk into a supermarket and look at the breakfast cereal aisle and shake your head saying, there are too many choices here? Maybe, but more likely you just go and get the cereal you always get (i.e., you're a "cereal monogamist") and go on with your shopping.

There are millions of blogs out there, and probably hundreds of thousands of personal finance blogs, but if you find one that speaks to you and you start following it, you can ignore the rest.


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## Dmoney (Apr 28, 2011)

Four Pillars said:


> I just can't see how video adds anything when it comes to financial topics (although the naked news was certainly on the right track).





brad said:


> Do you walk into a supermarket and look at the breakfast cereal aisle and shake your head saying, there are too many choices here? Maybe, but more likely you just go and get the cereal you always get (i.e., you're a *"cereal monogamist"*) and go on with your shopping.


Those were two phenomenal entries. 

TRM does have a point in that there are thousands of personal finance blogs, but if you bring a new approach to it, you might find you have a lot of success. 

milliondollarjourney first got me interested with the way he catalogues net worth in detail every month. That and the large number of informative posts between updates keep me visiting repeatedly. I think it is hard to monetize though, and should be done for recreation first and money second. 

That being said, for every milliondollarjourney, there's about 50 useless blogs that get updated once a week, have poor website design and no following.


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## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

the-royal-mail said:


> I guess I'll be the lone dissenter here, but I'm finding these days there are getting to be too many blogs on the Internet. Seems any putz can set one of these things up, regardless of qualifications, and get a soapbox that is higher than the masses. I personally don't see the need for it.


I take the democratic approach. I think he should give it a shot if he wants and people will vote with their feet. I do agree that forums can be better for certain applications.


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## Four Pillars (Apr 5, 2009)

I would definitely encourage kaeJS to do his blog/video blog. No harm in trying.

If nothing else, blogging is a much cheaper hobby than fancy cars.


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## Abha (Jun 26, 2011)

Go for it.

Worst case scenario: It doesn't work and you move on.

Best case scenario: It might open the doors for you to turn it into a full blow venture.


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## KaeJS (Sep 28, 2010)

So, I think I am going to go for it.

I will take some time to update my blog/site and get it up to par with where I want it, and then I will release my first YouTube video.

I actually received a couple views on my car video today and made $0.01.

Definitely not much, but for doing what I would do anyway, I will take the extra cent. 

Thank you everyone for the feedback. I appreciate all of it.

I will bump this thread when the first video is made with a link.


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## Dmoney (Apr 28, 2011)

KaeJS said:


> I actually received a couple views on my car video today and made $0.01.
> 
> Definitely not much, but for doing what I would do anyway, I will take the extra cent.


KaeJS, How does the pay structure for YouTube work? Fraction of a cent per view?


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## Sherlock (Apr 18, 2010)

the-royal-mail said:


> I think the CMF forum format is much more appropriate and equalizes the discussions. I do not for a second feel that simply because someone has a blog, that they are somehow higher than everyone else and qualified to provide advice.
> 
> Posting in a forum allows everyone to ask questions and be treated equally, and allows the poster to filter through the responses and see what the masses are saying. A blog, unless the poster is TRULY more knowledgeable than most people, seems more about driving people to click on ads on another server, than anything else. Otherwise why not just post threads in a forum like CMF?


I agree, I personally think forums are one of if not the greatest invention on the internet. Everything else (chat, blogs, facebook, twitter, etc) I could do without but forums are indispensable.


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## KaeJS (Sep 28, 2010)

Dmoney,

Exactly.

The more views, the more money, regardless if people click on the ad or not.

But it looks like it will be a slow process... fractions of cents don't add up too quickly.


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## Abha (Jun 26, 2011)

KaeJS said:


> Dmoney,
> 
> Exactly.
> 
> ...


but they do add up. everything requires hard work and patience.

one of my friends from school makes a healthy living from this type of business


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## KaeJS (Sep 28, 2010)

*New Video and Updated SS*

For those of you that are interested in cars, I just put up a new YouTube video using a 1080HD GoPro HeroCam. Went out of the city a little bit and went through some hills with lots of trees.

You can watch it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iULdUrX2NX0

Also, I finally (after 4 months) updated My 2011 Stock Trades Spreadsheet if anyone is interested.

Enjoy, folks!


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

Looks like a nice biking road. It's weird for me seeing Ontario roads after living in Europe. The videos aren't actually uploading in 1080HD though? I'm playing around with a GoPro as well but the marshals made me take it off on the 'ring  Maybe next time

For your video blog idea I think you'd have to present it with lots of visual graphs or a rapid fire approach of info. Remember people can read and listen hella faster than you can ever talk (that's why our minds always end up wandering in class) Seriously I don't know why we even have classes, just let me read it haha!

I can't stand audio books for this reason, or presenters who speak slowly, but maybe that's just me


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## KaeJS (Sep 28, 2010)

mode3sour said:


> . The videos aren't actually uploading in 1080HD though?


Yeah. Don't know whats up with that. I'll have to figure out the issue and fix it.

Put the GoPro on the inside of your car the next time you go to the 'ring. You can mount it to the dash or even stick it to the passenger side window and nobody will be the wiser.


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

Funny you should say that http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rCe0WqsgQw&feature=player_embedded

I just uploaded that directly from Windows Movie Maker. I'm not sure the GoPro can focus as well from that position. After they made me take it down they said something about YouTube in German


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## KaeJS (Sep 28, 2010)

Yeah, I heard him say "You have to remove the camera" at the end of the video.

As far as I know, Germany has really strict laws on YouTube and many videos are actually banned/unavailable for viewing if you have a German Located IP Address.


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## MrPolarZero (Aug 13, 2011)

Thanks for the share. I'm very familiar with earning money via youtube. I watch different videos all the time. I've read that some of them are even earning $50,000 US.


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## MoneyMaker (Jun 1, 2009)

Investopedia has some nice videos on YouTube as well


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## Sherlock (Apr 18, 2010)

Forks of the credit road?


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## KaeJS (Sep 28, 2010)

Sherlock said:


> Forks of the credit road?


Yes. 

How did you know?!


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## Sherlock (Apr 18, 2010)

Every time I go to Waterloo I drive down that road. It's out of my way but it's a fun drive. 

Too bad there aren't more roads like that around here...


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## KaeJS (Sep 28, 2010)

Love that road. One of my favourites.


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## Jon_Snow (May 20, 2009)

KaeJS, as a "car guy" myself that driving video made me happy. A recent road trip into the B.C. interior really stoked my desire for some new wheels.

As a die hard LBYM'er, this is rapidly becoming a personal crisis.


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## KaeJS (Sep 28, 2010)

Jon_Snow said:


> As a die hard LBYM'er, this is rapidly becoming a personal crisis.


Hang in there. Just think of the more expensive car you can buy the longer you wait!! 

I guess this doesn't help...


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## Jon_Snow (May 20, 2009)

Yeah, I'll take one of those in a silver metallic paint thank you very much.


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