And the habits that helped him achieve success.
From 2017 to 2020, Ali Abdaal built a 7-figure online business while completing his full-time medical studies at Cambridge.
As a YouTuber, instructor, and podcaster, he explores the principles, strategies, and tools that help people live happier, healthier, more productive lives. His YouTube channel has 1.4 million subscribers, and with a book and a second online cohort around the corner, these numbers likely double in 2021.
Recently, he published a 50-minute video on how much he earned in 2020. Ali’s levels of humbleness, humor, and self-reflection make it one of the most inspiring entrepreneurship videos I’ve seen.
This article gives a quick glance at how he made more than a million dollars in 2020, and more importantly, the key takeaways from his entrepreneurial journey.
How Ali Abdaal made +$1,000,000 as a YouTuber
Ali diversified his online income streams over the years. While he built the last two pillars in his early online career, the first three emerged more recently.
1) Skillshare Courses: $475,700
Teachers on Skillshare earn revenue through royalty payments and premium referrals. Instructors make money for every minute watched by Premium students in their classes and for every student they bring through a referral link.
Ali has seven classes on Skillshare, with more than 100,000 students watching his classes at more than 9,000,000 minutes of watch time.
2) Self-Created Online Course: $371,046
In 2020, Ali launched the part-time YouTuber academy. He teaches students how to grow a YouTube channel from 0 to 100,000+ subscribers and transform it into a sustainable, income-generating machine.
The pricing starts at $1495 for the essential package, up to $4995 for the premium package. His 2021 enrollment for February is already sold out.
3) Sponsorships: $184,843
Brands pay YouTubers to feature their products or services in some way. Sponsorships require an existing audience, and Ali got his first sponsorship deal in 2018 when he already had 50k subscribers.
Sponsored videos might run in-video advertisements or use product placements, like Ali does here with Notion, or here with Apple.
4) Affiliates: $180,047
Affiliate marketers earn a commission by promoting other people’s or company’s products and content. The broader creators’ reach, the more people will buy what they talk about.
Ali’s main affiliate income sources include Amazon’s affiliate program, Tiago Forte’s Second Brain Course, a special Keyboard, and a paperlike iPad protector.
5) AdSense: $136,859
Google AdSense is the main income for many YouTubers. The advertisements are the short 5-second clips before videos or the snippets you see while watching a video. To start earning money with AdSense, YouTubers need a minimum of 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 valid watch-hours on their channel.
For reaching $136,859 in 2020, Ali published 98 videos with 1.3 million subscribers.
5 Lessons from Ali’s Journey
It’s tempting to use Ali’s success as an example for a get-rich-quick scheme. Nothing could be further from the truth. His entrepreneurial journey is another proof that shortcuts don’t exist. Instead, success is a result of smart habits and strategies.
#1 Focus on the single most important metric.
Value creation is the most important metric to measure. Recently, Ali shared a tweet, stating:
“Achieving creator-market fit feels a lot like cheating because you can suddenly grow incredibly fast.”
But if you look at his history, you see that he didn’t cheat. He found his creator-market fit step by step.
In his first months, he targeted the one group he could provide value for: students wanting to get accepted into Cambridge medical school. He recorded videos on test-taking and interview questions.
A few months in, he expanded for the students among him, sharing learning strategies and university productivity desk set up. Only after more than a year of video creation, he tapped into a broader audience and shared videos on note-taking, a general desk setup, reading, and time-management.
He went from a niche audience to a broader audience by focusing on the group of people he can truly help.
How to apply this lesson:
What do you know that can help other people grow? What have you done with ease that other people are struggling to achieve? Focus on this niche as a start. Whatever you do, focus on the single most important metric: creating value for your audience.
#2 Publish consistently for +2 years.
Ali started in 2017 and didn’t earn a cent from his first 50 videos. He needed to build a solid 1000 subscribers and 4000 watch-hours before he’d qualify for the income program.
Around the same time, Ali posted his first video in 2017, Danika Chilibeck and I started Investella, a personal investment platform for women by women. We put in 20, 40, 100 hours and but didn’t see desired results. We grew impatient because we didn’t make any money. A few months in, we stopped.
That’s the difference between Ali and most people on this planet. He continued to trust in his process and producing great content, while most aspiring entrepreneurs stop along the way.
His YouTube success didn’t come overnight. Before earning +$100k a year, he had published more than 300 videos. He stuck to the process and published consistently without expecting returns.
How to apply this lesson:
Making money from online creation is a long-term game. You won’t see the desired results in the beginning. But if you keep working, you might suddenly hit a glass ceiling. Progress is slow but exponential. Whenever you think about quitting, keep in mind, you’re in for the long term.
#3 Accept there’s no secret sauce.
While preparing this article, I expected to find a secret sauce for growing a content channel into a thriving business. But there’s no secret.
On his website, Ali writes that all it takes to become a successful online entrepreneur are three things:
- Producing content that your audience finds useful (see #1)
- Posting this on YouTube once a week (see #2)
- Repeating this for 2+ years (see #2)
Successful content creators know there’s no magic trick. And that’s why they can calmly focus on creation. Ali followed his own advice. He created one to two high-quality YouTube videos for more than three years and ultimately saw the results.
How to apply this lesson:
Don’t waste time searching for a secret source. Use success stories as inspiration but don’t get lost in them. Creation is all that matters. When looking at your metrics, don’t feel discouraged. Use data to analyze what works and do more of it. But apart from that, don’t agonize over low stats. Instead, spend all of your energy consistently creating user-centric content.
#4 Always invest in learning and growth.
In 2017 Ali invested £ 2000 in buying camera equipment while he didn’t make a single cent from his new YouTube channel. Three years later, he wrote in the advertisement for his part-time academy:
“ I’ve spent over $30,000 in courses and coaching programs.”
Learning fuels growth. The best entrepreneurs are lifelong learners and don’t hesitate to spend money on themselves. A quote from Billionaire investor Warren Buffett sums up why this strategy works:
“The best investment you can make, is an investment in yourself. The more you learn, the more you’ll earn.”
How to apply this lesson:
Make self-investments and learning a priority. Seek courses, coaching, and training within your niche. Don’t agonize about whether you should spend money on these things. Save on consumer goods, and invest the spare income into learning and growth. Finally, make reading a habit.
#5 Connect with new people.
Ali said he planned to launch his part-time YouTuber academy as another Skillshare course. Then he talked to Tiago Forte and David Perell (both sell online courses at +$1500 and +$4000).
Probably that’s how Ali learned about the features of learner-centric online courses: highly interactive, community-based, feedback opportunities, accountability.
Because he connected with people who’ve successfully done what he intended to do, he deviated from his original plan. He learned that a top tier offer at a higher price is a better way to go.
How to apply this lesson:
Make it a habit to connect with new people. In a Forge article, Michael Thompson shared great strategies for how to do it. He suggests calling one new person every week and reaching out to people you already have weak ties with.
What’s next?
If there’s one thing we learn from Ali Abdaal’s impressive way towards a YouTube millionaire, it’s that the best way to make large amounts of money on the internet is to provide value at scale. Here’s what to remember:
- Focus on creating value for the audience.
- Publish high-quality content for +2 years.
- Stop searching for the secret sauce.
- Make it a habit to invest in learning and growth.
- Regularly connect with new people around you.
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