I’m starting a new YouTube channel.
This is incredibly exciting but it has also ushered in the most unexpected feeling. It’s like I’m heading right back to where this all started, albeit with far more experience, knowledge, and the benefit of hindsight.
More excitingly, it feels like a side hustle, and I’d totally forgotten what that felt like.
Let me explain.
When I launched the Mark Ellis personal brand in March 2020, I had the big idea of using it to help fellow freelancers become more productive and profitable. I’d simply throw in the odd tech review - just for good measure and to keep myself sane.
I quickly discovered that the fastest route to an engaged and, potentially, big audience lay with the latter. The freelance stuff had legs, but my first MacBook Pro and Sony headphone review videos proved far more successful.
So, I decided to ditch the freelance content and go all-in on the tech. Incidentally, you can still see the remnants of the original content strategy on my YouTube channel banner (I really should get that changed).
I’ve not looked back. Mark Ellis Reviews has grown to attract an active monthly audience of over one million people and it’s now my full-time gig.
But there’s been something else bubbling away - something in which you’re playing an active role now, just by reading this Substack newsletter.
I’ve been providing advice for people who want to get into this game for quite some time. I’ve coached YouTubers, written tens of thousands of words on the subject, held free Medium webinars, and I’m about to open the first-ever cohort for the Medium Academy.
To bring all of this together, I created Solo Club, which is a separate brand from Mark Ellis Reviews with a vastly different purpose. In the interest of sharing this stuff with you, I thought I’d quickly explain the strategy and goals for these two brands.
Mark Ellis Reviews is all about audience growth. The audience needs to grow consistently and become as large as possible in order to attract sponsors and generate profitable ad and affiliate revenue. It’s a simple strategy and one that is working.
Solo Club is all about selling digital products. Audience growth needs to be consistent and targeted to maintain a healthy influx of top-of-the-funnel leads for those digital products, but it’s not the main focus - nor does it need to be as big as the Mark Ellis Reviews audience. Sponsorship and ad revenue are less important, too; if they come, it’ll be a welcome stocking filler.
There was just one missing piece of the jigsaw for Solo Club. Getting people into that funnel (which starts with this newsletter, as you might guess) required a concerted marketing effort on my part, and there’s only one way to do that effectively.
Solo Club needed its own YouTube channel - a channel that mixed traditional YouTube videos with short-form content, and long-form podcasts. This is, essentially, what I was trying to create in 2020, only I now have the audience, experience, and proof that I know what I’m talking about.
Want to know a secret? The Solo Club YouTube channel is actually live now... I just haven’t officially launched it yet. There’s even a video on there. It’s a Short, but it has somehow already amassed over 1,000 views and attracted a handful of comments. I even have my first three subscribers! Go check it out if you like, but the full launch will take place next month.
Thank you for joining me on this journey.