Originally Posted by
nigelsomers
there seems to be other pilots doing it and making some money out of it. I really think it is a viable career option. Well I was thinking of doing it with another guy in the group and share the cost. We were even thinking about creating a joint channel and sharing the cost of the rentals etc.
But what will your content actually be, flying around with a mate? Preflights, ATC interactions, flying approaches? What makes a video interesting is your personality, attractiveness, humour, places you go, drama on the way there, cool subject matter. “The Candourist” has a lot of that stuff and he’s picking up around 15,000 views per video per month which isn’t enough to pay for expenses.
You’re going to spend hundreds of dollars on hiring a 172 or something better and fly somewhere, spend days and days editing it and get a few hundred views, unless you have some of the elements listed above, plus you need 1,000 subscribers and many hours of video views before you can be monetised.
It’s a little like being a used car salesman or a civil engineer and deciding you want to be a commercial pilot and get straight into it and earning money, however with your Vet fee loan, you know that isn’t possible.
I am not trying to say that you won’t be able to do it, I just don’t want you blowing your last remaining savings on something that is highly likely to cost you dearly, with no return, without a lot of thought and planning going into it.
You may in fact be better off to purchase an already monetised channel for a few hundred dollars and renaming it. You’ll also need a DSLR 4K vlogging camera with stabilisation, as GoPro’s won’t give the images that you need to compete. Plus you’ll need a powerful PC capable of processing the 4K content.
I’ve got a couple of YouTube channels with 5,000 subscribers and a few million views and it’s bloody hard to strike it lucky with a good video that appeals to the masses. It’s a lot of work unless someone hurts themselves and you catch it on camera!