For a while now, I've been contemplating doing a monthly post about my Youtube channel analytics. I was thinking it would go over the change in subscribers, most popular videos, likes, etc. I figured it would help me keep track of how the channel is progressing and provide some insight for site visitors who are trying to get their own channel off the ground or just provide some interesting data for fans of my tutorials (almost 2000 subscribers!).

However, after thinking about it, I've decided to go further. I'm opening the door to my Youtube analytics, Adsense Revenue (Youtube, TWD.com and a small niche site) and tutorial sales. I'm doing this partly in response to Dries' recent blog post on Passive Income and Open Source which has had some interested comments posted in response and because I hope to foster some type of a community around this concept.

So, a couple things to note before I give you goods:

• Advertising isn't for everyone. I've been using it to supplement the development of free Drupal video tutorials.
• I have a full time job completely unrelated to Drupal but maintain a few Drupal projects on the side.
• This income isn't entirely passive. It takes some time to develop the tutorials but once they are out there, that's it. They're out there earning a couple bucks.
• I've never opened the doors like this so be gentle in the comments. I'm fragile.

That all said, let's get into it.

May 2013 Income

• Adsense (TWD.com and a small niche site) - $56.58, +$26.63 from April
• Youtube Adsense - $165.64, +$5.18 from April
• Tutorial sales on TWD.com - 13 tutorials bought, $222.65, +4 tutorials and $77.74 from April

​Total - $444.87, +109.55 from April

Income Notes

May definitely represents the most money I've made from this sources ever. Since we're already 2/3 through June, I know it isn't going to be as good a month. However, pretty cool to bring in an extra $444.87 while having left for a vacation on May 30 until June 6.

May Youtube Analytics

• Total number of videos as of May 30, 2013 - 55, +7 more than April 30, 2013
• Video Views - 27.806, +1,550 more than April
• Estimated Minutes Watched - 173,354, +6,892 more than April
• Likes - 319, +73 more than April
• Dislikes - 2, even with April
• Comments - 181, +99 more than April
• Shares - 16, +12 more than April
• Favorites Added - 26, +5 more than April
• Subscribers - 274, +39 more than April

Youtube Notes

This is the first time I've ever really started comparing my Youtube analytics month over month and it's awesome. May was a great month for my channel. A couple of things to note about this month:

• I began asking for viewers to thumbs up, comment on the video or subscribe to my channel if the tutorial they were watching helped them
• I respond to pretty much every comment I received, especially if it is a question so part of the increase there is me
• I stopped posting to the Drupal Planet every time I posted a tutorial (this was after a disasterous screw up migrating my site and spamming the feed. To be honest, I just got addicted to the traffic spike after posting - so much so that I knew exactly when to post to maximize the time I was listed as #1. Yes, it was dumb, I definitely increased the noise on the feed and how post very occasionally with tutorial round ups.I can write about that experience if you're interested).

It's not all good news.

The top 10 videos for May remained largely consistent from April. None of the new videos I've made have made much of a difference in terms of views - in fact, they've been rather disappointing (that's views and minutes watched ).

How to Create a Drupal 7 Slideshow with Views: Tutorial 1 of 2 - 2,361 - 19,049

Drupal 7 Views Module Tutorial 1 of 10: Getting Started with Views - 2,171 - 13,586

Drupal 7 / Ubercart Tutorial 1 of 10: Creating an E-Commerce Site - 2,070 - 8,003

Drupal 7 / Ubercart Tutorial 3 of 10: Creating an E-Commerce Site - 1,565 - 10,092

Drupal 7 / Ubercart Tutorial 2 of 10: Creating an E-Commerce Site - 1,345 - 7,135

How to Configure Drupal 7 Node References with the EVA Module - Creating Event Registrations - 1,298 - 6,623

Drupal 7 / Ubercart Tutorial 5 of 10: Creating an E-Commerce Site - 1,226 - 10,611

Drupal 7 / Ubercart Tutorial 4 of 10: Creating an E-Commerce Site - 1,148 - 10,198

How to Create a Drupal 7 Slideshow with Views: Tutorial 2 of 2 - 1,117 - 7,307

Drupal 7 Views Module Tutorial 2 of 10: Creating and Customizing Views - 1,098 - 9,291

Some interesting stuff here:

• The most popular video is on how to create a slideshow. This is something I noticed in D6, everyone wants a slideshow.
• My Views series is popular despite no advertising / marketing. This is entirely organic though I think I did edit a Drupal node with the series outline. I'm not surprised by this as Views can be intimidating despite all the awesome documentation and existing tutorials out there.
• My Ubercart #1 series continues to dominate the rankings. This is despite people saying Ubercart is dead. It's not. People are still using it, it is still supported. I'm refraining from the Ubercart vs. Commerce debate. I believe these are so popular because the UC guys link to them on their ubercart.org site and on the UC project page.
• My Ubercart #2 series hasn't cracked the list. It's another in depth 10 part series. It's not listed on the UC sites and I think that explains the lack of representation here. Also, IMHO, Ubercart is a little more user friendly to start out and maybe people aren't doing the advanced things with UC I cover with the second series?
• My EVA module tutorial shows up here. Again, this is linked to on the EVA module project page and based on the traffic to my TWD site from that project page, that link is exactly why.

What I take away from all is this, marketing is key. People definitely find my videos through organic search but if they are looking for information, they head to Drupal.org first. I've been trying to get my tutorials recognized by contacting module maintainers to let them know when I do a tutorial but it's been hit and miss. Some are super appreciative and include a link on their project page like Maurizio and Pay Per Node, others just don't respond to the email but that's cool.

I'm definitely cognizant of not wanting to spam module maintainers. I'm not sure what the best route is here having stopped contacting maintainers. I'd love to hear from people. My thinking is, my tutorials are intended to help people understand how to use / configure modules where there is a lack of documentation...