Tips Tuesday – Where the Big Ad Money Is, DIY SEO Workshops Coming
Tips this week include:
- Not updating WP yet
- More ad money is going to digital Videos on TV
- Where the ad money is leaving
- How folks earn TV viewership money
- Sleepy-time podcasts
- Revenue breakdown of video vs podcast
- YouTube releases free editor app
- TikTok will be sold
- DIY SEO course workshops in the making
- My new YT channel hits milestones
- Why I’m putting videos everywhere
- New HWA video series ahead of schedule
- Earning opportunities everywhere
- What can you teach?
Happy Christmas week to those who celebrate. I hope you have a stressless, festive time!
Taking Some Time Off
This week I’m having some work done at the house, plus I’ll be driving to visit with friends and family that live a few hours away.
So, my availability will be a little more erratic than normal this week. I’ll reply to your emails as I am able.
WordPress Tips
No Update Yet
I have seen a bunch of issues with folks who updated to WP 6.9. And not all of them were outliers.
While I think most sites might be okay, I’d rather wait for the 6.9.1 release. We don’t have an expected ETA on that yet.
And if nothing else, let’s get through these last few holiday weeks in peace and deal with it in 2026.
Sound good?
Monetization Tips
More Ad Money is Going to Digital Videos on TV
Whether you make your revenue from Instagram and Pinterest traffic, or from YouTube ads, you’ll most definitely want to read this post from the nice folks at The Publish Press titled Everything is TV Now.
I suggest you read the whole article, but here’s a brief on it.
Multiple apps and more ad money are coming to TV, including:
- Reels app for TV from Instagram.
- Pinterest will acquire tvScientific, which is a tech company for smart TV advertisements.
- LG updated their smart TVs with the AI assistant Microsoft CoPilot – and there is no way for users to remove it. That’s likely going to gather data to feed personalized ads. (That’s a guess on my part, but you know I’m probably right.)
Where the Ad Money is Leaving
What’s driving all this?
Ad spend on Digital Video will account for 60% of all TV/Video revenue.
And guess where these brands are pulling that ad budget money from? Yep, written content.
The higher dollar ads are on videos – across all platforms.
YouTube reports that even Shorts viewership is up on TVs. And shared ad revenue is growing there too.
How Folks Earn TV Viewership Money
Lots of folks have TVs in their bedrooms.
And that means they are falling asleep with the TV on.
And that means relaxing video watch time is climbing.
Earlier this year I checked into the metrics of these relaxing videos when I was researching plans to launch a channel of them.
But I could not figure out how folks made money as there was only one ad at the beginning and no more mid-roll ads for the duration of the video – and most of these videos run from 1-4 hours. Some even run 10-11 hours.
Well, Hank Green showed us how it’s done.
He has a white noise video that is 12 hours long. But, it fades to black after the first few minutes.
So, the whole point of it is to provide sounds that folks can fall asleep to – not to watch a 12 hour video with ads.
In just 8 months, he got 547,500 views and made $10,293!!!!!!
But the biggest part of the revenue was not from the 1 ad that ran at the beginning.
The lion’s share of $8832.79 came from YouTube Premium shared revenue. That’s folks paying for a YouTube TV subscription so that most of their videos don’t have ads.
Only $1374.06 came from YouTube ads for folks who watch without a YouTube TV subscription.
Sleepy-Time Podcasts
There are plenty of podcasts that folks listen to on their phone while falling asleep too.
- Some have ASMR sounds.
- Some have music, or sounds with music.
- Others read a story to you in a whispered voice.
But, making money from this type of streaming revenue requires that you host the file and pay a distribution company to place it on all streaming platforms, plus an agency to collect for you too.
Revenue Breakdown of Video vs Podcast
I checked into all of the above because it has certainly made me rethink the relaxing video/audio creation I originally had planned for this year.
I dumped that idea due to how the platforms were kicking out AI slop stuff. Even though none of my stuff would be AI generated, it could be mistaken for it.
But, I’m entertaining the idea again for 2026!! And I just got some new info about different niches that I’ll share with you after I do more research.
Here’s the money breakdown – and why I’ll be focusing more on video than podcast or audio-only streaming.
Hosting files is the biggest cost for podcasts, with plans ranging from $5-$150/mo on services like Libsyn.
But, if you use a service like DistroKid, which is geared to the independent artist music industry, they can store your files, distribute, and collect streaming revenue for just $25/mo.
That sounds great, but keep in mind that revenue from streaming services is crazy low. The per-stream average is $0.004, and that’s only in the U.S. If folks in Switzerland are streaming, it’s higher, at $0.0067. But with folks streaming from Venezuela, it’s very low at $0.00084.
Compare that to the YouTube white noise video revenue above. The per-view average from just the YT Premium side of it is $0.0188.
That’s a BIG difference in payout per stream/view – like 4.5x more for U.S. views!!!
So, I will definitely be focusing on relaxing videos if I decide to revive that idea next year.
Video Tips
YouTube Releases Free Editor App
It’s called YouTube Create.
And they are trying to make it a direct competitor to CapCat.
While I’m sure they have natively integrated a way to upload your edited video to YouTube, the app is platform agnostic. So you should be able to upload it to any platform.
I haven’t seen it yet, so let me know if you try it.
TikTok Will Be Sold
A deal is set to close in January to sell the lion’s share of ownership to U.S. investors.
All of the details have not been finalized yet, and I’ll keep you posted when I see more than just opinions and good guesses about it.
Happenings Around Here
DIY SEO Course Workshops in the Making
I will be super busy these last 2 weeks of 2025 with finalizing the first month or so of new workshops for the DIY SEO course.
We’ll be going back to basics with our written content and ensuring all is well with our sites, including Technical SEO.
And we’ll be looking deep into how to format content for easier AI crawls and ranking.
Plus, we’ll have a fresh look at the social channels that are being picked up by Google and shown in Search more now too.
We’ll be starting the live workshops in early January.
Come join us!!!
My New YouTube Channel Hits Milestones
I’ve been sharing the happy growth and stats of my new channel in the DIY SEO course Facebook group.
Last week, I hit the first milestone of 1,000 views and 10 hours of watchtime.
And that finally got me a wee bit of audience data.
My target is 30 yr old men. Hit it!!!! The 25-34 range is 77.8% of my audience and it’s 100% male.
Shorts are driving the growth now and they are bringing new subscribers too. Plus, folks are clicking over to the associated long-form video.
Both of these things are why I made so many Shorts.
I have been posting 2/wk through December to wait out getting some metric data. I still don’t know the times my viewers are on the platform, but considering how well the videos are doing, I think I guessed right.
Starting in January, I’ll be posting 3/wk until they run out in March.
Putting Videos Everywhere
I got profiles on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok for my new YouTube channel and I’m uploading the Shorts to them.
They aren’t catching on as quickly as I would like.
But then, when folks want to learn what I’m teaching, they go straight to YouTube and search for it there. I know I did when I was first learning it.
And my Link in Bio goes to my YouTube channel, so hopefully they will end up there no matter what.
New HWA Video Series Update
I used CAD programs for woodworking builds a little bit about 5 years ago. I have always wanted to do a course on YouTube for them on my Heartwood Art channel.
The software has changed a lot in these last 5 years. I started relearning SketchUp last week. It was not my favorite program, but they have improved it significantly.
It only took 4 days for me to get my own workbench modeled while I was relearning and writing the tutorials!!!
And now that I have the knowledge back in my head, making new tut playlists for each design will go way faster than expected.
I had set a deadline of getting at least one full design series made by the end of January.
I now believe I’ll have two of them, plus a bunch of tip videos by mid January!!!
Earning Opportunities Everywhere
While relearning the CAD program, I had to look up how to do a few things. The top videos were from 2014 and 2017!!!!!
There were only 2 that were more recent, but the SEO on them was not good. And they were overly chatty and didn’t even know why some things worked like that did. In fact, one person rambled for about 3 minutes on tangential things and then said, “Forget everything I just said. Do it this way.” I kid you not!
So, there are a LOT of opportunities for me to make short tip videos that are current and to the point, and accurate.
But, I will not be doing them in the Shorts format.
There are a ton of views on what is out there and I believe these can be good revenue generators.
I’ll earn a LOT more by doing them in landscape view rather than vertical, which is one of the things that determines if they are placed into Shorts, not just length.
I’ll do sped-up teaser vertical videos for Shorts, as a way to market/promote the long-form tuts.
What Can You Teach?
Show-and-tell topics are perfect for video.
I even see foodie folks doing meal prep on TikTok and getting VERY established there with a loyal following.
Some never say a word.
One of the folks I follow just pours out the different foods onto a sheet pan, oils and seasons, puts it in the oven, places the baked foods into containers for the week, and smiles when she takes a bite of it.
Simple and easy.
And she has her meals done for the week too.
Hey, if you’re going to make something, why not record it at the same time?
Videos like that are really easy to edit right on your phone too.
