Should I start asking viewers to subscribe, since I don't currently have a direct CTA for subscriptions?
I don't really ask people to subscribe. Why not try it today? If you're watching this video and you're not subscribed to my channel, would you mind subscribing? Then we'll see how many of these viewers are recurring and how many are willing to take a few seconds to help me reach my goals. I find repeated subscriber pitches annoying, so I usually avoid them. Over the long run, people will keep seeing my face—I'm not planning to go away—so eventually they'll subscribe. But I also get that it's not optimal; I just don't like seeming like I'm begging for subs. There could be a tactical way, like the Diary of a CEO host who does a minute pitch early in the video and asks, 'Would you please subscribe?' That works for him—he has 15 million subscribers. I've tried it, but I didn't see a big difference; I already have a high viewer‑to‑subscriber ratio. On my Cloud Code course I got about 3% of viewers to subscribe (60k subs), while most creators max out around 0.5%. So I think it's really about making great quality content, which has earned me most of my subscribers. If you spend four hours with me and I make three subscription asks—roughly one per hour—that probably makes sense.
No, I wouldn’t start a daily updates channel just for the sake of it. I do it now because my own work—running a scrappy AI automation business—is inherently interesting to watch; it’s like seeing a vlog of someone operating at a high profit level that few people achieve. For most people, watching them wouldn’t be interesting unless they’re already skilled at what they do. Running the channel takes extra time (20‑30 minutes daily) that could be spent elsewhere, but I keep it because the distribution and personal accountability it creates are valuable, and there’s a large potential payoff later as people see my consistent effort over months or years. That said, I appreciate when others start their own channels—like the one set up for me posting daily short Q&A clips—or when they share feedback, clipping content, or experimenting with formats (vertical videos, podcast clips). I’ve seen others, such as Marlon, launch similar channels and grow to around 100 subscribers. I’m open to tips, but I think the current approach is solid. I’m currently bottlenecked for taking calls, so I don’t see near‑term upside in spending time on them. Instead, I’d prefer an affiliate arrangement: if you join Maker School and create clips on channels like this, you can earn money when those clips drive sign‑ups, plus a flat CPM payment for views. This aligns incentives and creates a win‑win. I’ve already answered similar questions about the channel before, so I’ll keep it brief.
I'm about to publish a video on my main channel covering this topic. I can see you're just starting with about five videos, experimenting with thumbnail templates and using AI for images—pretty accurate. Keep doing what you're doing; if you scaled up to 100 videos or 25 times your current output, you'd easily surpass 3,000 subscribers. I'll soon release a video detailing exactly how I approach this in the automation agency space, because lots of people want to replicate my growth. I've noticed channels copying my Instagram content outright, so I might as well share my secret sauce and monetize it.
You know what? I think I'm just going to break out of the format for this one and walk through your situation. First, I wouldn’t try to monetize a brand that only has 12 YouTube subscribers—that low subscriber count will turn people off. The channel’s formatting issues, like the aspect ratio and MDashes, also make it look AI‑generated, so clean that up. Regarding the lack of views, you’re likely being shadow‑banned. When a channel is shadow‑banned, YouTube still recommends a few videos, but they’re placed lower in the sidebar, reducing reach dramatically. To overcome this, I’d create a new YouTube channel and start fresh, not reusing the same email. Test different content topics—pick a hot, trending subject or a new AI marketing tool, make several videos, and occasionally tie them back to jewelry brands. Improve thumbnails, post consistently, and consider showing your face rather than staying faceless. Run this experiment for about a week; you should see significantly more views. Then repurpose the successful content for a faster‑growing niche, and use your own picture to build credibility. This approach should help you break out of the shadow‑ban and grow your audience.
I think your most enthusiastic buyers are the ones you should target with high‑lifetime‑value plans. You can offer a day‑one lifetime price, an annual plan, or similar. If you have a group of people who really love you, give them the option to pay more than casual fans—that's good business sense. You can invite people you know or have loose business relationships with. For example, when I launched Maker School, I went on Twitter, looked at people in my DMs, and texted them: "Do you want to help me with my group? I just launched this thing that will help you do X, Y, Z, and I want some eyeballs. Are you game?" They responded positively and became my founding cohort, and I still check in with some of them. As for timing, you’ve already announced your launch, so you should go ahead and launch. However, 1.5k subs isn’t enough for me to feel comfortable monetizing; I’d wait until I have around 10‑20k subs. People often don’t realize that monetization slows growth. Once you start charging, the growth rate typically drops because you’ve moved from a free‑to‑grow phase to a paid phase. That trade‑off is the price you pay for revenue. Hopefully that makes sense.