Our YouTube Journey to 10,000 Subs

10,000 Subscribers... Bloody Hell!

Last month, we reached what we feel is the pinnacle of our YouTube journey so far...

The exact moment we started to live life on our own terms...day 1!

For a lot of people, this might not seem like a huge channel or even a particularly great achievement. But for me, it's been a little goal sitting in the back of my mind for the past few years, and now we've finally reached it!

We started documenting our journey back in September 2021 when we first quit our full-time jobs. The plan was simple: upload a short video every week so our friends and family could see what we'd been up to.

Over the previous 20 years we'd had plenty of adventures, lived overseas and already trekked around Australia, but somehow only ended up with a handful of photos to go with the memories. We didn't want that to happen again.

So we gave YouTube a crack to create something we could look back on one day. As our lifestyle changed, making videos quickly became a hobby that kept us busy and gave us another reason to get out there and film our adventures.

In November 2022, we reached 1,000 subscribers, which qualified us for YouTube monetisation through Google AdSense. ( they say your first 1000 is the hardest! )

It was never our intention to earn any money from my bulk shit talking... but we'll take it!

When our first monthly payment of $27.67 landed in the account, it was a pretty good feeling. It certainly wasn't life-changing, but it was nice to get a little something back for all the time and effort we were putting into making videos. We knew it had the potential to grow over time... and it did... slowly.

It's now been nearly four years since we switched on monetisation, and as the channel has grown, so has the income. These days it helps pay for things like our Starlink, the odd pub feed, camera gear, laptop upgrades, editing software and the music licences we use in our videos.

So even though we never expected to earn a cent from making YouTube videos, we're incredibly grateful that it now helps cover some of the costs of creating the content we love making.

Ord River in the Kimberleys

One thing we never expected from YouTube was the incredible community that came with it.

Honestly, this has been the biggest surprise of the whole journey. The support we receive from everyone who follows our channel absolutely blows me away. From emails and Facebook messages to comments and everything in between, it's been unreal. Then to be able to meet so many of you through the Hezza Champs and Pink Ribbon Fishin' has been the icing on the cake.

I'm not sure how the really big channels manage to keep up with it all. I guess there comes a point where there just aren't enough hours in the day to reply to everyone. While we're still able to, we'll keep doing our best to answer messages, reply to comments and have a yarn whenever we can.

So, what's next for OldMate Adventures on YouTube?

Well... apart from me continuing to talk a heap of shit, we'd really like to put more content out there around semi-retirement and hopefully help people who are interested in chasing a similar lifestyle. It's something we're passionate about because we are living it, and if sharing what we've learned can help someone else take the leap, then that's pretty bloody rewarding.

Beach fishing on the south coast

I've also got a heap of ideas for more "how-to" videos. Now I just need to find the time to actually film them!

I also want to add that anyone sitting on the fence about starting a channel, just do it! Post a video, learn and grow and over time it can be great fun!

To everyone who's watched a video, left a comment, shared our content, bought some merch, entered one of our events or simply followed along on our journey... thank you.

We genuinely appreciate every single one of you, and we can't wait to see what the future brings!

Much Love,

Team Jelly