Well, that didn't take long.
A few months ago I started this website as a way to document my side hustle experiments, track the numbers, and see whether my hobby of testing different income ideas could eventually become something bigger.
Enjoying this report?
One email per experiment. Full numbers, no fluff.
Now I've added another piece to the puzzle.
A YouTube channel.
And honestly, I probably should have done it sooner.
The First Week
https://www.youtube.com/@KirimasStudio
The channel is only about a week old, so expectations are firmly grounded in reality.
No viral videos.
No overnight success.
No screenshots claiming I made six figures while sleeping.
After the first week, the results look like this:
- 5 videos published
- Around 200 total views
- 3 subscribers
Well... technically 2 subscribers.
The third one is me.
I figured somebody should support the channel, and apparently that somebody is also the channel owner.
So the growth has been slow.
Exactly as expected.
In fact, if I'm being honest, I would have been more surprised if the channel had exploded overnight. There are millions of videos uploaded to YouTube every day. Expecting instant success after one week would be a bit like planting a seed on Monday and wondering why you don't have a forest by Friday.
I Have Absolutely No Video Experience
One thing became painfully obvious almost immediately.
I have no idea what I'm doing.
Or at least I didn't when I started.
Writing blog posts feels natural to me now. I've spent enough time doing it that I know roughly what works, what doesn't, and how to structure my thoughts.
Video is a completely different animal.
Filming feels awkward.
Talking to a camera feels awkward.
Editing feels awkward.
Watching yourself on screen is a special kind of awkward that I wasn't fully prepared for.
The first few videos took far longer than they probably should have. I'd record something, watch it back, notice ten mistakes, re-record it, then discover ten new mistakes.
It's a process.
A messy one.
Looking Back at the First Videos
The funny thing is that I can already see improvements, even after only a handful of uploads.
Not huge improvements.
But enough to notice.
When I compare my first recordings to the most recent ones, I can already spot things I want to do differently:
- Better camera positioning
- Better lighting
- Better audio
- Better pacing
- Better editing
And probably about fifty other things.
The quality still isn't where I want it to be.
Not even close.
Some of the videos are rough around the edges. Actually, let's be honest—they're very rough around the edges.
But that's part of the process.
Nobody starts out making great videos.
At least, I certainly didn't.
The important thing is that every upload teaches me something new.
Why I Started a YouTube Channel
The main reason isn't money.
At least not right now.
The reason is that YouTube can show things that are difficult to explain with text alone.
This blog works well for documenting numbers, results, profits, losses, lessons learned, and written reviews of different side hustles.
But some things are simply easier to show than to describe.
For example:
When I'm testing a 3D printing project, it's much easier to show the printer running than write 500 words about it.
When I'm renting out tools, it's easier to show the equipment.
When I'm testing a new platform, app, or side hustle idea, video gives a behind-the-scenes perspective that a blog post can't fully capture.
The website tells the story.
The videos help people see it.
Together, they make much more sense than either one alone.
The Most Important Part
The best part so far?
I'm having fun.
Seriously.
That might sound obvious, but it's important.
I've tested enough side hustles over the years to know that if I don't enjoy something, eventually I'll stop doing it.
The numbers matter.
The learning matters.
The long-term goal matters.
But enjoying the process matters too.
Right now, creating videos feels less like work and more like another experiment.
A new skill.
A new challenge.
Something different.
And honestly, that's exactly what I was hoping for when I started this project.
What's Next?
The plan is simple.
Keep publishing.
Keep learning.
Keep improving.
I expect the next videos to be better than the first five.
And hopefully the videos after those will be better again.
Will the channel grow quickly?
Maybe.
Maybe not.
I genuinely have no idea.
But that's not really the point.
The goal right now is to document the journey, share the real results, and create a visual record of everything happening behind the scenes of these side hustle experiments.
The website remains the foundation.
The YouTube channel is the camera following the journey.
And after one week, even with only a few subscribers and a couple hundred views, I'm excited to see where it goes.
For now, I'll keep learning as I go, keep publishing, and try not to cringe too hard when I watch my older videos a few months from now.
We'll see how things look after week two.