Special Edition: Turning a side hustle into a $4.6M YouTube empire
Decoding Ali Abdaal's journey from side hustling to building a creator led business
Hey there,
Today we are bringing you a special edition!
For the past 26 issues, we have brought you stories from interviewing upcoming hustlers worldwide. But with these special editions, we are bringing case studies of popular hustlers who have achieved great feats. We will break down their success and get insights to help anyone starting their side hustle journey.
Have you ever wondered how someone can turn a side hustle into a million-dollar online empire?
Meet Ali Abdaal, a doctor 👨⚕️, entrepreneur 💼, creator and online educator 🎓 who did just that. In just a few short years, he went from working full-time as a doctor in the UK's National Health Service to earning over $4 million in 2022 through his online endeavours.
This case study will dive deep into Ali's story and explore his steps to build his online empire. From growing his YouTube channel to monetising his online courses, you'll learn exactly how Ali turned his side hustles into a thriving business.
So buckle up and get ready to learn from one of the most successful YouTubers in the game 🎉.
Hustle started from the age 13 🤯
Ali Abdaal's entrepreneurial journey began at the tender age of 13 when he discovered the world of web development. He began teaching himself to code with free online tutorials. He spent hours every day practising his skills on W3Schools and eventually started freelancing on GetACoder.
While juggling schoolwork and freelancing, Ali also started working as a part-time tutor at a Math and English study centre. He started making $3 per hour and eventually earned up to $5 an hour. Even though some parts of the job were dull, he stuck with it and learned a valuable lesson: "some bits of it are gonna be fun, but the other bits of it are gonna be boring."
Fun Fact: At 17, Ali became a magician and started learning tricks on YouTube. He began performing at events and getting paid up to £150 per hour. His magical talents brought in money and helped him gain confidence in public speaking.
By 19, Ali had built up a portfolio of web design work and met people starting medical technology startups. He offered them a package deal instead of billing hourly, to which many of his clients agreed. He realised he could charge a premium for the value he was providing.
Ali's early entrepreneurial journey taught him valuable skills and built the foundation for his future success. He developed a mindset of hard work, patience, and dedication that would serve him well in all his future endeavours.
Creating his first company at the age of 19 (2013)
Ali started studying medicine at Cambridge. He continued his freelancing but also started tutoring students for the BMAT (an exam required for medical school in the UK) one-on-one. He realised he could scale it by packaging his knowledge into a one-day course. The BMAT Crash Course was priced at 69 pounds and made $2200 in just one day of teaching 30 students.
Ali found productised services to be a powerful tool for scaling his business and earning more money. He ran five sold-out courses with overwhelmingly positive feedback. The BMAT Crash Course allowed him to reach more students and make more money than one-on-one tutoring.
He and his friends decided to create the company 6med. The motive was to help students who could not afford expensive courses and expand beyond Cambridge. 6med was a one-stop-shop for everything that could help students get into medical school - from personal statements to interview skills to the UKCAT and BMAT Crash Courses.
Growing 6med to a million dollar revenue in six years
He started to build a team of students who could teach these courses and grew the company with their network and positive word of mouth. People in Australia and Singapore also heard of 6med's crash courses and were eager to access the course materials. Seeing an opportunity, Ali turned his course manual into an ebook and sold it on his website for a modest price.
6med started to become a thriving business as they kept adding various products to help the students- from the question bank to a SaaS that could help them track their progress. It generated $50000 annually and helped generate side income for many other medical students.
Ali's dedication and hard work allowed him to turn his passion for teaching and helping others into a thriving side business.
If you enjoy something, for me at least, if I enjoy something, then I will often try and find a way to make money from it. Because when you find a way to monetise your hobbies, it's cool because you're doing the hobby, which is fun, and then you're making money from it, which is also fun.
Ali Abdaal
Taking the first steps into the creator economy (2017)
In the summer of 2017, Ali started making videos for BMAT and medical interviews to promote 6med. It was fun and exciting, and he wanted to do more vlogging. Ali had been an avid viewer of vlogs on YouTube and noticed that there weren't many medical students or doctors vlogging in the UK. He decided to vlog his experiences as a doctor from start to finish, starting on August 1st, 2018. Before that, he wanted to practice vlogging by documenting his experiences during his university elective and final year at Cambridge.
He started the YouTube channel with just 47 subscribers. At the time, he knew someone with 4,000 subscribers and was hopeful he could reach that milestone with consistent work. He had no plans to grow the channel; instead, he wanted it to be an experiment and something that could help him stretch his creative muscles.
Getting to the first 20,000 subscribers
Ali believed in setting input goals - making one to three videos per week - and created a system to manage the time-consuming writing, shooting, and editing tasks.
Whether I make one, two, or three videos weekly is completely within my control. It's not within my control how many views they get, how many subscribers I get, how much revenue I get from the videos, how many people like me, and everything else is outside my control.
Ali Abdaal
Six months and 52 videos later, Ali hit 1000 subscribers. The next milestone was 5,000 subscribers, which became a reality in about 25 videos by March 2018. His video on his desk setup fueled this surge, getting a three-figure view count. It took him about two months and almost 95 videos to reach 15,000 subscribers. His channel growth started to accelerate after that. However, even when he hit 20,000 subscribers, he believed that getting 50,000 to 60,000 subscribers in two years was a reasonable goal. However, hitting 100,000 subscribers seemed like an unattainable feat.
Completing a year of YouTube
Good content and consistency can have magical effects. After 20K subscribers, Ali started to branch out from just vlogging about his life as a medical student. He was slowly growing out of the medical niche with topics that were an extension of his interests. He started a series of his monthly favourite books. He also shared his desk setup and how he took notes on his iPad.
This change in content worked! His videos on taking notes on the iPad and his "study with me" videos got more than 4 million views! This growth in viewership was a sign that Ali was on the right track. In just one year, he hit a significant milestone: 50,000 subscribers. But he didn't stop there. Ali knew he had a gift for turning his passions into businesses, and he saw YouTube as a way to share his love for teaching with thousands of people.
So, he decided to have a focus content strategy around medical, technology, and productivity-related videos and continue to grow his channel. He was also starting his first year as a junior doctor by then. He decided to become a part-time YouTuber.
Being a full-time doctor and part-time YouTuber (2018 onwards)
In 2018, Ali started monetising his channel with AdSense and Amazon Associates, bringing in a side income. A sponsorship deal followed when his subscribers hit 80,000. Ali's content quality also kept improving with each video, and he started to build an audience at the intersection of technology, productivity and medicine.
In 2019, Ali started to broaden his content and add more income streams to his YouTube channel. His medical content was related to his vlog, and topics on technology and productivity started to get more time on his channel. He also created a course on SkillShare about editing videos, which started getting good traction. His affiliate income also began to pick up steam, resulting in a revenue of $37K. Most of this income came from promoting the paper-like screen protector for iPads, which he still uses today.
This was a significant milestone for Ali, as it was almost the exact amount he was earning as a full-time doctor in the UK's National Health Service. The success of his YouTube channel made him realise that he may be able to turn it into a viable source of income outside of his medical profession. That year he hired a freelance editor to use his time better. The channel's revenue was enough for him to delegate some of his work.
Becoming a full-time creator & educator (2020 onwards)
By 2020, Ali was about to complete two years as a doctor. He decided to take a break from medicine for at least a year, which is a common practice for junior doctors. He had a good side income stream, allowing him to explore other interests, such as travelling the world. That year, Ali's channel also saw accelerated growth and hit a million subscribers by October.
The growth was fuelled by two significant factors. First, the world was going through a global pandemic, which meant many more people were online. Secondly, Ali's content had diversified beyond medical content, and he became known for productivity. Ali's honesty, humour, intelligence, and overall pleasant personality were also liked by many.
In 2020, after three years as a creator, Ali entered the Million dollar club. The revenue was mainly driven by his Skillshare course on how to study, and the launch of his first cohort-based course called the Part-Time Youtuber Academy. The CBC was launched at the end of 2020 to enable many more people to start their YouTube journey by learning from Ali's journey and insights.
In 2021, Ali became a full-time creator and started building a business with a team. He started creating more SkillShare courses, running three CBCs a year, starting a podcast and improving the quality of content. Even though he posts fewer videos than before, he is growing exponentially as he focuses on content like passive income ideas, how to invest and videos about making websites. He is building a creator-led business focussing on upskilling people to diversify their income streams. In 2022, he started two self-paced courses and writing a book too.
The revenue he is making now is equivalent to many startups and not something one can achieve as a side hustle. But his journey to this point is sprinkled with side hustles that helped him learn skills, get a business mindset and turn his passions into income streams.
Hustlers Insights of the week
Ali's story of being a Cambridge medical student from a doctor to a creator earning millions seems like a fairy tale. It is a tale that Ali wrote deliberately with his hard work, mindset and dedication. We have understood how he grew to this level, let's understand a few critical elements that aided him.
Consistency: Consistency is critical in any endeavour. If you look at any of Ali's ventures, he has given them consistent efforts. Especially if you want to be a creator, you must be consistent. Below is Ali's formula for success as a creator.
Create content that is useful to someone.
Upload helpful content at least once a week.
Continue doing steps 1 and 2 for two years.
Start Small, Impact Big: Ali's success lies in his ability to solve problems efficiently for a small number of people. He believes that impact at scale can begin from a small start. He started 6med even when the population of people taking that exam was significantly less. But the effect that he made in the small niche was big. His YouTube channel also initially focussed on medical content, and as he grew, he steadily injected productivity and technology content.
Cluster Your Content: Coming up with fresh content ideas every day can be daunting and hinder your ability to be consistent. However, Ali found a way to overcome this challenge by creating content topics that can be turned into a series. For instance, sharing monthly book recommendations is a great way to generate new content every month that is engaging and provides value to your audience.
Diversify your income sources: From age 13, Ali diversified his income streams. Diversifying your sources of income provides a safety net in case one stream isn't performing as well as expected. Although Ali's primary source of income is his YouTube channel, he has developed 12 additional income streams that have proven to be advantageous.
An approachable personality & transparency: For creators, their personalities play a significant role in inspiring and attracting people. Like a regular neighbourhood friend, Ali has connected with his audience by being relatable and approachable. His sincerity, humour, intelligence, and overall pleasant personality have made him a favourite among many. In addition to this, he has brought in an element of transparency in his content, making him even more relatable and approachable.
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Today’s issue is a case study on a popular creator who started as a side hustle. Let us know what you think of the story, and reply to me if you have any more feedback on how we can make The Hustlers more useful for you.
Thanks for posting this. It's interesting watching Ali's journey. The way he can pivot his career and develop multiple income streams is very smart