I made a youtube toy channel...

[Dicast]

This is pretty much as off topic as I can get around here.  Over the last few years I have enjoyed work about as much as I could but with having a little kid around and being married to a pretty busy doctor most of my prior hobbies (golf, first person shooters/online gaming, mountain biking) have tended to erode to the point of non-existence.  I have a line item on my budget for golfing and gaming expenses and I have found I was using almost $0.  During that time I also found that I was spending more time thinking about the future getting better when I should have been working more towards making every day better...so...I was on a night shift about 2-3 months ago and ran across youtube toy review channels.  If you haven't heard of them before it pretty much goes like this...you obtain a toy, open it up, play with it and then edit/post all that content online, primarily to youtube.  Some lucky people even make money from it (I'm not counting on this, but it would be a bonus...ok who am I kidding, I'd like to make money from playing with toys!).

As crazy as it may seem, I've spent quite a bit of time when I'm home planning videos, editing them, and playing with my daughter.  I've been much happier to have something to do other than medicine and just hoping for eventual financial independence.  I'm not sure about the eventual consequences of my project.  We are accumulating a lot of toys and my daughter is going to grow accustomed to having new toys all of the time.  We're planning to start donating toys to Goodwill, the Salvation Army and a few thrift stores that support homeless families and my daughter hasn't had much of a problem with the concept so far.

As far as money goes, I had budgeted for about 2-3 rounds a week worth of golf and seem to be staying fairly close to that mark when it comes to expenditures on toys.  So I'm rationalizing that it isn't a crazy waste. I'm also encouraging my daughter to combine different toys to create new stories and to stretch beyond the single intended purpose of each toy (she's 3, so I only get so far).

I've also debated how to present myself online.  We avoid using my daughters name.  I'm never featured as a face.  Lately though I've felt it would probably make for a better channel if I allowed myself to be included but I'm not sure if it would interfere with being an EM doc.  If this thing took off, I don't really want a patient to come in and give me an odd stare and then say "You're that toy guy." What do you, financially minded, questionably youtube savvy people think?

 

 

[Zaphod]

Dicast wrote:

This is pretty much as off topic as I can get around here.  Over the last few years I have enjoyed work about as much as I could but with having a little kid around and being married to a pretty busy doctor most of my prior hobbies (golf, first person shooters/online gaming, mountain biking) have tended to erode to the point of non-existence.  I have a line item on my budget for golfing and gaming expenses and I have found I was using almost $0.  During that time I also found that I was spending more time thinking about the future getting better when I should have been working more towards making every day better…so…I was on a night shift about 2-3 months ago and ran across youtube toy review channels.  If you haven’t heard of them before it pretty much goes like this…you obtain a toy, open it up, play with it and then edit/post all that content online, primarily to youtube.  Some lucky people even make money from it (I’m not counting on this, but it would be a bonus…ok who am I kidding, I’d like to make money from playing with toys!).

As crazy as it may seem, I’ve spent quite a bit of time when I’m home planning videos, editing them, and playing with my daughter.  I’ve been much happier to have something to do other than medicine and just hoping for eventual financial independence.  I’m not sure about the eventual consequences of my project.  We are accumulating a lot of toys and my daughter is going to grow accustomed to having new toys all of the time.  We’re planning to start donating toys to Goodwill, the Salvation Army and a few thrift stores that support homeless families and my daughter hasn’t had much of a problem with the concept so far.

As far as money goes, I had budgeted for about 2-3 rounds a week worth of golf and seem to be staying fairly close to that mark when it comes to expenditures on toys.  So I’m rationalizing that it isn’t a crazy waste. I’m also encouraging my daughter to combine different toys to create new stories and to stretch beyond the single intended purpose of each toy (she’s 3, so I only get so far).

I’ve also debated how to present myself online.  We avoid using my daughters name.  I’m never featured as a face.  Lately though I’ve felt it would probably make for a better channel if I allowed myself to be included but I’m not sure if it would interfere with being an EM doc.  If this thing took off, I don’t really want a patient to come in and give me an odd stare and then say “You’re that toy guy.” What do you, financially minded, questionably youtube savvy people think?

 

 

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I've looked at some of these out of pure obscene interest and have been shocked at how terrible they seem. That disney lady that makes a killing, her videos arent that great. She never shows herself, its all about the product. Unless youre adding some sort of overall value with commentary, are witty, good looking, etc...idk why you would appear on camera.

I have been fascinated by how kids organically find this kind of thing, and other seemingly bizarre videos like organizing skittles by color, etc...get zillions of hits. Oh well.

Just keep trucking, Im sure you can write those off as a business expense. lol

[Dicast]

The quality of some of the videos is pretty bad but I have to admit that my attempts at making "high quality" video have been very poor at times.  There has to be a minimum for sure but I don't know that it matters as much as frequency.  When I look around I feel that I can at least achieve par quality if I try hard enough.  I always thought it was as easy as point, shoot, slap it together and upload.  Turns out that good audio is a pain (I try to turn off my A/C when shooting), white balance makes a big difference between shooting areas and you are somewhat limited by whatever camera system you have.

[kingsnake]

I had to give up mountain bike racing and training on the road bike. No time with little kids. My kids used to watch "egg surprise" like crazy. By ages 4 I started teaching them and or getting them lessons in various sports....golf, hockey, tennis, swimming.....things I can do with them too. spending money on opening toys?  Golf USA or something has a bag with a couple clubs based on height...get one, take her to the range or putting green twice a week or something. If she has half a brain and can behave she probably can do a Jr Golf program at age 5. Then you have something in common that YOU like and you can share for a lifetime. Just my 2 cents.

[jfoxcpacfp]

Dicast wrote:

I've also debated how to present myself online.

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Unless it's already taken, I think you should call yourself The Toy Doctor. You should be able to come up with a great trademark. Can you give us a link?

[Zaphod]

kingsnake wrote:

I had to give up mountain bike racing and training on the road bike. No time with little kids. My kids used to watch “egg surprise” like crazy. By ages 4 I started teaching them and or getting them lessons in various sports….golf, hockey, tennis, swimming…..things I can do with them too. spending money on opening toys?  Golf USA or something has a bag with a couple clubs based on height…get one, take her to the range or putting green twice a week or something. If she has half a brain and can behave she probably can do a Jr Golf program at age 5. Then you have something in common that YOU like and you can share for a lifetime. Just my 2 cents.

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OMG my daugher loved those stupid kinder surprise videos. So dumb. Although I have more time now than in residency by a long shot, I dont ride as much as I used to and have zero desire to race (okay a little desire, but not enough to do it, too risky). The last couple races I was reminded how little the younger people assess risks and how much I had to lose in comparison, all for some socks and a pbj preme? No way. I run more now due solely to its efficiency time wise. I spend more of my time pushing my daughter on a swing weekly than is reasonable, she loves it and will let me do it for hours if I dont pull her out.

 

On the video quality part, frequency is not just important overall it also like every other endeavor helps to improve quality over time.

[Dicast]

jfoxcpacfp wrote:

Dicast wrote:

I’ve also debated how to present myself online.

Click to expand…

Unless it’s already taken, I think you should call yourself The Toy Doctor. You should be able to come up with a great trademark. Can you give us a link?

Click to expand...

Here's the channel link. Mighty Toy Box.  I wouldn't expect most of the forum here to be part of our target audience...so if it is painful to watch, sorry.

Kingsnake- My daughter is getting pretty close to swim lessons and I shouldn't say the toy videos take up all of our time.  Time I was spending watching tv, sitting idle has been consumed by the videos but we still go outside, play catch, get muddy, etc.  I've been trying to get her interested in golf just by having it around but her attention span isn't quite there yet.

[Zaphod]

It looks pretty good, and having your daughter in it is something kids always like, to see other kids. Vid quality is good as well. I did notice there was some shakiness on a couple videos like you were holding the camera. Do you have one of those little tripods?

Looks like youre on your way. What you really need is just a massive collection of videos and hopefully one day someone will come across it and it will take off due to the large amount of prepopulated content you already have. Keep it up if you guys like it, I'd probably donate the toys or something or you'll have a houseful of them.

[Mags]

My 3 and 5 year old sons love the "blippi" youtube videos. He plays with toys and goes to amusement parks and factory tours. He is super goofy but the kids love it.

[PhysicianOnFIRE]

Good for you. And why not? You're much more likely to regret not doing it than giving it a shot and ending up with a bunch of toys to play with, even if it doesn't earn enough to pay for all the toys.

I enjoyed the building block dominoes. We have those same bricks (a chore to build them all) and I love the swivel action you set up a couple times to do the 180.

Cheers!

-PoF

 

[Dicast]

Zaphod wrote:

Do you have one of those little tripods?

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I have several tripods and we use them when a static shot will work.  Sometimes it is tough shooting with a 3 year old, she likes to put herself between the camera and the toys so I have to stay mobile.  Also, I only get 1 take on a lot of the toys, so I've tried to minimize shake by cutting the awfully bad shakes, using post production stabilization and reworking some parts. I don't have anything fancy enough to do a smooth pan/tilt, the tripods will pan but the sounds and jitter that are produced are pretty insane.  I've tried a hand held stabilizer with mild success but if I want something that really hits the quality mark I need a true gimbal which are $$$...so I'm trying to build up my skill and muscle for holding cameras instead.

I appreciate any feedback.  Making videos is way harder than I thought it would be but at least the learning curve is much less dangerous than medicine. :-)

[Zaphod]

Dicast wrote:

Zaphod wrote:

Do you have one of those little tripods?

Click to expand…

I have several tripods and we use them when a static shot will work.  Sometimes it is tough shooting with a 3 year old, she likes to put herself between the camera and the toys so I have to stay mobile.  Also, I only get 1 take on a lot of the toys, so I’ve tried to minimize shake by cutting the awfully bad shakes, using post production stabilization and reworking some parts. I don’t have anything fancy enough to do a smooth pan/tilt, the tripods will pan but the sounds and jitter that are produced are pretty insane.  I’ve tried a hand held stabilizer with mild success but if I want something that really hits the quality mark I need a true gimbal which are $$$…so I’m trying to build up my skill and muscle for holding cameras instead.

I appreciate any feedback.  Making videos is way harder than I thought it would be but at least the learning curve is much less dangerous than medicine.

Click to expand...

Yes its pretty impressive how much work goes into anything these days. When we do new commercial shoots and stuff I am always impressed with the cool camera toys they have.

[wideopenspaces]

I'm not going to lie, I DO NOT understand this phenomenon! My son is obsessed with Dan TDM, who plays various online games for people to watch. So my son spends hours WATCHING a game instead of playing it! It's bizarre to me. And I've heard there are channels where women just open clothing and accessories they've purchased online. Again, how is that fun or interesting? So I don't get the draw in watching other people's kids opening toys, but clearly there is an audience there, so good for you. I would be worried about how constantly getting new toys is affecting your girl, so I'd monitor that. But as long as you're both having fun, I don't see what the harm is. As far as putting more of yourself into it, I personally avoid even social media, so wouldn't do it but I think only you can figure out if you'd be comfortable with your patients finding you there and watching the videos.

[Complete_newbie]

Just commenting here because I am GLAD that physicians for once are coming out of their cocoon and sort of realizing (the n=4 on this thread) of the numerous ways of making money nowadays online. Yes it can be done. Yes humans are shallow and we are all doomed. No there is no shame in it. No it doesn't make sense but audience exists for just about anything and you can monetize it. Feed your entrepreneurial spirit!

 

 

[Benjamin]

First thing, my daughter loves these types of videos. She is obsessed with Paw Patrol and Doc McStuffins, and would watch videos of people playing pretend with the plastic figurines without end if my wife and I didn't stop her. She also likes Play Doh videos, which I think are mind numbing. It might be a little bit of an ASMR experience for her--it is almost mezmerizing or something.

One thing you can do for your youtube business is incorporate on some level (please comment if this is not necessary--I am an employed doc).  Then all the toy purchases would be an expense and potentially offset any profits.  With the earned income you can open a 401k and also pay your daughter, which allows her to open a Roth IRA.

Theoretical fun tangent follows: Then you could even do another youtube channel where she picks stocks. Track her progress and see if she can beat the S&P 500.  If she gets lucky, you will get a ton of clicks on those videos.

Good luck with the channel,

 

Ben