Making Money

People around me are starting to make money. YouTube, after sometimes years of toiling, is finally paying off dividends for a number of my friends on the site. Albums are being released, companies and partnerships being forged, deals being signed; it’s all very exciting.

My family is dominated by Thatcherite, Essex-boys; which basically mean they all like making money. My Uncle is chest deep in the stock market, my Grandad owned his own business until he sold it for an astronomical sum when he retired, my Dad has had a string of projects in the security and safety industry and my brother is constantly thinking of ways to make an extra penny or two (his current venture is washing cars).

As per usual, I often relish being the controversial seat at my family’s dinner table. Probably because I enjoy the romanticism of the idea, I have always stood by the statement that “I don’t like making money.” In a sense this is true; the money world occupied by the men in my family scares the shit out of me and I am wonderfully stubborn about working because I enjoy my work rather than working for the size of the cheque at the end of each month. Although I appreciate this was a very naïve viewpoint, I stand by the fact I could never work in an office, nine to five. However, seeing my friends starting to make money… has made me think the money making itself isn’t so bad.

The money my Dad earned when I was growing up came from a job he was not passionate about, I am not sure how much one can get into selling fire alarms, so I suppose I associated money with boredom, offices and suites. But the money I am seeing friends of mine interact with is the opposite spectrum of that. It is exciting, creative and something they can get excited about (confused.com adverts may be the exception here).

I suppose the point is, maybe I too can earn money from this creativity malarkey. I have never really seen things like BlogTV, YouTube and this Blog, as well as articles and things I do with other sites and companies, as a money making opportunity. Maybe I should start to.

I am, however, sceptical as to my ability to do so. I occupy a very specific niche on YouTube and across the internet: political and social commentary. The sad truth is, debates (apart from presidential ones) do not have a tendency to rake in the views as, say, a purple man or hot new jeans. In fact, although my subscriber count is over 10k now, I rarely get over 5k hits on my videos – this does not bare well for my adsense, a system based on views.

When I was in New York, Tessa, a very good friend, mentioned that she could see me making some money from what I do. This perked me up. I am very proud of what I do across the internet, but I do hope that in the future I can make some money and maybe earn a living from what I do. I guess it’s different for someone making music or videos targeted at a viral market, so I shouldn’t compare myself to them.

I do, however, hope I can be included in this revolution that seems to be happening.

CNN

So, I shook Anderson Cooper's hand yesterday... sorry to go on about it, but I a still having to remind myself that it was real. I think he is a fantastic reporter, especially the way he entered the business, and I also admire him because he has managed to make it in a business full of words while at the same time having dyslexia; shows there may hope for me if I ultimately decide to go into journalism.

So yeah, yesterday was kinda a big deal.

It happened because one of my friends is doing a short internship at CNN in New York City. Her name is Asia (like the continent) and is like my own personal YouTube whorer. Whenever she introduces me to someone I am always announces as the guy on YouTube with hundreds of thousands of hits... all I can say is that she needs to take a look at some of my friends if she wants to see people with ridiculous amounts of hits.

Anyway, she is kind of intent on me applying for an internship at CNN, she has apparently been talking to the people she has been working with (I was told my several people that they had heard a lot about me) and it looks like I might apply. We had a tour of the studios, watched AC360 live and even got roped into doing some work. It was all kinds of awesome.

I do feel kind of guilty for leaving Todd (who is sitting next to me right now) and Johnny for a while but I will give them both love and attention all day long today.

Oh, by the way, if you havn't tagged on yet, I'm in New York City.

In other news I have decided to go through rhymingwithoranges and private all of my non-Debate vlogs. I want the channel to appear more streamlined and professional. This comes after I talked with a guy who is trying to pitch me a kind-of-a-big-deal interview and said that personal side of the channel might hinder me. I can understand that.

I will definately still make vlogs, but if I post them on RWO I would private them after a while. I am still toying with the possibility of starting a secondary channel for bog standard vlogs. God knows most people are subscribed for the debate anyway.

Okay, I need to start thinking about breakfast: a meal that I genuinely believe the Americans have got so wrong. I mean, pancakes and bacon? Really? And don't even get me started on waffels.

All the best.
Jazza

I've Fooled You All!

Last week were the last of my English classes. I had an awesome time working at WaiYin. The people I worked with and my students were great fun and hard workers; I will miss them all greatly.

This could be seen as my first job really, I have done part time bar work before but this is the first time I have genuinely felt like part of an organisation.
Funnily enough, as I was leaving my last class on Friday, signing out in the book and saying goodbye to everyone, my strongest feeling was to get out of there as quickly as possible.
It sounds horrible, and is quite hard to explain, but my mind was almost screaming;

"Haha! I have fooled you all for I am not a real teacher at all! I am Jazza, The Magnificent, and you all just got conned!"

I still don't feel like a real teacher. To me I am still just the kid that gesticulates too much and dances round the classroom like a madman. If it weren't for my students telling me that they liked my lessons (and even started a petition at one point demanding the organisation give me a full time position) then I would be very confused as to whether I was doing a good job or not.

I think, and hope, that I feel like this because I love this type of work so much, and it feels like I have conned them into giving me money through me just having fun. I always say that I may not always teach, I would like to do more in my life, but if I were 'stuck' in this job my whole life I would be perfectly content.

I guess I need to count my blessings. The vast majority of people go through life having no idea what makes them happy and what they would be happy doing with their fleeting time on this earth. At the age of 20 I have found mine.

At least I think I have. *touch wood*