Haven’t seen this one make its way around the Fan Media pages yet so I figured I’d share this one. Looks like Will Arnett did some more voice work for the LEGO Company. It’s a pretty clever sketch and the messaging is good. I didn’t catch that the virus was brick built at first… Do you think that will become an official set?
Want to Create Your Own Brick Based YouTube Channel?
Maybe I’m the minority, but I don’t watch a lot of TV anymore. I also don’t have Netflix or any other kind of streaming service so that probably puts me deep into the minority. Usually when I watch things, it is on YouTube. Back in the day, the content was pretty awful, but today there are a lot of folks out there putting a lot of effort into making some great content. That includes all of our brick based friends. A few months back, I highlighted Beyond the Brick and the great work that team is doing to put out some LEGO related content. Well the team there recently celebrated reaching over 500,000 subscribers. They did a number of videos to celebrate the milestone. One in particular that interested me talked a lot about the business aspects of their channel.
I linked it below… What an attention grabbing title though, right? How much money do they make? I won’t spoil it for you, but John Hanlon goes through their YouTube stats to show how many visitors they get and shows you the top videos they have for making money. I appreciate his honest and open opinions about what they are doing and what he still isn’t sure about yet. If you are thinking about setting up a brick based YouTube channel, definitely find 30 minutes to watch this video. Bring a pad of paper and a pen to take notes as he gives some good points. Some key points that I came up with based on watching his video:
-You are at the whims of YouTube and their algorithms. What works one day may change if YouTube changes how they run things.
-Keep putting out consistent good content. Some will bring you money and some won’t.
-Just because you have subscribers doesn’t mean they watch the videos. Most watchers find Beyond the Brick through YouTube’s recommended videos.
-Ads increase right before Christmas. Can you guess why?
-Your revenue will fluctuate. It’s good to have other sources of revenue. Beyond the Brick has regular sponsors. This year it is Brickmania. Last year it was BrickLink. They also sell merchandise and use affiliate marketing.
-Your expenses can get high so be ready.
-They pay a lot in taxes. From experience, my NLS had a business and having a good CPA really helped us as the CPA gave us some good tips for how to lower our taxes. Definitely keep it in mind if you are going to get serious about a brick business (my opinion anyway).
One more useful video if you’re looking to start a Brick YouTube Channel. Boone Langston is a newer member of the Beyond the Brick team and in this video he interviews Jang of Jangbricks for over an hour. If you don’t know Jang, he has been running a YouTube channel for quite some time and has amassed over a million subscribers. Jang goes into the origins of his work and some of the things he has done over the years. I have yet to write a post on Jang, but he is known for providing video reviews of just about every set out there. The video is rather long and I will admit that there were some parts I skipped over, but there is some really good advice as well. Here are a few lessons learned I pulled away from the video:
-Take the time to make sure you are producing quality material. That includes the right lighting, sound equipment, and video equipment. I will fully admit that my pictures on this site need a lot of work.
-Respond to your fans. Answer questions they post.
-Monitor comments and make sure they are in line with your standards. Jang wants to be family friendly and he is quick to remove posts where people are offensive.
-Get feedback from your viewers and try to make changes based on what they want.
-If you are going to review every set, figure out what to do with your sets when you are done. There is no need to collect everything and be a hoarder.
-Your channel is not going to be super successful over night. It’s an evolutionary process to become popular.
-Having a dog in the video is a good distraction for the boring parts
So there you have it. I hope they were helpful. If you can think of any more useful videos on setting up a YouTube channel or more specifically a brick based YouTube channel, post them in the comments.
Happy building!
Another Way to Stay Engaged with Bricks - "Beyond the Brick"
Back in September 2018, I wrote about my favorite Brick podcast called “The Bricks King Podcast.” You can read my post about it here. I found the podcast to be a great way to keep up with my LEGO addiction while doing other things like driving or chores around the house. In my search to find even more, I looked for video options. And let me say, thank goodness for the invention of on demand content. YAY! Sites like YouTube are full of folks who post videos about their LEGO addictions, review sets, and provide information about the hobby. My favorite Brick inspired channel on YouTube thus far has been Beyond the Brick. Apparently many others are fans too as they have many hundreds of thousands of subscribers.
“Beyond the Brick” was started as an audio only podcast by LEGO fan Joshua Hanlon in November 2011 as his “About” page states. He has long since moved to YouTube and now runs this channel as a full time job. If you go to his videos page, you’ll see that he is releasing new content just about every day. Having watched some of Josh’s earlier videos you can see that he’s come a long way since his early days. His interviewing skills have gotten better and he’s done a better job editing videos as well (in my opinion). You can tell that he is getting good at interviewing LEGO fans who can often be introverts who don’t like to talk to audiences on camera.
“Beyond the Brick” is different from many brick content type channels on YouTube or other platforms as Josh travels. He videos at LEGO conventions sometimes giving multi-hour long tours of a convention in case you couldn’t make it (like Brick Fair 2018 in VA) or sometimes spending a few minutes at a notable build this this recent video of a huge recreation of a bell tower in Florence, Italy. He’s been to BrickLink HQ to get an inside look at how the operation is run and has a full tour of the LEGO House in Denmark on his channel as well. He’s interviewed countless LEGO fans, LEGO company designers, LEGO Ideas designers, and many others. He’s shown us through LEGO theme parks around the world to include Japan and Denmark. Do I need to continue? If you’re a fan of the LEGO brick and you can’t find content that “Beyond the Brick” has released that you like, then you need to question whether you are actually a fan of LEGO or not.
I’m not endorsed by anyone or getting paid to say nice things so don’t worry about me leading you astray. “Beyond the Brick” has done a great job and I hope they continue to put out stellar content for many years to come. Thanks “Beyond the Brick” and keep up the great work!
Update - 15 Jan 2019
Beyond the Brick posted an interview of its founders Joshua and John Hanlon. It was done at the Skærbæk Fan Weekend 2018 in Denmark. You can see the view on YouTube here. They talk about how they got started, how they make money, and where they plan to go in the future. It’s a great interview if you’re interested in the inner workings of their YouTube channel.
Bricks on the Tube
There are a lot of great fan sites out there and usually the pick up the good videos, but there are a few that I haven't seen around so much.
To start off, there's this video. Without spoiling it, this 18 year old from Andorra found a way to use LEGO to improve his life in a big way. Check it out!
This next one says it is 7 months old or so as of the publishing of this post, but I haven't seen it before. This one is made by the LEGO group and shows LEGO's supply chain process from plastic bits, to the formation of pieces, to creating a set, to delivering the set to the store. It's worth the watch if you haven't seen it before.
I had seen the first version of this one by BrickBrosProductions. You can see it here. The creators used LEGO bricks in real life to do different things like cook eggs on a frying pan. The second version below is similar to the first one. Enjoy!