How Fisayo makes money on YouTube

Fisayo Fosudo is someone that can be described as a ‘Tech YouTuber’.

Fisayo is also a video producer and is known in the tech space for creating unique technology videos for the African market.

He is a graduate of Economics from the University of Lagos. In this interview with BUNMI BAILEY, he talks about his business and how he creates tech videos that stand out from the rest.

Who is Fisayo Fosudo?

I am a visual storyteller and technology video producer with a background in economic analysis, brand communication and technology. I specialise in smartphones, gadgets, applications, and my goal is to build one of the most engaged tech communities in the space. I currently have a total social following of over 40,000, with millions of impressions and over half a million video views from making unique weekly technology videos for the African space and globally on my YouTube channel – YouTube.com/FisayoFosudo.

Tell me your entrepreneurship story: How you started and the journey so far.

I developed interest for the technology of video when I was 17, but I didn’t have the resources to record or edit. I always resorted to reading a lot of Wired Magazines and exploring cutting edge technology in related magazines, self-help books and I also learned graphic designs. It was through the resources I got from graphic design that I was able to get some equipment I started with. It has been interesting so far.

What really inspired you to set up this business?

I was inspired by Africa itself and the potential for creating something unique for us as well as tell the story globally. I am only a little over a year into the specificity of mobile phone video reviews and I only look to take it a notch higher.

How much did you start with and how big have you become since starting?

As I mentioned, all my resources from years of graphic design work, which accrued to a savings of about $6,000, went into getting gear and furniture for video production. This was done before I started making videos. I didn’t have any immediate results in the beginning, but I quickly learned a lot moving forward and I was able to make my first mobile phone video review in April of 2017. It has been a little over a year and three months, and we have been able to gain over 40,000 combined following, 13,000 YouTube subscribers, over half a million views and millions of impressions across the Internet.

You market phones, wristwatches and other tech products via digital online platforms. How lucrative has the business so far been?

It has been okay so far and there is still a lot of ground to cover as far as making a career out of online technology video production.

How do you make your money?

From YouTubers: People who upload videos on YouTube consistently. I make money via pre-roll adverts, that is, adverts before the video itself is played, and then collaborating with a brand. I have been able to and still currently work with many brands such as HP, 9Mobile, MallForAfrica, Jumia, PayDay Investor by ARM Pensions and many others.

The digital space seems to be getting saturated, owing to the number of young people moving into it. What future do you see for this space in the ten years?

It’s really going to be interesting to see what the next ten years will bring forth. I can’t entirely say what will come of it, but what I can somewhat predict happening is the decentralisation of a lot of analogue or even currently technological systems like banking, which the blockchain technology seems to be threatening. Also, I expect trade in many aspects to have a lower barrier to entry and it is already evident now. There are numerous businesses currently on social media alone and many more users and creators that are being introduced every day.

What challenges do you face?

The major challenge I currently face is power supply or the lack thereof. Editing videos takes time, resources and a lot of power (light/energy), and not having something dependable is a major downside. Fortunately, there is always a generator to resort to, but it is just weird that we still have problems like this. To digress, it is also why we cannot have many more manufacturers come in due to heavy operations cost stemming from lack of dependable power alone.

What would you tell your younger self?

I would tell him to work smarter.