• by Adam Singolda , June 22, 2012

Does low-cost video production exist, and can you build a business using your YouTube channel?

Yes, according to  a musician and ex-DJ named Justin Nealis (or Party Supplies).

Last weekend I sat down with Justin. I started by asking, “So, how is the business?” Justin said things are going great, and he is really busy traveling all around the country and even internationally. Justin is only 25, living in a cool apartment in Brooklyn, and getting invitations to perform his music all day long. I asked how he developed his following.

Main things I picked up from the conversation:

(1) Affordable, creative and mandatory video production – Justin constantly edits videos of his music using his Mac, on a budget that would make a producer at Fox proud. Some of those videos get more than 100k views in YouTube in a short period. We know video production can be expensive – but  it seems that similarly to companies like LiveU that enable affordable live streaming to broadcasters, using public video editing tools on your Mac can help you create videos that can attract meaningful views and eyeballs on YouTube.

(2) So you can create affordable videos that get YouTube views, so what? –For Justin it’s all about being discoverable wherever users might be, on social platforms Facebook and Twitter, on local blogs and of course YouTube. One of Justin’s KPIs is the time it takes a video to get 100k views once uploaded to YouTube. At first it took him months, but now it can take a week. He says it’s important to have your content show up on blogs because blogs are influential and addressable. If users stumble upon your content browsing the web accidentally  but happen to like it, you grow organically and people reach out. Justin gets calls asking him to fly somewhere and perform, which then becomes another video, put on Twitter, going to a blog, to a YouTube view -- and the cycle goes on and on.

(3) Positive attitude – I guess this is not related to video, but I thought it might be the most important one. When you sit down with Justin you can’t ignore his energy and passion for what he does. He realizes it’s a competitive market but he does not feel uncomfortable using all the tools that are available out there to win anyone standing in his way

Feel free to leave comments here, and I’m sure Justin will be happy to answer -- or check his channel and enjoy his music. This is my favorite.

I guess “God Is A DJ,” but online video and social networks definitely help.