Turning views into ventures with Dan Ahn

Welcome to “Turning Views into Ventures,” where creativity meets strategy and channels become businesses. Each month, we spotlight a standout YouTube creator who’s transformed their channel into a thriving business. Discover how they knew it was time to take things to the next level, the strategies that helped them grow, and the lessons they learned along the way. This series shows that YouTube isn’t just a platform for views—it’s a launchpad for opportunity, impact, and long-term success. Whether you're building momentum or exploring what’s next, this is your roadmap to unlocking the full potential of your channel.

This month, you'll hear from creator Dan Ahn, - better known as Ahnestly — who turned a niche passion project into a seven-figure business. Dan shares how he scaled his channel by leaning into honest reviews, building efficient systems, and prioritizing long-term revenue through affiliate marketing over viral views.

Tell us how you got started on YouTube.

I started YouTube as a hobby to pay for the tech I loved but never thought I could do YouTube full time. I love talking about products, both the pros and cons! I still remember coming home from my job, eating dinner, and then filming and editing until 2AM just because doing YouTube was really fun.

It’s hard to believe that this humble hobby has now become a full blown business where I’ve earned 7 figures with less than 100k subscribers! I also love teaching, so being able to speak at various YouTube events about strategy and monetization has been an amazing honor.

How did you first recognize that your channel had business potential beyond being a hobby?

When YouTube was just a hobby, I was getting a ton of messages from companies and my community asking me to review certain products, but I didn’t have the time. Since I was getting so many requests, I knew if I went full time, I would have plenty of content I could make. I didn’t want to take the leap until I knew I could make the content I wanted and not compromise my core value of being honest with my audience. I told myself that I would make the jump if my monthly income from YouTube could exceed what I was earning from my job for 3 months in a row.

What systems or structures did you establish to bring consistency and strategy into your creative process?

I love creating unique b-roll and learning the more technical side of filmmaking, but coming up with new ideas for every single video and tweaking technical settings was burning me out. I finally gave in and purchased the necessary equipment that would help me be more efficient with my filming process while maintaining much of the professional video quality I wanted in my videos. I traded some of the creativity for efficient productivity.

My overall strategy for my channel at that time was to rank for search on YouTube. I knew that if I talked about products from big recognizable brands who spend a ton on marketing, people searching for them would find me and my videos. This strategy served me well, but it’s a limited one, since it meant most people would only find me if they knew what to search for. However, I didn’t really have the time to think strategically with everything else that needed to be done to keep the videos and business going. As soon as I was able, I hired a full time videographer and editor to free me up to focus on strategy. I started thinking through how I could make videos that everybody could relate to, and not just the people who knew what brand or product they were looking for. This turned out to be one of the most valuable moves for my business - the number one way people find my videos is via Browse, but my videos still rank very high for key search terms.

How did you approach monetizing outside of traditional YouTube metrics like views and likes?

Ad revenue is helpful, but because my niche is so, well, niche, I had to find ways to monetize beyond ad revenue. My revenue sources breakdown looks something like this:

• 85% affiliate marketing
• 5% ad revenue
• 9% sponsorships
• 1% digital product

Being an affiliate means I maintain full control over my video and message (no sponsors looking over my shoulder!), and it is one of the truest sources of passive income, as many of my videos are evergreen. Case in point, I took a month long trip in January 2024, and I was nervous about being away for that long without putting out content, but I ended up having a revenue record breaking January! While sponsorships can be a great source of income, my niche is again, so niche. My videos don’t get the kind of volume that a much sexier niche might get. Many sponsors look at a channel’s views, but ignore other factors, such as clicks and conversion rates. This often means that the rates that sponsors offer aren’t very appealing and pale in comparison to what I earn via affiliate marketing. There are occasions when the stars align and a sponsor I want to work with also understands my value. In these scenarios, the rates are much healthier and they give me larger control over the creative process - these are the few sponsorships I will accept.

How did you build a team or support network to help you delegate and scale without losing your creative spark?

I genuinely love every aspect of my business, but I knew that doing everything by myself was not sustainable. I determined my first hire by asking myself two questions: What are the tasks that are the most and least tied to revenue generation? Which of the tasks least tied to revenue generation take up the most amount of time?

By answering these questions, I realized that videography (b-roll) and editing are so much fun, but they take up so much time and aren’t directly tied to revenue generation compared to tasks like ideation, script writing, product procurement, and business negotiations.

This is why my first hire was a full time videographer and editor. When hiring, I knew that if I had to constantly supervise the person / people I hired, all of my time would be wrapped up in training and meetings instead of doing the work that needed to be done. This is why I hired a seasoned videographer and editor who needs minimal supervision and could easily understand my directions. Also, I opted to hire someone to be on-site and full time because I still wanted to be part of that creative process. One of us will come up with a crazy idea or edit (for example, we decided to make a music video as an intro to one of our upcoming videos…about chairs), which is what helps keep this business fun. I’ve also delegated tasks out to other firms for things like accounting, payroll, and bookkeeping.

How has your definition of success evolved, and how do you measure it now?

I now see success as two things: having the freedom to do what you want, when you want and giving back and helping others. I’ve been able to build a business where I can take a break if I need to or make a video that’s a bit more creative if I’m feeling a bit burnt out, or even make the videos I want to make without needing to rely on sponsors. With this flexibility, I’ve been able to find more opportunities to continue learning and giving back by sharing what I’ve learned with others.