You can really deep dive into YouTube Analytics and figure out how to maximize the reach of every video.
Jake Grzenda
Owner
Leaving city life behind, Jake and Becky Grzenda rented a rural property in 2015 to start their family farm, White House on the Hill–with six chickens. Jake was commuting to multiple jobs and farming with Becky in his off hours. But the couple was introduced to another possibility when they turned to YouTube to learn about bird care. “YouTube opened our eyes to this whole other world of homesteading, which is raising your own food, raising your family out in the country,” Jake says. “We saw other families that were doing this and were able to make an income.” Taking their cue from those YouTubers, Jake and Becky launched their own YouTube channel in 2017 to share their homesteading journey. Within a year and a half, they had earned enough to dive into content creation full time and stay home with their four children. Today, White House on the Hill’s YouTube channel has over 1 million subscribers, and the family has purchased their own farm where they raise all manner of birds, along with a few pigs and cows.
The Grzendas have about 1.6 million followers across social media, but YouTube is their most successful platform by far, earning them more than 90 percent of their income. “It’s really the main platform we post content to, and it’s always been the easiest to work with,” Jake says. “They’ve done an amazing job putting our content in front of new viewers so we don’t have to spend time and money advertising.” Jake and Becky use YouTube Analytics to track click-through and retention rates to understand what type of content performs best (exotic bird videos, according to Jake). As the Grzendas continue to grow their YouTube channel, they plan to finish building a large aviary and a horse barn and to expand their own home. “We have a lot of plans to develop our property,” Jake says, “but YouTube has been in the middle of it to help us achieve our goals.”