By playing, you agree to uListen's Terms and Privacy Policy and YouTube's Terms of Service.

Deep Dive with Ali Abdaal

How Oliur Made $600,000 with Tumblr Themes - Deep Dive with Ali Abdaal

👉 [Free live masterclass, Sat 21 Nov] Launch your online business by Christmas and land your first high-paying client by January →

Ali AbdaalhostOliurguest

Oct 18, 20211h 20mWatch on YouTube

Summaries, chapters, transcripts, and FAQs on this page are made by uListen, not YouTube.

Great conversations run long. Their best ideas don't have to.

uListen is free on iPhone, iPad, Android, Chrome, and Claude.

CHAPTERS

Jump to publisher timestamps

Chapter summaries

Show setup: podcast premise, Oliur’s background, and naming banter
Ali introduces the show’s aim—exploring joy and fulfillment through creators’ and entrepreneurs’ journeys—and frames Oliur as a web designer, creator, and entrepreneur. They briefly riff on possible podcast names before jumping into the story Ali is most curious about.
- •Ali frames the episode as a conversation about philosophies, strategies, and tools for a meaningful life
- •Oliur is introduced in terms of web design, content creation, and entrepreneurship
- •They joke about not having a finalized podcast name yet
- •Ali tees up key topics: Tumblr themes, dropshipping, and lessons from beating cancer
How Tumblr themes turned into a $600k+ business
Ali presses Oliur on how selling Tumblr themes became so lucrative. Oliur explains how customizing his own Tumblr led him into theme-making, and how quickly revenue surprised him once he listed themes in Tumblr’s Theme Garden.
- •Oliur originally used Tumblr like a “mood board” and wanted to customize his own page
- •He learned by tinkering with code and following Tumblr’s simple documentation
- •Themes sold in tiers, and Oliur aimed for higher-priced themes
- •Revenue spiked dramatically, including months around $30,000, becoming a major life turning point
School, college, and the first blog: building an “aesthetic” online
Ali rewinds to Oliur’s early life and how he ended up building an online presence without a traditional academic path. Oliur describes disliking school, choosing college over A-levels, and starting a blog initially fueled by Android phone customization and design interests.
- •Oliur describes himself as non-academic and not especially enjoying school
- •He studied accounting and business in college before shifting toward computers and websites
- •He launched a tech/design-interest blog on Blogspot in 2010, later moving to WordPress
- •He attributes part of his online pull to a consistent style/aesthetic that developed organically, partly as a reaction to growing up around messiness
From hobby posting to serious traffic—and early monetization
Ali digs into how Oliur stayed consistent when no one was reading, and what his life looked like once the blog grew. Oliur explains he posted because he enjoyed sharing, then later began treating it like a business once income became plausible.
- •Oliur describes early motivation as enjoyment rather than money, especially at 17–20
- •By 2012–2013 he says the blog reached around half a million views per month
- •He initially didn’t know how to monetize and felt CPMs weren’t high
- •In 2013 he set a 12-month target for making a livable monthly income and started earning through AdSense and sponsored posts
Tumblr theme heyday: scaling, support, and staying grounded with money
Oliur explains how themes became the dominant focus because they out-earned the blog by a wide margin. He also shares how he handled sudden income at a young age and the kinds of customers who used his work.
- •He shifted focus toward themes because they were far more lucrative than blogging
- •He scaled by creating more themes and providing customer support/customization help
- •He mentions high-profile usage, including major brands and a celebrity’s team using his themes
- •He describes saving heavily, motivated by growing up without much money and aiming for a house deposit and independence
Enjoyment vs. struggle: delayed gratification and outsourcing what you hate
Ali asks how Oliur handled the less-fun parts of the work. Oliur describes a practical mindset of pushing through unpleasant tasks to unlock the work he enjoys, and explains how he used outsourcing to handle technical gaps.
- •Oliur frames “struggle” as part of delayed gratification—doing hard bits now to free up energy later
- •He compares the mindset to quick chores like clearing dishes to avoid mental overhead
- •He found complex coding (especially JavaScript) to be the hardest part of theme work
- •He used earnings from simpler themes to hire an external developer for more complex functionality
First office, first hire, and the accidental start of YouTube
Oliur describes 2015 as a pivotal year for structure: getting an office and hiring his first employee. He also explains how searching for workspace inspiration and audience requests pushed him into making his first YouTube video—an office tour shot on an iPhone.
- •Oliur moved out of a cramped bedroom workspace by renting an office to reduce interruptions
- •He made his first hire, Charlie, a former college contact who initially took over the blog
- •Charlie’s role evolved into a flexible “operations” role handling whatever is needed
- •Oliur started YouTube by sharing an office tour after seeing similar content and getting viewer requests via Instagram
YouTube growth without a rigid schedule—and leveraging Instagram
After the sponsor break, Ali asks when Oliur decided to “become a YouTuber.” Oliur explains he still doesn’t see it as a full-time identity, and describes how Instagram growth helped him get his early YouTube subscribers and reshape where he focused online.
- •Oliur says he posted on YouTube inconsistently at first because he was running other business lines
- •He gradually dedicated about two days a week to YouTube as income and traction increased
- •He attributes early subscriber growth largely to Instagram, where he posted setups/products
- •He notes Instagram’s algorithm and feature set changed over time, influencing his increased focus on YouTube
Client design work and stacking income streams from one online presence
Ali summarizes Oliur’s multi-stream trajectory, and Oliur adds an important missing piece: client work. Oliur explains how phone customization led into UI/graphic skills, which then turned into paid design projects found via a design-sharing site.
- •Oliur describes doing client work (websites, apps) alongside blog and theme income
- •He links client work skills back to creating graphics/UI elements for Android customization
- •He found many clients through Dribbble and says many were relatively high-paying
- •He describes the period as running multiple streams: themes, blog, client work, and growing social channels
Shopify and “dropshipping” experiments: moving from testing to fulfillment control
Oliur explains his experimentation with Shopify stores as dropshipping became popular. He defines Shopify and dropshipping, addresses why dropshipping has a bad reputation, and shares how he evolved from long shipping times to holding inventory to improve customer experience.
- •Oliur explains Shopify as an e-commerce platform and dropshipping as third-party fulfillment
- •He argues dropshipping is widely used via third-party logistics, and the term gets unfairly stigmatized
- •He initially made some money but says the early model wasn’t very profitable
- •He shifted to bulk-buying products, storing them at his office, and shipping himself to improve control and speed
Designing products with manufacturers: Alibaba process, timelines, risks, and margins
Ali asks how product design and manufacturing actually works day-to-day, and Oliur walks through the practical steps. He shares timelines for samples and production, quality control approaches, a major inventory loss from a bad batch, and how advertising and margins can vary.
- •Oliur describes designing products (from sketches/notes to PDFs) and sending specs to manufacturers
- •He explains using Alibaba RFQs, supplier vetting, and managing language barriers via messaging tools
- •He outlines timelines: manufacturer selection, samples that can take weeks/months, and long lead times for bulk orders
- •He recounts losing a significant amount on unsellable inventory due to poor logo quality and learning to tighten specs and require detailed photos
- •He discusses how profit margins and ad ROI vary by product and notes the store achieving over a million dollars in revenue in a recent year, supported by a small team handling ops, sourcing, and ads
What Oliur’s business mix looks like now—and what he wants to do next
Ali asks Oliur to describe his current “empire” and what direction he’s heading. Oliur lists his main business lines and explains why he’s interested in moving away from physical products toward software, while continuing to grow an audience.
- •Oliur outlines income sources: YouTube, a physical-products store, and digital products like presets, wallpapers, and icons
- •He notes digital products can vary widely, including periods of very high monthly income
- •He mentions occasional consulting/client work for feedback on products or businesses
- •He says he may want to sell the store and explore building a software-as-a-service business, while continuing YouTube as an audience channel
Cancer diagnosis: symptoms, hospital discovery, and processing the shock
Ali transitions from business to personal life and asks about Oliur’s cancer diagnosis. Oliur recounts early symptoms, misattribution to posture/back pain, a sudden breathing crisis, and the discovery of blood clots and lung lumps that led to a testicular cancer diagnosis.
- •Oliur describes lower back pain starting months earlier and initial medical uncertainty (e.g., kidney stones considered)
- •He experienced acute shortness of breath that led to an ambulance and hospital tests
- •Doctors found pulmonary embolisms and multiple lung lumps, leading to a cancer diagnosis in July 2020
- •He describes the disbelief of being fit and healthy and his approach of researching heavily and taking treatment week by week
Chemotherapy, support systems, and the big mindset shift (plus closing reflections)
Oliur describes chemotherapy as an intense, disabling experience and shares how chemo wards felt socially, especially as the youngest patient. The conversation then broadens into post-cancer perspective: relying on friends, caring less about others’ opinions, thinking about luck and gratitude, and how he approaches finding a path and imagining life with far more money.
- •Oliur describes chemo as feeling like a “zombie,” with major limitations in focus and day-to-day function, over multiple cycles
- •He talks about the chemo ward community, repeated interactions with other patients, and supportive staff
- •He describes strong emotional support from friends and family, especially during COVID constraints via calls and messages
- •He says cancer reinforced caring less about others’ opinions, while still keeping balance in how you show up
- •They discuss making “your own luck” by putting yourself out there online and capitalizing on opportunities; Oliur describes informal moments of reflection rather than structured gratitude practices
- •He suggests trying many things when young to discover what you can stick with long-term, and says even with much more money he’d still do similar work, plus more photography, comfort in travel, and helping friends more directly

Publisher timestamps

Get more out of YouTube videos.

Read along on your phone, search it beside the video, or ask your favorite AI app what was said.