What I've Learned from my YouTube Channel

In 2024 I got serious about my YouTube channel. Before that I used to make and post a video here and there when the mood struck me. However, as my new years resolution in 2024, i decided to give youtube a good try. I decided that at the end of every month, i would post 1 video. The thinking was that it would give me a while month to make the video. 

Unfortunately I would squander the month away and rush to make the video in the final week of the month, sometimes even the final day. But somehow I managed to post every month for the whole year, surprising even myself. It was real close sometimes, believe me. In times of extreme laziness, I told myself to post a trash video just to keep the streak alive. I thank myself for that decision every day. Because this whole youtube project gave me something much more valuable than the videos themselves. 

The views and subscribers and watching the numbers go up is a good feeling, don't get me wrong. But what I got most from the year of YouTube was a sense of accomplishment. The feeling of pride within myself to have started a project and stuck with it for an entire year. To have successfully completed a new year's resolution. I got the ability to tell myself that I CAN take on larger projects and stick to them. That boost in my self confidence really is priceless. 

There are other things i learned along the way of course. Video editing is a big one. Super useful skill to have. I wouldn't call myself and expert, but I know my way around a video editor just enough to make video essays on video games. My editor of choice is DaVinci Resolve. It's very powerful and can do a lot of things but I don't use all of features. I don't need to really. My needs are very minimal and as long as I can express my ideas, I'm happy. 

Second skill is making thumbnails. I'm not an expert at it or anything but one thing I've learned about getting views is that its all about the thumbnail and title. Even if the video sucks, a good title+thumbnail will give you a lot of views. It won't give you much retention though. To keep an audience's attention you will need a good video. 

Third skill is embracing failure. One of the first videos I got low views, I was devastated. I had put so much effort into making the video and thumbnail, just for it to be a dud. While another video where I barely put any effort was doing swimmingly. It hurt in the beginning. I didn't even want to make videos after that anymore. What got me out of the rut was to just make another low effort video that got even less views. I embraced failure. Now all of a sudden, the video that didn't do so well seemed like a smash hit by comparison. Success is such a bad teacher. It teaches you all the wrong things and causes more pain the long term than failure does. Now I seek failure, or rather, I just focus on the process of making the effort and look for places i failed. Failure is best saught and success looked back on fondly. Which is what I'm doing with this blog post. Looking back fondly on the success of the project even though while in the middle of it i felt like i was stumbling through failure after failure. 

Fourth skill will project and time management. One thing I learned about myself was that having a deadline is the only thing that motivates me. You could give me 10 years to make a youtube video, i will still only take a week. The last week. Actually even coming to the conclusion that it takes a week was a result of trial and error. Sure, if I clear my schedule and sit down, I can finish the whole video in a day. I'm not doing anything so complicated as to take 8 hrs x 7 days to finish. What I do need to account for is my energy levels. So I've spread out my tasks over the course of a week. I do a little bit a day and I'm done. 

I'm sure I can continue and find more things to add to this list. But you get the point. It was a good project and I'm happy to have done it. I continue to do it actually. This year has been about game development, but I've gotten good enough at the youtube thing , so I don't need to spend much time or effort on it. When the end of the month nears, I know I'll have to lock in and make a video. I haven't missed a month so and I'll try not to. Maybe I can get better and better at it so I can have a one day turn around time at some point. That would be cool

Thanks for reading 

B1ackRose