Channel Update: Six Months Later
I’ll niche down over my dead body.
Okay, but seriously—it’s time to talk about my channel goals, accomplishments, and future. It’s hard to believe it’s been six months, but… simultaneously it definitely feels like it’s been at least six months since I started this. I’ll get into what I mean by that and more here in this post. More importantly, I’ll be talking about what’s next for the channel and my plans going forward.
A Lot of Work
Prior to my decision to start making videos, I knew it was going to be hard. I knew there’d be some challenging days when I didn’t really feel like doing it, or that there would be crunch time in order to keep the video content rolling out. The truth is that even with that mindset as I dove into this, it wound up being even more work than I expected. This has seriously been some really hard work over these past six months. I’ve got a great deal more respect for video creators (on any platform) now than I did before. It’s definitely some challenging, skilled, time-intensive work.
I planned from the start to release three videos a week, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The two days that I unfortunately missed were the result of a technology malfunction that I got fixed as quickly as possible. Apart from those two days, I’ve been consistent in my output. That consistency is an accomplishment I’m really proud of, don’t get me wrong, but it has been the result of tons of hard work.
On average, I spend about 10 hours working on each video, from start to finish. Granted, this isn’t a ton of time compared to what I’m sure many others spend on their videos, but for me, my full-time job, and all the other projects I’ve got going on, this is a massive blow to my time. At least four days a week, roughly eight hours a day, are dedicated just to making videos for my channel. That’s almost a second full-time job.
Expanding My Abilities
Through working on all of these videos for the past several months, my capabilities have grown considerably. The quality of the videos I’m outputting is insanely better than the first several batches of videos. I think that my videos reached their peak around the time that I started creating the Legend of Vox Machina review videos. I’ve slowly shifted my camera angles and locations, fixed my lighting, improved my audio, and bettered my editing skills. My videos don’t just look better, now—they’re easier for me to make. I’ve gotten the hang of using Premiere and of filming optimally. The truth is, though, that I can’t see myself speeding up the editing process any further without sacrificing quality.
All of the work I’ve been doing for this channel has certainly paid off in terms of my knowledge, understanding, and skill. I’ve got a much better grasp not only on video editing, but on critiquing literature, reading quickly, and just managing a content creation account in general. It’s been a lot of work, sure, but the work has certainly been worthwhile.
100 Videos
When I first started this project, I told myself I wouldn’t give up until I hit 100 videos. No matter how challenging it was, no matter how much time it took, I was going to keep going until I had created and published 100 videos. If you look at my channel now, you’ll see considerably less than 100 videos, but that’s because I’ve unlisted a great many of them. In actuality, the video for this post is going to be the 99th that I have made. It’s crazy to think that I already reached my goal, but here I am, and that means it’s time to think about what I’ve done and whether or not I can continue.
It is nuts to think that I’ve made 100 videos. I can’t really wrap my hand around that. That’s more than 800 hours of work for this channel. I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished and I think I’ve provided to myself that I can do the work involved in this. I can do it, but I need to ask myself if I want to, now. How do I feel about making another 100 videos?
Niching Down
If you are someone who has ever paid any attention to how the YouTube algorithm works, you know that there are things it punishes and things it rewards. Personally, I do not have a problem with YouTube’s algorithm. The only problem I do have is that it’s pretty tough to categorize content in a way that’s going to ensure it gets to the right people quickly. The current categories are pretty vague, and there isn’t an effective way to tell the algorithm “this video is in this category”. That’s it. That’s my complaint. For the rest of it, I think it’s perfectly fine. I actually think that most algorithms in social media are pretty solid, in spite of occasional hiccups.
YouTube rewards content creators who do something called niching down. It’s where you find your pocket of the site where your videos are relevant and consistent, and you stick to that corner of the site. You don’t upload a book review, a personal story, and a photography tutorial in the same week on the same channel. Not one of those videos will do well. They’re inconsistent and there isn’t a definable niche. If you instead release three videos in a week that are all about books, you’re more likely to do better with your content. Over time, you’ll find a broader audience and you’ll grow your channel. That’s how it works: consistency and a niche are required to grow on YouTube.
I… really haven’t been doing that. I haven’t really wanted to, because I’ve just been experimenting. This was a lot less about growing and getting a bunch of views; this whole channel has just been about figuring out what I do and do not enjoy creating when it comes to video content. What do I think I could make a lot of and be excited about? What content do I want to discuss with others?
During this channel’s lifetime, I did a 20-part D&D tutorial series, a video discussing my experience getting a vasectomy, several book reviews, and a heck of a lot more. Until the past couple of weeks, you really never knew what you were going to get when you stopped by this channel. My “Uploads” section was a chaotic mess of random content.
Much of that randomness has since been unlisted, leaving behind things that I believe are relevant to the identity of my channel. I want to talk about books, bookish things, writing, and other similar concepts. The personal stuff and all that… eh, it just doesn’t have a place here. Nor, honestly, does D&D content. Much as I love D&D, I think I’ll have to discuss that elsewhere. All the randomness, actually, is being diverted to my personal Instagram account (https://instagram.com/tlbainter.personal).
So, the channel is now niched down, and you can count on it being more focused and rewarding (Community reference, you better get it).
But… What’s Next?
Rather than continuing to beat around the bush, I’ve got to just say it: I seriously need a break. Having what is essentially two full-time jobs has been rough. Three videos a week is a lot. Too much, honestly, for everything else I’m trying to do. All of my other projects have taken a backseat to make room for creating videos. As I have already stated, it’s basically a full-time job for me at this rate, and yet I feel I’ve learned all that I can.
So, my current plan is to slow down, not stop entirely. I want to take more time with each video, and I also want to make sure that I have time to work on other projects, especially my writing. At the moment, I’m keeping it limited: I’ll be doing one video per week. This will begin next week when there will be a video only on Wednesday, and it will continue until September. In September, I’ll reevaluate and determine if I think I’m up for increasing the production count to two or three videos per week.
To recap, this means that I’ll stop posting videos on Monday and Friday, leaving only Wednesday as my posting day for the next few months. Come September, I’ll make a determination and announcement regarding how I’ll be moving forward with this (or if I will! Maybe I’ll decide it just isn’t for me, by then).
Conclusion
I am so grateful for everything I’ve learned from these past 100 videos. I haven’t just learned from the experience of video production, but also from the people I have encountered during my time creating so much content. Truly, any time someone wanted to engage with me regarding something I said, it made my day; the fact that I created something that made somebody want to pause and engage in amicable discourse regarding a topic that interested me was a big deal. It’s been lovely meeting fans of some of the stories I love. Hopefully, I get more of that in the months to come.