Results of making 10 informal blogs with videos in 2020
Sunday 27 December 2020 - Filed under Default
Two weeks ago, I decided to start publishing more content and in this post I’m sharing what I’ve learned after making 10 random posts and videos.
First, it’s important to publish regularly and for that I wanted to make it a daily habit starting small with short posts and videos. I’ve missed some days but that’s natural. If I could do it like clockwork, it’d already be a habit wouldn’t it? To support the effort, and it will take effort, it helps to have a strong idea of why. For me, putting as much value out into the world as I can. Now here’s what I’ve learned making 10 informal blogs with videos.
My YouTube channel’s subscriptions were built with 30+ driving videos so when I posted these informal ones, I opted to skip notifying subscribers. Despite this fact, the algorithm seems to like it, granting me more impressions, leading to more views, and an uptick in subscribers. Maybe this is all coincident with the holidays, people having more time off or getting home/travel sick. YouTube Studio doesn’t provide reasoning but I’m seeing encouragement from the numbers.
As I take video publishing more seriously, I’ve learned greater exposure can come from focus on a particular format or subject area. The creation of a new YouTube channel seems to be in order.
I’ve also been posting to PeerTube/Mastodon and not seen as much viewership or comments there. Obviously the audience is smaller but I have had meaningful engagement and my preferred version of the world is built on these federated systems driven by free software, so will continue to post in both places. Uploading also takes longer on PeerTube which may be specific to the UK-based server I’m on.
Lastly, there’s a balance to be reached in developing the concept for a video, recording footage, editing, and promotion. Initially it was about just getting something out, so the first two, but I’m seeing increasing value in editing. As a newbie, I often notice what more experienced people do (like edit their videos in a way that trades the single-take video for a better logical flow) and enjoy learning why that is.
2020-12-27 » David Sterry