- Joined
- Oct 13, 2013
- Messages
- 1,988
- Reaction score
- 732
- Age
- 27
- Channel Type
- Youtuber
This is an article that I've been wanting to write up for a while, as the reason that I did this is one that I feel is very important for YouTubers to keep in mind.
So yeah as the title says I left my tech channel of 4,000+ subscribers which had accumulated 2.5M+ views for a completely new animation discussion channel with only a few people moving over from the tech channel to the animation one. On the surface, this doesn't make any sense but I did it because I really wasn't happy running the channel anymore.
For a few months leading up to me moving away from the channel, I was taking breaks and was not looking forward to recording anymore. It felt like more of a task that I needed to do something that I couldn't wait to get home from uni to do. I was also constantly stuck for ideas and was really not happy with the channel's growth (it was growing had been increasing at the same rate for ages). Even though I was feeling this I was very much in denial, I went along telling myself that I love this and I just didn't feel like doing it on that day.
I had "breaks" here and there as I said but after one of the breaks it finally clicked and I thought, why am I doing this. I realised that even if I did get big doing a tech channel I would not be enjoying it, I was bored of doing b-roll, saying the same sorts of things about phones (let's face it they're all pretty similar) and doing content that lots of other people were already doing. I think the tech community is great, I still like tech and regularly watch many tech YouTubers, but I didn't feel like that was where I fit, at least not anymore. I fit in before and loved running the channel but I was burnt out and bored of it.
The idea of me moving away from the channel was really solidified one night when I was talking to my little brother about an animated film (I don't remember which one) and how some of the meanings behind it are great and some other stuff like that. At that point I had my EUREKA moment and though, why I am I only talking about this to him, why not make this a new channel.
At first, I was in two minds about really going ahead with it, even though I love animation as an art form and love many of the film's stories, many people think that it's a childhood thing and that people "move on" from animation (at least for films anyway). As a result, I was extremely nervous making, what I thought then, would be my final StikeTech video where I talked about me stopping the channel and moving over to the new channel. The art of animation was something that I really started to appreciate as of the beginning of 2017 and was something that I only talked to my close family about and I had no idea how anyone outside of that would react, but wow did they react better than I thought they would.
I've made quite a few friends during my time running the tech channel and they were all incredibly supportive and totally understood, yes there were some people who were also disappointed that I wouldn't be running the tech channel anymore but they also respected the decision. People on Snapchat had the same response too.
After this response, I was so excited to start my new channel and make it epic!!! I got to work making a new logo, banner and set up the channel and got it all started with my Oliver and Company review. I was having fun again on YouTube and it felt so great being able to talk to the world about animation.
Since then I have made loads of videos about films that I love, I have made videos about how some really interesting concepts in animation work (and even used some of that research for a uni presentation) and have had the chance to virtually meet so many people that I wouldn't have otherwise know about. I've also found that even with my lower subscriber count, I've still got an amazing audience with many people coming back and watching new videos that I put out. Some of the people from my tech channel stuck around too, even if they don't watch the new channel (which is totally fine) I still have them on social media. I have since also decided to occasionally upload to the tech channel again, I don't have a schedule or anything, I just put stuff up there when I feel like it.
After this expereince I urge you to keep these things in mind:
So yeah as the title says I left my tech channel of 4,000+ subscribers which had accumulated 2.5M+ views for a completely new animation discussion channel with only a few people moving over from the tech channel to the animation one. On the surface, this doesn't make any sense but I did it because I really wasn't happy running the channel anymore.
For a few months leading up to me moving away from the channel, I was taking breaks and was not looking forward to recording anymore. It felt like more of a task that I needed to do something that I couldn't wait to get home from uni to do. I was also constantly stuck for ideas and was really not happy with the channel's growth (it was growing had been increasing at the same rate for ages). Even though I was feeling this I was very much in denial, I went along telling myself that I love this and I just didn't feel like doing it on that day.
I had "breaks" here and there as I said but after one of the breaks it finally clicked and I thought, why am I doing this. I realised that even if I did get big doing a tech channel I would not be enjoying it, I was bored of doing b-roll, saying the same sorts of things about phones (let's face it they're all pretty similar) and doing content that lots of other people were already doing. I think the tech community is great, I still like tech and regularly watch many tech YouTubers, but I didn't feel like that was where I fit, at least not anymore. I fit in before and loved running the channel but I was burnt out and bored of it.
The idea of me moving away from the channel was really solidified one night when I was talking to my little brother about an animated film (I don't remember which one) and how some of the meanings behind it are great and some other stuff like that. At that point I had my EUREKA moment and though, why I am I only talking about this to him, why not make this a new channel.
At first, I was in two minds about really going ahead with it, even though I love animation as an art form and love many of the film's stories, many people think that it's a childhood thing and that people "move on" from animation (at least for films anyway). As a result, I was extremely nervous making, what I thought then, would be my final StikeTech video where I talked about me stopping the channel and moving over to the new channel. The art of animation was something that I really started to appreciate as of the beginning of 2017 and was something that I only talked to my close family about and I had no idea how anyone outside of that would react, but wow did they react better than I thought they would.
I've made quite a few friends during my time running the tech channel and they were all incredibly supportive and totally understood, yes there were some people who were also disappointed that I wouldn't be running the tech channel anymore but they also respected the decision. People on Snapchat had the same response too.
After this response, I was so excited to start my new channel and make it epic!!! I got to work making a new logo, banner and set up the channel and got it all started with my Oliver and Company review. I was having fun again on YouTube and it felt so great being able to talk to the world about animation.
Since then I have made loads of videos about films that I love, I have made videos about how some really interesting concepts in animation work (and even used some of that research for a uni presentation) and have had the chance to virtually meet so many people that I wouldn't have otherwise know about. I've also found that even with my lower subscriber count, I've still got an amazing audience with many people coming back and watching new videos that I put out. Some of the people from my tech channel stuck around too, even if they don't watch the new channel (which is totally fine) I still have them on social media. I have since also decided to occasionally upload to the tech channel again, I don't have a schedule or anything, I just put stuff up there when I feel like it.
After this expereince I urge you to keep these things in mind:
- Don't lie to yourself about how you are feeling about your channel (even if you have a relatively big channel)
- Don't be afraid to do things because it's seen as outside of the norm.
- Be transparent with your audience with what you're doing and let them know if you want to change things up. They are the people that are giving up their time to watch you so respect that.
- Think long term and don't avoid things because they are hard to start or will not have amazing results in the short term.
- Don't be afraid of change, people change so your channel change with you.
- MOST IMPORTANTLY: YouTube is something that you do for fun, even if you make money from it. When YouTube stops being fun and you know it isn't just a temporary thing then consider stopping.