My YouTube operating philosophy

wtefe

wtefe

I've Got It
Recently I wrote a response to someone else's thread. The one who started the thread liked my answer and then wanted to delete the thread. It was their right but I was a little bummed at having my awesome response erased. Lol. No hard feelings really but I realised I still had it saved on my phone clipboard so I thought I'd share it here.

"Wow, let me start by saying I hope you find your answers.

And secondly, I apologize for the wall of text.

I'm not in your scenario so I don't know if anything I'm about to say is applicable or if you'll take anything to heart. So I'm just gonna throw some thoughts down and let you pick and choose if they apply to you.

1. I have to be having fun. Not only is it kinda lame to do stuff I don't enjoy, but really I bet my viewers can pick up on my emotion pretty easily. My happiness or my stress comes through on screen and can greatly impact my viewers which I imagine impacts my success. But if I'm not having fun I'm lacking my main motivator to do YouTube videos in the first place.

2. I dont rely on YouTube for income. I'm not guaranteed an income just by uploading content. And not having a means of income just magnifies my stress, as you've kinda detailed in your post. And all that stress impacts viewers (see 1 above) and can lead me to expectation which when not met leads to depression, anxiety, downward spiral. Getting a job doesn't mean you have to quit YouTube. I have a full time 40 hour a week job, my kids on the weekend, weight lifting 3 times a week, yoga twice a week, Dragon boating once a week, massage continuing education classes that pop up, discussion group I like to go to once a month, reading whenever I can fit it in, gf time on a regular basis, yada yada yada all stuff I enjoy, and because I enjoy YouTube too I make time for it because it's fun. Stress with all the time in the world will kill your drive but a busy low stress life full of fun will drive you to produce better YouTube and the enthusiasm you portray will get you better viewers I think.

3. More on expectation, although watching other channels could help me improve my own channel, more often than not I start to compare and judge myself inferior, which leads to expectation and depression like #2 above. So I don't look at many other channels all that often. I AM trying to network more with other youtubers, like interacting here on YTTalk and I do need to check out everyone's channels but I get in trouble if I start comparing.

4. I have to ignore my sub count and my view count immediately after looking at them. I know my growth is rather slow. I know my channel is not as flashy or attractive as many of the others. But I have to remind myself what I'm doing this for. It's personal and it benefits me personally. Sub and view counts stroke my ego, which when the counts stop rising lead to expectation and depression again like above. YouTube allows me to research amazing tech and science, since I vlog and explain these back to my audience. The practice helps me focus my mind in learning, arranging and giving back to others. It helps me step through a process of production which is fun. All these are reasons focused on me, very selfish I know but it's all dependant on me and not on others so I control my forward movement. The opinions of others do not. I do this for me. And so I'll keep doing it.

So as a recap:
Have fun.
Get a dependable job.
Fill your life with amazing activities.
Don't compare your channel to others.
Do YouTube for you.
And do YouTube your way.

Just my thoughts."
 
wtefe said:
Recently I wrote a response to someone else's thread. The one who started the thread liked my answer and then wanted to delete the thread. It was their right but I was a little bummed at having my awesome response erased.
Click to expand...


I agree, you gave a good reply that took you a lot of time. (The member in question was very apologetic and has been asked by staff not to do that again. :) )

Great post and attitude by the way. I like your attitude to YouTube.
 
A very good post. ^^ Thank you for sharing!

I have a similar view to yours, and think it's super important to keep a solid dependable job. I think YouTube should only be thought of as a fun hobby, and it's best if it can be used to compliment a side-project. There are too many factors within the YouTube platform that are out of the control of the content creators, so I think it's best to try to use it to grow something more independent from the YouTube platform. ^^
 
Pretty much what I preach to everyone starting out YouTube. If you are doing it for fame and fortune you are setting yourself up for a very likely MASSIVE disappointment. You have to have passion for this thing, without it your content will suffer, and people see it when a YouTuber does not have their heart and soul into it!
 
I like all of this. I see so many new YouTube creators (especially younger ones) thinking that they'll just post a bunch of things and then they'll suddenly get rich and famous. And they get so despondent and so mad when it doesn't happen immediately. And I see SO MANY discussions about sub counts and viewer counts, and I want to ask, "But are you happy with the things you make?" Because I think that's become entirely secondary to what I call "chasing eyeballs." YouTube is just a platform....what you make on it should be about yourself or your passions (or your business, for sure, but that's not the people I'm talking about), and if you're just chasing after the tags that will raise you up in rankings, then you're going to find it a real slog.
 
Sorry I have to respectfully disagree, especially with point number 1. Those points are true if you want to have fun on YouTube, and nothing else. If you want to actually succeed on YouTube and take it seriously, the list is rather terrible, actually (especially as advice).

1. Fun and success are often not the same thing. If I wanted fun, I'd be making videos on my gameplay and would be static at barely any subscribers due to over-saturation of this sort of content. Instead, it's about creating content that people want rather than what you want. Obviously don't make videos you hate, but it's strongly weighted towards the favour of the viewers if you want a successful channel.

2. If you have a full time job and can't commit to YouTube then why would it be a main source of income? Stating the obvious here. I have a full time job and am already on $1000+ on YouTube a month despite only having 15k subscribers. If you spend just a few hours a week on YouTube, yeah, you wont get anywhere. This is true for most people and in all walks of life. Why would you expect any income when you're doing a half-assed job?

3. If you have no expectations then you'll never get anywhere. Being realistic is important as well, though.

4. Sure, everyone sees this differently. Random shower thought material here.
 
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