My 2020 Goal this year was YouTube. Moreso, I wanted to attempt to create 365 videos this year (ideally one every single day).
After beginning, I realised this is no small task.
Starting: My first month on Youtube
I started by making very safe easy videos that were only a few minutes long. I wanted to ideally make content around development and design, however, I felt very nervous. It took me a few hours just to produce those few minutes of videos, however, the experience helped me learn heaps of things:
- OBS (for recording)
- Adobe Premiere (for video formatting)
- Adobe Photoshop (for thumbnails)
- Equipment: Camera, Microphone, Greenscreen!
- Youtube Studio: Releasing videos, etc
I kept going producing one video every day, below are my statistics. As I worked harder at it, it became more enjoyable and easier to do. For me, I didn't worry too much about subscribers, or views. I knew what kind of content I always looked for, and one of my inspirations was https://egghead.io which was an awesome place to learn about programming.
What I found was that if you produce good quality content that is of value, people will want to view and watch it. This is my best recommendation above all others if you want to start your own channel.
Goals: Figuring out what I wanted to do
At the start, my goals were very simple, I just wanted to do simple videos and see how they go. I wasn't sure yet how things would go, but I wanted to do my best. However, as time went by, I tested lots of different types of videos, from library reviews to drama and design as well.
What I figured out was that I most enjoyed doing videos on design and development, so I decided to focus on just those two items.
However, the statistics of what YouTube found was most popular did not exactly align with what I enjoyed doing. I found non-educational videos such as the drama, motivational content did far better.
I figured out more of my goals as I continued making videos:
- Create high-quality videos
- On topics that weren't well covered
- There were educational in nature
- But took an interesting spin on things
In this light, I enjoyed making things like a mobile application (not on making a To-Do list) but on Bushfire Information for Australia. Or learning how to perform CSS positioning by creating an airplane.
1000 Subscribers: How I got there
I don't think I did anything special to get there. Like all things, I think its just hard work, consistency and value. I was able to get my first 1k milestone within the first month of doing YouTube. I did start putting my work into each video I did, as well as making them longer and better. Some things I improved on included:
- Better introductions about what the video was about
- Pre-planning each video and its content before making it
- Comparing other videos on the same topic, to ensure the ones I made were of equal or higher quality and value
- Reviewing each video, and not publishing something I didn't think was worthwhile
- Talking to the community and trying to provide content on what they are looking for
2020: And the Future
I plan to try and keep my goal of doing 365 videos this year. While work and other responsibilities have stopped me from making one every single day, it won't stop me from doing more than one video on days I can. I don't really worry about subscriber counts or views, but more on the content & value. I think that's the most important thing.
Of course, if you want to support me, give feedback, or know more about me, I would be very happy if you followed me on twitter, subscribed to the channel, etc :)
Thanks
Adrian Twarog
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Top comments (16)
Thanks for sharing your experience. It was exactly what I was looking for as I started my own channel about developer habits and mindset a few weeks ago(youtube.com/channel/UCJLZwePkNHps5...).
Do you think there's a "market" for that kind of topic?
Also, great job on custom thumbnails - they seem really "catchy".
Just watched, that's a really good video. I can see you put a lot of work into it, very high quality and a good story.
I think you will do very well, just make sure you keep at it and share your story here on dev.to too!
Oh wow! Thank you for your encouragement and feedback, I genuinely appreciate it!
Hi Adrian! Nice work, I've seen some of your videos pop up in my recommended, so you must be doing something right! Congrats on 1.4K subs! I'm definitely doing something wrong haha
Oh wow really! That's cool.
Thanks, I recently had to help a friend by filling at his workplace doing 9-5, so I haven't had a chance for more videos, but that's finishing soon, and I am going to make up for it by trying to make 2 per day.
What sort of recommended videos came up? I am still trying to identify if I should narrow down my content to a subsection of design and development, or if I should broaden it out more?
I know for sure one of the videos I saw/watched was the "Disagreeing with the TechLead: I don't think React Native is garbage". I assume that's a popular one for you haha. I'm pretty sure I saw the one about Styled components too, but I don't really remember now.
I don't know what you should do lol I've heard that it's best to just take the shotgun approach in the beginning and see what sticks. Narrow down your focus on the most popular videos. But, I have 39 subs, so I'm not an opinion that you should care about haha
Na that’s good advice. It’s also sort of what I’ve been trying to do too! I think I could gain a lot more subs and views if I did more videos like the techlead one, but I like doing the styles components one more!
I think your instructional vida are more useful. Arguing about tech stacks is a waste of time in my opinion. Even though I watched both haha
I agree though I didn't know it until after I tried doing it!
Don't know until you try!
Wow! That was a nice read! I created this account a few days back to blog. Just like you, I plan on "writing", preferably everyday & it's such a coincidence that the first post I read is yours.
Besides, this site has a very unique UI/UX, any idea how do I "like" or give you "hearts" for the post? :P
Hey, @Jarmos thanks.
I'll have to keep an eye out for your articles when you start posting haha :)
Hi Good 😄 , Can discuss tools used in below post:
dev.to/shaijut/ask-dev-what-tools-...
Hey I’ve kept it relatively simple. Just OBS for recording and the. adobe premier to encode it. Though happy to answer any questions you may have that are more specific :)
I am looking for open source software which can do below things:
Editing , Clipping
Adding Audio Track.
Add some Transition effects.
Try Davinci Resolve, I heard that was both free and good!
blackmagicdesign.com/au/products/d...