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Lessons learned from hitting 100 Youtube subscribers in a month

Slightly over a month ago I decided to post videos on youtube where I share my journey of becoming a better maker without formally knowing how to code or design. I hit 100 subscribers last night! Making videos has been time consuming and seeing my face is still extremely uncomfortable :)

PS: Here is the channel!

These are some lessons I learned so far:

  1. Video content is hard and time taking: I write a lot and writing is easy to me. Video content is something else altogether. When I put out a blog post it takes a few drafts at max. I am not a natural in front of the camera and for the first video even after the 50th take it still sucked! And there is scripting, editing, recording, music, graphics - all for one video.

  2. Get comfortable sharing your work: You are your product/content's biggest cheerleader. I am not comfortable talking about myself in general, but after the first video and very few views I realized people will not automatically find it. I believe this content will be helpful to some people, so I look at it from that lens and that makes sharing easier. I found a few small communities and started showing my work. I've a still a ton to learn on audience building, I'll do a separate post on that later on.

  3. Word of mouth and engagement >> # of subscribers: Every day I refresh to see what my subscriber count is and some days I've been anxious that things aren't growing as fast as I want. Going forward I've decided one thing, I'm no longer going to refresh and focus on # of subscribers. Instead I'll focus on engagement in the form of comments, people sharing your content on social and actual dialogue between people who find value from this. Subscriber growth is a by-product of positive engagement.

  4. Figure out the consistence so you don't burn out: Video production is intensive and I had heard so many stories of people burning out. Initially I was like I'll post once a week but now I'm realizing it's better for me to post once in two weeks and to be ok with that. If you are in this for the long haul you have to take care of yourself to not burn out and it's ok to set a schedule that works for you.

  5. You will always remember the people who supported you - pass it on: I remember the person who made my first comment ever - it was a Youtuber with 70k subscribers and well known in the community, I'll always be so grateful to him. The few people who wrote to me initially who liked my work, the first person who recommended a video on Twitter. It meant SO much, because at that time I wasn't sure if I should do it, it took a lot putting this out and the first few people in a way kept it going. If you see someone starting out and you like what they are doing - the best thing you can do is tell them :)

Finally thank you so much to this community for all their support!

  1. 3

    Well done Romy! And I totally agree. We tried launching our startup journey on youtube but actually gave up after a few months since it was too time consuming to us. But amazing news that you're sticking with it.

    1. 3

      Thank you! It is really time consuming! People from outside imagine Youtube as just vlogging and taking a video real quick and putting it out - but the amount of time deciding what content, edits, graphics and all that takes really is much more than an average blog post. I think that's why I decided to post once in two weeks vs 1 week because I need to pace it out a bit.

  2. 3

    I said this on Makerpad, and I will say it here too.
    I love the content you're publishing.

    I am in the same boat - I am not comfortable seeing my face, and I am very conscious.

    As a small step, a friend and I started a new channel on YouTube, 2 Chai (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXDb0btJ5dWvxxfnomGG6NA/). We are using it to publish our discussions that may help others think as well.

    It's intentionally in English + Hindi.

    We have started by putting only our voice and sharing our Notion screen. Slowly and steadily we hope to get comfortable with putting our faces out there too.

    Congratulations and good luck.

    1. 1

      Thank you and I love the name of your channel :)

  3. 2

    Hi, Romy! Imagine my reaction when I saw you in my IH update email this morning :-D

    First, congrats on your venture. Second, your videos are excellent. The planning you've put into them shows. I'll be recommending you to people who ask me about no code!!

    I hadn't heard about Carrd before, so thank you for that. I already recommended Carrd to a volunteer non-profit group I work with.

    1. 1

      Hi @mizkirsten! What a surprise to hear from you here. Thank you for the very kind words and for spreading the word <3

  4. 2

    Congratulations! Thank you for sharing your story :)

  5. 2

    Regarding 2.

    That's why I struggle with content marketing.

    After you created marketing content, you have to... market it.

    1. 1

      Yea, it's not easy. Especially initially you have to show it to people. But I still believe amazing content will start marketing itself through referrals, so have to get there.

  6. 1

    I experienced this feeling of watching subscriber count on my channel. Beyond subscribers, I find myself looking into the analytics for hours per week trying to find some patterns.
    Basically just improve the video content-> longer duration videos that remain engaging throughout-> rank higher-> grow.

  7. 1

    This is great! And good work! I have yet to crack the 100 subs mark (34 today), and I'm about 2 months in. But I'm still having fun! I've shared my content on Slack channels with colleagues, and I've also shared on Twitter (only like 200 followers). I think I'll be able to crack the 100 mark once I share with my wider audience of facebook friends. But before I do, I am planning on making some art that is specific to who my audience is, and something that I feel they would actually want to watch. I have a ton of questions! I already subscribed to your channel, and I would love to chat since we both started close to the same time!

    What do you use to edit?
    How far out do you plan your video/content?
    What places have you gone to find viewers in the space (mostly Twitter?) ?
    What kind of pace are you aiming towards? I'm aiming for 1x a week.

    Keep it up! I'll see you at 1k!

    Here is my channel, and I'd love feedback if you ever get the chance!
    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSw4HT6MjYtSEwD0OtP1iLg

    1. 1

      @codefiveart
      What do you use to edit? - Imovie, adobe preremier pro for some
      How far out do you plan your video/content? just weekly, going to get better
      What places have you gone to find viewers in the space (mostly Twitter?) ? Mostly twitter, reddit as well
      What kind of pace are you aiming towards? I'm aiming for 1x a week. - one in 2 weeks going forward :)

      Thanks for the note and keep it up as well!

  8. 2

    This comment was deleted 4 years ago.

  9. 2

    This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

    1. 1

      A lot of my content is about no-code so posted it in some no-code communities.

      1. 1

        This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

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