I'm humbled, but not in a Good way

Right when I think I have YouTube figured out, I get knocked down a few notches.

The newer side hustle YouTube channel seems to be struggling.

The last 3 uploads haven’t gotten more than 330 views.

but I think I know why…

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So, with this side hustle channel, it took off like crazy.

Of the 16 live videos, there are some with 20k views, 17k views, 5k views and a bunch of 1k videos…

But the last three have been 334, 75, and 39…. so far.

It is INSANELY hard not to toy with the process I’m following, but I have to stay true.

But I have a theory as to why the videos seem to be struggling.

New User Fallacy

YouTube seems to favor smaller channels, giving newer channels and creators instant dopamine to encourage them to create more content.

YouTube was forced into that because TikTok was doing the same thing.

But once the initial surge happens, I’ve seen the “newness” factor die down on a few occasions.

I believe YouTube still wants to infuse a bit of a “prove you want it” so unless your content is INSANELY good, it will struggle.

Slowed down on content

I am determined not to have just Adsense be the primary monetization for this channel, so over the last couple of weeks, I have been putting together some training and a community to pitch.

All that takes time, but it’s time well invested. I only have to do the setup once, and I can scale infinitely. So now that I have it all set up, it’s just a matter of marketing with more videos.

I slowed down the production of videos while I did this, and I think it hurt my reach.

So, when it comes to YouTube, I can confirm that momentum is a thing, but not necessarily just views getting more views… Some success is governed by how well a previous video performed.

I tested with a video where I was just thanking subscribers for watching after I hit 1,000 subscribers and since that is such a specific videos just to my audience, it did not perform great (which was expected).

I think YouTube is holding that video against me.

However, there is a balance that needs to be had between new content focusing on growth and content focusing on community building. That community-building video hurt my momentum, but I think the long-term ramifications are worth the temporary sacrifice.

Stopped Community Posts

At one point I had a community post with a poll every single day for a month scheduled. I haven’t done a legit one in about 3 weeks and views are down.

I’ve done a ton of research, and with my own testing, it seems that having the community posts did help with views and engagement.

The only problem is coming up with the questions is pretty asinine and tedious (even with ChatGPT)

Finally, Focus

I’ve been getting a lot more client work on Upwork recently and it’s taking a chunk of time that I would normally use toward YouTube ideation and production.

Because of Google’s HCU, I’m having to “bridge the gap” for the channel to really start generating significant revenue enough for to me to slow down on the freelancing.

It’s a necessary evil to survive without needing to dip into savings unnecessarily.

I’m humbled…

In the first 22 days, I picked up 1,000 subscribers.

In the 50 days since I crossed 1,000, only 500 subscribers.

I’m not panicking, but I sure feel like it.

Chat soon,
Chris Myles