r learns youtube - but will she like it?

Wow, R!! People actually expected a cookie to be a functioning spinning wheel? I truly hope they were just pulling your leg. I watched the video, showed it to John, shared it... We love the TARDIS!! I can't help thinking that even folks who've been doing the monetized videos for a long time are still prone to occasional off reviews and comments, or even just the occasional video that doesn't quite meet their own expectations. I wouldn't sweat it - besides, the TARDIS worked!

Maybe next month, you can do a working gingerbread submarine. That'll show em!

And, btw, I'm still impressed as hell that you did the spinning wheel, at all, much less making it actually look so good!! I may borrow your recipe and plans to make one for the fiber arts guild Christmas parties, next year!

FYI I also was impressed with your wheel!

Thank you!

I had planned on making a working wheel, but I had no idea it was going to be that hard and then we had a natural disaster halfway through filming... excuses excuses.

But I have an idea for next year how to make a working one.

If I do do it again, I need to start a few months sooner when things aren't so busy (and the weather less violent) and I need to find out
1) better driveband
2) something that can be spun like cotton fibre.

But that's a problem for future me.  

I've got 900 subscribers!

That's only 100 more until I can apply for monetization.

However, my watch time is based on 'in the last 12 months' which means If I don't reach 1k subscribers by about the middle of February, I am going to have a much harder time getting to monetization.

It also happens that's about the same time as my birthday.

Not sure how to make this happen.  Thinking about making a dedicated thread to try to promote my channel.

I also want to figure out how to do a contest or something  - when youtube approves my channel as "good enough".  Any ideas?

And crowing hen youtube channel in case you haven't subscribed yet.  

915 this morning!  

https://www.youtube.com/c/CrowingHen

I've got January's videos finished except for the captions.  

This last year has seen a major swing in my brain away from words and towards more visual communication.  Captions are becoming harder and harder.  


I have a list of video ideas that is nearly 8 pages long (there might be a few duplicates in there).  

Right now I'm feeling a lot of pressure to get to that good enough marker of 1k subscribers before the middle of Feb.  Once I can get past that milestone, I can focus on the bigger videos I've been working on over the last two years.  YES, two years in the making and still not done.  But I've got to grow the fibre, prep, spin, weave, sew... When I say BIG projects, I mean really big.  I am so excited about these videos, but first, I got to get past that 'good enough' milestone that youtube has set out for me.

With this the start of 2022, I'm thinking of starting a thread all about Getting to 1k.  It would be great if I could get there as soon as possible so I can just focus on making videos from now on.  

The more I learn about making videos for youtube, the more in love with it I am.  Although I admit, I am a bit close to burnout already.  That's my own fault.

It's been interesting re-reading this thread and watching my journey to this place.  

What I did was to make a commitment to myself to increase the quality of the videos.  I want longer, more story-focused videos rather than the short tutorials I started with.  It was always my dream to get my skill and courage up to this level, and I'm finally getting close enough to start experimenting with it.

However, at the same time, I made the decision to start publishing every week.  

So now, I'm publishing four times as often and making videos that take five times as long to make... um... Yes, that is the best recipe for burnout ever!  

I did what I do when I get overwhelmed with all the things that need doing - I mucked out the chickens.  I know, weird, but this is a great way to meditate and let the thoughts flow through the mind with as little friction as possible until they have all had their say and I find the calm combination of void mind and alertness to my surroundings.  

The question I meditated on was "what is my why?".  

Why do I do youtube?  And which actions get me closer to that goal and which actions distract from it?

The conclusion is that I want to make better videos but less often.  

So that's where I am at today.  We'll see where things go from there.


On the money front, now that I'm monetized, it looks like my baseline is about a dollar a day.   Some days more, but mostly not.  This is actually really good as I expected my ad revenue to be about a dollar a week at my level.  

With this income, I'm investing in better music because let's face it, the free stuff I was using is not good.  It's got me started and I am grateful, but it has been holding me back from achieving my vision.

♫♪♫♪ ♫♪
I signed up with epidemic sound and I love it!  So much beautiful music!   I can't wait for you to see the Easter video.  I chose the music first and it powers all the choices from filming location to even the colours I choose for the project.  

And if you also want to subscribe to get music from them, you can use this link and we both get a free month: https://share.epidemicsound.com/gei82k

Thanks for the update, R! I need to reread your journey, as I am considering starting a YT channel - from zero, with zero video experience. You have done so well improving the quality of your vids - they look and sound professional! I'm sure your earnings will grow.

It seems to be a "thing" in the romance author community now to offer audiobooks free on YT, and a friend wants me to partner with her. She got excited when one author told her she'd made five figures a months from her YT channel.  Slight differences between her and us - this five-figure YT author started with a six-figure ebook audience, a huge existing platform, and loads of audiobooks that needed minimal work to convert to video. I have one audiobook (25 or 26 more books I could convert to audio - with a bunch of work and spend!) and a platform of under 5,000 readers. Undisclosed truth I suspect- a chunk of those five-figure a month earnings were likely due to sponsorship by Amazon Audible.

It's good to hear your realistic information on the work involved making videos, getting the channel to monetisation, and the earnings soon after reaching that level. I'd love to offer free audio to my readers and reach new readers via YT, but when I struggle getting new books written, is investing so much extra time into YT worth it for me? Not going to be a high priority.

When I listen to audiobooks on youtube, I like the 45min long chunks with ads at the start and stop and a playlist.  

I think there's a lot of potential there.  You could reach a much larger audience than just regular path like audible.  

But there are so many paths.  I think it's worth testing the waters and trying but I also think that everyone is an individual and sometimes we need to muck out the chickens while assessing which path we want to choose.  And we can always switch paths later.  So many choices.  

That is so true! And thanks for letting me know your audiobook preferences. That's helpful, especially as it's what I intended to do. Always good when someone confirms that!

My friend wants to put up whole books, but I think chunking makes it easier for YT listeners. It's a whole different ecosystem to Audible, where the app keeps track of where in the book someone is up to. Chunking, a playlist for each books, and good links from one chunk to the next. Also chunking makes it easier for me, the apps I'll be using on my little Chromebook won't handle huge files!

This video is a pivot point.  It's about a project rather than a tutorial.

I've been thinking a lot about my goals.  Why am I making videos when the internet is already cluttered with them?

A lot of it is to inspire people to try new things.  That these things are possible.  Tutorials show how to do the thing, but they don't inspire as much as project videos.  Project videos are applicable to a much larger audience.

I look at creators that inspire me the most like bernadette banner and liziqi and they aren't teaching so much as showing.  But it's more than that.  They are creating a whole world that we can visit in their videos.  If they can do these tasks, maybe we can too?  They can reach so many more people than they could with tutorial videos.  And a big part of that is the mood they create with the combination of what they do, the visuals, and the music.


The reason why I felt I finally could pivot to projects is the music.  Up to now, I've been working with the free music youtube provides, but now that youtube is paying me enough I can subscribe to a music service, it's expanded what I can accomplish with the mood and the feel of the video.  This link will give you a free month subscription at epidemic sound - and me too because it's my unique link.  If I get enough people subscribing with this link, it can open a huge world of possibilities and maybe even lead to sponsorship.

They have some amazing tools - almost as good as their music.  When I'm planning a project, I create a playlist.  As I work on the filming, I listen and I shuffle the music around to find what fits best with the mood, and leave notes for future me.  It's brilliant.  I can even share the playlist with some friends or coconspirators for feedback.  

Lovely video. What you're producing looks totally professional. I prefer to watch project videos for enjoyment. They're a how-to at the same time. But when I want a tutorial I'll search for it. A mix of both is good, get new viewers who are searching for tutorials as well as people interested in specific projects smf browsers just looking for something nice to watch.

I won't use the aff link just yet, but once I get started making videos, I'll use it to get some theme music for the audiobooks.

I've got a bit of a glitch with my latest video.  It's not showing up in my analytics.

I was wondering if a couple of you have a moment to go and

1) click on this video
2) leave a comment (preferably about the video - "wow, it's great to learn where my clothing comes from" or "yummy, I want to cook a lunch like that" are some you can use if you like)
3) come back here and report if you saw any adverts

BONUS) If you really want to help out - watch to the end, then click the video that shows up next and watch at least 30 seconds of that.  This would show youtube you love me.

Here's the link to the video.  https://youtu.be/zwkOatiUCAc

r ranson wrote:I've got a bit of a glitch with my latest video.  It's not showing up in my analytics.

I was wondering if a couple of you have a moment to go and

1) click on this video
2) leave a comment (preferably about the video - "wow, it's great to learn where my clothing comes from" or "yummy, I want to cook a lunch like that" are some you can use if you like)
3) come back here and report if you saw any adverts

BONUS) If you really want to help out - watch to the end, then click the video that shows up next and watch at least 30 seconds of that.  This would show youtube you love me.

Here's the link to the video.  https://youtu.be/zwkOatiUCAc

So I did. Well-made video about a great day (I hope will be organised in the Netherlands too one day, so I can visit it).
When I clicked and went to youtube, first there was an ad. And after the video ended there was an ad too.

I can't follow directions with my crew home. I watched it. One add at the beginning. The next one was a different fiber artist. What?

Anyway, next time I got it liked. Saw another one of yours right after, both had adds at the beginning. Came back to leave a comment. Hope some usable info comes back for you from the maze I ran through.

Thank you so much!

I don't know if it's something magic you did, or if the bug just self repaired, but the video is showing up in the stats and your comments are showing up now.  

Thank you thank you.

Yay!

r ranson wrote:I've got a bit of a glitch with my latest video.  It's not showing up in my analytics.

I was wondering if a couple of you have a moment to go and

1) click on this video
2) leave a comment (preferably about the video - "wow, it's great to learn where my clothing comes from" or "yummy, I want to cook a lunch like that" are some you can use if you like)
3) come back here and report if you saw any adverts

BONUS) If you really want to help out - watch to the end, then click the video that shows up next and watch at least 30 seconds of that.  This would show youtube you love me.

Here's the link to the video.  https://youtu.be/zwkOatiUCAc

Done

It's been stuck here all day!

I thought I was subbed but wasn't.
It shows 3000 subs now.
Commented, liked and clicked on next video.

Woot!  we got there!

To think, this time last year my channel was so tiny.  It's not huge yet, but it feels huge to me.  Thank you to everyone who made this happen!  

R Ranson, I for one love your videos! You wear your heart on your sleeve and, you have a very kind heart and, it shows through in your videos. I'd venture to say that your chickens aren't the least bit spoiled. Hey, don't we all spoil our critters? My rotten pooch gets by with a lot more back talk than my kids ever did!

Haven't had the brain to do youtube much this year.  But I logged in today to see and I saw this:

Current subscribers
4,911

WOW