A year As A YouTube Creator:What I Learned

This month my you tube channel passed 16K subscribers. The Facebook group "Learn Gelli Plate Printing" is at 100k this month. I started it about two years ago. What transpired was not intended. I never set out to start a youtube channel. It happened incidentally, and I was completly unprepared for its success. Statistically, both the faceook group and youtube channel are outliers. AI tells me 4% of Facebook groups hit 10k members and less than 1% hit 100k. Only 3% of Youtube channels hit 10k subscribers.

So how did this happen and so what ?

This is how I think it happened:

1. Time: My 'niche' has the gift of time. My data shows my audience is 40 - 75 years old and 90% female. The data on art activity is not collected, but it's evident that the participants are artists. They mostly follow 4 or more groups and channels like mine. Like me, they are engaged with art in a casual way and have time to indulge in creativity.

2. Just enough knowledge: Lucky for me I was an early adapter of technology and never let go. I wrote online courses, posted websites and created content for educational websites The skills from those experiences, plus teaching, support my online activity today. But they are not complex skills. The threshold for youtube is low. Don't be daunted.

3. Luck: The rapidly growing community on the Facebook group gave me a ready made audience for the emerging youtube channel. The first piece of luck is that gelli printing is newish, and lends itself to theatre. A pull off the gelli plate offers immediate drama, unlike wood carving or oil painting that can sometimes take months. The second piece of luck is that the group on the gelli plate community is stalwart! They keep trying and learning. Its a tricky thing and addictive. In trying to learn how to do it myself, I was highly motivated to connect with people like me. Connection is the best part of the internet and online activity.

   
   

4. Passion: I think this is the most important thing for youtube. you can't fool it or your audience. I love the digital world and gelli printing and people and teaching. How fun is that?

   
   

   The fun part of the story is that I was riding a wave. In COVID I was part of online art groups that warmed me up to the internet algorithm. I didn't know at the time that was happening but flew with it later. The connection to other artists all over the world was authentic. So when I posted my first youtube, I already had an audience waiting. Anyone else who posts in the group does as well. The first video I posted is still my best performing video. In part that stands to reason because its the oldest and has had the opportunity to have the most hits, but most months it's still # 1 of the top 10 in my collection.

   So here is what I learned about how to get going on a successful youtube channel.

   
   

   1. Start a community first; one you are genuinely engaged in and are willing to participate in otherwise you cool off on the algorithm.

      When you are active the algorithm warms up to you, so that when you come in with your youtube channel, you're already connected.

   2. For that reason, use the same name / 'handle' across all your platforms, preferably your own.

   3. When you set up your youtube, use AI to write your channel description and your video descriptions. AI is the internet so it trawls for what you need. Tell it what you want, and ask it to write a description that does what you want. I write something along the lines of "Please help me write a description for my YouTube channel with excellent SEO and keywords to attract, viewers and subscribers in my niche. Help my site rate high in recommendations and get lots of impressions and a high click through rate. " Kind of like a prayer, right?

   4. Ask AI to create your thumbnails using a script similar to the one above. I download theirs and then fix the thumbnails up in Adobe Elements before I post them. This way they come at the correct dimensions, and resolution right off the bat.

   5. When all of that is done, post your youtube to an audience; that's why #1 is key.

The whole online experience has got my wheels turning. Online teaching is a universe on its own and inspires creativity in a myriad of ways. It creates a completely symbiotic relationship between creators and viewers.

The most common question I get asked is "doesn't it take a lot of time?" Yes and no - First, of course, if its integrated with your passion and your life activities, its not really 'extra'. Secondly, with youtube, you get out what you put in, I spend the time I want to spend. Sometimes I don't think about this for weeks at a time. Also worth considering is that time invested is time saved. The skills you took the time to learn stay with you, saving you learning time on the next pass. I spend about two hours a week on outube, and about 8 hours a month (usually in one day) making a youtube video.

It's all in your own hands. Some people make a posting schedule. I don't .

My last, most important piece of advice is SHARE.

And enjoy it.

The more you share and the more you enjoy sharing, the more you win - obviously incidentally. Because there is so much commoditization (and desperation - all understandable) around online actitivy, I feel compelled to clarify with a word of wisdom: Sharing is not about you. Empathy toward creators and influencers has its limits on youtube. It's YOU, the creator, who has to have the empathy - for the user. Nobody really cares how good you're feeling when thye're looking for information. They want to get where they are going, and creators have to cater to that. So sharing online is all about holding others up. Not only because it's expedient, but because you can't fool the internet. Lapses in empathy can kill an online community in a heartbeat.

Sharing is embedded in the 'genetic code' of the internet.That was its genesis. Its that code that youtube is riding. And, they make it work for you because then it works for them, but ultimately, it has to be all about everyone else.

I never set out to go here, but looking back, I can see the path. I"ve been lucky with this, and its been fun.

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