August 16, 2014: the day I made my YouTube channel. When I was younger, I tried to run a YouTube channel. Over the past 10 years (ignoring all the breaks), I have made gaming videos, comedy skits, vlogs, music videos, and video essays. I did it all for fun, for creative expression — not for making an audience, although that was always welcome.

When August 16, 2024 came around and I got that notification from my calendar that it was the 10 year anniversary, it caused me to rethink this thing. Actually I saw the date approaching for weeks in advance but ignore that please. I expected to make some big special video for the 10 year anniversary, but when I thought about making it now, I couldn't even figure out what I should do. What do I want to do with my channel?

I am a completely different person. I mean, I have had this YouTube channel for almost half my life. If you showed my most recent video to the version of myself who made my channel back in 2014, he probably would have thought it was boring.

But additionally, I think I actually know how YouTube works now. It's pretty simple, actually.

1. The content itself should be high quality, original, and something people actually want to watch. For one thing, this means your videos should be accessible to your target audience, with a manageable length and understandable language.
2. Your videos should be at least somewhat consistent. If viewers know they will get more videos like the one they just watched and liked, they will subscribe and keep coming back.
3. In videos, you have to engage viewers within the first minute. The audience should be given a basic understanding of what the video is going to be about, and a reason to keep watching to the end.
4. If one of your videos is recommended to a new viewer, the thumbnail and title will be your only two chances to get people to watch. So people click, they should be enticing, and so people who click actually watch, they shouldn't be misleading.
5. Your video has about a day to convince YouTube to start recommending it outside your bubble. Most of the promotion needs to happen here, and it should be targeted towards new viewers (though showing it to family and friends and stuff is still good and important for its own sake).

Of course, I don't know everything. And I could be wrong. But I think that if I do this stuff, with some luck, I could develop a significant audience.

I've been thinking about what career I want to have recently. One of the things I've been thinking about being is a writer. But I couldn't in good conscience expect people to buy and read my books, because I don't read books. But I do watch video essays.

So I'm thinking, what if I did this for real? What if I actually tried to develop an audience? Could it lead to something?

The obvious issue is college. How am I supposed to put my all into this if I have four college courses in the way? One way I could do it is if I had a monthly schedule. That isn't too unreasonable for viewers. I just hope it isn't too unreasonable for me. But I've thought about it: I would get two weeks for writing a draft, one week for revising and filming, and one week for editing. For ten-minute videos, that could work as a one-person team.

What if I could be more than a one-person team? When I was in middle school, I remember being really invested. A lot of that was because I was doing it with friends. If I invested my friends into it, would that make it fun? But would my friends be into it? If you're a friend reading this and you're interested in helping me out, let me know. It would be like reading scripts or helping me film. If you don't want to, I don't really care. This isn't like me pressuring people or anything.

I also don't know if I should keep the same channel. Would it do me good to start fresh? I worry about establishing a new audience. How will I promote my channel? A lot of forums have rules against self-promotion. Though right now, a lot of my subscribers are from years and years ago, and they subscribed for different content. If I started a new channel, what would I call it? I have too many alter egos as it is.

Anyway, I'll try it, and we'll just have to see what happens.