November 2023 Blog Update
Website
October was more of the same for the website.
Traffic was steady, but no real growth. Only 300 page views for the month.
This is probably because I have given so little attention to the website over the last couple of months, but also because we still aren’t getting much search engine love.
In fact, we’re appearing in search results less and less often.
It is cyclical, so I’m sure it will pick up again, but I just don’t have time to direct toward that at the moment.
I plan to continue dropping one post per week indefinitely. If the website gets love, great. If it doesn’t, okay. We’re pretty well hanging our hat on YouTube these days anyway.
YouTube Videos
If you go back to our October update, you can read/view an explanation of how our channel stumbled out of the blocks back on Labor Day weekend.
The good news is our channel quickly regrouped and October went far better than I remotely expected.
I was hoping we’d accumulate a few hundred views for the videos that were first loaded and a handful for those that came toward the end of the month.
I didn’t really have a written goal, but I thought 50 subscribers and 100 hours of watch time would be sufficient progress from which we could continue to pick up momentum.
In total, we posted 32 videos in September and October. Almost all of these were recorded and edited before we launched on Labor Day weekend.
We’ve recorded 14 more since starting and have 8 in the cooler ready for distribution. We plan to have 51 up by the end of 2023.
Starting this week, we’ll pull back to two videos per week indefinitely. It was always the plan to start hot, then adjust the pace after things got going. After editing all of these videos and improving my abilities (and speed), I’m confident I can shell out two videos per week.
Anyhow, on October 6th I noticed a lot of viewer traffic on our video titled “At What Age Does A Roth IRA Not Make Sense?”
Up to that point (5+ weeks), we had 3,741 views, 124.3 watch hours, and 36 subscribers.
Ten days later we were up to 29,073 views, 1958.1 watch hours, and 397 subscribers.
Blown…away.
For context, I was optimistically hoping, HOPING, to reach this level about 5 months in. To say that I was pleased would be an understatement. I was revisiting the YouTube Studio app on my phone constantly to what the numbers climb.
It was great.
But such a thing is not meant to last. At least, not on YouTube.
For the final two weeks of October, we saw 7,904 views, 287.6 watch hours, and 52 subscribers.
Here’s a photo from our analytics page:
I’m not poo-pooing those last two weeks. I mean, they weren’t bad. But once you’ve watched progress roll through like a mighty river, seeing things return to a trickle is kind of disappointing.
Overall, I’m trying to remind myself that most YouTubers would love to have 10 days like we did last month. We were fortunate.
For context, based on the research I’ve done it takes about 50 videos and 7+ months to reach the all-important milestones of 4,000 watch hours and 1,000 subscribers.
That milestone is important because it’s when you can start actually making money on YouTube.
It’s important to me because I refuse to spend more money on the website and channel until it starts pulling its own weight.
So, I’ll keep recording videos on my old phone and editing them with the free versions of various types of software (which aren’t as good as the paid ones but give you just enough to know how much easier your life would be if you bought the paid version) and talking into my cheap little microphone that I got as a gift, with my cheap background lights that sometimes spontaneously enter a flashing fit in the middle of recording.
Basically, I just want to start making a little money because I know the production quality can be drastically improved with a little reinvestment.
So, why not just go buy it now?
Part of my goal when I kicked all of this off was to show that someone can work a full-time job and get a side gig rolling that A) could be set up for little or no money, and B) could be maintained in spare time.
Even mid-life, busy parent, caring husband, available boss, living life with the pedal on the floor spare time.
Ultimately, I’m 14 months in and still don’t have a dime to show for it.
I may have learned a lot and I do think I’ve been able to help a lot of people (thank you to all of you who have shared feedback, btw), but it’s time for this thing to produce some fruit so it can feed itself.
I don’t even want to think about the number of hours I’ve got into this which, up to this point, have been totally free.
YouTube Shorts
Back in September, I stumbled upon a website that uses AI to generate videos that are less than 60 seconds long, using only a link to your posted video on YouTube.
Shorts were not on my radar at all, but since this site does almost all the work for you, I decided to give it a shot.
So, we’ve posted 75 shorts on YouTube which has yielded 8,200 views and 16 subscribers.
I’m estimating that those 8,200 shorts views have produced 35 total hours of watch time.
It is not our bread and butter and it really hasn’t produced much of a payoff. I will likely make fewer of these in the future and post one per day going forward.
It also looks like our full-length videos don’t do as well on the days that shorts are posted, so I’m going to stop posting them on the same day.
If you are ever starting your own channel and you’re on the fence about shorts, I’d give it a shot.
For me, it hasn’t been that remarkable, but I guess it was worth it using the AI technology that carried much of the prep work for me.
Lessons Learned/Goals
1) The Algorithm is the Absolute Power of YouTube
The way we went from a rocket ship to a tugboat in a matter of days was alarming.
Honestly, I knew that level of traffic probably wouldn’t last long, (we’d have monetized in two weeks if it had) but I didn’t expect it to fall back so far either.
I did get over 400 subscribers, so I at least assumed many of those people would be watching our new videos.
Some have, but at the moment, it feels like I’m back at the beginning. I’m hoping we can generate enough watch hours and subs to monetize in under one year.
Of course, all it will take is another rocket ship so we’ll see.
I’ll add that I would never, ever rely on YouTube as my sole source of income.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t try it, but if you have success be sure to use that to diversify your business ASAP. The algorithm can dash you to pieces if you rely on it too heavily.
2) I Can’t Understand the Algorithm
It’s undiscernible.
My worst videos have been my best performers, and that’s not just my opinion.
There are better quality videos, with better audience retention and more interaction, that simply never get recommended more than a handful of times by Uncle Algorithm.
At this point, my strategy is to fill the water with hooks and wait for another hard bite. Every time I add subscribers, I add a little credibility and momentum, and we’ll just keep it going.
3) I Should Have Started with YouTube
Personal finance is a tricky topic to wade into as a blogger.
Clearly, it is much easier to get going as a YouTube channel.
If I was starting a personal finance media blog/channel again, I’d focus on YouTube first and use the scripts to populate posts on the blog.
This is basically what I’m doing now except I’m using my blog posts as scripts until my videos catch up to my blog posts.
4) Don’t Post Shorts and Videos on the Same Day
I think YouTube will only promote one thing at a time per channel.
This makes sense if you think about it. How many videos do you really want suggested to you that are from the same creator?
Well, YouTube usually promotes your latest video and will drop the last one for a while until it figures out whether or not your latest one is worth promoting.
This can take the steam out of a video that is starting to gain momentum.
I could be totally wrong about this because I’m trying to discern the undiscernible algorithm, but I’ve seen the impact on my views time and time again.
Conclusion
October was easily the best month for the blog/channel/business thing I’m doing.
The fact that it’s coming on the heels of a “best ever month” in September and a better-than-average end to the summer is reassuring.
I feel like it could take off any day or it may just meander in mediocrity until I’ve had enough.
For now, I soldier on.
Thank you again to all of you who have provided feedback, constructive criticism, etc. It means more than you know and it’s the only compensation I get for this so keep it coming.
God bless and take care!
