I started this year with a brand new Youtube channel on full-stack development. From 2015, I had a dream to start my Youtube channel, however, I was never serious about it. I kept delaying the things due to one or the other reason. It is not like I never took that step - I created few channels, posted some content however I was not consistent. Most of the channels I started, were not aligned with my daily work so, they never took off.
If you are just interested in numbers, here are the stats from my Youtube channel
Total Videos 📈
I managed to create 33 Videos in 31 days
- Video Uploads : 30
- Live streams : 3
- Total View : 802
- Watch Time Hours : 34.2 Hours
- Subscribers : 29
Few reasons to delay
- Fear to face camera
- The camera and Mic on the PC is not of good quality
- Trying to create content on topics, I was not confident about
- Overthink about the content, script, and recording
- More focus on Youtube channel art, logo, thumbnails, etc
- Getting out of my comfort zone - I have a full-time job
- I can't spend more time with my Family
- English is not my native language and, people might not like it
To address some of the issues, I purchased
- DSLR in 2017
- A phone with a nice camera in 2018 for b-roll
- WebCam and Mic in the year 2019
Even after purchasing all those gadgets, I was still standing in the same position.
Fast forward to 31 December 2020
On the night of 31 Dec 2020 at 9:00 PM(approx), I asked myself, what I accomplished in the year 2020. I started a successful blog that is getting decent traffic. I fully utilised the corona pandemic time and wrote around 80+ posts in 8 months. But my dream of having a successful Youtube channel was still a dream.
So that very moment, I decided to give it a serious thought. I created a plan on how the year 2021 should be. I gave myself a goal i.e. I want to be a content creator and helping other devs in the community. There is nothing better than videos to share your knowledge with the community.
I opened the excel file and came up with few topics/Youtube titles, I was comfortable with. So that I do not fail this time, I further split those topics into small topics that can be easily consumed by anyone. The idea was to focus on one topic at a time which allows the viewer to consume the content easily without getting distracted and overwhelmed. This was also good for me as a creator as I need not overthink about a topic and quickly get to the point while explaining. Also, these types of focused videos will take less time to produce, edit and upload.
This activity not only helped me in creating a concrete plan but also fixed other three reasons to delay, those were
- Trying to create content on topics, I was not confident about
- Overthink about the content, script, and recording
- I can't spend more time with my Family
Now, most of the issues were fixed and it was time to celebrate New Year in another 1 hour.
Hold on hold on, few issues are still pending i.e. facing the camera, speaking while recording in a language that is not my native.
To fix those issues, a crazy idea came to my mind. Let's build a New Year Countdown app in ReactJS and that too live on Youtube. I quickly jumped on Canva and created a thumbnail and scheduled a Livestream. I was very nervous as I never tried live stream in past. I downloaded OBS, pasted my live stream API key, and went live in a couple of minutes. There was pressure on my mind to finish the small web app in just 50 minutes. I forgot everything and opened VSCode and started coding. I am glad I was able to finish the application just before New Year.
[shhhhh......secret - nobody came to watch while I was streaming 😂 ]
I was really happy about my decision to go live as it allowed me to overcome my fear. During the process, I didn't even think about the camera or voice quality. I used all super powers of a developer(Google & Stackoverflow). My main focus was to finish the application within a limited time.
Just after finishing the video, I decided to do the #31Days31Videos challenge. I already had a plan and list of topics that I would be covering in the next 31 days.
After posting continuously for 31 days
- I feel more comfortable in front of Mic
- I am not worried about the camera, mic, or language
- Getting better at recording and editing videos
- I am learning small things about the Youtube platform - you need not know everything before you start. You can make small improvements in each video.
- Youtube feels like part of my daily routine - there is no need to have a special time/isolated space/recording studio.
- I understood, to produce good quality you need to produce a good quantity. The more you create, the more you learn. The next video will always be better than the previous one. If you compare your first video with the latest one, you will always feel ashamed of it 😊
If you came this far and want to be part of my Youtube journey, please subscribe to my channel. If you enjoyed the content, smash the like(👍 ) button, just below the video. Turn on the bell (🔔 ) notifications so you get the latest updates, whenever I post a new video.
I hope this post helps and motivates you to accomplish your goals.
Cheers!!!
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