Any creator on YouTube would admit the experience is like riding a roller coaster.  That goes from someone uploading videos with no Adsense account (ability to make money) to Logan Paul.  Rollercoaster.  Up and down.  Throw in varying speeds and breakdowns without warning.

At the time I’m writing this we have been uploading videos to our YouTube channel for 3 years.  We started off without an upload routine and simply filmed and uploaded when we could.  The more videos we made, the more fun we had.  The more fun we had, the more views we got.  The more views we got, the more our subscriber count grew.

We were filming a toy unboxing/review or challenge video five days a week Monday through Friday.  We added Saturdays and Sundays every now and then.  This continued for 2 years.  Then we added a daily vlog for a period of time on top of the other five videos a week.  Twelve videos a week.  Crazy right?

We just took a month off.  The break was nice.  We almost quit YouTube twice.  Your channel will eventually slow down.  For one reason or another, it just will.  Call it the algorithm, blame it on your audience or possible burn out.

Each time I was determined to give it one more try and revive our channel.  By this time I had invested a lot into this channel and it was important to me, my family and some of our audience.  Those “one more time” approaches propelled our channel as we shifted our focus.  We found new life and continued to grow.

No matter the size of the channel, views, money made or money spent we all have similar experiences.  We all started our channels and watched for the first subscriber who wasn’t a family member or friend.  We all tracked our subscriber count for milestones.  To this day hitting 100 subscribers was my favorite.  It seemed unreachable at 12 subscribers and any number greater than 100 was laughable.

People think about the stories that they hear of creators making millions of dollars on YouTube.  It seems simple.  Make a video and upload it.  It’s much more than that.  Come up with an idea for the video.  Film the video.  Edit the video.  Create the thumbnail.  Craft the title, keywords, and tags for SEO so your video can be found or suggested.  Manage comments on the video.  Be active in the YouTube community and watch other peoples videos.  Then do it all over again the next day.

When I told people we did YT it never failed.  They always said, “I should do that.”

My response was always the same, “You should.  It’s hard work.  It will take you years before you make any money.  You will want to quit before you see a dime.”

Their response was, “Really, why did you do it?”

“Because my daughters wanted to do it.”  We didn’t do it to make money.  In fact, I didn’t think anyone would watch our first video.  I didn’t think anyone would want to subscribe to our channel.  I also thought my kids would get tired of it just like we all do when the new wears off.

We did it to make videos and upload them to YouTube.  We did it to watch the videos, smile and laugh at the funny things that happened.

We didn’t make a dime for years but that was ok.  That wasn’t our goal.

That’s why the 100 subscriber milestone was my favorite.  Because it was shocking to me.  I couldn’t believe it.  I couldn’t believe 25, 50 or 82 really.  Any number outside of family and friends.  100 people said yes to our channel and our family.

I have plenty of positives to share about our time on YouTube.

-I got to sit between my two girls and have fun for two-plus years reviewing toys and doing fun challenges.

-We stockpiled memories of our family while Vlogging over the past few years and we watch them back with pure enjoyment.

-We’ve made lifelong friends all over the United States and throughout the world really (I just got an email from a friend we made in Australia who was just checking to see how we are doing).

-Trips to New York, California and Kansas City to meet up with other YouTubers.

-We were sent toys and products to review, for FREE!  That still boggles my mind.  A company took the time to send us a product for us to talk about on our channel.  Amazing.

My new saying is: Create what makes you happy and find the love of sharing it with everyone.

YouTube has given me and my family the opportunity to do that for three plus years with our audience of over 120,000 people.  That audience took time to build just like anything worth creating or working hard for.  47 million views later our channel still goes on.  Why?  Because we still enjoy making videos and creating memories to enjoy for years to come.

 

create what you love pic by: Mark Cruz