If you’re reading this, you’re curious about what it’s like to run a guitar-based YouTube channel. Or not. When I started my channel in March 2020, my goal was to get a thousand subscribers in two years. I did it in about a year and a half, so slightly ahead of schedule. As I type this, the sub count is 1,260. I’m getting about 60 new subscribers a month. Is that good or bad? For someone doing this as a three hour per week hobby, I think it’s decent.
Three Things I’ve Learned So Far
- Make a lot of videos on a consistent schedule, then look at data
- Make more videos along the lines of your highest viewed videos
- Be willing to sacrifice viewers in favor of making sure you’re still having fun
The best thing to do is make a video per week for a year, and then your analytics will tell you what works and what doesn’t. My most popular video at almost two years in has had about 21,000 views, and it’s about setting up an Epiphone Les Paul. My least popular video was how to get your music on Spotify and iTunes, with 33 views after almost a year online.
That means my audience is guitar players who are interested in learning more about working on their instrument and not interested in putting out their own album, which does make sense. I want to make the videos I want to make, but I do want to make people happy, too. So I’ll do more guitar setup videos. I like doing setup videos.
The other thing I’ve learned is that you need to edit out every joke, every extra little bit of verbiage, and keep it super tight if you want to make the most people happy. I’m not doing that. I’m going to keep being me. It’s not like I’m depending on the dollar a day I’m earning from YouTube to pay for my house.
And finally, I’ve learned that you need to make videos that you enjoy making, even if sometimes they bomb, because if you stop having fun, you’re doomed.
