I recently subscribed to Tintin's email newsletter about all things YouTube. He's one of Ali Abdaal's team members and video editors. Being one of my favorite YouTube channels to watch, I knew I'd get some insight from both their weekly emails.
In this week's email from Tintin, he talked about setting yearly goals for YouTube. The two metrics that he suggested people focus on are:
Number of new videos created
Number of views from newly posted videos
It's key that the views counted are soley from videos posted that year, not older ones that are still gaining views.
Since I haven't yet monetized my channel, I've been looking primarily at number of subscribers and watch hours. I need to hit those goalposts of 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch-hours in the last 365 days to become eligible to monetize.
As a personal goal, I do usually set a video count goal for the year. In the past, this has generally been 50 -- one video per week with a couple weeks off. I'm realizing that my track record over the past couple years is showing that's a bit of a stretch for me.
For 2024, I'm setting a goal of publishing 35 videos. I'd like to post once a week if possible, but know that likely won't be sustainable for me off the bat. I'm giving myself more grace so that if I don't hit my weekly stretch goal, I won't be thrown off and lured into giving up altogether.
Number of views hasn't been something I've given much thought to. By Tintin's recommendation, this goal should be calculated by taking the average number of views your videos can expect to get and multiplying by your video goal.
For me that would be something like:
500 views X 35 videos = 17,500 views for the year
With an average watch-time of around 4 minutes, that puts my total watch time at 70,000 minutes or 1,167 hours. Not enough to monetize.
Since I need almost four times as many hours within a 365 day timeframe to monetize, I need to quadruple that goal. There's no way I could push out four times as many videos, so I'm aiming for around 2,000 views per video assuming my average watch time per view remains the same.
As of right now, only two of my videos (Backpacking in Yosemite and My First Solo Camping Trip) have over 2,000 views out of my 34 published videos. And these were published in 2021 and 2020, respectively, so have had plenty of time to rack up those views. (I also just realized this means I'm hoping to double the number of published videos my channel has in just the next year!)
This is going to be hard.
I know that posting videos consistently should increase my number of views per video organically as I gain more subscribers and reach. Hitting an average of 2,000 views per video though seems unattainable at the moment.
But I know it's possible :)
And as one of my close friends loves to say, "it only takes one post to take off!"
Posting more regularly will help me hone my craft, build my brand, and reach larger audiences. If I'm lucky, one or more of my videos will take off and bring more people into my little community.
Thinking about all this in concrete numbers makes it feel achievable, even if a bit daunting at the moment. But those numbers feel within reach. I've already seen that 2,000 views on a video is something I can hit. And it will only get easier as my videos get better and I have a deeper understanding of my audience.
This little exercise has left me rejuvenated and ready to create. I already have the next few months of videos in mind. Lots of winter travels I've already filmed, book reviews (will be new to my channel!), and more guides for folks looking to get into backpacking or solo travel.
There's a lot of work to be done and I'm trying to strategically diversify: YouTube, Instagram, Threads?, this blog, Pinterest??? Regardless, I'm excited for what's to come and I have a good feeling about this year.
Thanks to Tintin for this idea and to you for reading along. I hope you have an amazing rest of your day and I'll catch you here again tomorrow.
Happy adventuring,
A
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