Scheduling and Expectations
An often-overlooked aspect of being a content creator is self-realization and discipline. The following will provide you with the information you need to know what you want out of your channel and how you to plan to achieve your goals. Know your expectations and stick to a schedule.
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Knowing Yourself
An important part of being a YouTuber is possessing the ability to realize what you are capable of and understand how much of yourself you are willing to devote to owning a YouTube channel. I am sure that everyone reading this entered into their journey of creating videos with at least a slightly different mindset than they have now. If you do not, then I envy you.
In my own case, I have frequently had to readjust my expectations and tactics in order to meet the demands of owning a decent channel. This tutorial does not seek to teach you how to improve your content in terms of technical things like recording techniques and equipment. Instead, it offers a few tips on how to better manage your YouTube obligations and expectations in accordance with your real-life responsibilities and potential.
Many of us sometimes wonder why we see very little growth in our channels or interaction from our subscribers.
One reason is that you might lack consistency. I want you to imagine your favorite television show, recurring live sports event, etc. If you are waiting for a new episode of Game of Thrones, you expect to see it on Sunday night at 9:00 P.M. If you have been waiting on an episode of The Walking Dead for months, you expect an exact air time to look forward to. Your subscribers expect the same thing from your channel. They want consistency. You must provide that consistency. Now let us turn to how I propose you provide your audience with this stability that I speak of.
How to Do It:
First, you need to endure the process of self-realization. Many of us have obligations outside of YouTube. Things like school, jobs, and family that might prevent us from being able to create content or upload on a fixed schedule. In order to overcome the complications that might arise from these outside responsibilities, you should know what your limitations are.
If I could turn back time, I would not have started a YouTube channel as haphazardly as I did. Instead, I would have sat down and formulated an agenda and plan that allowed me to focus on my channel in a consistently productive way. For many of us, it might be too late for that. The good news is, it is not too late to adapt and overcome. Ask yourself how many hours a week you have to devote to things other than YouTube. And DO NOT simply answer these questions in your head. Sit down with a pen and pad, or software of your choosing, and write down what you know about your own limitations.
For me, I know that I am not able to create content steadily on Monday-Thursday, except in the evenings. As a result, I have recently made the decision to actually create a YouTube schedule. I will force myself to create content Friday-Sunday and use any other available time to create a backlog of things that I can use in the future. Having this sort of schedule will benefit your channel in two ways.
- First, it will allow you to keep track of your own content and prevent you from becoming overwhelmed. Feeling forced to push out content can be detrimental to your performance in your videos, whether that be in terms of commentary, editing, or even the desire to actually record.
- Second, having a well-formatted channel provides your audience and loyal subscribers with something to look forward to. If a viewer enjoys your content they might decide to subscribe. But providing them with the security of knowing when your next video comes out might be the difference between keeping them and losing them.
- In short, a good upload schedule will improve your audience retention in the long run. So, if you aren’t already doing so, take a few minutes to ensure that your channel is a well-oiled machine that provides quality content on a stabile basis.
Devotion:
The next thing that I want to turn to is less concrete. It involves your own mental capacity to devote yourself to your channel. If you want those thousands of subs, you need to take YouTube pretty seriously. Likely as seriously as having a second job. Some of the most successful and best content creators in this community put in an extraordinary amount of work.
Are you willing to do the same thing? Are you willing to put in hours of work every week editing? Then more hours marketing? And even more hours networking? Are you willing to spend a portion of your hard earned money on your channel and things that can improve your ability to YouTube? You should answer yes to all of these questions.
If you did not, I can’t tell you that your channel will not be successful. But the odds of you having a more successful channel with quality content certainly improve if you are willing to absolutely and completely devote yourself. Many of us probably already feel like we are devoting ourselves fully. Perhaps you do fulfill all of the things that I listed above. But are you fulfilling them to the best of your potential?
As my inspirational colleague Dr. Shattered says: “never half-ass everything. Full-ass one thing.” The fulfillment of this full-ass approach is related to the process of self-realization that I have referenced above. If you are not willing or able to devote yourself to uploading 7 great videos a week, then do not try to. If you can’t produce 5, or even 3, do not try to. One weekly upload that is really great is better than multiple bad videos.
Again, how do we decide what we are capable of? Well, some of the answer to that question lies within you. However, taking an organized approach will almost certainly yield satisfying results. Know what your plan is, know what your goals are, know how you will achieve those goals, and set yourself a deadline. Have a schedule for your channel and set deadlines for the goals that you want to achieve.
Some useful tools to help you with scheduling and maintaining an organized approach to your channel:
- The built in software that comes with your pc or mac. There are many apps that allow you to create a calendar/planner. An example of an easy to use interface would be the app called PowerPlanner.
- If you are old fashioned: a pen and paper or an old-school planner that allows you to write in what you need to do on certain dates.
- A more advanced planning and organizational tool (something that I use) is called Wrike. The app and the site both offer an in-depth tutorial that will teach you the basics of using the software. They offer a free trial so try it out! Wrike
- Also, YouTube allows for scheduled uploads, so take advantage of your less hectic times and have a backlog for YouTube
- To help with audience expectations and retention, I have also seen many YouTubers include their upload schedule in the “About” section on their channel or in their video descriptions, both of which are solid ideas. If you are also interested in scheduling and managing social media, there are tools that will allow you to do so.
Some examples:
Each of these programs will allow you to push your content even when you know that you will not personally be able to do so. Again, preparation and planning is key. These programs are built for twitter, but there are programs available for nearly every other social media platform that you can imagine. So take advantage of the resources made available to you through the power of the internet.
Final Thoughts:
Overall, the point is that we should all have a solid understanding of what we are trying to achieve and we should know how we are going to actively and consistently push our channels. Poor preparation leads to poor performance. So please have a plan and make sure that you execute it to the best of your abilities.