Comment by hahamrfunnyguy
5 days ago
I ran a YouTube channel seriously for a couple of years. Chasing the whims of the algorithm contributed to burnout and now I only release one or two videos a year.
My reason for starting a channel was to have a discussion around some of the projects I was working on that I found interesting. This never materialized. I never had a ton of engagement, but if I did most questions asked by viewers that are answered in the video.
I monetized my videos and started making beer-money amounts of revenue. I put more and more time into them but never gained traction. I had a few "evergreen" videos that would make maybe a thousand bucks a year, the rest of the videos hardly got any views at all.
Eventually, I found myself making videos to feed the algorithm not because it was a project that I wanted to do. This is where I had to stop. I realized that I just don't like editing videos.
My channel makes no revenue now because YouTube requires an upload schedule and shorts. Mr Beast's job sounds awful to me. The videos I make now only get dozens to hundreds of views when they're published. I mostly share them with friends and in online communities where the info contained might be helpful.
Thank you for your story. I have been running a low traffic blog for decades now and there was a time when I craved engagement. I never put too much effort in but I did change the things I wrote about to try to get noticed, a strategy that was unmarred by success.
The creators that find success need to pump out content at a ridiculous rate. It is a faustian bargain that sucks in a lot of people.
These people are essentially competing against an algorithm, not against other humans. I consider this to be an extremely distasteful endeavor.
I had a hobby electronics channel that was getting quite popular (~30k subs after ~15 videos). I burned out for a different reason: it’s hard to do this as a side gig. If I could’ve done it full time I would’ve continued doing so, but YouTube just doesn’t pay you enough despite each video getting >100K views. I paid zero attention to the algorithm and just focused on creating unique, creative, high-quality content that showed a level of effort was put forth. This “side gig” burned me out.
So it’s possible you would’ve burned out anyways, despite any algorithmic considerations.