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Creating a YouTube Channel to Document my Challenge of building a SaaS business in 12 months

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

davidpn

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Jun 5, 2019
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Hello everyone!

I haven't been very active on this forum, but thought I'd try to contribute by sharing my latest adventure.

A Short Introduction:
My name is David, 32 and currently I’m living in Vienna, Austria (at least for now and no, I don’t speak any German... haha). I've spent most of my life in Canada, but have lived in a few places around the world. I’m currently working as a developer (hence the SaaS business desire).

At the start of the year, I set out a lot of goals/objectives for 2021 and one of those goals was to start a YouTube channel. Since I also have a desire to build a SaaS business, I thought stacking those 2 together would go quite nicely. It would also give me an opportunity to build out my personal brand.


What I was working on this year so far:
I started out the year by building some blog content on my personal website. However, when I was re-designing my site late last year, I seemed to have started with a bunch of negative, spammy backlinks. Thankfully I cleaned that up with the help of a friend, and after a while I noticed more search term consistency. Plus my site was starting to trend upwards in Google Search Console. Then again... I seem to have been hit with a negative SEO attack a couple months ago. This caused a downward trend and much more inconsistency (though I think I've recently fixed it). My suspicion is that because I have a popular name, someone with the same name as me was trying to make sure I don’t show up on the first page. Since I don’t get much traffic to my site yet, I’m not overly concerned with it at the moment.

For the time being, I have my site on the side since I have shifted my focus to YouTube. This is part of my strategy. I will also start promoting my site and return to writing some content occasionally at some point in the future.


What is the rough overall game plan / strategy?
Soo… right now I have the following layers:

- A personal (and blogging) site
- A YouTube channel
- A Self Challenge to build a SaaS business in 12 months

I have already created about 17-18 blog posts on my site and have yet to promote / share any of the content. The reason for this is I wanted to get my YouTube channel up, running and to have the first episode of my build a SaaS business challenge.

My focus moving forward is to ultimately drive traffic to my YouTube channel, and of course in building a SaaS business.

I plan to spread various blog posts around different channels to drive traffic to my site, and hopefully funnel some of that traffic to my YouTube channel. If people like my content enough, I’m hoping they’ll also subscribe to my email list.

On a side note ,and an interesting development that I didn’t consider was that, YouTube also acts as an organic search and has been driving some traffic the other way (to my personal site). A sort of nice multiplier effect.

I’ve also read through half of James' (Valier ) YouTube thread for inspiration and have taken notes. So I'm very thankful that he shared his insights and journey (which is absolutely mind boggling)!

I’ve also decided against setting a minimum amount of uploads per week, but instead focus on delivering value and something of higher quality than average/good. Just keep at it consistently and if it takes 1 week or 3 weeks for my next piece of content... that is okay.


My YouTube strategy going forward:
I’ve just released my first episode of my challenge to build a SaaS business in 12 months. Link is below if you are curious.
View: https://youtu.be/M64XfCYIV4g


I’ve gone ahead and called it Entrepreneurial Dreams. This first episode is meant to be silly, poking fun and at times funny. The next episode will be much more serious, but I’ll try to mix education-entertainment where possible so it isn’t as dry.

I realize that nobody will be searching for my challenge videos and YouTube probably won’t recommend it either. So I’m going to have to split my video creation time between my challenge and creating some value (searchable) content. This will hopefully drive organic YouTube traffic to my channel and hopefully a portion of those people will also consume my Entrepreneurial Dream videos and stay.

I will continually adjust/improve this approach as time goes on.

My current YouTube progress:
Videos:
3
Watch Time: ~11 hours
CTR: ~8.5%
Subs: 9

Best video stats:
- Views: 153
- WT: ~11 hours
- CTR: ~9%


Lessons learned so far (A mix from reading/listening to other YouTubers and from my own experiences):
From what I’ve read/seen so far, there seems to be 4 things that really matter and one should spend a good portion of time on each of them. They are:

Your thumbnail: This can make or break your channel. You need to have something that makes people intrigued enough to stop scrolling and (eventually) click on your video. Well placed images and strategic text (ideally if it drives emotion or curiosity) are important. Why? Because this directly impacts your CTR, which (from what I’ve read) is critical to the YouTube algorithm

Title (and description): If you can get someone to stop on your thumbnail, they will also very likely read your title. So from what I’ve gathered so far, it should build on top of your thumbnail and provide more information to the viewer.

I’m still not exactly sure what makes a good title, but I’m going to experiment (when possible) with having the desire part in the thumbnail (ex: framed picture hanging on the wall) and the how part in the title. (ex: How to best mount a framed picture in your house). Ideally providing value, or solving some kind of problem.

The description seems to be the place to provide more information (about the video and to drop links). Plus to helps with being more searchable on YouTube.

Watch Time (WT): The second thing that supposedly influences the YouTube algorithm heavily is WT. So this means having good, quality content. If your video is engaging, and people are watching it… that’s a good sign. I’m still learning how to improve this one, as it seems my average WT is around 14-15%.

Intro: This one is tied into WT and I feel when you first start out, you should spend a more significant amount of time dedicated to the beginning of your video. Make it interesting, intriguing and get to the point / cut out useless things that don’t align with your thumbnail/title. I noticed a big drop of >50% in the first 30s of my video. So moving forward I would like to improve this number and get to the good content quicker.

In the future, I’m going to start asking myself if this is valuable/interesting content to the viewer (yes → keep, no → omit) for the first minute of my videos.

I’m hoping with some small tweaks/improvements I can get my WT up to the 20-25% range.


Goals:
I don’t really have any YouTube specific goals. I’m doing this more for fun and to share/document my journey, but in a more strategic way that will hopefully benefit me in the future.

Ideally... the SaaS business I build will be a success and that is the main goal here.

However, for the purposes of setting a target, I’m going to go for 1000 subs and 2500 hours of WT before the end of 2021. I would be really happy to achieve that.


Other then that... I will update this thread with my progress, or when I have something meaningful to say (insights).
 
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RicardoGrande

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Hello everyone!

I haven't been very active on this forum, but thought I'd try to contribute by sharing my latest adventure.

A Short Introduction:
My name is David, 32 and currently I’m living in Vienna, Austria (at least for now and no, I don’t speak any German... haha). I've spent most of my life in Canada, but have lived in a few places around the world. I’m currently working as a developer (hence the SaaS business desire).

At the start of the year, I set out a lot of goals/objectives for 2021 and one of those goals was to start a YouTube channel. Since I also have a desire to build a SaaS business, I thought stacking those 2 together would go quite nicely. It would also give me an opportunity to build out my personal brand.


What I was working on this year so far:
I started out the year by building some blog content on my personal website. However, when I was re-designing my site late last year, I seemed to have started with a bunch of negative, spammy backlinks. Thankfully I cleaned that up with the help of a friend, and after a while I noticed more search term consistency. Plus my site was starting to trend upwards in Google Search Console. Then again... I seem to have been hit with a negative SEO attack a couple months ago. This caused a downward trend and much more inconsistency (though I think I've recently fixed it). My suspicion is that because I have a popular name, someone with the same name as me was trying to make sure I don’t show up on the first page. Since I don’t get much traffic to my site yet, I’m not overly concerned with it at the moment.

For the time being, I have my site on the side since I have shifted my focus to YouTube. This is part of my strategy. I will also start promoting my site and return to writing some content occasionally at some point in the future.


What is the rough overall game plan / strategy?
Soo… right now I have the following layers:

- A personal (and blogging) site
- A YouTube channel
- A Self Challenge to build a SaaS business in 12 months

I have already created about 17-18 blog posts on my site and have yet to promote / share any of the content. The reason for this is I wanted to get my YouTube channel up, running and to have the first episode of my build a SaaS business challenge.

My focus moving forward is to ultimately drive traffic to my YouTube channel, and of course in building a SaaS business.

I plan to spread various blog posts around different channels to drive traffic to my site, and hopefully funnel some of that traffic to my YouTube channel. If people like my content enough, I’m hoping they’ll also subscribe to my email list.

On a side note ,and an interesting development that I didn’t consider was that, YouTube also acts as an organic search and has been driving some traffic the other way (to my personal site). A sort of nice multiplier effect.

I’ve also read through half of James' (Valier ) YouTube thread for inspiration and have taken notes. So I'm very thankful that he shared his insights and journey (which is absolutely mind boggling)!

I’ve also decided against setting a minimum amount of uploads per week, but instead focus on delivering value and something of higher quality than average/good. Just keep at it consistently and if it takes 1 week or 3 weeks for my next piece of content... that is okay.


My YouTube strategy going forward:
I’ve just released my first episode of my challenge to build a SaaS business in 12 months. Link is below if you are curious.
View: https://youtu.be/M64XfCYIV4g


I’ve gone ahead and called it Entrepreneurial Dreams. This first episode is meant to be silly, poking fun and at times funny. The next episode will be much more serious, but I’ll try to mix education-entertainment where possible so it isn’t as dry.

I realize that nobody will be searching for my challenge videos and YouTube probably won’t recommend it either. So I’m going to have to split my video creation time between my challenge and creating some value (searchable) content. This will hopefully drive organic YouTube traffic to my channel and hopefully a portion of those people will also consume my Entrepreneurial Dream videos and stay.

I will continually adjust/improve this approach as time goes on.

My current YouTube progress:
Videos:
3
Watch Time: ~11 hours
CTR: ~8.5%
Subs: 9

Best video stats:
- Views: 153
- WT: ~11 hours
- CTR: ~9%


Lessons learned so far (A mix from reading/listening to other YouTubers and from my own experiences):
From what I’ve read/seen so far, there seems to be 4 things that really matter and one should spend a good portion of time on each of them. They are:

Your thumbnail: This can make or break your channel. You need to have something that makes people intrigued enough to stop scrolling and (eventually) click on your video. Well placed images and strategic text (ideally if it drives emotion or curiosity) are important. Why? Because this directly impacts your CTR, which (from what I’ve read) is critical to the YouTube algorithm

Title (and description): If you can get someone to stop on your thumbnail, they will also very likely read your title. So from what I’ve gathered so far, it should build on top of your thumbnail and provide more information to the viewer.

I’m still not exactly sure what makes a good title, but I’m going to experiment (when possible) with having the desire part in the thumbnail (ex: framed picture hanging on the wall) and the how part in the title. (ex: How to best mount a framed picture in your house). Ideally providing value, or solving some kind of problem.

The description seems to be the place to provide more information (about the video and to drop links). Plus to helps with being more searchable on YouTube.

Watch Time (WT): The second thing that supposedly influences the YouTube algorithm heavily is WT. So this means having good, quality content. If your video is engaging, and people are watching it… that’s a good sign. I’m still learning how to improve this one, as it seems my average WT is around 14-15%.

Intro: This one is tied into WT and I feel when you first start out, you should spend a more significant amount of time dedicated to the beginning of your video. Make it interesting, intriguing and get to the point / cut out useless things that don’t align with your thumbnail/title. I noticed a big drop of >50% in the first 30s of my video. So moving forward I would like to improve this number and get to the good content quicker.

In the future, I’m going to start asking myself if this is valuable/interesting content to the viewer (yes → keep, no → omit) for the first minute of my videos.

I’m hoping with some small tweaks/improvements I can get my WT up to the 20-25% range.


Goals:
I don’t really have any YouTube specific goals. I’m doing this more for fun and to share/document my journey, but in a more strategic way that will hopefully benefit me in the future.

Ideally... the SaaS business I build will be a success and that is the main goal here.

However, for the purposes of setting a target, I’m going to go for 1000 subs and 2500 hours of WT before the end of 2021. I would be really happy to achieve that.


Other then that... I will update this thread with my progress, or when I have something meaningful to say (insights).
Much like a terrestial lizard, I will be monitoring this thread.
Good luck David!
 

davidpn

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[UPDATE]

How my first month (well... 3.5 weeks) went:

I produced 3 videos. One from each of the following areas:
- Programming
- SaaS business challenge
- Random

As far as I’m concerned… they were all duds (well I shouldn’t comment on the SaaS one yet as it’s recently released)!

So far, the very first video I made has garnered the majority of my channel's traction and also gained the most amount of views & WT. About 80-90% of my stats come from that one video alone! It seems to be ‘evergreen’ content, which is great! I feel that videos around the theme of “how to get a developer job” will be the most popular/successful on YT. I would like to reproduce that kind of result in one of my next programming videos.

One bad thing is I think I lost 6-7 subs because of the random video I uploaded. So I guess the lesson is don’t go too random or off topic.

Also, my eyes keep getting quite sore when I edit videos with DaVinci Resolve (namely because of all the glare on the screen from the dark background colour of the software). Unfortunatley, there is no way to change the background colour, which really sucks. Might have to switch video editing software because of this...

Changes to my approach:

I’ve realized that I simply am not just documenting my journey on YouTube. I also want to succeed there (in the long-term), so this means putting more time into it than I thought I was going to. Which also means putting in less time on actually starting a SaaS business. This may hurt me in the end as I try to get more WT, views and subscribers. We will see…

Also, I Initially had a video breakdown plan of:
  • 50% programming
  • 50% SaaS business challenge

However, after some thought… I would like to experiment every now and then with random/different content. To see if anything sticks or test the waters on different topics. So I’m going to adjust my percentages to:

  • 45% Programming
  • 45% SaaS business challenge
  • 10% Random/whatever

Maybe this is deviating further from my SaaS challenge, but I’ll adjust as necessary in the future.

For my 2nd SaaS business episode, I tried getting to the point quicker and also changed my approach with having background music & more b-roll footage. I was debating about making it more viewer friendly (interesting) versus just posting minimally edited videos.

Anyways, here is the latest episode.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhYxgaqQB-I


I also think I’m going to change the thumbnail layout to make the episode number & name more prominent.

My current YouTube progress:

Videos: 6 (+3 from last update)
Watch Time: ~35.5 hours (+24.5 hours ...)
CTR: ~7% (-1.5% …)
Subs: 23 (+14 ...)​
Best video stats:

Views: 497 (+345 from last update)
WT: ~32 hours (+21 hours …)
CTR: ~8% ( -1% …)​

Lessons learned in my first month:

No such thing as a sure winner, or a video that you think will do well.

It’ll definitely be a grind to get those first 100 subs.

Not sure how some people get traction so quickly, but I’m hoping if I produce good enough (searchable) content, people will be inclined to also share it and the channel will grow a bit quicker.


Assessment of Goals:

If I’m to reach my sub & WT goals, I need to get a video to go mini-viral (in my case: 1-10K views). Otherwise, I will probably only get to 100 subs and maybe 150 hours of WT by the end of the year. I need to repeat the success of my first video a couple of times.
 

davidpn

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[Update @ ~90 day mark]

How my last 2 months went:
I had a pretty busy period with things going on in life + going on a vacation, so I didn’t do as much as I wanted. My average time between video uploads has been increasing.

However, I did upload 3 videos (1 each from programming, random & SaaS business challenge). The random one was from a hackathon event I attended and decided to make the video public, otherwise it would have only been 2 videos.

The programming video that I made in this period has crossed the 100 view mark and only my 2nd video to do so. Only my first video has been a great success so far.

I’m probably going to upload more random videos, which means I’m not going to shoot for a 45/45/10 split (programming/SaaS challenge/random). I think I’ll just upload whatever feels right between programming, SaaS challenge and random.

I’ve realized that the SaaS/business topic is going to be hard to break into on YouTube. My best best is with programming, as that is what has given me the most traction so far.

Around my SaaS challenge. Progress is going very slow, but I’m okay with that. I have narrowed down what ideas I want to focus on and the next episode should be more interesting (coming up with a game plan for testing my ideas). Also, due to not getting many views on my SaaS challenge videos, I’ve decided not to do any fancy stuff and keep the editing to a minimum.

Here is the latest episode

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QyYm8RhWy0


I also changed the thumbnail slightly to make the episode number more visible, as well as the episode title. I think it is a bit better.

I did create 1 short video just for fun and that has the lowest amount of views on my channel so far. Maybe I’ll experiment with it later on.

My current YouTube progress:
- Videos:
9 (+3 from last update)
- Watch Time: 171 hours (+135.5 hours)
- CTR: 5.4% (-2.6%)
- Subs: 74 (+51)

Best video stats:
- Views:
2.5K (+2K from last update)
- WT: 157.5 hours (+125.5 hours)
- CTR: 5.8% ( -2.2%)

Lessons learned in the last 60 days:
It seems like the YT algorithm has picked up my first video as I’ve gotten a lot of results from that video on my channel. I’m still trying to reproduce that kind of result with another video, but I’m happy that it is driving my channel forward. That gives me daily motivation to keep going.

I also found it crazy to think that on my best day, people had spent almost 14 hours watching my videos.

For my YouTube channel/growth and success… I will need to focus on the programming niche. The SaaS business challenge is more for myself & just a place to document my journey online.

Consistency is key and the more content you put out… the higher your odds are that something will get picked up by the YouTube algorithm.

Assessment of Goals:
I’m about 7% of the way to both my subscriber & WT goals. Still have about 75 days until the end of the year. So I got some work to do.

Final thoughts:
I wish I had started something (YouTube channel, or a blog, documenting my journey back when I first, first started). I would have been much further ahead and better off than I am now.
 
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davidpn

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[Update @ ~4.5 month mark]

How my last 1.5 months went:
I had a bit of a crazy, but short, growth spurt since my last update and that really helped my channel grow. Unfortunately it didn’t last very long, but my channel is growing at a steady pace. Still very tiny though.

I only uploaded 2 videos (1 from programming & 1 from my SaaS business challenge).

I think you need to just be consistent and think long term (3-5 year mark). I do believe my channel will be monetized at some point next year.

I have a lot of ideas for programming content and there is a big audience for it. So I just need to make all of these video topics, which will in turn make my channel stronger overall.

My progress with my SaaS challenge is still very slow. My last video was sharing the gameplan that I’m going to use for testing out my 4 possible ideas on the market. I haven’t taken any further action than that, but now the real work/hustling begins.

I also decided to redesign my thumbnail for the video series and think it will spark more interest than the previous versions.

For those interested… here is the latest episode.

View: https://youtu.be/mkuMGDoHijE



My current YouTube progress:
- Videos: 11 (+2 from last update)
- Watch Time: 653 hours (+482 hours)
- CTR: 3.9% (-1.5%)
- Subs: 255 (+181)

Best video stats:
- Views: 9.2K (+6.7K from last update)
- WT: 537 hours (+379.5 hours)
- CTR: 4% ( -1.8%)

Lessons learned in the last 1.5 months:
I don’t think I really learned anything, except for this...

When I got a nice growth spurt with my channel, my natural inclination was to sit back, do nothing and just watch all of the numbers going up. Then it peaked, started coming down, I started getting unhappy and had to kick myself into gear to start producing more video content. Haha.

I guess the key is consistency and to not relax when things are going well. The opposite should actually happen. When things are picking up, going good, you should put more time/effort into it to make sure that it keeps going up higher.

So don’t be lazy!

And actually one more thing that I’ve learned/noticed from other channels. Having a good marketing strategy can really help with growing your channel much faster. This is something that I need to think about. How can I grow faster?

Assessment of Goals:
I’m about 26% of the way to both my subscriber & WT goals. Still have about 35 days until the end of the year. So it looks like I probably won’t get there, but I believe getting to 350 subs & 900hr WT is very likely with my current growth rate.

Future:
Unfortunately my progress is going to be extremely slow over the next 2-3 months, as I will be very busy with some major life changes. This means I’m going to have to produce some easier content, and might only have time for 1 proper video. Or I will need to release some very short, and to the point videos. Or alternatively... experiment with YT shorts.

I also probably won’t make much progress on my SaaS challenge and will likely mostly focus on programming content. I’ll see how well I can manage my time and adjust.
 

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I just had a look at your channel. I’d maybe focus on programming and SaaS and unlist the more random videos?

I’ve been on an unlisting spree on my channel so everything is either Google Ads, sales, marketing, or business related. I had quite a few vlogs on the channel when I started, but they’ve gone bye-bye.
 
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davidpn

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Thank you!

I just had a look at your channel. I’d maybe focus on programming and SaaS and unlist the more random videos?

I’ve been on an unlisting spree on my channel so everything is either Google Ads, sales, marketing, or business related. I had quite a few vlogs on the channel when I started, but they’ve gone bye-bye.

Hahaha... I think I ventured a bit too far with one random video and it definitely hurt me for a 2 week period. After that, I haven't seen any negative impact on my channel. So I'm curious if unlisting videos that aren't related to your channel's main themes will benefit you in some way? Have you noticed any difference after unlisting your random videos?
 

Andy Black

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Thank you!



Hahaha... I think I ventured a bit too far with one random video and it definitely hurt me for a 2 week period. After that, I haven't seen any negative impact on my channel. So I'm curious if unlisting videos that aren't related to your channel's main themes will benefit you in some way? Have you noticed any difference after unlisting your random videos?
I haven’t noticed any difference after unlisting videos, but my channel is almost dead at the moment

I’d worry about hurting your future growth. When someone finds one of your videos and watches it will they binge watch your channel, or wonder why some random video showed and go watch something else?

View: https://youtu.be/dJwaLyPBhV8
 

davidpn

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End of the year review/reflection on my YT channel & SaaS challenge.

Subs: 326 [goal was 1000]
WT: ~890 hours [goal was 2500 hours]

Approx got 1/3rd of the way there. Not great, but also not bad in the sense that my channel at least grew!

However, maybe 10 days before the end of 2021 my YT growth basically got killed. Not sure what happened, but I guess my 1 video that was driving most of my growth ran its course.

Unsurprisingly... programming content way outperformed my SaaS challenge/entrepreneurship content. I haven't made any investing content at all.

I'm at a crossroads with how to proceed forward with my YT channel for 2022. As it takes up a lot of time to script, film and edit each video. More and more I'm considering the time value cost for anything I do/pursue. Plus my overall aim is to obtain financial freedom. When I'm on my death bed... I won't give a fuk about how many subs/WT I had on my YouTube channel. It'll be about memories and experiences. So I'm really considering this factor much more moving into 2022.

I also started consuming "good" content from more popular YouTubers to see what they do and what makes their content engaging. I would self assess myself as mediocre/average at best. Far from some of the high quality content out there and better than the low quality, bottom of the barrel stuff.

I feel that I need to make a pivot and re-assess my long term plan/strategy. My goal is to create a business where either YouTube is the traffic source or to create a SaaS. I'm getting a bit too much caught up in YT and numbers. Looking too much at vanity metrics.

If I want to continue down the YT path, I would need to invest some time into:
  • Improving my video editing skills
  • Learning how to be a storyteller through video content (including b-roll narration footage)
  • Figuring out how to create more engaging content that also makes the viewer feel good
  • Becoming a more captivating speaker / speaking with more positive energy & enthusiasm
  • Getting to the point faster & not being afraid to cut out content that is boring (instant gratification world)

At the end... content is king and improving in all of those areas would go a long way to creating better content. It isn't enough to be just average these days... especially if you want to grow rapidly. You need to have done something extraordinary that other people also want to achieve, or have really high quality content.

> You didn't say anything about your SaaS progress!!

Yes, I haven't. Most of my focus has been on YouTube. I know this will come across as an excuse, but I don't feel that right now is a good time for me to continue pursuing my SaaS business challenge. I'm debating about putting this on pause until some things get cleared up and I have the right mindset to focus on this. Or at least continue off of YouTube / figure out a better way to share my journey & progress on there.

Steps going forward. Re-assess my long-term strategy/plan and get deeper clarity. I feel I'm split between "do I want to be a YouTuber?" versus "do I want to be a SaaS business owner?" plus also "do I want to be a stock trader?"

A good question I need to ponder more about is if...
I could possibly create content around the intersection between programming, business/entrepreneurship & (stock) trading?

I also have a business idea that would overlap all 3 areas (it was, and still is, a pain point for me with regards to learning how to successfully trade stocks). I really need to look into its potential, but I'd need to talk to some newb/beginner stock traders who are struggling first.
 
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Andy Black

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Unsurprisingly... programming content way outperformed my SaaS challenge/entrepreneurship content. I haven't made any investing content at all.
For your YouTube channel, focus on what’s working and unlist the rest? I haven’t posted to my channel for a while but I swear there’s a slight uptick in subs after I unlisted anything not Google Ads related.

I think it’s good you’re asking yourself what type of business you want to run.

A good question I was asked years ago was: “If money was no object what work would you be doing?”
 

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For your YouTube channel, focus on what’s working and unlist the rest? I haven’t posted to my channel for a while but I swear there’s a slight uptick in subs after I unlisted anything not Google Ads related.

I think it’s good you’re asking yourself what type of business you want to run.

A good question I was asked years ago was: “If money was no object what work would you be doing?”
I did watch that YT video you linked earlier and I understand his reasoning for unlisting his old videos which didn't align with his customer avatars. He didn't want to confuse his audience and part of his strategy was to get viewers to binge watch his content.

That's interesting insight to hear regarding your channel. I'll have to ponder about niching down too and sticking to just that content for YT.

Maybe I could do my "build in public" regarding my SaaS challenge on a different platform entirely, or simply create a new YT channel (but I don't think having 2 or more channels is a good idea at my stage).

Unlisting my old videos will be a struggle. (Just like cutting losses on a losing trade), but I do think if I'm to focus on YT... you are right that my channel should have a single focus. And it is no doubt that educational programming content is in high demand.

That's a really good question Andy! I would probably buy a van + dirtbike and go riding in epic places around Europe. And also going on epic adventures in amazing places around the world. So very different! Haha
 

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Unlisting my old videos will be a struggle.
They’re only unlisted. You can bring them back. I took a certain glee I’m unlisting over 60 videos.
I would probably buy a van + dirtbike and go riding in epic places around Europe. And also going on epic adventures in amazing places around the world.
Ah, the question was what work would you be doing if mo et was no object. Can you make the above revenue producing? If not, then what work would you do if money was no object?
 
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They’re only unlisted. You can bring them back. I took a certain glee I’m unlisting over 60 videos.

Ah, the question was what work would you be doing if mo et was no object. Can you make the above revenue producing? If not, then what work would you do if money was no object?
True! I already unlisted 1 video to take some action on this.

Haha. Regarding the other question... if executed properly, it could definitely be revenue producing in the long term. But I'll dig deeper into this while I'm re-assessing my strategy/vision. Thanks!
 

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You should take a moment to look back on what you have done and congratulate yourself. You put yourself out there and stuck with it for many months.

Reevaluating how well your approach aligns with your goals seems like a great idea at this point. Just reading through the thread, I could not help but wonder if the promise of owning a lucrative SaaS business might be a lot more appealing than what the Youtube channel offers. Then again, maybe I am just biased and underestimate the potential of such a channel.

Found it interesting that people are more interested in programming content than in the SaaS business challenge content.
Everything I read about marketing says people are interested in results and less in what they need to learn to get there.

Maybe the keywords were unfortunate? Many people might not know what SaaS means and putting "Passive Income" front and center and the "creation of an online software product" second would have created better results?
Still, the audience interested in your progress there would probably not be the same as the people who would use your SaaS product, so you'd start from zero when marketing / launching it. So either way you'd be fighting on two fronts.

Can't wait to see what you come up with!
 

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You should take a moment to look back on what you have done and congratulate yourself. You put yourself out there and stuck with it for many months.

Reevaluating how well your approach aligns with your goals seems like a great idea at this point. Just reading through the thread, I could not help but wonder if the promise of owning a lucrative SaaS business might be a lot more appealing than what the Youtube channel offers. Then again, maybe I am just biased and underestimate the potential of such a channel.

Found it interesting that people are more interested in programming content than in the SaaS business challenge content.
Everything I read about marketing says people are interested in results and less in what they need to learn to get there.

Maybe the keywords were unfortunate? Many people might not know what SaaS means and putting "Passive Income" front and center and the "creation of an online software product" second would have created better results?
Still, the audience interested in your progress there would probably not be the same as the people who would use your SaaS product, so you'd start from zero when marketing / launching it. So either way you'd be fighting on two fronts.

Can't wait to see what you come up with!
You bring up a lot of valid points. Thanks!

You are probably right with your thoughts. Though either a YT channel, or SaaS business, are both going to be a lot of work. Plus just having a YT channel was not my end goal...but I've gotten sucked into it. Haha. I've also read that Gold thread by Audrey, she's making 20k+/month and it started from YT. I think YT can open doors/possibilities to more lucrative ways to make money, especially when you already have an audience around a specific topic/niche.

I suppose this whole thing was more of an experiment phase for me...rather than wondering what if I had done XYZ several years down the road.

One problem that I have right now is that I don't have any specific idea I'm focusing on, so I can't use my YT channel as a marketing/traffic source for it (since it doesn't exist).

Yup... it's very likely that the keywords/thumbnails didn't appeal to people for the SaaS challenge stuff. All had super low CTR.

Regarding programming vs SaaS/business content...
I think because I'm a developer by profession and have gone through the process myself... I can better connect with aspiring developers & create content that resonates with them. They're more likely to see me as an "expert" too. Plus tech is massive and lots of people want to have careers in that industry.

Whereas on the SaaS/business/entrepreneurship side... I have no previous track record, or way to position myself as an "expert". From what I've seen... the most popular stuff are "how to make money online" or "how much money I make...." type videos.

Your last sentences are really great points! The SaaS challenge was more to build in public and hold myself accountable. Not to promote/market a future business. However, thinking about it now... maybe it would make more sense to do this build in public stuff a bit more privately (like on my blog). Then once I know which idea I want to pursue... I can create marketing/ YT video content to build up an audience around the problem/pain that my idea would be solving. THAT makes a lot more sense! If I start thinking 2-4 steps ahead... the SaaS challenge stuff doesn't go very far, unless I wanted to sell something around "how to build a SaaS business" later on.

This is proving to be very helpful in sorting out my thoughts in my mind and the next steps that I should take forward. Thanks for the comments!
 
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Hello I started following you on youtube and I will for sure follow you adventure in this thread since we have similar objectives, I just started my coding journey on my side.
I have a question regarding the youtube channel.
I have been thinking about launching some kind of Ytb/IG page like this for accountability, motivation and to keep a record of my progress, but I had a reflexion about the time required to develop it. Does creating videos consume a lot of time on your side, can this time be used for getting closer to your dream instead ?
Thank you and best of luck for your project !
 

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Hello I started following you on youtube and I will for sure follow you adventure in this thread since we have similar objectives, I just started my coding journey on my side.
I have a question regarding the youtube channel.
I have been thinking about launching some kind of Ytb/IG page like this for accountability, motivation and to keep a record of my progress, but I had a reflexion about the time required to develop it. Does creating videos consume a lot of time on your side, can this time be used for getting closer to your dream instead ?
Thank you and best of luck for your project !
Hi!
Cool and thank you! I'm almost ready to make a bit of a pivot with my overall strategy, but not ready to reveal it just yet.
Oh sweet! How are you finding coding?

Well... in my case, it consumed waaaay too much time for recording my SaaS challenge. And it's hard to answer if it's worth doing it for you or not, as it depends on if you want anything more then just a public progress thread. If your intermediate goal is to get a coding job... you'd probably be better off posting progress updates on LinkedIn or Twitter instead. Follow #100DaysOfCode and go about it that way. Much quicker/faster to do. But if you want to improve your speaking / behind the camera skills, then YouTube could be of some use. Say if you shot a video, uploaded it to YouTube without any editing and finally posted it on LinkedIn or Twitter.

In terms of closer to the dream... again, it depends what your final vision is and if it makes sense. See the valid points brought up by Andreas in this thread, particularly about building up an audience and a potential mismatch if your niche ends up being totally different. I'd need to know more details on your end to properly answer.
 

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Thank you for your feedback, indeed what you underline here is very important.

As for coding, learning is very enjoyable, I love to break my head for hours not understanding why my code doesn't work before I finally get it right, FINALLY!

Concerning youtube, indeed it can have several interests that may or may not fit with your goals.

I admit that I have a personal branding goal that could very well follow the success of a professional project and become a source of additional income afterwards. So youtube/IG could very well fit in this perspective.

The time invested today will be an investment for future returns.

We can keep this conversation and talk about projects on IG :).
 
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