YouTube channel about Google Sheets / Apps - Script - Progress thread

[Cybom]

Hello,

I've read a few threads on the forum from different people starting a YouTube channel and documenting the evolution so I've figured that I could also start a thread on my humble channel. I am also in a phase where the results are quite marginal compared to all the time I spend on it so I would not mind getting some other feedbacks / returns of experience.

So in short, I have started to publish videos 4 months ago after wondering what was the first thing I could do to stop faking action. I am aware a YouTube channel is not reallly following the control law of CENTS but that seemed to be a good first step for me. I am publishing 2 videos / week for these 4 months, in my native language (french) and mainly about the use of Google sheets / Google Apps Script. Why this topic? I think that was just one of the easiest topics to put in place at that time (just need to buy a microphone and make a video from my screen).

So after 4 months, I am getting a few results but not as much as I hoped. The views are increasing but I am still struggling getting people to subscribe with only 29 subscribers so far (15 in the last 30 days):



Rate of clicks:
The rate of clicks does not look so bad, the channel is on 3.3% on average and although it is not an impressive result, I think this is still fair from what I could read on that topic. I am also using TubeBuddy to optimize titles.

Retention of the audience:
I think this is my main issue, videos are usually around 25% (or even lower) and the best is only going up to 50%. I think I should focus more on this part for the upcoming videos and I am trying to put a plan in place to improve this side:

• Improving my speaking: it is actually also a reason why I started a YouTube channel and I can hear that I am already improving but I still need to learn more to better keep the focus of the viewers
• Improve my video editing and especially the creation of animations / specials effects to compensate for the lack of transitions from this type of video
• Make shorter and more impacting introduction

I have also recently tried to make a slightly different type of video talking about HTML. I thought this topic was quite similar but considering the small success of this video, it seems it is already too different from the original topic of my channel so I'll keep that on the side for now.

I will make an update of the status of my channel every month on this thread.
In the meantime, I'd be happy to read your comments and thoughts. If some of you have already tried to start a similar channel, I'd also be happy to read from your experience / results.

Thanks for reading me!

 

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[Cybom]

Quick update:



I have published one new video since the last update and I am working on the next one. The latest video launch was quite good but I was expecting it since it's a topic that is generally ranking at the top on other channels (basically any video explaining how to manipulate color cell in Google Sheets - conditional formatting).

As I mentioned in previous post, I released the website with a simple contact form ... And I was not expecting it so early but someone actually contacted me. He wrote quite a big message:

- Half of it was to tell me that he liked my channel which is of course really nice
- The other half was to give feedback about my speaking skills, espacially a word that I repeat a bit too often and some pronunciation that is not good (he's right but I think it's a quite common "shortcut" at least in my area)

So I have just replied to him, thanking him for the feedback and the nice words. I find the feedback really valuable in any case and will pay attention to his comments for the future. For me the only fact that he took time to go to the site and write this feedback is a good sign and bonus: a thicked the subscription box so that's officially a first contact for the mail list

In 2 weeks, it will be 1 year since I published my first video. Obviously I won't hit my original target. I'll write a longer message on the forum with the one year summary and the thinking that goes through my mind right now.

Also could a moderator change the subject of the thread? Now I don't think including the word "trying" is the best appealer ... Could you change it to "YouTube channel about Google Sheets / Apps - Script - Progress thread" ?
Maybe @Andy Black ?

Thank you!

 

[Cameraman]

It's nice to see the growth and more importantly that you are taking action. I notice at the start you say

No need to spend too much time on the figures, the increases are quite similar to previous month for views and viewing time.

It has reminded me of something important that I must share. Most of the hype and "experts" around YouTube will have you believe that you will be able to see explosive growth. Usually, this comes when you buy into their method or follow their approach (usually quite costly). This may be the case for some but I suspect it isn't for most people.

Be careful about following these people and hoping for some miracle breakout success. It probably won't come. Also don't expect your videos to show breakout success after you've poured your heart and soul into them. That's a recipe for disappointment and failure.

Most people in the "How To" space are probably better off building a solid foundation of videos that have long-term appeal. Publish consistently over several years but try to improve one thing in each video be that adding captions, better thumbnails, sound quality, scripts etc... Aim for quality and show the people watching that you value their time. I think you will be amazed by how much you can achieve in 12 months.

 

[Xavier X]

@Cybom Try integrating your content with a trending topic, which offers real value to your target audience. You might get a little traction. For instance, chatGPT has a bit of buzz around it right now, so integrate that.

If you're familiar with it, then make two new videos with titles like "How to Make Complex Google Sheets Formulas in 5 Seconds!" If you're not familiar with it, make an account on openai and try it out. It's very simple.

One of the most frustrating things about spreadsheets is creating effective formulas, for more serious users. Think up a Google spreadsheet problem with a moderate to hard difficulty level. Go on chatGPT, give it a prompt to write a formula for that problem, and then show its implementation in your Google Sheets.

I bet there are already videos addressing this on YT, as there always is, but you'll get your share of the pie, while genuinely offering a solution to people's problems. Below is a quick and simple example of what I mean. This is the chatGPT interface, where I asked it to write this simple formula.

 

[Cybom]

Hello all,

Thanks @ZCP, but I'd rather progress by myself as I'm not only interested in the results but more on the process to get there

So here I am, 1 month later.


So in one month (this is actually the 5th month of the channel) :
- Total number of views has doubled
- Total viewing time has also almost doubled
- 15 additional subscribers

Shorts: as suggested by @Andy Black, I've started to publish some shorts on YouTube and I have also created a TikTok account. The first short had quite a lot of views on YouTube (that's actually the peak around 200 views in one day that you can see on the diagram, which felt a bit like a cheat code actually ... ) but the topic was also related to stock exchange so I think that helped quite a bit. On TikTok it went up to 47 views so I'd say a fair start although I don't have much experience.

Conversely my latest short was quite well received on TikTok (260 views in 1 day) and less on YouTube (20 views only after 1.5 days) ... right now I still don't know why this difference (might be because I currently cannot change the thumbnail of shorts on YouTube but I'm not sure at all).

Trending video (ChatGPT): as suggested by @Xavier X, I have also created a video explaining how ChatGPT could be used in combination with Google Sheets formulas (+ limitations that I have actually found while making trials with the tool). It quickly became the best video of the channel by number of views (in the first days) but I didn't manage to get anybody subscribe to the channel with this video. It might be a bit too detailed (around 20 min) and besides that, I published it before I improved my skills a bit further for video editing so maybe it would work better if I would re-do it now.

Higher quality video: last wednesday I published a video where I focused a step higher on the quality side. First I choosed a topic which seems to work quite well on competitor channels (including English channels) and tried to improve it a bit (how to create a Gantt chart but without diagram where most of competitor French channels almost always show a way with the diagram tool, which I don't think is the most convenient way ... but that's arguable). Then I also tried to improve further my editing skills and worked a lot on this video to include zoom effects, animations to illustrate the explanations in the video etc ...

Somehow it looks like it worked as it became the best start for a video of my channel with up to 150 views after 3 days. It looks that it was also suggested on YouTube homepage and that's the first time I see this mention on one of my videos. On the other hand only 10% of the video is being watched on average which is pretty low even compard to my other videos so I'm receiving mixed feedbacks with this video.

My 2 videos/week challenge: when I started the channel, I set a goal to publish 2 videos/week during at least the first 6 months ... Believing this was the best way to grow fast based on the analysis of other channels. I believe more and more this was a mistake for the following reasons:

1) When I publish a "good video", it always looks like the good inertia of this one (increasing views etc) is broken once I publish the next video. Somehow it looks like the algorithm takes the latest video and stops highlighing the one before... and it becomes a problem when the one before was actually a better video.

2) 2 videos/week is forcing me to make average/lower quality videos to be able to keep the rythm. Somehow it looks like the algorithm is degrading further the visibility of the channel when a good video is followed by a lower quality video. For example you can see on the diagram above, the drop following the peak of views per day. It really looks like the algorithm is so "disappointed" by the average video, which is published just after a much more promising one, that it makes the channel "pay" for that ...

3) Checking other channels on YouTube and also some threads on this forum ... the hypothesis that a high rate of videos is the best option to grow faster might actually be obsolete (or maybe dependant on the topic ...). Now I can see more channels where the number of videos is low (10-20/years) and really showing some exponential grow with really high quality of videos.

So all in all, I'm really doubting that my original strategy is the most appropriate and am really thinking about switching to another one. Maybe 1 video per week, one week with a short and the next week with higher quality video. Hopefully that would leave enough time for each video to be better "digested" by the algorithm.

Side note: I've also created a channel on a different topic for a one-shot trial. Basically I created an App a few months ago, allowing to take notes and pictures when you visit houses or appartments and I published it on the Play Store. So I created this new channel and published only one Short with the goal to only promote the App and see whether it could give more visibility to it... In two days, 2 people subscribed to this channel with only this video of promotion of the App... It took more than a month on my main channel to get 1 subscriber so I'm really thinking I might not have chosen the right subject

But I keep this on the side for now ... still haven't gave up with the Google Sheets channel!

That's it for today, as usual I'd be happy to read your thoughts or comments!

Thanks for reading me!

 

[Cybom]

Hi everybody,

The progress is still on-going so here is the monthly update:



I have published 2 videos since the previous update. The latest one was the longest video I have ever made on the channel, close to 50 min :

- This video was inspired from a request I got from a viewer, via the contact form of the website
- I shared the file with this specific viewer
- At the end of the video, I proposed to share the file with anybody who would request it via the contact form.
(that's a first step for CTA but putting it only at the end of the video might not be the perfect move ...)
- The video itself allowed to reach a new peak in viewing time overall.

I did a quick calculation and with the 60+ videos from the channel, before this latest video, it is around 10h of video in total. So the latest video by itself increases the total video time by roughly 8% ... I think I really should keep this in mind and produce longer videos.

I am also trying to have a more regular planning of 1 video every 2 weeks. The next one is already ready and is also quite long around 40 min. I was not expecting it to be so long but I am getting quicker at editing so this was OK. This one will be more about the coding in Apps Script so I also proposed people to contact me if they need some help with their code at the end of the video ... so let's see if I get more contacts from this one.

 

[Cybom]

Hi all,

Quick update of the month before Christmas:



As mentioned at the last update, I started and am continuing releasing short videos frequently. No big revolution for these ones, only basic quick tutorials but it keep some momentum on the channel.

I have also tried to rework some titles/thumbnails in a more "agressive" way to try increasing the click rate. I think I need to wait to see some result so I am trying to better track any change I do. I have applied this more aggressive principle to the video I released today (a longer - 30 min - video) and the start looks promising.

The video from today also had the attention of the owner of a similar but much bigger channel (around 23k subs). He left a nice comment under the video and contacted me by mail to have a call. I will accept the proposal, I'm quite curious to talk with him. In any case it feels great to get such feedback.

Thank you and Merry Christmas !

 

[Cybom]

Hi Everyone,

I hope you are all doing great. Another month, another review!
This is a special milestone for me as it was almost 6 months ago that I published my first video:



- Total number of views has increased by 2.1k ... around the same increase as for the previous month
- Total viewing time has increased by 100h, previous month was around 75h
- 25 additional subscribers, previous month was +15

As discussed with @Andy Black, I started focusing much more on editing and published less (1/week instead of 2 videos). There is definitely some improvement, not really in the number of views but more on the viewing time as you can see below:



I see this as a good signal considering the goal was to improve the quality of the videos to improve the audience retention. It also looks more consistent from one video to another video which is good.

What I really struggle to understand is the inconsistency in the increase of subscribers. It was progressing really well until 17th March ... then all of a sudden it stops with no new subscriber at all from 17th until now. It is not the first time it happens and I struggle quite a bit to understand that. When you start thinking "OK now the inertia is there, it won't stop anymore! " ... then it stops to restart slowly a few days later:


So right now I can see only two options:
1) This is somehow part of the algorithm... But I don't know why and don't really believe it
2) This might also be linked with the type of video I am publishing. There are two main types of videos: videos about Google Sheets itself and videos more oriented towards Apps Script (coding...).

The first type of video might be more beneficial but it's not fully clear when I try to analyze the data... There is one way to be sure though, I'm going to publish only videos of the first type for at least the two next months and see if the audience is more receptive.

Anyway, we can also always see the positive side:
- The audience retention is definitely better and more consistent
- I spent hours learning video editing and still spend hours editing each video but I'm also quite proud of the work I have done with those latest videos (and actually enjoying editing when I don't put useless pressure on myself to release a video on time)
- I have also received quite good feedback from some subscribers from the latest videos!

And the plan for the next weeks:
- Focus on Google Sheets videos and leave Google Apps Script on the side
- Continue the promotion on Tik Tok and Instagram, not sure what the real impact is but it cannot hurt

Thanks for reading the progression of this thread, I'd be happy to read any of your comments or suggestions. If you are also facing the same situation, feel also free to share here

Thanks!

 

[Cameraman]

I have read an heard a few times about this mailing list but didn't know that it would be so important to build it so early in the process. That's a step higher for me and I need to learn a bit more how to put that in place in the coming weeks. I also don't plan to sell anything for now anyway as I don't have a status yet to be able to sell too much...

I didn't sell anything on my website for the first 5 years. I just spent time building a mailing list and goodwill by publishing a free and useful (hopefully) newsletter. When I did start selling products directly the list was pure gold. Don't leave it until you think you are ready - you will never feel ready. Just get on and do the best you can with what you know and have.

Now is always the best time to start unless you have access to a DeLorean fitted with a Flux Capacitor.

 

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[Cybom]

Hi all,

Hope you are all doing great, here are the latest figures:



No need to spend too much time on the figures, the increases are quite similar to previous month for views and viewing time. A few goals completed, not really meaningful but still good to see:

- Over 10k views
- Over 100 subscribers
- 1 video over 1000 views (and taking more and more inertia)

I have cleaned French subtitles (before that, it was only with the automatic translation) and added English subtitles for the last 12 videos. I didn't do it for the older ones considering there is not a lot of editing on these videos so most likely less easy to follow for non-French speaker.

I have added the subtitles in English a couple of weeks ago and haven't seen a clear change ... I will try publishing one video directly in English (the video about Google Drive App as we discussed). I am still wondering whether it is a good idea or not to publish a video with different language on the same channel but I am now looking for a clearer step forward and will not know it without a try so let's go for it and we'll see.

I didn't sell anything on my website for the first 5 years. I just spent time building a mailing list and goodwill by publishing a free and useful (hopefully) newsletter. When I did start selling products directly the list was pure gold. Don't leave it until you think you are ready - you will never feel ready. Just get on and do the best you can with what you know and have.

Now is always the best time to start unless you have access to a DeLorean fitted with a Flux Capacitor.

I didn't have take the time to look into this so much but I have started to look into options with Wordpress. I have quite a few bases with HTML / CSS but I think it would be more convenient to start with Wordpress from the start to make updates easier later if when the channel have more success

A few programs that really has helped my CTR is as follows:
express.adobe.com completely free
Easy Promotional Graphics, Videos and Email Campaigns completely free

Both have great templates you can use and they have more than doubled my CTR.

This website Thumbs Up – Standard allows you to see how your thumbnail will look across youtube before committing to a design.

Your retention isn't that bad, what helps is trying to tell a story, and try focus on that, and you should see a bit of an improvement in retention.

Your retention will go up as you get a base of loyal viewers.

I am in the beginning stages aswell, but enjoying it so far.

I have been thinking recently about your comment regarding the story. At first I was thinking telling a story with the topic of my channel must be quite difficult. But I recently had a few days of travel and there is a service in Google Apps Script to import some Google Map info so perhaps I can build a story around my travel or a fictive travel. Something I need to investigate a bit more !

 

[Cameraman]

But so far still not enough to discourage me trying new things that we discuss here to continue improving.

I love someone who tries. If you run out of ideas I'm always happy to try to help out. My channel isn't huge, but I get business off the back of it - and sometimes surprising offers.

 

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[Cybom]

Hello all,

Here's the update since last time:



Still some progression with 1000h of viewing time reached even though I haven't published any video since the last update. I was actually busy building the website with minimum features:

- Landing page with links to the channel
- Functional contact form with the option to subscribe to a newsletter and receive exclusive content (TBD)
- A page with legal information
- A page with privacy policy

I actually spend waaaaayyy to much time over-thinking with the last two items and ended-up taking more time than initially planned to release the site. After reading many different sources of information, I finally followed those few steps:

1) Give a description of the site to Chat-GPT and ask him to write the page
2) Read different sources of information and ask Chat-GPT to add what is missing
3) Read legal info/privacy policy of other (similar) websites and ask Chat-GPT to again add what is missing
4) Check and correct sentences that I want written in a different way

At the end I think I managed to get not a perfect but quite solid base ... Especially if I compare it to some other websites that often show succinct or inexistant information.

So that's the result I managed to get, it would be great if you let me know if you have any comment or suggestion (even though it's only in french for now): Produplification

Now it's time I come back to the channel to create new videos so I put the website a bit aside but afterwards there are still a few updates to be scheduled:

- Create a PDF (in combination with a video) to offer people and have them subscribe to the newsletter instead of only a thickbox in the contact form
- Implement the possibility to switch to English on the website
- Link Google Analytics -> for now there is a cookie notice message on the site but it is currently linked to nothing (so in any case you won't have cookies) as I haven't linked Google Analytics yet
- Create an "articles" pages to give more credibility to the site and publish short tips

And short terms goals are:

- Create and publish the next video on YouTube
- Figure out how to make shorts faster for Tik Tok and Instagram. I gave up a bit on these two platforms but I'd like to give it another try with many videos in short terms (3-4 / week)

Congrats @Cybom!

I think this podcast would be inspiring to you:

I think I finally listened to this about 10 times in my car at the end ! The "you're crazy until you're a genius part" resonates quite a lot. I don't know if this will have just a bit of success but I'm definitely crazy in the eyes of quite a few people around me right now

 

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[Cameraman]

What I really struggle to understand is the inconsistency in the increase of subscribers. It was progressing really well until 17th March ... then all of a sudden it stops with no new subscriber at all from 17th until now.

Don't worry about this. There's a periodic clean-up of subscribers to close fake and unused accounts. In the past when this has been done you could see large drops in your subscribers. This time it looks like it's been happening over a few weeks rather than a few days so you don't see the same drops, just a slowing.

Here's an example from my stats from two weeks ago and my subscriber growth is less than half. The clue to it probably being a clean up is that it started suddenly one day like a switch being flicked. At the same time my viewing stats and audience mix looked unchanged.

After three weeks of this, my subscribers are back to growing as they were.

Remember also that subscribers are a vanity number that's often manipulated. What counts are views and video retention if you want to drive YouTube growth and earnings.

 

[Cameraman]

I think it is quite in line with what you are saying and it is also in line with the feeling I have on my side. Videos start with a pretty high number of views in one week (in my case it is still around 100-150 views), together with good CTR. Then the number of views per day drops and the CTR as well. And finally a while later some videos "find" a new inertia with more views and improving CTR.

Yes, that's a very familiar pattern. Have you tried checking your traffic source for the past 28 days of the popular videos? It gives a better indication of how people are finding your best performing videos. The initial watch figures in the week after launch will skew your analytics and are misleading.

In my own case, my popular videos are the ones that are found on either Google or YouTube Search. I've recently been trying to get videos to rank on Google. When that happens you see the video build and pull more viewers in to watch other videos. My channel will never take off but I have around 4k views every 48 hours and it's consistent when I don't publish. If I publish a video it can lift to between 6k and 10k views for 48 hours but then falls back gradually over the week to the 4k level.

This sounds like a quite good traffic input to your site. Out of curiosity, what percentage of the 300-500 visits do you manage to subscribe to your newsletter?

As for my website, I just checked last month's figures and I had 103 people click the link to visit my newsletter signup page from YouTube. Unfortunately, the signup tracking for that page has stopped working for some reason. What I do know is that I had 154 subscribers over the same period of which 60% came via popup. Most of the remaining 40% probably came from the YouTube signup page. It probably works out at around 40-60 subscribers a month from YouTube.

Great video by the way. I don't speak French but I could follow quite a bit. It was well-paced and had good sound quality making it easy to watch. Have you considered adding English subtitles?

What does success with this channel look like for you?

 

[Cameraman]

I was also thinking about trying English subtitles after the comments from @Andy Black. I need to see whether it is possible to create them on videos that have already been published. It looks feasible but otherwise I'll try it on new videos.

Yes, it is, or at least it used to be. I've done it in the past and I'm sure that you still can.

Regarding the success of the channel, I actually have only set up this target of 1000 subscribers within a year that I mentioned earlier but have not really planned longer term so far. I think this is still challenging but still believe it is feasible.

What benefit will having 1,000 subscribers bring you?

I don't want to sound down on subscriber numbers but it means very little on its own. Having subscribers doesn't bring anything other than lots of offers to promote cheap tat products. Think in terms of how you can create and connect with true fans and then use that to turn views into money.

I'm probably going to hit 34k subscribers in the next couple of weeks but my growth rate is currently 120-140 new subs a week. Compare that to someone who launched 6 months ago and already has 34k subs. The growth rate in subs tells us a lot about what might be possible for each channel in the future.

If I get there, I have a few ideas like write an eBook for beginner or also create a long formation on Udemy (or similar) but I want to focus first on growing the channel. I have in mind that a 10k subscribers channel could bring some interesting traffic to that type of product but this is not really based on facts, only that 10k sounds already like a significant channel to me.

I was also recently reading this thread: GOLD! - EXECUTION - How to Create a $2k+/mo Passive Income Website in 30 Days (or Less) ... It was really interesting and gave me another idea about another product that could be sold, simply Google Sheets templates...

Turning views and followers into cash is important.

I started doing YouTube to solve a problem. How can I explain difficult topics without writing long articles? I then realised that I could use it to help sell more books and build my mailing list. I'm sure you've heard it before, but the gold is on the mailing list, and it's certainly true for me. Most of my books now hit the Amazon Best Seller list within 30 days because my newsletter subscribers immediately buy them. This gives them greater visibility to non-followers and I sell even more.

Don't just focus on building a YouTube channel. Work out how to connect with those people and capture their contact details. If YouTube decides to shut down your channel you still need a way to communicate with them. Build that alongside your channel as a priority. You can figure out what to sell them later.

 

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[Timmy C]

Rate of clicks:
The rate of clicks does not look so bad, the channel is on 3.3% on average and although it is not an impressive result, I think this is still fair from what I could read on that topic. I am also using TubeBuddy to optimize titles.



Retention of the audience:
I think this is my main issue, videos are usually around 25% (or even lower) and the best is only going up to 50%. I think I should focus more on this part for the upcoming videos and I am trying to put a plan in place to improve this side:

• Improving my speaking: it is actually also a reason why I started a YouTube channel and I can hear that I am already improving but I still need to learn more to better keep the focus of the viewers
• Improve my video editing and especially the creation of animations / specials effects to compensate for the lack of transitions from this type of video
• Make shorter and more impacting introduction

A few programs that really has helped my CTR is as follows:
express.adobe.com completely free
Easy Promotional Graphics, Videos and Email Campaigns completely free

Both have great templates you can use and they have more than doubled my CTR.

This website Thumbs Up – Standard allows you to see how your thumbnail will look across youtube before committing to a design.

Your retention isn't that bad, what helps is trying to tell a story, and try focus on that, and you should see a bit of an improvement in retention.

Your retention will go up as you get a base of loyal viewers.

I am in the beginning stages aswell, but enjoying it so far.

 

[Andy Black]

By the way, why don't you create a Google Sheets chat thread and maybe we can all learn from each other?

 

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[Cameraman]

Hey @Cameraman,

Thanks a lot!
Actually for this one most of the views seem to come still directly from YouTube:

View attachment 49677

The main part in blue is the video suggestions directly by YouTube.
There are other videos where external source is the main factor but not for this one.

This is even better news because it means that YouTube understands your audience and recommends the video to them. It's also a good idea to check how your CTR has changed over the life of the video. If you see that improving as well then it's a good sign that YouTube is putting the video in front of the right people.

 

[Cybom]

Hi, I hope each one of you is doing well!

So here we are!
Today, that was exactly one year ago that I have released the first video of this journey on YouTube.

And that's how it looks now:



As you may know from my previous messages, I initially hoped to reach around 1000 subs by now (1 year of existence) and I can only observe that I am not quite there yet ... around 1/3 of it.

Nevertheless when I look back to my previous monthly summaries, I can also notice that there is actually non-linear progress and I keep hope to achieve higher goals:

Number of views:
- After 6 months: 6.1k
- After 12 months: 27.6k

Viewing time:
- After 6 months: 248 h
- After 12 months: 1343 h

It also seems, to me, that the algorithm does anyway not release the full potential of the channel from the start but more by stages or plateaux. From example on my side, I stagnated for a couple of months at ~30 subs/months and all of a sudden it increased to ~60 subs/months ... and stagnates again until now (and I can see similar trend with the viewing time which follows the same trend with around 1 sub/4h viewing time - strangely coinciding with the needs for monetization i.e. 1000 subs & 4000h).

So in one year into the "business":

- 61 videos published
- Instagram and Tik-Tok accounts created (just a few shorts published so far)
- Website created with a contact form (I had to learn WordPress from scratch)
- 2 contacts via the contact form of the website (I was actually expecting 0 now since I released it 1 month ago)
- Many hours in front of the microphone to improve my speaking video after video (this is not really my #1 strenght)
- Many hours spent on video editing with DaVinci Resolve ... still improving and getting faster at it with each new video
- Many hours spent on improving my knowledge about Google Sheets and all the Google suite

So all in all a lot experience and knowledge gained.

With this one year milestone, I am also wondering whether I should continue with this project or switch to something else. The problem is I want to continue because I see there still some growth possible (and I think a lot) but I am also wary of myself because I am more the type of person who can pushes something again and again even when it is hopeless.

I am definitely aware since the beginning that starting with a YouTube channel is not the really the best way to have the full control. And also that the subject I chose is also far to be one of the most attractive subjects. However I really want to continue but on the other hand I'd also like to try other things on the side (I have already released an app before this YouTube channel project, without big success).

I'd really like to know your thoughts about this. How do you know when it is time to stop and switch to something else? And do you think it's a good idea to explore other projects in parallel?

Although I have this question in mind, I don't really feel stuck since I still see many ways of improvement for the future of the channel:

- Improve my storytelling
- Adjust the subjects of the videos to better match customer searches (beginner full tutorial etc)
- Add a free pdf with a subscription to the newsletter
- Add a blogging page on the website with tips
- Better effects for the videos
- Etc

So that's it for this one year anniversary summary! If you have some questions about this journey, let me know!
Thanks for reading me!

 

[FastNAwesome]

Nevertheless I did not close the door for the future... He was really nice and I think he was genuinely interested in the content I propose on YouTube. We had a short talk and he was really open to answer some of my questions, definitely keeping the contact

Awesome!

Good to stay in contact!
Contacts can wither away though.

So good to stay in touch from time to time.
Or maybe even find a way to work together to some extent that would be cool with you.

I'm also not sure I have enough experience yet with this... I'm sure I can manage at the end but maybe not yet in the requested time frame. This is something where I already wanted to learn a bit more ... and even more now...

Well, by definition you will only have experience with anything AFTER you've had experience with it.
And gotta start somewhere.

My ways of dealing with this as a web developer and programmer were:

- Offering a 100% satisfaction guarantee by not even getting paid until the work is done.
If the client was happy with a website or app - then they got to keep it - and pay me.

- Saying straight up - I don't have experience with what you require.
Surprisingly - sometimes this would result in prospects insisting to work with me!
Fully knowing I've not done it before and still be like "You'll figure it out!"

 

[Andy Black]

Check out Miss Excel on TikTok and the other platforms. Ignore the dancing if that's not your thing and see what problems she solves and what videos are most popular.

 

[Cybom]

@Cybom Try integrating your content with a trending topic, which offers real value to your target audience. You might get a little traction. For instance, chatGPT has a bit of buzz around it right now, so integrate that.

If you're familiar with it, then make two new videos with titles like "How to Make Complex Google Sheets Formulas in 5 Seconds!" If you're not familiar with it, make an account on openai and try it out. It's very simple.

One of the most frustrating things about spreadsheets is creating effective formulas, for more serious users. Think up a Google spreadsheet problem with a moderate to hard difficulty level. Go on chatGPT, give it a prompt to write a formula for that problem, and then show its implementation in your Google Sheets.

I bet there are already videos addressing this on YT, as there always is, but you'll get your share of the pie, while genuinely offering a solution to people's problems. Below is a quick and simple example of what I mean. This is the chatGPT interface, where I asked it to write this simple formula.

View attachment 46858

Hello @Xavier X ,

Thanks a lot for the advice! I have of course heard and noticed all the content about it on YT but did not really consider it until now. I've just tested it now and actually find it pretty awesome.

I'm going to review a few other channels first with videos talking about Google Sheets or Excel & chatGPT ... and see how I can integrate it and maybe propose something a bit different than other channels.

@Cybom good luck on your journey. The skills you are learning (editing, voice..) will help you in the future regardless of whether the channel succeeds or not.

I would focus on the feedback from the current viewers and keep on making videos. It's hard to predict what users need or when you might have a big popular video.

I think @Xavier X suggestions on integrating ChatGPT is an awesome idea.

Hello @kendamakid,

Thank you for your support!
Being quite an introvert, it definitely helps for controlling my voice better. I also like the editing side actually but still have quite a lot to learn on that subject.

When I started I set up a goal of 2 videos / week for at least 1 year. For now I'm sticking to it but it can be hard sometimes when results drop or stagnate for a few days or even more than a week. Fortunately some other times are much better when you can see some progression with more comments / views / likes

Check out Miss Excel on TikTok and the other platforms. Ignore the dancing if that's not your thing and see what problems she solves and what videos are most popular.

Ahah indeed dancing is not really my thing but I'll definitely check it ... I'm also quite curious to see how you can combine dancing and Excel now

Thanks!

 

[Cameraman]

Hmm your view to sub count seems low but I'm not an expert

View attachment 47829

same amount of subs with 1/5th of the views. Wondering why this is

As I said, Subs are a vanity measure. Ignore them and focus on views, watch time and viewer retention.
I'll give you a clue to answer your question though. How many of the people who watch your videos immediately click to watch another at the end? That's one thing that will drive up views and watch time.

 

[Cybom]

Hello everyone,

Hope you're all doing great!
After another month, here is how the figures are looking:



- Views: 2.7k more, a bit better than last month (+2.1k)
- Subscribers: 24 more, similar to last month
- Viewing time: 125h more, a bit better than last month as well (+100h)



You can see a drop for the latest week but it should also be due to the fact that I could not publish a video the last WE because I was busy with something else. Apart from that, the viewing time was looking quite OK and I hope this will come back to this level with the video I have just published today.

This WE without video also tends to confirm that friday and saturday are the worst days for my channel... Which is understandable considering that people prefer to enjoy the beginning of their WE instead of watching videos about Google Sheets. Traffic usually comes back in the beginning of the week, starting on Sunday when there is a new video to bring more people.

In terms of audience retention, the latest videos are usually between 25 and 30% and I think it is quite faire for this type of video. I am more concerned about the click rate which is not so bad (3-4%) for a few of those latest videos but most of theem are around 1.5% and that might be a bit low ... I think the subject of my channel is limiting a bit this number (Excel seems still much more famous than Google Sheets) but I think I will also try to modify the titles of some of the videos to see whether this can improve.

Apart from this, I am not planning so much difference for the next month, just find popular videos subjects and publish similar videos.

Let me know your comments or thoughts, I am happy to read from you as usual!

Thank you!

 

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[Cybom]

From my experience, the CTR is a good indicator to watch. It shows how appealing your title and thumbnail are to people. It is though possible for it to change over time. Here's an example.

View attachment 48478
The CTR for this video started at about 1.8% and then dropped to around 0.6%. It was only when YouTube worked out who to show it to that it went to between 5% - 10% and stayed there. It pulls about 60 views a day now with 80% of that coming from YouTube Search.

Have you figured out who are you trying to appeal to and how?

I'm focused on making how-to videos that show up in search (YouTube Search or Google page 1). They tend to start with a small burst of 2k - 5k views in the first week and then drop off. It's only when (if) they are picked up in search results that the CTR shoots up. They then continue to pull 60 - 100 views a day consistently. With 250 videos in my library, it tends to generate 300-500 site visits a month to sign up for my newsletter or buy one of my books.

You may well be focused on entertainment, in which case the initial numbers need to be high because you don't find people watching the older videos. Unless you can design a strategy to get them to watch older videos.

Hi @Cameraman,

Thanks a lot for sharing your experience with me, really appreciated

I'm also focused on how-to videos and not at all entertainment. It is mostly short tutorials about Google Sheets or Google Apps Script (how to make a Gantt chart, how to create a folder in Google Drive with Apps Script, how to create drop-down menu ...)

I actually always had the feeling that the CTR was improving a while after the video was published so I had a closer look to statistics this evening and plotted the CTR (as of today) vs the number of days the video is online:



I think it is quite in line with what you are saying and it is also in line with the feeling I have on my side. Videos start with a pretty high number of views in one week (in my case it is still around 100-150 views), together with good CTR. Then the number of views per day drops and the CTR as well. And finally a while later some videos "find" a new inertia with more views and improving CTR.

For info here is also the chart showing the total number of views vs the number of days the video is online, that you can compare to the chart above:


You can see the number of views is somehow also corelated with the number of days (obviously) but the trend looks clearer with the CTR (the older the video, the higher the CTR).

Regarding my target audience, a part of it may be people who are new to Google Sheets / Apps Script but most of the videos are more oriented to people trying to realize a specific task with those tools. For example I have made videos to show how to make a timetable, to follow a investment wallet (with automated chart) etc.

I'm focused on making how-to videos that show up in search (YouTube Search or Google page 1). They tend to start with a small burst of 2k - 5k views in the first week and then drop off. It's only when (if) they are picked up in search results that the CTR shoots up. They then continue to pull 60 - 100 views a day consistently. With 250 videos in my library, it tends to generate 300-500 site visits a month to sign up for my newsletter or buy one of my books.

This sounds like a quite good traffic input to your site. Out of curiosity, what percentage of the 300-500 visits do you manage to subscribe to your newsletter?

Thanks!

 

[Cybom]

What's the top viewed English Google sheet video on YouTube, and the top French? I'm curious how much difference their is. You clearly have excellent written English. Is it worth doing the same video in two different languages?

EDIT: I just watched the first couple of minutes. I love the animations, and zoom in/out. I could follow it even though I've barely any French. Yeah, I'm interested in how well the same video would do in English.

Ahah thank you, my native language is French (although I am Belgian) and it still comes with an heavy accent when I speak English. I have tried to make a comparison between French and English and it seems you can make around x10 in views.

I can definitely try making one video in English but maybe I need to make a separate channel for that because I am not sure whether the algorithm would appreciate the mix between the languages on a same channel ... I'll dig a bit in this way.

Also, what's your thoughts on monetization? Is it to get consulting work initially? Or to sell courses? Do you do this (Google Sheets/Excel coding) for a living?

I actually still have a job as an engineer, not related to Excel or Google Sheets.
I started the channel for a few reasons:

1) Get started with something: I found this type of video quite easy to start and improve myself, especially for speaking, video editing and also learning how to attract and keep people interested
2) I originally set up a minimum one year challenge to reach 1000 subscribers (keeping the monetization in mind). I don't think I would stop if I am not there when the deadline hits but I cannot stop before
3) If I can get to monetization, it is nice but not the ultimate goal
4) If I get there, I would also like to explore more options like selling some courses or books. I wasn't convinced books about this topic could sell until I have checked Amazon, it seems there is some audience for it

Thanks a lot Andy!

 

[FastNAwesome]

Hey Cybom, just wanted to say best of luck with your channel,
and videos are really good quality.

Really like your tutorial style, getting right into it,
and with helpful graphics and sounds along the way.

Makes it so easy to follow, and I don't even know French,
but with your videos I learn it too

 

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[Cybom]

Yes, that's a very familiar pattern. Have you tried checking your traffic source for the past 28 days of the popular videos? It gives a better indication of how people are finding your best performing videos. The initial watch figures in the week after launch will skew your analytics and are misleading.

In my own case, my popular videos are the ones that are found on either Google or YouTube Search. I've recently been trying to get videos to rank on Google. When that happens you see the video build and pull more viewers in to watch other videos. My channel will never take off but I have around 4k views every 48 hours and it's consistent when I don't publish. If I publish a video it can lift to between 6k and 10k views for 48 hours but then falls back gradually over the week to the 4k level.

I just did and there are actually quite big differences between the videos:

1st video - quite old and just about to be catch up by the 2nd best video (more recent):
- YT search: 91%
- External search (Google...): 4%

2nd best video:
- YT search: 39%
- Suggestions: 37%
- Navigation: 11%
- External search (Google ...): 5%

3rd best video:
- YT search: 81%
- Navigation: 8%
- External search (Google ...): 1%

4th best video:
- External search (Google ...): 61%
- YT search: 31%

So it looks like I don't have consistently the same figures from one source to another but it also looks like most of the traffic is coming either from YT search or external source. I am actually surprised it changes so much from one video to another but I guess it does not hurt to bring traffic from various sources.

As for my website, I just checked last month's figures and I had 103 people click the link to visit my newsletter signup page from YouTube. Unfortunately, the signup tracking for that page has stopped working for some reason. What I do know is that I had 154 subscribers over the same period of which 60% came via popup. Most of the remaining 40% probably came from the YouTube signup page. It probably works out at around 40-60 subscribers a month from YouTube.

Thanks for the figures, that does not sound bad at all, I was expecting a lower conversion number!

Great video by the way. I don't speak French but I could follow quite a bit. It was well-paced and had good sound quality making it easy to watch. Have you considered adding English subtitles?

What does success with this channel look like for you?

Thank you very much!

I was also thinking about trying English subtitles after the comments from @Andy Black. I need to see whether it is possible to create them on videos that have already been published. It looks feasible but otherwise I'll try it on new videos.

Regarding the success of the channel, I actually have only set up this target of 1000 subscribers within a year that I mentioned earlier but have not really planned longer term so far. I think this is still challenging but still believe it is feasible.

If I get there, I have a few ideas like write an eBook for beginner or also create a long formation on Udemy (or similar) but I want to focus first on growing the channel. I have in mind that a 10k subscribers channel could bring some interesting traffic to that type of product but this is not really based on facts, only that 10k sounds already like a significant channel to me.

I was also recently reading this thread: GOLD! - EXECUTION - How to Create a $2k+/mo Passive Income Website in 30 Days (or Less) ... It was really interesting and gave me another idea about another product that could be sold, simply Google Sheets templates...

Hey Cybom, just wanted to say best of luck with your channel,
and videos are really good quality.

Really like your tutorial style, getting right into it,
and with helpful graphics and sounds along the way.

Makes it so easy to follow, and I don't even know French,
but with your videos I learn it too

Thanks a lot @FastNAwesome !
Ahah that was not the primary goal but that's also good if you can learn French with it

 

[Cybom]

What benefit will having 1,000 subscribers bring you?

I don't want to sound down on subscriber numbers but it means very little on its own. Having subscribers doesn't bring anything other than lots of offers to promote cheap tat products. Think in terms of how you can create and connect with true fans and then use that to turn views into money.

I'm probably going to hit 34k subscribers in the next couple of weeks but my growth rate is currently 120-140 new subs a week. Compare that to someone who launched 6 months ago and already has 34k subs. The growth rate in subs tells us a lot about what might be possible for each channel in the future.

That's true, actually the 1000 subs target was not really supposed to give me any other benefit than a "yes, I can do it!". Since the beginning I'm aware the monetization itself is not something that is gonna bring a lot to me and that I would need to develop something else but I am so focused on the growing of the channel itself that I didn't think about doing anything else so far.

120-140 subs / week sounds like a really long term goal for me but I can picture that

Turning views and followers into cash is important.

I started doing YouTube to solve a problem. How can I explain difficult topics without writing long articles? I then realised that I could use it to help sell more books and build my mailing list. I'm sure you've heard it before, but the gold is on the mailing list, and it's certainly true for me. Most of my books now hit the Amazon Best Seller list within 30 days because my newsletter subscribers immediately buy them. This gives them greater visibility to non-followers and I sell even more.

Don't just focus on building a YouTube channel. Work out how to connect with those people and capture their contact details. If YouTube decides to shut down your channel you still need a way to communicate with them. Build that alongside your channel as a priority. You can figure out what to sell them later.

I have read an heard a few times about this mailing list but didn't know that it would be so important to build it so early in the process. That's a step higher for me and I need to learn a bit more how to put that in place in the coming weeks. I also don't plan to sell anything for now anyway as I don't have a status yet to be able to sell too much...

Thanks a lot for your advice, that's really helping me seeing more perpectives!

A few programs that really has helped my CTR is as follows:
express.adobe.com completely free
Easy Promotional Graphics, Videos and Email Campaigns completely free

Both have great templates you can use and they have more than doubled my CTR.

This website Thumbs Up – Standard allows you to see how your thumbnail will look across youtube before committing to a design.

Your retention isn't that bad, what helps is trying to tell a story, and try focus on that, and you should see a bit of an improvement in retention.

Your retention will go up as you get a base of loyal viewers.

I am in the beginning stages aswell, but enjoying it so far.

Hi Timmy,

Thanks a lot for your comments and thanks for the links, that will be helpful for the upcoming videos!
I have already seen and read your thread on the forum, you seem to progress really quickly!
I'll make sure to follow it!

 

[Cybom]

You could do stories where you're working on something for your projects or for your clients.

I had to figure something out with Google Sheets today for a client and it could easily be a short video explaining the use case, why I wanted to do it the way I did, the formulae i used, and how I planned on moving things forward.

True, I may lack a bit of imagination on that point... Or I may also search too far for a big story where a simple short story would be sufficient.

By the way, why don't you create a Google Sheets chat thread and maybe we can all learn from each other?

That could be a great idea and might even give me more ideas. I need to think how to introduce that but it's on my todo list!

It has reminded me of something important that I must share. Most of the hype and "experts" around YouTube will have you believe that you will be able to see explosive growth. Usually, this comes when you buy into their method or follow their approach (usually quite costly). This may be the case for some but I suspect it isn't for most people.

Be careful about following these people and hoping for some miracle breakout success. It probably won't come. Also don't expect your videos to show breakout success after you've poured your heart and soul into them. That's a recipe for disappointment and failure.

Most people in the "How To" space are probably better off building a solid foundation of videos that have long-term appeal. Publish consistently over several years but try to improve one thing in each video be that adding captions, better thumbnails, sound quality, scripts etc... Aim for quality and show the people watching that you value their time. I think you will be amazed by how much you can achieve in 12 months.

Yes indeed. I never really hoped for a huge success from one day to another with this channel but I can't say I am not a bit disappointed to see the figures not really evolving anymore for the last 3 months ... I still have plenty of things to try and improve but more and more doubting to reach my intial target by the first 12 months of existence of the channel.

But so far still not enough to discourage me trying new things that we discuss here to continue improving. Thanks a lot guys!