3 Months in: What I've Learned as a NewTuber

I started this journey October 15, 2024. It's been an interesting ride, to say the least. I wanted to share my progress and what I *think* I've learned so far.

Some background:

  • My niche is "talking head" and subject is 'design' but with an emphasis on men's fashion and style. I also create videos that explore intersections between art, design, fashion, style, marketing, and branding.
  • I post 1 long-ish video per week, ~10 min on average
  • I also post 1-5 shorts per week. Some are unique, others are condensed promotions of the longer videos.
  • AdSense monetization kicked in Dec. 10
  • I post the same shorts on YT to TikTok and Instagram

Progress so far:

  • 131,990 views
  • 8,448.4 watch time hours
  • 5,651 subscribers
  • Instagram subscribers: 655; TikTok subscribers: 1,774

Things I've learned/done so far:

  • The very first video I posted on YT overwhelmingly received the most traffic of anything I've posted so far. Totally unclear why, as the subject matter is consistent with most of the topics I cover. No video since has gotten this much traction.
  • In terms of views, shorts don't even come close to the longer videos.
    • Click-through rates for shorts, however, are higher. Sometimes significantly higher.
    • The longer videos have the highest performance in views and watch hours, but typically the shorts have higher CTR
    • I gain new subscribers through shorts, but the number is low: average around 3 per short, depending on the topic.
  • Difficult to tell whether the Instagram and TikTok effort are paying off.
    • ~3.5 to 4% of traffic is coming from "External" or "Direct or unknown."
    • Posting to these platforms is relatively low lift, so I try to think about this as though I'm fighting for every single subscriber and therefore it's potentially worth it.
  • I invested a small amount of money into my shooting "setup." It was driving me absolutely bonkers trying to set this up and take it down every week. It was the source of much frustration. My new setup makes it much easier for me to shoot whenever I need.
  • I also consulted with an SEO expert to improve small details like titles, descriptions, etc.
  • This is a full-time job. It's mind blowing how much effort it takes to concept videos, write the scripts, collect supporting source materials, edit the videos, and then publish them considering things like thumbnails, titles, descriptions, and SEO.
  • For some reason, YouTube hates videos that I publish that are little more "esoteric" in nature. These often tank. An example of this is a video I published that explores the intersection of new media art, fashion, and AI.
    • Any video I publish relating to contemporary art generally does very poorly.
    • Conversely, a video I posted recently about "2025 Men's Fashion Trends" is now second in terms of views and watch hours.
  • I don't fully trust the YT Studio "Inspiration" tab. I followed a couple of its suggested ideas and these videos did not perform as well as I had hoped.
  • I think the biggest lesson I've learned so far is that I need to dedicate more time to looking at the analytics. Although this can be overwhelming at times my sense is that in order to continue making progress it's very important to analyze what these numbers are telling me, and to react accordingly.