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1M views later …
Here’s what I learned after publishing video tutorials on YouTube 2 years ago.
I just reached a milestone on my YouTube channel: 1M views! This may not sound like a lot to some, but to me, this was close to unfathomable.
When I started my channel, I was sure only my students would watch the videos. We just moved to exclusively online classes at the time, and I wanted to provide extra video tutorials for my students.
Of course, at some point, I thought, wouldn’t it be nice if other people besides my students watched the videos? After all, a 10-minute video takes me hours to prepare for, shoot, edit and finish.
In the first few days after publishing, I was sure it was only my students viewing the videos. But the view count started to jump by 20, then 50, then 100. I didn’t have 100 students. I distinctly remember jumping with glee when the videos got comments from people I didn’t know. That was surreal.
Fast forward to today, 1M views. That’s 1 with six zeroes. (Sorry this is me pinching myself). It’s still unbelievable. I’m happy, I am thrilled, and at the same time scared.
What does this mean to me? And what did I learn about myself through this journey?
It’s a learning process, and it’s not easy.
When I started, I was pretty clueless. I wasn’t sure what creating YouTube videos really entailed. I didn’t have a camera. I didn’t know anything about video editing. I didn’t have a good mic.
So I researched as much as I could, and I tried to hack my way to my first video. I researched more for my next videos, and thought that for each video I was getting more “pro”.
Music can elicit many emotions.
I was even getting the hang of putting background music on — as many “pro” YouTubers suggested newbies should pay attention to. Heck, I watched so much Peter McKinnon and even decided to use Epidemic Sound.
Wrong.
