Looking Back at Thirteen Years On Youtube and Forward to What's Next

 On January 13th, 2018 we uploaded our first video to Wicked Good Everything. The channel was a culmination of months of planning and years of experience. Three years may not seem like a long time on the internet, and in truth it isn’t. However our youtube journey extends all the way back to November 2008 when Tamur and I uploaded a bad quality “Spoof” of Star Wars featuring Tamur and our friend Eric settling a disagreement via lightsabers. What always gets me about this video is the watermark plastered in the middle of the screen. Times were tough in terms of understanding technology and the only way we could edit was on a Macs, but we had to dump my camera footage onto a PC then use Flip4Mac to convert it to a file our Macs would recognize. 

So with all that said this year will mark our 13th year on youtube. Thirteen years of content, some that received more views than others. Some that we quietly erased from the internet do to being embarrassed by the quality, but all important in laying the groundwork for where we are today. For proof of improvement look no further than our latest main channel video Gloucester Sea Serpent: Monster or Fish? Then compare it to our Star Wars Spoof. We’ve come a long way in terms of quality but haven’t quite figured out how to maintain sustained success. 

It is true that we have had spikes, videos that went well beyond our normal audience and invited new viewers to become subscribers. Our three biggest videos revolve around us talking about the potential revival of the beloved show The Boondocks. A niche topic with a fanbase hungry for information regarding their favorite show returning to TV. Beyond those I think we have done good work on many uploads, providing entertaining and engaging content. However I’ve learned one thing the hard way as I’ve aggressively pursued success in the digital age. It doesn’t matter if you think something is good, all that matters is what the audience thinks and if youtube blesses you by promoting your video. 

Times when Youtube Blessed Us

You see youtube working in such a way that you are compelled to stick within a niche. It values consistency not only in upload schedule but in topics. Something that has been a struggle to keep up with, as any creative person will tell you, if they feel pigeonholed it is difficult to find the motivation to create. This problem has given me pause, many nights I pondered the best way to succeed in spite of the limitations put on us by youtube. It is certainly possible, many big youtube have been able to branch out and make variety content, it just seems like that road is much more difficult. 

Recently I had to stay at the hospital for three nights, in the era of covid when no one is allowed to visit you, this made for one lonely experience. While laying in my hospital bed I lamented on not being able to be productive while stuck there, and generally not being as productive as I could be on the outside. A plan started taking shape, one that will hopefully make year 13 the best year so far. If I didn’t want to play the game youtube set for me on the main channel, I could participate in spin off channels. Feed the algorithm with content that all had a common thread. If that grows use it to funnel people back to our main channel Wicked Good Everything and our Podcast channel. 

So with that, Wicked Good Sports was born. I have always been a huge sports fan, one of the first channels I worked on was a best players list channel called RBFMSports. True the “videos” were essentially slideshows with stats written over pictures of our favorite players, and in the background copyrighted music played. Despite that we found some success and I always wanted to get back to it. Now I finally am, and we would appreciate it if you checked the channel out and maybe subscribed. 

Nothing will change with the main or podcast channel, if anything we will try to make more content and streams. We also have some other plans that I don’t want to announce yet for fear of not following through, so stay tuned. When I tell people about my plans for youtube I often get warned to not burn myself out. I count myself lucky as I’ve never been one to get burned out on creating content. Real world responsibilities, and jobs sure I’ve felt overwhelmed, but creating content is an escape from that. It isn’t that I don’t find the process difficult at times but I enjoy the process and viewing the finished product enough that it feels worth all the time I spend scripting, filming, and editing. Dealing with health problems over the past year really put into perspective that pursuing things that make you happy is worth doing even if you don’t immediately see success. Will we ever grow to the point of earning “golden play buttons” and money from the platform in a meaningful way? That’s unclear, so I try not to dwell on it, and instead focus my energies on creating videos and podcasts I think people will enjoy. With that said please subscribe to our channels Wicked Good Everything, Wicked Good Podcasts, and Wicked Good Sports if they interest you and I’ll see you in the next blog post that will be less rambly and more focused on a nerdy news topic. 

Channels: 

Wicked Good Everything

Wicked Good Podcasts

Wicked Good Sports

Brian’s Twitter