YouTube Channel

The YouTube channel has been going now for about a year on Bubba on the Road. I’m not sure what to do about it. It requires a lot of work and honestly, I’m not sure its worth it. I have a much easier time posting to the blog and updating things here than I do planning, recording, editing, and uploading a video file. While the YouTube channel has the ability to reach more of an audience, it also requires a whole lot of work.

For one thing, we have about 350 views after one year. That’s about one a day. Not exactly noteworthy. I got Final Cut Pro, learned to do some skills with it, but when it comes down to it, I don’t really enjoy it. I’m much better with text than speaking. I’m not sure if we should continue it or just leave it as it is.

I can still make video reviews and post them on the blog page and not worry about monetization or ranking high on YouTube. Since we have received some products in return for reviews and videos, we’ll still do them for that. Hosting a video is fine on our servers and then we know that the people watching them are looking for what we are posting anyway.

The YouTube channel is another way to increase our audience, but at this point, I’m not sure its worth it for all the time it takes to make videos. We haven’t really done anything exciting yet and we have been stuck in one spot for three months, so we haven’t updated anything except once to talk about the issues with the transmission.

Part of me also wants to save money and downsize. I could get a cheaper, smaller computer since all I do now anyway is use mine for internet surfing and writing. A Chromebook can do that easily and cost much less. I could sell my MacBook Pro for a good amount of money, money that could be used in other areas to either complete the Smart Home on Wheels project, or save for emergencies. I feel like I don’t need a 16GB quad-core i7 for writing blog posts and checking Facebook and email. Its easily worth $1500 for what it is, assuming I can find a buyer. Its a few years old, but not ancient and still runs everything pretty damn well.

I have checked the analytics and I don’t think any readers come from the YouTube channel. Most of our traffic comes from Facebook and Twitter, with about a quarter of our readers just searching on Google. Nothing comes from the YouTube channel and I’m not sure many people go from the blog to the channel.

I’m not going to retire it, but maybe put it on hold for awhile. I’ll keep posting here since its so much easier for me to both write and get the thoughts in order.

Another thing is that Tiffany’s YouTube channel is doing so much better than the Bubba on the Road channel. She has 19 videos at this time, and one alone has almost 6,000 views. She edits her videos on her phone too, not using any advanced software like Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere. I would much rather support her page and push that as more people seemed interested in that anyway. If we focus on one YouTube channel, we’ll probably do better than spreading out our knowledge and experience over several areas.

So with that, I’m not going to worry about the Bubba on the Road YouTube Channel. We may make more videos, we may not. I’m not going to stress over making great videos and uploading all the time and trying to make money off it. It hasn’t failed, but I have other things I can work on more easily and with better results. So for now, its on hold.