Why I'm Changing My Content Strategy

I just passed a year of weekly uploads on YouTube and it got me thinking about why I made the commitment in the first place.

At the time in August 2023 I had around 7000 subscribers and had been uploading sporadically since January 2021.

I started my channel after being inspired by Oliur, Andres Vidoza and similar creators - it seemed like fun to make videos talking about the newest iPhone or a monitor you tried.

From the start I enjoyed making videos but I always looked at it from the perspective of how it could become a business rather than a hobby.

The idea of spending every day trying new tech and talking about it online was my dream.

I knew that I had to grow my channel significantly before it’d be possible to take full-time, and I was two years away from graduating college that I wanted to make as much progress as I could before then.

I knew that consistently uploading every week would help me grow and improve the quality of my videos much faster.

If you’re just starting out with content (or any business really) I think there’s tremendous value in sticking with a consistent schedule for at least a year.

That said, now that I’ve been uploading weekly for the last year I’ve started to feel that I’m too often uploading for the sake of uploading.

Once you build up a certain amount of momentum quantity is not necessarily more important than quality.

A video that’s twice as better might have a 10x better chance of going viral.

After thinking through it, I’ve decided it makes more sense for me to upload only when I have something worth sharing, which means I’ll often upload more like 2-3 times per month.

The extra 1-2 weeks gives me more time to work on other projects (design, development, etc.) that give me something interesting to share within my tech videos.

The goal is still to grow my channel, but the method of achieving it has changed.

The unintuitive part is I suspect I’ll grow faster from this change.

What I hope you can out of this weeks letter is to identify what phase you’re in on your journey.

The actions required in the last one may not be the same as the next.

Gaming Setup Upgrades That Actually Matter

I’ve tried to keep my gaming setup minimal but there’s a few accessories I’ve added recently that make using it much more enjoyable.

Things I’ve found interesting

links to valuable stuff I thought was worth sharing

Grow your personal brand and get noticed as a designer - A great procast that Oliur was on. He talked about how his best-performing videos were the ones he created purely because he thought it was a cool idea. This made me rethink my process.

Pieter Levels: Programming, Viral AI Startups, and Digital Nomad Life | Lex Fridman Podcast #440 - a very inspiring conversation. Since listening to it I’ve been thinking a lot more about what running a lean startup would look like (and also to just f-ing ship).

Building a Startup Studio at 22 with Matt Espinoza - An interesting conversation on the podcast of the Skillshare founder. This “startup studio” model is something I want to learn more about. Essentially you have one “cash cow” business that funds everything at the start and use it to buy/build startups under a studio/holding company.

Have a great week.

Cole

P.S. If you found this letter helpful, please consider sharing it with a friend :)