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I’ve been running my YouTube channel SoftwareEngenius for the past six years. Initially, it started as a place to post videos regarding my hobbies (mostly computer tutorials and programming videos). It has mostly stayed that way, with more recent videos being very focused on software development.

Note: Sometimes it may count under 1.2 million - it’s either statisics not updated or unlisted videos.

Motivation

I had a fantastic experience building out my YouTube channel, and I don’t regret the many hours spent on this channel. The following, however, is worth noting:

The goal of the channel isn’t about “becoming popular” or “getting rich”, rather it was more for me to genuinely produce content that I thought had some value. Unfortunately, this also means I don’t have much interest in production quality, and felt like getting my thoughts out are more important than spending time editing.

I believe I was successful in reaching my goal. I was able to make a clear amount of videos covering a wide span of topics, though it clearly shows as some of my videos aren’t of the best quality. From 2013-2015 I gained momentum and my channel was growing, and to keep that going I was heavily invested in producing more quantity, which at the time led to saturation in my video content.

Beginning: 2012/2013

This was the starting phase of the channel, back when it was called ComputerBunnyMath123. Clearly, I didn’t have any niche in mind, so I began by posting completely random videos including programming tutorials, software videos and some games including Minecraft, Chess and Brain Age 2. I didn’t get many views at the start, only after adding more content (~20 videos) did I start getting over 1,000 views per month.

Growing Content and Saturation: 2013/2014/2015

This period I would characterize as gaining many more views, which led me to wanting more and produce vasts amounts of videos. It was mostly sparked by my Ripley’s Aquarium video, which got over 20,000 views early on and motivated me to continue producing random content. This continued for some time, and I spent most of the Summer of 2014 reaching out to companies to review their products.

I wouldn’t say this period of time was used effectively - I ended up greatly saturating my channel with a wide array of random topics which led to very poor user retention.

Focused and Slowing Growth: 2016/2017

During this time period I didn’t have a lot of time to devote to making videos (I was busy applying to university or in my freshmen year), so I had to focus my efforts. By this time, I gained some exposure to various Computer Science concepts more in-depth, and made the decision to change the focus of the channel to be only software related.

Matured and Rarely Updated: 2017 onwards

I hadn’t uploaded many videos recently, occasionally only when I visit an interesting concept or learn something more niche I would bother to make a new video. I don’t actively pursuit creating videos for the views or fame. Instead, if I find something cool I’ll share it! Some notable videos during this time period includes my functional programming channel or an upcoming series I am working on!

More interestingly though, is despite the lack of posting videos I didn’t drop much at all in terms of revenue or views. Personally, I find this surprising because many of my videos tags included 2014 or 2015, but seems despite this I’m still getting traffic.

Future Plans

I have no plans for this channel. If I find something cool - I will make a video and post it :)

More Analytics!

Who doesn’t enjoy numbers and charts? Below are standard analytics provided by YouTube.

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Unfortunately, my most popular videos aren’t representative at all of my channel as a whole - but this goes to show how luck with tags and spotting a niche can help bring in more viewers.

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I find it interesting how the time spent on mobile is almost as much as on the computer - and that such a large proportion of viewers watch on phone or tablet.

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Interestingly, it looks like YouTube’s recommender systems worked in my favour from August 2014 to February 2015 and then rarely suggested my videos until late 2016….

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There are no surprises here, the vast majority of viewers will be “tech savvy” and likely near college age.

All in all, hope you enjoyed these facts and numbers :)