ScriptingPixels4 Months into YouTube
After 4 months on YouTube, I reflect on my progress, mistakes, and what I've learned. From audio issues to thumbnails—here's what's working and what's not.
4 Months into YouTube: My Experience 🚀
I'm taking some time off work to share how my YouTube journey has been after 4 months.
Progress So Far 📈
I went from 0 to 30 subscribers, 50 hours watched, and my best video might soon hit 1,000 views. It's a 10-minute tutorial on connecting Next.js to MongoDB. Overall, I've now surpassed 1,000 total views.
YouTube Studio 28-day statistics
Popular videos in the last 28 days
I've gotten some positive feedback on my content, which is great.
4️Engagement Tactics 👍
Today, I learned to ask viewers to like and comment at 75% of the video.
I also figured out how to write hooks. From what I've seen:
- Hooks should be under 30 words.
- The first 5 seconds are the most important.
For my latest video, I wrote this hook:
Want to write clean React code that even the coding gods would approve of? In this video, we're breaking down Single Level of Abstraction (SLA)—a simple pattern for code you can be proud of.
I think this one turned out pretty solid.
I'm also happy with how my latest thumbnail turned out.
Video title: "React Best Practices: Senior-Level Code with Single Level of Abstraction (SLA)"
Mistakes Were Made ⚠️
I've got a solid list of mistakes that have kept my channel from taking off so far.
1️⃣ Low Video Count 🎥
I only have 17 videos (actually 19, but I had to delete 2 because they were so bad they embarrassed me). Nobody watched them anyway, since the algorithm buried them.
2️⃣ Audio Issues 🎙️
At first, my audio was super low—lots of echo and almost inaudible. I didn't know I needed to turn up my mic volume.
I fixed this by setting the volume to 85%, then using Audacity to:
✔ Apply Noise Reduction
✔ Normalize the volume
✔ Amplify the sound
Then I export the audio, put it back into Kdenlive, and it's ready to go.
3️⃣ Weak Thumbnails 🖼️
My CTR is around 3%, which isn't great. But I think I'm improving.
Now, I also add pattern interrupts—a simple section title with some background noise. Not the best yet, but I'm getting there.
CRT - 28 days
4️⃣ Low retention rate 📉
I've noticed that my average view duration is around 1:49 minutes. I need to work on keeping viewers engaged.
5️⃣ Posting More Often 📅
The key is to upload more frequently. As long as I don't sacrifice quality, more videos = more views.
My Editing Process 🎬
- Record the code first.
- In Kdenlive, do a voiceover afterward.
- Instead of typing code live, I delete lines and undo them one by one.
- This avoids mistakes while recording.
- When I used to write everything from scratch, I kept messing up and had to redo the screen recording constantly.
I learned this from Jeff Delaney, the creator of Fireship—he made a YouTube tutorial about it.
Final Thoughts 💡
I've improved, but I still have a long way to go. They say you need 30 to 50 videos to work out all the kinks.
On to the next one! 🚀