State of the Channel 9/21

So we did it! We finally hit 250 subscribers (267 last I checked) and made a video about it. While I made a video talking about some of the behind the scenes aspects of my channel and its content, along with some tomfoolery involving ice and some cinnamon, I didn’t address the upcoming changes to the channel.

While our community is still small, it is quite active and I wouldn’t trade that for anything in the world. I enjoy seeing returning viewers post on my videos or message me more ideas for future content. But I would also like to see the community grow, which is why I challenged each of you to find another subscriber, whether it be a friend or by randomly posting a video to reddit, tumblr, facebook, or wherever.

The main reason I have turned to you, my… subscribers? Viewers? Fans? (I’m still not sure what to call you, any ideas would be appreciated.) The main reason I have turned to you Is because I have stopped funneling money into Youtube Advertising – otherwise known as AdWords. This has nothing to do with the demonetization fiasco, which was simply unfortunately timed. I had set aside a large chunk of money to advertise the channel in August, and when August 31st came around, those ads stopped. You may have noticed a significant decrease in the viewership of my videos since then – it started with Superstition.

I wanted to see “where the market” would take my videos and I was actually quite pleasantly surprised. I’m not getting thousands of views anymore, but I am getting the same amount of engagement as before. The same amount of comments, likes, and shares. Which tells me those thousands of views I was getting were just from blank eyes in front of a screen. For example, here is an image showing the stats for Free Speech next to Munchausen's. Free Speech has almost 7 times the views, but the same amount of likes and comments, not to mention being two months older: http://i.imgur.com/dQgz4K6.jpg

Since ending the advertising I have also gotten a potential sponsor because of the Economic Systems video – I touched on this briefly during the 250 video. It does not seem like that deal will come to fruition which is fine, others will follow. But I have also now gotten TWO supporters on patreon (http://www.patreon.com/knowingbetter). Getting your direct support on patreon means the world to me, as it is even greater validation that what I am doing is entertaining and educational to someone. I have been working on the tiers and believe I have a decent 5-10-20 system set up right now – any input would likewise be appreciated. As our viewership and channel grows, and merch becomes an idea worth looking into, we may add higher tiers that include those as perks as well. But for now, thank you so much for the support. Both I and Poethewondercat (the graphic artist for most of my work) appreciate it.

In other news, if you haven’t already noticed (based on where you are reading this) we have created a reddit (http://www.reddit.com/r/knowingbetter); it is a far superior place to discuss the content of the videos in a structured manner and submit topics of your own that you would like to discuss as a community or have me discuss in a video. This is in addition to our already existing social media: facebook (http://www.facebook.com/KnowingBetterYT) and twitter (http://twitter.com/KnowingBetterYT). We’re working on making each of these platforms slightly unique, but most of the content will be shared among them. Joining them will just be an easier way to keep up to date and share any of my content with your friends and spread the knowledge even easier.

Please make sure to follow and join on all three so that you can keep up on what is happening with the channel and be engaged with the rest of those who know better! And let me know if you have any other ideas on how to grow this community!