When you look at online video content (YouTube, Twitch, Instagram, etc.) — it’s easy to assume that it’s “not for you.”

I’ve talked to hundreds of people over the past few years about why I make videos and admittedly, a big reason is that I just love to create, but it also comes down to the future of our economy.

When I ask “Why don’t you try video content?” — I usually get these responses:

• “It’s not for me.”
• “I’m not a creative person.”
• “I work in ______ industry, so I don’t need to brand myself”
• “It’s way too difficult.”

…

This image is a screenshot of my 18 most viewed videos on my current YouTube channel. As of writing this, I just got 600 subscribers and I’ve been running this channel for a little over a year. One of the things that I constantly try to do is figure out what I can do in my niche (Nerd Culture) to increase the viewership on my channel without stifling my creativity or my morals.

So here we are — these are most viewed videos. These are also the answers to how you can get more views as a small YouTuber.

I’m…

Work Hard.

Be Patient.

No Expectations.

Start Now.

One of the best decisions I made in life was going to college and not graduating.

I know this sounds crazy, but I went to college for 4 years and didn’t get a degree.

Like most graduating high-schoolers I was looking forward to college. In fact, I was extremely excited for college. I’m a musician, so throughout middle school and high school I was super involved in everything music. My plans were to go to college, get a degree in music education, and become a music teacher.

Not only did I have this plan by the end of 6th grade…

Let me start off by saying that this isn’t a completely original idea. Plenty of people have created (very) successful shows on YouTube over the past decade, so I’m definitely not the first to suggest this.

I’m also in the early stages of my show on YouTube, but before you click away, keep in mind that this means — even though I’m not ‘successful’ yet, there are still plenty of reasons why I’m excited to have a show.

By the end of reading this, I hope that you’ll understand:

1. Why having a show on YouTube is probably the best decision…

There are hundreds of games in my backlog and yet, there are two games that I’ll probably never stop playing: Guitar Hero and Tetris. The former feeds into my lifelong obsession with music and combines it with my love for video games.

The later has just always been an obsession.

I wouldn’t say that I’m addicted to Tetris, but there are times where I will play the game nonstop for a few hours. For many games, I only play them for a couple of hours at a time. Since I’m a content creator, I usually keep my game time regulated…

YouTube just announced new Monetization Guidelines and many small creators on the platform are worried, upset, or incredibly pissed that they now have to fulfill these requirements:

I know what you’re thinking:

“Uploading your videos to Facebook is taking away views from my YouTube videos.”

Or maybe you’re thinking:

“Putting my videos on Facebook won’t make me money, while YouTube can”

So obviously for me to say that you should be uploading videos to both (mind you, Facebook is not a substitute, more of a compliment), it sounds quite absurd.

Here’s why it is not.

Starting with a raw statistic — As of June 2017 Facebook now has over 2 billion users. YouTube on the other hand, as of June, has 1.5 billion logged-in users. …