 Don't worry guys calm down the thumbnail of this video is a little bit click baity I'm not actually going to quit YouTube But that is the topic of today's video quitting YouTube because so many content creators actually do end up quitting and I hadn't planned on making this video when I got up this morning But when I got up this morning I made my first cup of coffee and I go and sit down at my computer And I fire up YouTube and I go and check out some of my favorite content creators that I'm subscribed to and see What they've posted overnight that maybe I hadn't checked out before and one of my favorite channels is old tech bloke OTB Steve over at the old tech bloke channel He puts out some fantastic Linux related content and this morning he posted a video with the title is it time to retire from YouTube and I thought man this guy he puts out such high-quality Content he's only been doing it for a couple of years Well a couple of years is a long time in YouTube life, right because many channels last mere weeks Sometimes just a few months before they die. He's actually been doing this for at least a couple of years I would think but still I was kind of bummed out that one of my favorite content creators that I follow Could potentially no longer make that kind of content anymore and you know, I felt a little sad about that now Thankfully when I watched his video he said he's actually going to continue making videos He's just going to slow way down He's no longer going to post on a regular schedule because trying to constantly stick to a schedule is Kind of taxing and tiresome and of course He has other things going on in life that kind of prevent that right now And of course we all can understand that and as somebody that's been making YouTube videos for about five years now That's how long I've been on the platform and I'm subscribed to probably a couple of hundred different Linux and tech related channels and Most of the ones that I am subbed to I won't say most but a large percentage of those that I've subbed to over the last five years No longer post they either post very infrequently You know they used to post regular content and now they post like once every month or two, right? Or they just quit posting at all, you know, you go back and like two three years ago They just stop posting you never heard from that person since and why does this happen? Well, there's a number of reasons why content creators eventually just quit making videos and of course today's video really I want to talk to you guys that are thinking about starting YouTube channels you're thinking about becoming a video content creator and I want to Discuss some of the pitfalls that you need to avoid to not be one of these people that start a channel and just do it for a Few weeks or sometimes even a few days, right? You make like five videos and realize man This is hard work. This is not for me. I quit I don't want you guys to fall into this trap and looking at some of my subscriptions Man, there's some really big channels that used to be very popular That have a lot of subs in the Linux space in the tech space that no longer posts anything anymore You go to their YouTube channels and these were very popular Well-known creators many of these guys their names are kind of common in the Linux space And then they just stop posting so let's discuss some of the reasons why people start YouTube channels and then later quit Probably the biggest reason is real life real life gets in the way most of these people are not doing YouTube full-time It's not their job. This is just something they enjoy doing as a hobby And they have a real life that actually has to come first and sometimes a real life has to take precedent over The video content creation, right? So if you're putting in more hours at work more hours spending time with family with friends Maybe you're donating time to charity organizations Maybe you do a lot of work in your church, right? And of course all of this should take precedent over a hobby if YouTube is just a hobby for you Another big reason why people quit doing YouTube is simply interest change, right? You get into something and this really interests me I wonder how people make these videos on YouTube. Let me buy a camera buy a microphone Figure out audio editing figure out video editing. What is the process that kind of interests me because I I don't know What it's all about and then you start doing it You kind of figure out what it's all about and then okay. I know what it's all about. I don't really like this I'm glad I know what it's about But you know, I'm not really interested in continuing along this journey or maybe the topic of the videos you're making The format you chose to make your videos in that you know, it was kind of fun in the beginning But now it's no longer you right you the type of videos you're making don't necessarily reflect you the person And that can be tiresome as well Certainly one of the biggest reasons to quit doing YouTube is when the videos no longer are fun And in some cases I think people start making videos and they never had fun with it, right? They just started just to do it. Maybe they're trying to earn a few bucks You know squeeze out a few pennies from the google adsense or whatever But you can tell especially content creators that actually hate making video content It comes across on camera and of course eventually that's going to tear you down and make you quit when we talk about people quitting youtube We usually talk about burnout. What is burnout burnout is becoming just completely? Physically and mentally drained. You just can't do it anymore. You're completely wore out completely tired You get to the point where you just hit a wall and you would rather quit Then keep making videos because you just can't do it just for your mental health your physical health You can't you can't think of anything that you would hate to do more than making that next video That's what burnout is and many creators get there very quickly And if you're thinking about becoming a youtube content creator The first thing you need to know about is burnout because hopefully you never experience this But there are some things that you need to avoid or you're absolutely going to experience burnout The first thing you need to know when you start getting into making video content is the fact that there's a lot of work that goes into Making these videos right because you have to record the video right now. I'm recording myself I I didn't just turn on the camera and start talking today. Well this video I probably could but many videos I do like tutorial style videos. I'll actually make some show notes I'll have a outline. I don't do it word for word. I hate scripting my videos because it comes across as very Wooden and kind of dry content for me when I do everything word for word I never read from a script, but there's show notes, right? There's prep work that goes on Before ever turning on the camera then turning on the camera I don't know how long I'm going to record today But it wouldn't surprise me if I have to do multiple takes and I spend At least an hour in front of this camera talking after I'm done with that Then I have to go and edit this video So I have to chop up the video and put it all together, you know the clips that work I have to cut out any dead air any mistakes You know editing usually is going to take me on a short video like today's video a couple of hours And you know, it's not too long, but it's a couple of hours plus the hour I spent in front of the camera maybe an hour I spent before I ever turned on the camera And then you know, maybe I got to clean up the audio. Maybe the audio really sucks I got to spend some time in an audio editor filtering out Noise air conditioning noise and things like that Then I got to make the thumbnail and the thumbnail is one of the biggest most important things You can do to attract people to actually watch your video many of you clicked on today's video because of my thumbnail I had to actually put some thought into that thing and then I had to go and create that thumbnail I create all my thumbnails using gimp, which is a piece of free and open source software It's our free and open source alternative to something like adobe photoshop And that takes some time sometimes I spend as long on the thumbnail as I do making the videos So I'm going to put in several hours of work today on this video Which isn't necessarily an overly complicated kind of video to make there are some videos that I make that seriously Take me 12 hours or more sometimes I have to split up the work over a couple of days to get the video done And when I say there's a lot of work involved, there's a lot of work involved in video content creation So you need to know that before you get into it But I think a lot of people have already done their research if you're thinking about making youtube videos You probably know there's some work involved and you're prepared for that But what most new content creators are not prepared for is the pressure that comes with making the videos Because you start a channel and it starts getting a few views. Maybe you get a few subscribers Maybe you start getting a lot of views and a lot of subscribers And now there's real world pressure on you because now that audience is demanding more content You feel like you have to deliver that content Especially once you become monetized on a platform like youtube because you make money on the ads And you know, you have to start growing that channel You have to constantly think about I need to start getting more views more views more ad revenue More money and now there's pressure on you. I have to make a video on a set schedule Whether it's a video a week three videos a week a video practically every day Which is a trap that many people get into that. I got to put out something every freaking day It doesn't matter the quality. It doesn't matter whether I feel like making content that day It doesn't matter if I have a doctor's appointment or Somebody's getting married. I got to attend a wedding. It doesn't matter I have to make a video every day no matter what I've got to work that out And that's pressure and that is the kind of thing that really causes Sometimes mental breakdowns sometimes Many youtubers fall into this trap to where they start having serious mental health issues to the point where they have to start Seeing a therapist because of that kind of demand that kind of pressure that's on them to put out that content So if you're thinking about starting a youtube channel, I would strongly urge you never overwork yourself Don't get into a habit where you feel like you need to put out content every day every week Whatever your set schedule is because many content creators will tell you keep a schedule Which is a good idea your audience gets used to you putting out content on a regular basis If I know that this content creator always puts out a video every monday and every friday That's nice because I never have to wonder when his next video is going to come out But don't get into the habit where you feel trapped by that Many people fall into this trap where they feel pressure Because the youtube algorithms they do punish content creators That's one of the problems with this burnout problem is actually youtube pushes burnout onto people because You're getting punished sometimes if you change your schedule if you don't post as regularly as you used to They'll punish you you no longer appear as often in the search results They don't push your videos as much and that's why people feel this overbearing pressure on them to constantly produce It's almost like youtube is training you to be a crack at it Right to be a crack fiend a dope fiend or something because they want you to constantly put out those videos for youtube because of course youtube Makes a lot of money on your videos on those ads that run on your videos A lot of people don't realize this of course the ads that run on the videos the the content creators We just get a few pennies for those ads youtube makes The overwhelming majority of money on all of those ads that get served on the video platform And because of that they need the content creators to constantly keep putting out videos That's why they push those algorithms and those analytics on those content creators That's why so many content creators fall into the trap where every single day sometimes multiple times a day They go and check their analytics how many people have viewed my content today how many new subscribers I get today What was my watch time? You know demographics as far as age and gender and nationality and all of that guys Don't worry so much on the analytics. I know a lot of people will give you youtube tips saying go check the analytics No, I have no idea how many views I got on my videos yesterday. I haven't checked it I don't plan on checking it right at some point You just need to leave that stuff alone because paying attention to that stuff That will add to the pressure because now all of a sudden you'll see a day where you had a lot of views And then the next day man views were really down today. I need to up my game Maybe I need to put more pressure on myself and put out more and more and more content and Don't go to your youtube analytics. Just shut all of that stuff off. Just just don't even worry about it Don't worry about views. Don't worry about subscribers You know if the content you're making is good because it will be a rewarding experience for you You'll be proud of the videos you make you'll know if that video you put out was quality content All you got to do is look at the comments section Are you getting a lot of comments on your videos because that is a sign of a growing community around a channel That's the sign of a healthy channel if a channel is getting a lot of comments That tells you everything you need to know that's your analytics are the comments there are the comments overwhelmingly Positive because your community is going to let you know if the content you're creating is good content So don't put too much pressure on yourself. Don't overwork yourself because remember this is a long distance run here We're not sprinting right? We want to keep a slow and steady pace that we can comfortably keep up four years to come I'll give you a gym analogy because I see this far too many times people that start working out And a lot of people when they start working out imagine that they need to burn a ton of calories They need to do hardcore cardio and for most people hardcore cardio and they're think of running right? They get on a treadmill and they go top speed and they start running sometimes three four five miles Every single day they get on that treadmill and run five miles every day And how long do they keep that up? Not too long a few days a few weeks at most and then they totally burn out And sometimes they totally burn out to the point not only do they quit running They quit going to the gym all together because they hate it right that's serious burnout mentally They just can't imagine anything more painful than going back to that gym. It's because they did it wrong That's not how you do cardio for the long term if you're actually serious about burning calories Right get on that treadmill and you walk Don't run 30 minutes on a treadmill every day walk 30 minutes on a treadmill every day You'll never burn out and you'll always do it. You'll always be happy to do it You'll never look at that treadmill and say man. I hate that dang thing. No not when you're walking when you're running Yeah, it's going to kill you another thing that new content creators need to be prepared for are mean people and by mean people I mean mean people in your comment section. They're gonna say nasty things to you They're gonna insult you they're gonna insult your content Which in some cases is more insulting than insulting you personally They're gonna call your names and yada yada yada Don't take it personally if you're one of these people that are going to take that kind of stuff personally I'm going to tell you right now youtube is not for you for me I've never been one of those people that cared for insults as far as say whatever you want about me I don't care. Say whatever you want about my videos people trash my videos You're going to see comments on this video about how terrible a content creator are you are dt? I don't care. I leave the comments up I'm glad those people left the comments because I want those negative comments because It's still a comment. Remember analytics. What did I say was the most important thing? Comments comments means there's a community around your channel an active community So when you see negative comments, that's not that bad Obviously, you don't want anything too crazy in your comment section anything You know violent or people making threats of violence against you or other people in the comment section Typically those kinds of people they've got to go but people just saying that you know your content sucks Or your mama smells funny or whatever it is they leave in the comments. That's fine. That still helps you in the algorithms I actually see a lot of content creators That actively get involved with these mean people in their comment section where they start having Arguments with these people and then they start deleting their comments Sometimes they actually ban people from their channel and they that's completely the wrong thing to do You're never going to be a successful youtuber if you act like that And I see sometimes big channels that act like that They're the content creator for whatever reason has really thin skin And that kind of content creator he's not built for the long term That's not going to last another thing that really burns out content creators is the fact that youtube as a platform Really doesn't treat its content creators fairly. It also doesn't treat you the viewer fairly the content creators have to deal with So much craziness unfair demonetization and age restrictions and copyright strikes and things like that which More than 90 of the time are actually false flags and the stuff we the content creators have to deal with We shouldn't have to deal with youtube as a platform is very Unfriendly to us the video content creator But it's also unfair to you guys the viewers because I know for you It's a social aspect you guys love the comment section You love engaging in those comments and those discussions that you have With the people in the comment section sometimes the content creators themselves And many times your comments are deleted for absolutely no reason I would say a healthy percentage of comments that are left on youtube get deleted Almost instantly by the youtube algorithms and nobody knows why you know I I often leave comments that get deleted. I don't know why a matter of fact I will say that about a year two years ago probably I just quit leaving comments all together on any channel that wasn't my own Because almost every time I left a comment on another content creators channel it disappeared and I know the content creators They're not deleting my comments. Many of these were smaller content creators that would be thrilled that I was leaving a comment You know telling them a good job on their video and keep it up, man Things like that But no, it's the youtube algorithms that just deleted all of my comments or were shadow banning me on these channels A matter of fact, I watched a video last night on the linux user space channel If you guys don't know about the linux user space youtube channel and the linux user space podcast check that out They did a video last night about discussing the vm text editor So I watched that and I actually left a comment on that video because they actually mentioned me in that video So I wanted to leave a comment just to help them in the youtube algorithms give them that boost right And I started thinking about it when I hit the send on that is that was probably the first comment I've made on a youtube channel probably in days maybe even weeks Just because I got tired of wasting my time posting stuff on youtube knowing It's almost certainly going to get deleted and I know a lot of you guys that comment on the videos Have the same problem and I apologize for that. Unfortunately, that's a youtube issue That's nothing that we the content creators can control at all So all of these reasons I've discussed they kind of lead to this burnout that many creators experience And unfortunately, I see a lot of youtube channels that still post on a regular basis They're still putting out content on a regular basis have been for months Maybe sometimes years But I can spot the ones that are about to be the next burnout victim because You can see it already mentioned that some content creators all they do is argue with their comment section And if you're not enjoying your community That's a problem, right? If you hate the community built around your youtube channel, yes, you're not long for youtube You're gonna quit very soon I see way too many content creators that get into these almost twitter-like Wars in their comment section in their own comment section And in some cases you can tell these content creators They don't enjoy doing what they're doing You can tell you're looking at them on camera and you can tell that person absolutely hates standing there right now in front of that camera One of the biggest traps that content creators fall into is the fact that they start putting out this content on a regular basis In the same format covering the same topics Nothing ever changes and by nothing ever changing I don't mean just the format of their videos or the style of their videos But also the growth of their channel It doesn't see the kind of growth in views or subscribers or money that they imagine It's because they're just doing the same thing. They're grinding many people imagine that that's the right thing to do I'm just going to keep grinding I'm just going to keep doing the same thing over and over again And I'm going to be successful at that that is not what you want to do for success grinding is something you do Think of grinding as making a few bucks every day If you got this side hustle that you can go do that's quick and easy, right? I can go do this every day just for a few bucks But many people grinding is what you don't want to do on youtube You actually want to become bigger than you are now and it makes sense grinding is essentially Again, nothing ever changing. You're just keep doing the same thing over and over again the exact same thing It's almost like treading water. Can you tread water forever? No Eventually you're going to get tired and you're going to drown and that's exactly what's happening to these people That you see grinding, right? And they are going to drown very soon Now on a personal note I will say that when I see some of these channels that decide to actually quit they retire from youtube quit youtube I actually prefer that then watching the ones that get to the point where they completely burn out and sometimes in A totally fantastic way where they start having like serious health problems mental issues They blow up on a live stream or they do something totally ridiculous I don't want to see that once people know. Hey, this is not the right path that I'm on. I don't like this anymore I don't mind that and I'm happy for these people And once these people decide that this is not for them or they just want to transition to something else in life I'm happy for them. I hope they're happy if they're happy about it Then I'm definitely happy for them ultimately video content creation It's like any other job. Are you going to do it forever? No, everybody No matter what your job is are you going to do it forever? Absolutely not you imagine one day You're going to move on to something else. Maybe the job you're at right now. It's just again a temporary thing It's a transition from something better that you'll eventually move to or maybe you're happy with your job But you're going to put in your 30 years and then retire right you you always have an end game And the same thing with youtube you should have an end game for this Don't just be one of these people that start it and then you've never even thought about Life after youtube we could start thinking about that now if you're a new content creator Because within a few months a few years it's really going to start weighing on you like where is this going Where is this going to lead me have a plan? So getting back to the reason I made this video today The old tech bloke channel posting that he might retire from youtube although that was a little bit of clickbait on his part He's not retiring from youtube He's going to just post a little less frequently which I respect that decision and for those of you that were tricked by My clickbait thumbnail. I'm not leaving youtube either. You're not getting rid of me that easy peace guys