Strategy & Plans for 2019 (Patreon)

As 2018 nears it end, it is time to think about 2019. 2018 saw a large amount of changes in many ways, my goal to switch to more "academic" content and more in-depth video on VISUALIZED was successful, although in order to keep the views at a sustainable level, I heavily revised my thumbnail and title policy.
NOT visualized provided me with the opportunity to cover way more topics and especially read more on the side.
The Podcast was also great to get more vital input from others and "think on the run", which I prefer the most, since I often have valuable insights during talking. Yet, I noticed I really dislike editing podcasts, whereas real-life Interview, e.g., with the Chieftain, Ralf Raths and David Willey on camera are way more enjoyable and also far more enjoyable to edit.

2019 - More Focus VISUALIZED vs NOT

The idea for 2019 is to focus the approaches of both channels, this means use VISUALIZED mainly for videos that really allow for good visuals, this means videos like How Germany cheated the Versailles Treaty or Why was Rommel so complicated, which were mainly a long list of icons will now be shifted to NOT visualized. Since, videos with icons also take a huge amount of time and have a very limited visual appeal.

Whereas NOT visualized will likely see more use of maps and footage, although heavily depending on the topic.

2019 - More Footage, more Interviews

This is not set in stone yet, but the plan is to do more interviews with experts and also use more footage. Last week I was at the Panzermuseum in Munster and had a great talk with Ralf Raths the director there. We also recorded several videos. Besides that I recorded various Panzers and equipment, which will be likely featured in upcoming videos. I think about doing videos similar to the Stahlhelm video, which was a mixture of footage and visualized Elements. Also thanks to your support, I don't have to worry too much about if a trip will be cost-effective anymore.

Note: Depending on the topic and guest, interview videos might appear on VISUALIZED or NOT visualized.

2019 - Hopefully more "heavy data" Visualizations

This was planned since the early days, yet, so far have seen little fruition, although there is constant work behind the scenes. As far as I know my most disliked video was and still is the US Navy Losses of WW2 (first version). I remember I was totally enthusiastic about it, since for me it was "the next level" and I spent dozens of hours into it. Yet, the reception was very negative when it came out in 2017. Luckily, I could improve upon it and the following videos were better received. Lately, the "Why Japan had NO Chance" was well received. I recently spoke with a friend about these visualization and that I have a hard time wrapping my head around them to do them properly and he noted: "well, there is a reason why people study this for years at university, since it is not easy." So, yeah.

One issue is that sometimes the data is not enough, yet, when it is, it also needs to be properly presented and adapted, since one has also craft a proper conclusion out of it, e.g., US Navy Losses WW2 doesn't really have a message on its own. It would likely need a proper structuring of the data, e.g., along areas, timelines, etc. yet this requires quite a lot of amount of coding or at least playing around with the data. Both of which is very time-intensive and doesn't guarantee a result, unlike reading most books.

2019 - The "End" of the Podcast

The Podcast in its current form on pippa/iTunes/etc. will be discontinued, this is simple the views/listen on pippa and the various podcast platforms are lower than on the NOT visualized channel, yet, I pay for hosting the podcast on pippa, whereas on NOT visualized I make some ad revenue from them and have way more views. Additionally, the additional overhead of pippa/podcast is about 15-30 min per podcast and likely around 1-2 hours per month: more links, more shares, etc. it just adds up and this overhead work is especially unfulfilling too. This means, Podcast will be moved to NOT visualized only.

So well, I think, this is about it.

Please let me know what you think.