New Strategies (Patreon)

Image: still from new Spidermath video going up TOMORROW???!

I am going to be trying some new things in the next couple months, mainly trying to figure out what videos I can make that take 1-3 days, so that I can eventually upload weekly but still be able to do projects that take longer than a week.

I've come to realize that I'm not nearly successful enough to do only the projects I really really want to do, or to ignore the pressures to leverage social media to get more views/subscribers/supporters. 

But luckily, and with your support, I AM successful enough that I think I can only work on projects that I think are good for the world without compromising my morals, and still have time to do deeper work sometimes. My favourite way is to use my art process to figure out things I myself didn't understand before and couldn't learn anywhere else, and that takes time.

The problem is, if I'm not playing the YouTube game, even my own subscribers are unlikely to see my video pop up on their front page, and I don't have the kind of following where I can ignore that. I think part of the problem is that YouTube's recommendation algorithms are constantly changing and recently have made this affect my work more than ever. 

My last couple videos have shockingly low view counts compared to what I'm used to. While I'd like to not care, somehow for the past six months my funding has been stubbornly sitting below what I need to reach my goals, and I'd like to take the pressure off of those of you who are already here and helping me try to make this work.

Part of it is selling more merch (and I hear you on getting more things available than just a couple shirts, working on it!), and part of it is allowing my audience to grow and change by continuing to put stuff where people will see it, as much as I'd like to hide in a spider hole in a corner of a couch and weave my web and not worry about whether anyone's watching.

The major thing I realized is that I can work a lot faster if I leverage existing content made by other people rather than stubbornly insisting that it's more worthwhile if I'm putting out purely original content from end to end. So for example, the video I'm working on right now uses images and screencaps from websites, a gif from wikipedia, and only a tiny taste of notebook animation. It's scripted, but it's more free-association than story, and doesn't try to teach or do anything fundamentally new.

It's fun and I like it and I enjoyed making it and I think you'll enjoy it too, even if it's not a brilliant new never-before-thought-think and it uses some other people's images. I can work on new-thought-think later next month, hopefully.

It still would take two days if I weren't still up working at 10pm, and that's with being inspired and with everything going suspiciously perfectly and not needing to source any extra materials. I think this type of video in general would take 2-3 days. So, it's short enough to build up some extra time, but not by much, especially given that running a business means doing stuff besides pure content creation sometimes. So I wanted to figure out, if I'm going to release a video every week and still have time to work on longer projects, what kind of video takes a day or less?

I think it's probably stuff like review videos, unboxing videos, and lets plays, where I'm relying entirely on someone else's creation for the visuals and structure and all I have to do is give commentary and perspective on it. Maybe there's a market for math gadget unboxing and review videos.

Maybe I can make a video in one day if I have your help. There's kinds of videos that rely on user submitted content, like I was thinking it might be fun to do a math gif review video series with your submitted math gifs. I love short looping media and math visualizations.

Maybe I can figure out a kind of video that is 30 seconds long.

Maybe I can do videos about one single math pun that is one sentence and then the video is over. I don't know if that will make the youtube gods love my videos again, for all I know I'm at my peak right now and the more videos I make the more my channel will fall into obscurity. For all I know YouTube has decided to squelch any channel not using youtube ads and youtube-integrated teespring merch. But I've got to try something new so that's what I'm going to be doing! Hopefully it will shake things up in a good way!

My other obvious option would be to continue making videos infrequently and get on the speaking circuit. That's how I used to supplement my income ten years ago. But besides that I really, really do not want to do that again, I think ultimately it would take more time and energy than just making more little videos, as would moonlighting or grant writing etc. I guess its good to have backup-backup plans.

I'm also trying to figure out a better Patreon plan. I've got to get something at the $6.28 level and above, for example, and I'm pricing out some ideas. I'm also not sure whether Lens, in the end, is a net positive. I do know I've lost a lot of patrons who find the notifications annoying, and I worry post notifications get lost in the lens shuffle and so people don't see those as much anymore.

I've also been neglecting my 2nd channel, soundcloud, vr, vihart.com blog, and everything except for trying to do big important math video projects. I miss doing microwave videos. And music.

I just gotta decide how to find more freedom to work on long projects without the answer being add 20 million things that all take a little time... I think the right small change will make everything fall into place though.

Ok so that's what's on my mind! I was a little worried yesterday but now I'm excited to try some new things. Let me know your thoughts.

Vi