Six Years on YouTube

Today marks the sixth anniversary of The Brown Knowser on YouTube. My, how time flies.

My first video was a 90-second beer review that I thought would be the start of what would replace my Beer O'Clock posts on my blog. I thought that rather than write a review, I would give one, unscripted, and see how it went.

It was very rough but I thought I would get better as I made more. But I ended up just making longer videos, though I kept them all under five minutes.

For the most part, they were unscripted and I felt them to be a bit awkward. I hated seeing myself on screen and thought that the videos weren't very good. Also, I had fewer visitors to these beer reviews than I had to my blog reviews—and fewer visitors than any other video I published—so I figured that my readers were also not interested in this format.

After a while, I stopped making those videos and I unlisted all of the reviews.

I thought my channel could focus on DW's and my travel adventures so I uploaded a couple of videos that I had on my old channel: a condensed version of DW's and my Mayan Riviera video and the long video of my solo trip to South Korea.

Because DW and I usually only travel once or twice a year, I knew that my channel wouldn't become a full-fledged travel channel and thought I would focus on making it a bit like my blog, with photography, reviews, and other things that keep readers of The Brown Knowser blog coming back.

When DW and I bought our kayaks, in the spring of 2020, I thought I would make some videos and share them with you. And while I have some regular followers of those videos, they only bring a modest number of viewers.

That's okay. While I like sharing videos, I sort of make them for me, as a souvenir of past paddles.

My channel is small, and while I wouldn't balk at monetizing it, I have no illusions of making it big. But I wouldn't mind a few more viewers.

Making videos takes much more time and effort than writing a blog post. And while I just said that I mostly make these videos for myself, I also post them on YouTube in the hopes that others will like the content. Knowing that I have an audience pushes me to make more videos.

At the time of writing this post, I have 293 subscribers. As a modest goal, I'd like to break 300 subscribers by the end of this year. And I need your help.

If you've occasionally looked at any of my videos, please subscribe to my channel. It costs you nothing and doesn't force you to watch every video I put out. If you like my videos, share them with friends who may have similar interests, and encourage them to subscribe.

Because I consider my YouTube channel to be an extension of by blog, what sort of things would you like to see on my channel? Let me know by either leaving a comment here or on one of my videos.

It's hard to believe my Brown Knowser channel is already six years old. I'm looking forward to seeing what the future holds for it. Why not come along?