Getting in Gear

I’ve been trying to figure out just what I’m doing with my channel/website/content in general for a while now, and I’ve finally settled on a few things I think I can make work. The last couple weeks I’ve been working on a lot of that and trying to streamline some processes, and I hope it’s starting to show.

Patreon

The big new thing I’m still figuring out how to use is my Patreon, which you can find here. Basically my videos aren’t prime ad-rev material in the first place, a sort of specialty shop deal, so I thought a Patreon would be a good way to allow contributions while keeping everything important free and public.

I’m still trying to work out goals and rewards, but I think my first good idea is Early Access. Since moving to a more regular schedule I’ve started to have a lot of videos uploaded but not published. And while I don’t like to have exclusive content for payment, early access is a nice perk that lets me give something extra without really taking away anything from free watchers.

So starting now, anyone who contributes $5 a month (subject to change, but I’d like to try that for now) will get early access to any non-embargoed videos I upload for the following week. Every Sunday I’ll post a list of videos in a private Patreon post that $5+ backers can see with links to those unposted videos. The videos will still go live at the normal time for everyone else. Embargoed videos are uncommon, but for obvious reasons I can’t give early access to those.

I’ve also set up some short and long term goals for the Patreon though I’m struggling to think of proper incentives honestly (comments greatly appreciated!). The returns are certainly modest so to speak, but my anxiety-riddle brain was basically expecting $0 a month tops so hey, this is something.

Youtube

I’m going to be doing some “optimizing” of my Youtube channel: a regular schedule, a channel trailer, a better banner, honestly stuff I should have done ages ago. The trailer’s already done, and a banner is commissioned. Can’t wait to get the banner up, I think it’s going to be perfect.

I’ve already gotten 60FPS recording/editing equipment for console/PC so a big obstacle to showing or streaming certain games is gone, and while there’s still a learning curve to the new software and streaming in general, I think it’s going alright.

The general Youtube plan is 3 uploads a week and two streams a week. Monday/Wednesday/Friday uploads and Tuesday/Thursday streams. I want the channel to be something you can regularly come back to in order to see new unique or cool indie games being showcased.

Finally, not really that urgent but I’m getting a bit more into making thumbnails, or at least I don’t hate it anymore. I’m trying to get all my new videos and all old videos with >10,000 views to have custom thumbnails with my adorable spikey face.

Also, Youtube Red is kind of a big unknown for me. First earnings report for it should trickle in tomorrow. I’m hoping it’s better than ads, but long-term I’d still prefer fan support over ads/similar.

Website

Regarding the website I’ve already set it up for SSL (which was actually pretty fun and totally free) both to help it in search results and make it more secure and easy to trust. I’ve been playing around with some other stuff to keep the site reasonably speedy (for wordpress…) and I think all is well technically speaking.

Content-wise I haven’t really been keeping up with what I wanted, but I think I’ll be in better shape to do that after I’m done finalizing the Patreon/Youtube stuff. I’ve sort of bitten off more than I can chew, but I can still feel some progress on all fronts.

Also, my guides have been getting by far the most hits and most positive response, so I’ll probably see where I can find indie or niche titles in need of a good, easy to find guide and toss something out when I can. It’s a lot of work, but it can be fun and rewarding work.

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Author: SerTapTap

Gaming guide writer, content creator, streamer, UX designer, web developer, and a bunch of other stuff.

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