Happy Halloween
Happy Halloween to all of my viewers and readers. Today, I reflect on two recently posted videos on my YouTube Channel and a lesson one can take away from the results.
For this Halloween, I wanted to do a short, fun video, but I also wanted it to be educational. I came up with the idea of “This simple trick will scare away the ghosts of meals past.” as a way to talk about using your air-fryer to reheat leftovers. In the video, I used a few new effects, allowing me to try out an AI-generated voice for the narration.
I had a blast creating the video, adding sound effects, and using color-grading to give it a “horror movie vibe.” I enjoyed making it as it was a different style from my other videos.
The other video was one I released just last night - a quick short on improving the quality of your homemade stir-fry. It was about on par with my other tips videos I have created.
While proud of both videos, I enjoyed making the Halloween-themed one more. It also took more effort to produce. But the reception between the two couldn’t have been more different.
The Stir-fry video racked up over 1.6 thousand views in the first 16 hours of its release - the Halloween video only had 131 views in over four days. What’s worse, the Halloween video has a “spooky” retention rate with a very high abandonment rate. That means most who did view the video never made it to the end. The Stir-fry video, on the other hand, has an incredible retention rate; in fact, it’s one of the highest I have ever gotten.
Lessons Learned
I’m not completely surprised by the result. The Halloween video had two things working against it. Those looking for an educational video would be turned off by the opening and click away. Those who stayed to watch weren’t interested in an educational video, so they wouldn’t keep watching to the end - a double whammy.
While I am happy the Stir-fry video has performed so well, it is disappointing to see the Halloween video do so poorly. It’s an interesting phenomenon in the YouTube creator community; often, the videos the creator enjoys creating the most or puts the most effort into often underperform their other videos.
Who knows why that’s the case? But I have seen multiple creators talk about it, so I am not alone. I watched a video the other day by another creator about why they still spend time, money, and effort on videos that underperform their “low-effort” ones.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to focus on their “low-effort” videos and not “waste” their time on the higher budget and more involved videos they contemplated? If you follow the 80-20 principle, the answer to that question would be a resounding yes. But there’s more to content creation and the artistic expression that comes along with it. Sometimes, you must do what you enjoy, even if it doesn’t “bring the views.”
It may sound strange or counterintuitive, but that was the conclusion the other content creator came to, and I share that sentiment. While I would like all of my content to be helpful and enjoyed by others, you can’t please everyone all the time. Sometimes, you have to create something just for yourself. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
The Key Takeaway
So, am I discouraged by the poor reception the Halloween video received? Not one bit. Will there be other videos I create in the future which I love but everyone else hates? Absolutely. Will that get me down? Not at all.
If there is one lesson you can take away from this blog post, it is this: you will always be faced with critics and haters no matter what you do. It is impossible to please everyone all the time, so don’t let that get you down. You can take lessons from those instances, but don’t regret making it if you enjoyed the process. There will always be the following video, the next project, or whatever you are working on. Just keep at it, and have some fun.
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