Hello Everyone! Apryllynne's challenge sort of got clogged up for me, especially since I am doing Vlogmas next which is going well over doubling my number of videos. I have learned a lot from her, but for now I am learning from Alexa S's 30 Days and learning a bunch from her. Also, in big news I crossed to 500 Subscribers earlier today. Tomorrow I will make a celebratory short about it. Weird thing about me is... I have a hard time believing in myself when good things happen. I keep thinking it's a mistake. Here is my most recent growth video that I recorded on Sunday when I still needed I believe 18 subscribers... I do talk strategy plus one of my longtime You Tube friends who is always teaching me stuff confessed I taught HIM something on this video! https://youtu.be/W1YWkohcOjI?si=sfVBzOP9fa-Z9xGD

This week we are asked to come up with three signature recipes for our videos/channel. The five ingredients are: Audience Value Format Vibe Differentiator Audience of course, will be fed by your content/theme and the other four ingredients. Value will always be subjective... Format could vary depending on your content. Do you do shorts? Tutorials? Is there a prescribed way of delivering what you offer? Vibe and differentiator are what interest me most ;) I have been watching videos for this challenge from the previous research POV, and realised something that now seems obvious... What we watch can often differ wildly from what we want to create. Do people who make "How to do YouTube" videos watch other "How to do YouTube" videos? I would love to know!! How many of you watch a lot of the content that matches your own? But whatever, we can still use stuff we like to inform any of our ingredients, regardless of content. Ok let's hit the road... :) Please comment and let us know how you are doing with this part of the challenge! I am loving the input... and @Julie JordanScott you are a shining star!! 🤩

I am still stuck on week 3... but that's ok. I have been making the required videos I think, I've lost the program now, and cannot deal with the Notion template thing, I tried, but it was all over the place and just made everything twice as much work for me, I'll have to find the journal I wrote it all in. I have been distracted by mowing the grass on repeat and have pulled my pec muscles through being stupid and a bit too gung ho with the weeds pulling and bramble! I have the little ones all day today, just hope they don't need lifting! Like these poor British Heritage staff having to out the clocks back...

My latest challenge video is up! Would love if you would take a look and engagement on the video is always welcome: https://youtu.be/-J4AgHmCQds?si=8q0-aOs5t0VbWygJ

So in the nature of researching what works and what doesn't: While looking for Karen's channel on a borrowed phone, (I just typed in YouTube Over 40), this channel came up: https://www.youtube.com/@learnwithnia40/videos?view=0&sort=dd&shelf_id=1 I had a look at some of the early and recent videos. It's a newish channel with almost 2k subs in 8 months and the thumbnails and titles look like the ones that seem to work. But in 65 videos, I think 4 had over 1000 views and the majority had under 50 views. The channel host is personable, friendly and seems to have knowledge about things that would help people over 40 get going. The host seems to have put a lot of work in and it feels they should be doing better. So what isn't working? After looking at five videos, throughout the lifetime of the channel these are the things that struck me: The background does nothing to contribute to the video, it almost detracts from the personality of the host. It is always the same blurry, possibly AI. Instead of showing real things when discussing equipment for example, graphics are used that pop up in the corners of the screen. Not once is the host shown doing anything other than talking, and in some videos this would definitely have increased my interest like 1000%! There is quite a bit of repetition within the videos I watched, which is often the case with these type of channels but sometimes you don't notice it so much. Anyone else have any thoughts?