2022 is nearly over and I figured it was time to do a year end review. I did one my first year I started blogging but didn’t do it for the second year. I regretted that and did one last year and now I’m going to continue that tradition.
In this blog I’ll be talking looking at my predictions of 2022 from last years Review, look at my failures and success and then I will talk about all the things I hope to see in the coming year. One thing I’ve learned in content creation is that if you want to succeed you need to always be working and trying to learn and evolve
2022 Predictions From 2021
I ended last year fairly optimistic for 2022 and rightly so. I was finally coming to grips with the grief of losing a parent I had working on my High Trek Podcast and I had recorded the first season of LARP Chats. I was poised to start posting more YouTube content and I was looking forward to streaming again.
My goals were to increase my content both in quantity and quality. I wanted to get better at recording fighting videos. I also wanted to introduce more narrative content. I also had plansto do a secret narrative driven YouTube Series.
I also hoped to get back to streaming weekly by the end of 2022. I wanted to be doing monthly Baelnorn and Friends streams and retool and relaunch Beers with Baelnorn. I also wanted to add in a few beer tasting streams.
The other large hope for 2022 was an increase in discord community growth. i had hope to create something of an Amtgard learning community.
How Did 2022 Turn Out?
I’m glad I started this tradition. I almost forgot about it, but rereading it has been making me think about all the work I’ve done over the last year and helping me put it in to perspective.
It’s wild to look back at what I was expecting out of 2022 and comparing it to how 2022 turned out. I’ll ruin the surprise by saying I’m pretty happy with how the year went, despite some failures. I’m in a much better place than I was last year
So how did I do with my predictions? Terribly, but not as bad as you might think. In regards to YouTube, I did pretty well. So I will talk about that first. I was putting out more content in the first half the year than the previous year, but I didn’t catch my stride till April and I’ve never looked back.
I never expected to actually get to the point of posting weekly content, yet here we are. Not only that, but I did it for most of the year, starting in April. I had bought a gimbal, and the quality of my work improved.
I successfully released LARP Chats, although the initial release schedule was a little rocky. I also started releasing non-fighting content as well. I had a goal of making at least 4 travel/narrative style YouTubes and I did! I also added knighting ceremonies. I ended the year by starting a new series called Let’s LARP, which focuses on me talkin about various LARP topics.
Finally I experimented with Shorts. I made a point of releasing one a month for two months. I didn’t get much engagement, so I stopped. Then Locke went over my channel with me and he pointed out that my old shorts had been getting a lot more engagement. I gave it another try.
Second time went better, but I didn’t feel it was worth the effort. I had to do special recordings specifically for the format and editing was very cumbersome. So I gave up a second time. But that all Changed at the start of December.
I realized that I could make shorts out of videos I’d previously uploaded very easily with the YouTube App on my phone. I made a Short; I didn’t think the edit was that good and it was only 7 seconds (You can see it HERE). I uploaded it and went to bed. In the morning it had over a two thousand views.
I thought it was a fluke. I tried it again in a few days and got over a thousand views. Since then I’ve released four over two weeks. Each one had over a thousand views.
I’ve also gained access to the YouTube Community feature and I’ve started making weekly polls and I’ve found some engagement there. I gave up on trying to create a Discord community and joined Locke’s Discord as my main discord for my content.
The change was for the better. I tried to put forth the effort to create a Discord community but I couldn’t dedicated the energy to do so. In the end I felt I was to small to build one. Joining the Locke Box allows me to engage with an already activate community and gives me exposure to my none usual crowd.
I also managed to go to Sword Knight Boot Camp and recorded a few classes. Once I was able to edit and upload the videos my channel saw a huge bump in viewership and watch time.
As to streaming, I mostly failed. I never got back to weekly streams nor did I relaunch Beers with Baelnorn. Still, I did get back to doing monthly Baelnorn and Friends and I have gained a following for that show. I usually get between 10-20 visitors and there is always chat engagment.
The other large prediction that didn’t come true was my big YouTube project. It just couldn’t come together. It fell apart due to lack of people. It’s still something I want to do but It’s on hold till I can find enough people.
High Trek has also gone well. It was hard to get a release schedule going, but when we did we have put out pretty consistent work. We’ve released over 30 episodes and only have 7 more episodes till our season one finale episode.
So, overall pretty good. I managed to do more work on YouTube while some other content went to the way side. It wasn’t till I read last year’s Year in Review, that I realized just how well things have gone.
Looking Towards 2023
I think I’m well situated going into 2023. At the end of 2021 I decided to focus on putting out content during 2022. I think I managed to do that and I’m happy with the results. I’ll talk about growth stats in the next section, but lets just say my hard work has paid off.
YouTube Predictions
I think 2023 will be the year I start focusing on diversifying my content and improving the quality. I’ve started recording season two of LARP Chats, and hope to have that out in the spring.
I also started a new series based on my website articles called, Lets LARP. I hope to continue putting this out, at least once a month over the next year.
I’m going to make a point to put out at least four narrative videos as well, although I hope I manage to make more.
I’m also working on putting out at least Two Shorts a week. I think they will be important to helping me grow going forward.
Streaming Predictions
I do want to stream, but with YouTube going as well as it has I think next year’s focus will be more on YouTube, still, I will continue to stream. Baelnorn and Friends has become a staple and I don’t see that changing. However, keeping with diversifying YouTube. I do want to work on making clips of our shows available on YouTube.
Secondary goals are just to up my streaming time in general. I recently streamed making D&D content and that was fun. I may try to do that again. I still want to stream writing storeis.
I also need to decide if I want to make the jump to YouTube Streaming. It would fit with trying to grow my YouTube and it would help to get the YouTube channel monetarized faster. I think people would follow me there.
However if I stick with Twitch I get money sooner and I know I still have room to see growth from Locke’s community. I’m not sure if they would watch on YouTube.
I may just need to try a few streams on YouTube and see how they go.
Writing and Patreon Predictions
Writing took a back burner in 2023. I had at least one big writing spurt when I finished the big fight scene. Other than that I’ve kept up with editing and posting on Pateon.
I hope to finish the rough draft of my novel by the end of next year. I’m so close. I think I have a third or maybe even only a quarter left.
I hope to finish at least one more short story as well. I’m so close to finishing the last one I started and I’m ready to work on the next one. It’s just been hard to find the creative energy to do more.
What I am hyped to do though is create D&D content. I released my first supplement this December, which you can find HERE. My hope is to write and release at least one supplement each month on my Patreon. This also applies to streaming, I think I’ll be streaming some of this writing content.
A Bit of Analytics
I’m really excited to show off some YouTube Analytics. I’ve seen so much growth over this last year. It is nearly 400 percent growth in views and watch time between 2021 and 2022
2021 YouTube Analytics
2022 YouTube Analytics
As you can see, Views and Watch Time have increased around 370 percent and my increase in subscribers tripled. I’ve had more and bigger spurts in views this year than last year. I think this is mostly due to consistency.
It’s still a far cry from what I need to get monetized on YouTube. I need 4,000 watch hours and 1,000 subscribers (I have 296) but it’s a good start.
You can see my Tier 2 (Rock Gnomes) and 3 (Tinker Gnomes) supporters on my Patreon Supporters page as well as find out how to become a Patron yourself.