2023 is almost over, which means it’s time for me to reflect on my channel over the last year. It’s become something of a tradition that started in 2019. I’ve found it invaluable for seeing my progress over the past several years and this year is no different. I was feeling very down about my content till I looked at my past year’s data. Despite the end of the year being rather rough for content, the year was a net positive!
YouTube
Goals From 2022
2023 was looking to be the year of YouTube for me. By the end of 2022, I had been releasing weekly content since April of that year. I had also played around with YouTube Shorts, mostly giving up, till I had some success at the end of 2022. That led me to want to set a goal of releasing more Shorts in 2023.
I wanted to continue my Let’s LARP series, where I impart some of my knowledge or cover an interesting LARP topic in an informative video. I also wanted to do another season of LARP Chats, a LARP interview series, and do at least four more narrative videos.
How It Turned Out
2023 was certainly the year of YouTube for me. I managed to post weekly videos from April 2022 to October 2023. Even then, I only missed a few weeks hear and there during the last few months of the year.
While I did produce season two of LARP Chats, it had fewer episodes than the first season. I also didn’t do as much work on the Let’s LARP series as I expected.
The biggest impact on the growth of my channel was the YouTube Shorts. I have no doubt that it was due to posting two shorts a week that led to such an increase in watch time and views (See analytics below).
I do not think I kept the motivation I had at the end of 2022. It carried me far this year, but I didn’t see the personal growth in my content that I had been hoping for. I think the content improved and I learned, but I have been faltering the last several months.
I was just one video shy of my goal of four narrative videos. I had the fourth one recorded, but I won’t have it out before the end of 2023.
Goals For 2024
Till I compared 2022’s analytics to 2023, I felt like I was ending 2023 with zero progress and that is absolutely not true. I am not starting over from nothing, but I do need to build back up some habits.
In the first several months of 2024, I imagine I’ll be getting back into the habit of creating content on a faster cadence again. I want to create more Let’s LARP and LARP Chat videos.
I can’t think of setting any other goals beyond getting back on track with creating content. That is my first priority. This of course includes getting back to releasing YouTube Shorts on a regular cadence as well.
Streaming
Goals From 2022
I had a lot of hope for streaming in 2023. I wanted to continue streaming Baelnorn and Friends and add clips of the shows on my YouTube. That was my main focus but I also had some secondary goals
I also wanted to do more Dungeons and Dragons creation while streaming and get back to my writing streams. I also was considering moving my streaming to YouTube.
How It Turned Out
Streaming did not turn out all that well. I only managed to do a few Baelnorn and Friends streams before I had trouble organizing them. I also made the move to YouTube streaming, it was the right move. It has helped my channel’s watch time. I was also able to start making clips of those streams.
I also streamed several sessions of creating D&D content, but that petered out after the first few months. I don’t think I did any writing streams in 2023
Goals For 2024
My only goal for 2024 is to get back to streaming Baelnorn and Friends. I think it will be great for the channel and will help diversify the content further. Other than that I don’t expect to get back into the streaming sphere.
Writing in 2023
Goals From 2022
I was very optimistic for my writing in 2023. I wanted to finish the rough draft of my novel by the end of the year. I also wanted to finish a short story I had started in 2022 and finish another short story in 2023
Additionally, I wanted to start publishing D&D content on my Patreon on a monthly basis.
How It Turned Out
My lack of writing in 2022 followed me into 2023. I hardly touched my novel. I did one edit pass but didn’t do any writing. I also didn’t keep up on the D&D content. I published one supplement, although I did write enough for more than that. I just have managed to do the proper formatting and finding pictures I can use.
Goals For 2024
I would love to finish the rough draft of my novel in 2024. I think it’s possible, but I’ve also been pretty uninspired for a while now and I don’t now if that will change or not.
I will continue to write D&D, as it’s a natural byproduct of my running my two Dungeon and Dragons campaigns. Hopefully, I’ll get to the point where where will I publish more supplements. One of the big sticking points is getting artwork for them.
A Bit of Analytics
I thought the growth in 2022 was pretty good, but it has nothing on the growth of 2023. You can see below that there was 372 % growth in views in 2022 but in 2023 there was growth of 591% from the previous year. That has to do with the introduction of Shorts on my channel.
At the end of 2022 there was a growth of 337% in watch time from 2021. 2023 saw a growth of 140%. The growth wasn’t as big as 2022, but considering there was very little on the channel in 2021, this makes sense. Both the Shorts and moving to YouTube Streaming has helped grow the channel’s watch time.
I gained 44 Subscribers in 2021, 150 in 2022, and a whopping 322 in 2023. At the end of the year, I’m sitting at 618 subscribers. Less than 400 short of the goal of 1,000 subscribers, the amount needed for monetization of the channel. I think it’s reasonable that I will get to 1k subs by the end of 2024
2021 Year End YouTube Analytics
2022 Year End YouTube Analytics
2023 Year End YouTube Analytics
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