Blog or YouTube?
In 2020 I want to create more content, writing or making videos about working online. I'm work remotely as a developer but I also have multiple projects, and it I want to share my experience so others can either take inspiration or learn from my mistakes :)
I see two main channels to consider for this: a blog or YouTube channel.
A blog is more long-term and articles can be shared or cross-posted on other platforms (eg Medium, here).
A YouTube channel has perhaps more potential for exposure and could retain an audience better.
Any thoughts?
Love your ML username 😄 YouTube is more mainstream. Blogs are more targeted to a engineering audience.
Hey Sergio. Good point about the engineering audience. I have wondered if there are people on YouTube who would be interested in side project updates.
Youtube is fun, In the case of the immediate audience if you promote or choose the topics of the video well as you mentioned but If you have a blog you can work better with your audience (collect subscribers, etc..).
In my case, I have a blog for almost 4 years without any big success, but I l really like to write. Last year I tried to do some videos on youtube and it got some traction right away and it motivates you so much and in the early stages is it the needed push to keep going. So I would probably recommend Youtube… if you are gonna make videos about your projects .. you just got your first subscriber … I plan to do the same :).
Thanks for your thoughts, Emil! And thanks for being my first subscriber 😁 I wonder if there is an audience on YouTube. Maybe making it more of a vlog/life channel with the side projects and business stuff mixed in would make it more palatable. I am lucky enough to live on a tropical island, so there is definitely enough of "life" to put in a weekly video. I also like the writing part, so may do both!
@efran I'd like watching people doing updates, especially with life/vlog parts mixed in for some context. I've already planned some productivity and tool-related posts for the blog.
I had a small experience with YT (I published 47 videos) and I can say YT is really time-consuming. Filming and editing could take all your time. And sometimes it could be not rewarded at all (I gain only ±320 subscribers and ±50k views). But man, it so much fun! I am doing a little break right now, but I will definitely come back to YouTube because I miss it very much.
Another thing I really love YouTube for is the content is almost always working. I am not doing videos for a year, but sometimes I have spikes in views and comments and new subscribers. Writing works in this way as well, but other SM are not (Twitter, Instagram, etc.)
Writing is more pragmatic, especially if it's not hard for you. It could be also time-consuming, but not so much I believe. And I think Search engines still much more popular than YT so you can better find an audience and traffic.
Great comment, Dmitrii! What's your YouTube channel? I've done some YouTube (only 7 vlogs) and it does take a lot of time, but I do enjoy it. The biggest problem I'd face, I think, is that I'm not always in the mood to be filming or talking to camera. Some days are so busy or stressful. I guess it's a trade off of time, too. Do the views and response equal all the effort going into producing videos. Blogging is far easier and way less involved. I could at least start here and move to videos if I can make the time.
@danrdn It's travel vlog https://www.youtube.com/dnjourney. Yours?
Yeah, mood is really important, and you should always think how to film that thing or another to make it good at editing, a lot of stuff. In our case we also wanted to enjoy traveling, but we always had to film as well. Another challenge was that we're not native speakers and between each other we're talking not in English, so some moments were gone. But we didn't want to film in our language. I still have footage for 40-50 more vlogs :D Maybe some day I'll finish them.
In some way sitting and talking in front of the camera seems a little easy for me. Especially if you don't have strict schedule. I am planning to come back with this format.
@dpashutskii Cool I checked some of your vids! Looks like you're having a fun time in Asia :) My channel is hidden now. I'll let you know if I start this new one up!
Doesn't it also depend on what you feel more passionate about? Some people are just better or more passionate at telling a story via video or text and usually aren't equal at both besides maybe some exceptions. In my opinion it depends also on what kind of message you want to send and the depth of it. With blog articles you can get deep like https://waitbutwhy.com/, but with videos you have to simplify it even for complex things as you can see with TED Talks for example. So TLDR: I would ask myself: "Do I like to write more or do I like making videos more?"
If you're passionate, nothing stops you.
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